Dr. Bernie Bledsoe (Abengourou, Ivory Coast) shared an update recently on the CMF team’s work with HIV/AIDS patients in their clinic and the Community Health Evangelism (CHE) work through the Abengourou churches.

The CHE program is implemented through five churches in Abengourou, with a focus on HIV prevention using abstinence and faithfulness. Since March, more than 600 young people have been organized into Abstinence Clubs and 200 couples have followed faithfulness lessons in the churches. In May, all five churches held community awareness meetings in their neighborhoods,  emphasizing HIV prevention through abstinence and sexual purity. The classes included a film that explained the AIDS problem and then presented the benefits of abstinence. On Sundays following the meetings, HIV screenings were offered at the church. Approximately 1,200 young people attended the film screenings and 450 of them were tested for HIV/AIDS.

At the clinic, the staff has seen 968 HIV patients, including 84 children, as of the end of May 2009. There are currently 368 patients, including 33 children, receiving ARV’s through the clinic. Most of these patients also attend support groups for people living with AIDS.

The Community Health Evangelists trained by the CMF team have taken on the responsibility of making home visits to the sick. They have received additional training in microenterprise development and are organizing themselves into small groups, writing business plans and submitting them to the committee for loan approval.

A visit from a FAME medical team from an Indianapolis area church was the icing on the cake of a busy month, concluded Dr. Bledsoe. “The group of folks were great and a huge blessing to us and the team.”

Lynn and Dori Cazier (Kenya-Maasai team) recently passed along the grateful thanks of the Maasai people who were blessed by relief gifts from the team’s American partners. The people held a special service of thanks, presenting gifts of beadwork to the CMF team members. The Maasai church leaders distributed the food through 21 churches to an estimated 27,000 people.

The Caziers report that this drought has been even harder on the people than the one in 2006 because food prices have doubled and, in some cases, even tripled. Also, the large number of cows that died in 2006 have never been completely replaced. There has been some rain recently, but it is very spotty, and the new green grass that springs up is quickly over-grazed. Please continue to pray for rain in Kenya.

The summer season usually means it’s Vacation Bible School time in American churches, and the same is true in Christian churches in Ukraine. CMF missionary June Johnson, who is based in Feodosia, spent several weeks sorting and distributing the VBS craft, sports, and teaching supplies donated by friends in American churches to the Ukrainian churches that will hold VBS programs and camps this summer.

Two churches have already held their programs, and both went well, June reported, with 35-42 children attending each day. She is connected in some way with 28 more VBS programs planned for this summer. “This summer, I am connected to a total of 30 VBS’s in the way that God, through you, has provided craft and sports supplies and/or funding for them. If each VBS attracts 40 kids, then that means that about 1,200 children will hear the Gospel message this summer,” she wrote.

The VBS programs are only possible because God has granted another year of religious freedom in Ukraine, said June.  ”I thank Him for how, through you, He has provided supplies and funding for camps thus far. And I thank Him for each and every Ukrainian Christian who will give sacrificially in some way this summer to take the Gospel message to the kids of this country.”

June also asks for prayers for these outreaches. Please pray for wisdom for the church/VBS leadership, that the local authorities will continue to grant permission for the VBS outreaches to take place, and that parents will permit their children to attend.

Some families have the joy of adopting a child. Traders Point Christian Church in Indianapolis, however, has taken that idea a few steps further by adopting an entire village in the poorest section of the Nairobi, Kenya, slums. They have partnered with CMF missionaries Mary and Wallace Kamau and the Missions of Hope to use the principles of Community Health Evangelism (CHE) to meet the physical and spiritual needs of the poor. Read about their plans to focus on development and breaking the cycle of poverty in this article from Tidings, the Traders Point newsletter.

Our mission partner FAME (Fellowship of Associates of Medical Evangelism) held its annual banquet and auction on April 17 in Carmel, Indiana. More than 400 people attended the event, which provides an opportunity for those who have been part of what God is doing around the world through medical evangelism to learn about the eternal impact FAME’s donors are making and get a glimpse of where the organization is headed next. The auction raised nearly $20,000 that will be used to launch FAME’s work in partnership with CMF missionaries Mary and Wallace Kamau and the Missions of Hope work among the urban poor of Nairobi, Kenya. Check out photos from the evening by clicking this link to FAME’s Banquet & Auction 2009.

People who have never lived below the poverty line don’t understand that the poorer you are, the more things cost in money, time, hassle, exhaustion and danger. The poor pay more for a gallon of milk or loaf of bread, for example, because they don’t have a car to get to the supermarket or Costco. They must buy their milk from the corner store, where everything costs more. They don’t have home washers and dryers either, so they must spend hours at the local laundromat. In many cases, they don’t have bank accounts, so they must use check-cashing and payday loan services, which cost time and money. The list goes on and on in this eye-opening  “primer on the economics of poverty” from The Washington Post.