Margaret Cox loved gardening, hiking and many other outdoor activities, but her special talents were baking and cooking. Many people were the recipients of her loving care and hospitality, including her husband and three children, five grandchildren, and her co-workers at CMF, where she worked as the Assistant in Donor Development from 1992 until her retirement in 2008.

Margaret was the unofficial “office mom” at CMF, making cookies and goodies on a regular basis for the staff and for the board members when they came to Indianapolis for their semi-annual meetings. And as co-worker Kathy Harless recalls, “She didn’t just set a plate of something down. There had to be placemats and special dishes and candles and whatever it took to set the mood.”

When Margaret passed away in September 2008, her family wanted to do something special to honor her, so they worked with her friends at CMF to create a fitting memorial. The Margaret A. Cox Memorial Scholarship was launched in the spring of 2011 with a goal of providing loans through the BigDent microfinance program for women who are establishing cooking and/or hospitality-related businesses in the Mathare Valley slums of Nairobi, Kenya.

The goal for this inaugural CMF memorial scholarship fund was $10,000, but Margaret’s loving family and friends generously surpassed the goal, donating $11,534.10 to help poor women learn to cook and serve like Margaret Cox. A portion of the funds were also used to expand a sewing skills training center to enable women and men to start new tailoring businesses.

Have you been touched by the love of a “Proverbs 31 woman” like Margaret? This would be a great time of year to honor that special person with a BigDent gift to a budding entrepreneur who has a dream to improve the life of her family through a small business.  

Members of Flipside Christian Church in Rancho Cucamonga, California, already sponsor children at the Missions of Hope schools in Nairobi, Kenya, but they wanted to do even more, and came up with a creative idea to involve their own church kids in the process.

Flipside member Jennifer Grimstad initiated and led a project in September called the Kid-a-Thon, which was designed to raise money for unsponsored children at MoHI and recruit more child sponsors. 

“The kids in our church picked a talent they can do, like shooting baskets or doing math problems, and found people to pay them to do it for one hour,” said Jennifer. “On the day of the Kid-a-Thon, Sept. 22, we gathered at the church to watch the 66 kids do their talents for an hour. We also set up a booth at the event to inform people about Missions of Hope and sign up sponsors.”

The result? A whopping $7,167.94 was raised by the Flipside kids for unsponsored children who are currently attending MoHI schools, and 30 more people signed up to sponsor a MoHI student.

For photos of the Flipside event check out the CMF Facebook page.

Construction has begun on a new Missions of Hope school near the town of Lodwar in the Turkana area of northwestern Kenya. Although CMF missionaries have been working with the Turkana people for many years, this school is a new venture in our partnership with MoHI.

The Lodwar building is due to be completed in January, and classes will begin immediately. Most of the 300-350 students who will attend the school have been enrolled and are already sponsored. The funds that are being donated now for their sponsorship are currently being used to build the school facility and hire its teachers.

One big challenge in the building process has been the scarcity of water in the area. The school is on the edge of town, near a river, but Turkana is mostly desert with a hot, dry climate, so the river bed is dry most of the time. CMF missionary Gene Morden and members of the well-drilling team are working on putting in borehole wells to service the new school. 

To view more photos, visit CMF’s Facebook page.

Brian Smith, president of Agri-Stewards of Lebanon, Indiana, has been on nearly 30 short-term mission trips since 1986, but he’s never been as excited about a project as he is about what is happening with Missions of Hope International in the Mathare Valley slums of Nairobi, Kenya.

“Each time I visit I am blown away by their exponential growth, which can only occur by the hand of God,” he says. “They are currently affecting the lives of 7,500 children.”

When Agri-Stewards was first invited to visit the farming operation at MoHI’s Joska boarding school two years ago, the team had to purchase shovels and pitchforks to aid in the production of compost. Now they feel called to help the Joska farm move beyond growing crops by hand to mechanize a farm that has grown from one acre to five, and will grow to more than 30 acres in 2013.

The group is currently raising funds for several pieces of farm equipment that will help MoHI grow most of the children’s food and significantly reduce its overall costs. They estimate they will need about $75,000 to purchase the equipment and ship it in a container to Kenya.

The project has barely begun, but Brian reports that several very encouraging developments that have confirmed to him that “God is in control and behind this project.” One of the most recent events concerned the most expensive item on the “Joska Wish List:” a Massey Ferguson tractor, a $10,000 piece of equipment.

“I called several dealerships looking for a Massey Ferguson tractor over the last couple of weeks,” says Brian. “A man in Illinois offered to see me one at half price. I drove over and told him more about what we are doing and he GAVE me the tractor!”

A few days later, another donor contributed a ripper (plow), a $5,000 item from the list, and another made a cash gift of $5,000.

“The floodgates are open,” said Brian. “We will soon be in a better position at the farm to feed the exploding number of children who are being educated, protected and introduced to God by Missions of Hope.”

Many of the high school boys who attend the Missions of Hope Joska boarding school near Nairobi, Kenya, are returning to the campus following the fire last week that burned their dorm to the ground.

CMF Executive Director Doug Priest reports that the returnees are staying in some rooms that were under construction for science labs and a computer room. About 20 boys returned yesterday and more are expected today.

“One interesting thing was that the Mathare boys said, ‘We don’t care if there are no beds. We want to go back and we will sleep on the floor,’ ” said Doug. “Some of the boys were even going through the rubble to see if any of the metal bunk beds, or parts of the beds, could be salvaged.”

Missions of Hope is beginning immediately to construct a fence around the school with the first of the rebuilding funds that were donated.

“The Ministry of Education is insistent about the need for a fence,” said Doug. “The purpose of the fence is to remind the students that if they are outside the perimeter, they are beyond the school boundaries. We are so grateful for the immediate (financial) responses to this emergency and for the ongoing prayers for the school and students.”

To see photos of the burned dorm and the temporary space set up in the computer room, visit our Facebook page at: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.408547932532513.101302.106323999421576&type=1

Josh Weingart spent two months of the summer of 2010 as a REACH intern, drilling wells for clean water with CMF missionary Gene Morden in Turkana, Kenya. From that intense experience, an idea was born.

“I have a huge passion for clean water and sustainability,” said Josh, who is currently a senior at Illinois State University in Normal, Ill., majoring in business management and finance. “While I was over in Kenya I saw the great need for clean water and have been inspired ever since.”

Josh also took notice of what the Kenyans were wearing on their feet, and thought he could leverage his interest in fair trade products into a way to raise money for clean water projects.

“I noticed that the people wore sandals made out of old tires and I thought that was a cool idea,” he said.

Josh spent a couple years researching manufacturers of the tire-tread sandals and eventually decided to work with Maasai Treads of Nairobi, Kenya. He opened his online shop  to sell the sandals in the U.S. in September. About 10 percent of every sale currently goes to clean water projects, a number that he hopes to increase as sales grow.

“Maasai Treads employs local artisans and workers to make a high quality sandal from recycled products,” said Josh.

As he was preparing to launch the business, Josh worked about 30-50 hours per week on his “sideline,” but now finds that it takes about 20 hours of his time each week, in addition to his school work and the part-time job that helps provide the funding for his start-up.

“It was not an easy start,” Josh admits, “but through perseverance and God opening and closing doors, I was finally able to get things started.”

Josh doesn’t mind the intense schedule because he has big dreams for his business.

My goal for the business is to grow and eventually compete with TOMS,” said Josh. “At that size, WaterDrop would be able to start expanding into other countries to help others gain access to clean water. Our hope is to eventually expand with other partners as the company progresses to bring local crafts to the U.S. market.”

Plans are already underway to begin rebuilding the high school boys’ dormitory at the Missions of Hope Joska boarding school outside Nairobi, Kenya. The dorm burned to the ground on Tuesday.

CMF missionary Keith Ham reports that he and members of the MoHI staff had a good meeting with the students’ parents, who live in the Pangani slum in Nairobi. They were touched that the parents wanted to contribute to the rebuilding efforts.

“The parents are working hard to each raise about $12 to buy concrete slabs for the project,” said Keith. “We want to start with those funds to get a floor in rooms that had been set aside for a future computer lab and library and use them temporarily as a dorm until we get enough funds to completely rebuild.”

The boys in the middle school dorm, that was unaffected by the fire, are still in school and progressing well without any problems, Keith said.

The latest figures from MoHI project that it will cost about $82,500 to replace the dorm. The building itself will cost $43,000, while beds, mattresses and bedding will run about $15,000. Another $12,000 will be needed to replace the students’ belongings and uniforms, while $12,500 will be used to fence the property, per a new requirement from the Department of Education.

Keith Ham and Mary Kamau, Director of Missions of Hope, will meet with the Ministry of Education and a District Officer about their rebuilding plans. All the parents must sign copies of the minutes from the recent meeting and the students must sign commitments to attend the school before it can reopen.

“Please pray with us as we have all these meetings that God will take control and glorify His son, and that the ‘enemy’ will not in any way interfere,” said Keith. “Thanks you so much for all you are doing on that side; we are greatly encouraged!”

At the request of our donors, we have set up a “Joska Fire Relief” fund. If you would like to give toward this cause, click the give button below to give online or send a check to: CMF International, Joska Fire Relief, PO Box 501020, Indianapolis, IN 46250.

9-18-12

A fire at the Joska boarding school outside of Nairobi destroyed the boys’ high school dormitory today. No one was injured in the fire, and all teachers and students are accounted for. The tin structure, however, was a total loss, including the building, beds, and all the students’ clothing and other belongings. As a result, these students have been returned to Mathare Valley, and the MoHI staff is exploring other possibilities for the school. Authorities are investigating the cause of the fire.

Please pray for the students, teachers and staff of Joska as they work through the emotional, logistical, and financial implications of this loss. Your continued partnership with the work in Kenya is more vital than ever.

Doug Priest, CMF Executive Director

At the request of our donors, we have set up a “Joska Fire Relief” fund. If you would like to give toward this cause, click the give button below to give online or send a check to: CMF International, Joska Fire Relief, PO Box 501020, Indianapolis, IN 46250.

Four churches in Wichita, Kansas, recently worked with a local relief organization to package and ship two 40-foot containers of food to CMF missionaries Wallace and Mary Kamau and Missions of Hope in Nairobi, Kenya.

The missions directors and pastors from Pathway Church, Central Christian, Riverlawn Christian, and Countryside Christian churches initiated the partnership with Numana, an El Dorado, Kansas, company that packages food for hungry people around the world.

“Numana worked with us to train our volunteers, provided all the equipment, the website for sign-ups and on-site staff to manage and run the packaging,” said Larry Wren, Pathway’s Executive Pastor. “They also purchase all the food, make arrangements for shipping and ship the food. They took care of all the details.”

After the groundwork for the project was laid, volunteers from all four churches assembled and packed more than 500,000 meal packets during the Food for Africa weekend over Palm Sunday weekend on their respective church campuses. The turnout for the event was beyond expectations.

“We had more than 2,300 adults, students and children from Pathway alone packaging food on our two campuses,” said Larry. “People signed up in advance for times to work, but we had open slots so people could join in at the last minute.”

More than $102,000 was raised at Pathway Church alone to help pay for the project. The food costs for an entire container (215,000 meals) is about $85,000.

“Pathway took a special offering during the weekend of the packaging event, and it was the largest single weekend special offering for a project like this that we have ever had,” said Larry.

The containers were shipped to Kenya in late May and arrived in mid-August. A team from Pathway also went to Nairobi to help with the distribution.

“We spent the additional time and money to go and help with the distribution to show that feeding people is one small but critical part of planting churches and transforming lives in one of the poorest places in the world,” said Larry.

Once the food arrived in Nairobi it was distributed to individual families in the communities of Mabatini (the community sponsored by the Pathway and Central churches), Pangani and Joska. In addition, food was given to the MoHI schools, where it will supply one meal per week for three months for the children. These donations mean that MoHI will not need to purchase rice for several months, which will result in real savings for the mission.

“This was the most successful mission weekend in the history of our church,” said Larry. “People were energized and excited that the meals they were putting together would actually help feed people. They prayed, wrote notes and prayers and drew pictures on the boxes as they packed. We were able to engage everyone there in a hands-on project that connected people in Wichita with hungry people in Mathare, as well as with one of our significant mission partners, CMF and MoHI.”