"Keep your eye on the prize!" is often heard by athletes or young adults who are being encouraged to stay focused and work hard. The phrase can be traced to the apostle Paul's words, "I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:14), but also can be found in a folk song which was instrumental during the American Civil Rights movement, "Keep Your Eyes on the Prize".Here at Kulea Childcare Villages, we are striving to keep our eyes on the prize -- on our mission to build childcare villages to rescue orphaned babies and children in Kenya & Tanzania. Those are marching plans -- what a prize that first completed village will be!
So, why do we at Kulea find it challenging at times to keep focused on that prize? When we travel we see so many needs. We know we cannot meet them all, but they move us, touch us. Also, friends suggest things we could be doing, or ways we could be doing something better or differently. Often these are great ideas, but we are determined not to look to the right or the left, but keep focused on doing what it takes to build a village for orphans: to rescue them, raise them, love them, teach them and keep them safe, setting them on a path for success in their adult life. We plan with much consideration and research. We are dreaming big dreams for kids in need of rescue and for their future.
For a dream comes with much business . . . Ecclesiastes 5:3
Recently we've been asked to:
- create a catalog, allowing donors to buy goats or chickens, etc for needy families
- collect money to purchase mosquito nets and give them out to the community
- add 25 children to each of our 3 feeding programs
- provide teacher education for each teacher in our 3 preschool programs
- buy a commercial washing machine and a laptop for the Chalinze clinic
- provide 500 Bibles to our church partners for evangelism
That is the short list. I could go on and on. If you consider each item, they are all really good things that someone is doing or should be doing. In fact, we'd love it if all of these things could be done in the communities where we work! Last year a local US church donated Bibles through Kulea to one of our partner churches - that was great! If Kulea engages in the above activities directly, we must ask, "How can this help us build a village for orphaned babies & children?" Our model of aid is to provide a place for children in the community who have no one. There are many excellent non-profits with gift catalogs where you can buy a goat, pig or cow. Here are links to some great ones: Heifer International, Compassion International, World Vision and Heart for Africa. I've given such gifts myself!The truth is, our model is not one that helps in tact family units like Compassion, Heart for Africa or others do. We are committed to a model of rescuing and raising orphans which is most successful in
EAST Africa.
It would be difficult to design a catalog at this stage of growth, though it's a great idea for the future, featuring items we need for our project (beds for orphans, sheets, towels, school supplies, clothes, etc). That's the future! Today, our most critical need is for people to come along side us in two ways: 1) with giving regular, undesignated donations so that we can grow the ministry, and 2) by sharing with others about our work - networking. As Americans we tend to be emotional givers because we want to see a “thing” for the
money given. We like to sponsor a child, to buy a goat or chickens, or to provide trees to be planted. However, it’s sustained giving plus large investments in start-up
funding, land purchase, administrative costs, etc that have gotten the major nonprofit organizations listed above to where they are today. These kinds of
investments are not easily seen, yet they are critical. Today we see lives
changed, babies rescued, families strengthened and orphans in school, all because of those consistent small or large-scale,
undesignated donations throughout the years to non-profit organizations.
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| Kulea Annual Fundraiser, DiBurros, 2013 |
Investment in ministry is not something that can
always be quantified, seen or held. Here is a simple example of some behind the scenes, critical work. When I fly over on a business trip as Executive Director, I may go to:
train our boards of directors in two countries; interview a secretary and social
worker for new hires; write job descriptions for those positions or future
positions; strategize and prepare for incoming volunteer service teams in the next year, counsel with our lawyer over land contracts and personnel contracts; counsel with our Kulea kid teenagers, hold a kid on my lap while she cries; check on feeding projects and our Kulea kids and staff, meet with each CEO, etc. Those were the purposes of my September trip – all were completed
successfully and the cost to Kulea was about $1,700 excluding airfare. It may not feel like a “glorious” thing to give to a general fund, yet the investment in that one trip, for example, is critical to Kulea’s success. We cannot build a village for orphans without investments in people,
infrastructure, and land development.
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KULEA CHILDCARE VILLAGES LEADERS (L to R)
Romy Mtenda, Kulea Tanzania CEO
Deborah Brown, Kulea USA Executive Director
Dalmas Nzai, Kulea Kenya CEO |
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EMI design for Saving Grace in Uganda Children's Village
"Prepare your work outside; get everything ready for yourself in the field, and after that build your house." Proverbs 24:27 |
We are counting on our seriously
committed, long-term donors who believe in our mission and trust our integrity. We thank God daily for them, and we look forward to others who will take a risk for the benefit of children they may never meet, and begin giving generously and regularly to our ministry. These are the reasons we don’t jump to a new project when one is suggested, no matter how passionately it's presented. We don’t want to do
what others are doing just because it works for them. If it’s not in our
mission, we don’t do it. Simple. God has given us a clear focus – build a village for orphaned children and raise them.
We are committed for the long haul to that goal.
And the Lord answered me: “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it. For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay. Habakkuk 2:2-3
Finally, the idea of a catalog of needs . . . I always have that catalog in my head and I am thrilled when someone asks, "What are the most pressing needs today for Kulea -- I'd like to donate to one of them." Words of gold! Someone recently asked that and ended up providing a much needed laptop for our office in Tanzania. Below you will see our top needs this week. Please read, pray, and give so we can build that village a little sooner! The children are waiting . . .
For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Luke 14:28
KULEA’s MOST PRESSING
NEEDS LIST – Dec. 1, 2013
1.
Donate to Develop gifts $100+ Help us
develop our land and programming! $10,000 is needed for: topographical study of 75 acres, detailed land development report, and Master Site plan. With each donation of $100+ between now and Dec. 31st, we will enter the donor in a drawing for a free trip to Africa with Kulea. 175 more Donate to Develop gifts are needed. We are so encouraged by the 2 donations of $1,000 each last week! These donors are dreaming big dreams for the children with us!
2.
Underwrite our Auction
$500
Sponsor a table to help underwrite the costs of our Biggest Fundraiser of the year on March 7th. We need 15 individuals or businesses to sponsor a table ($500) or sponsor the event ($3,000). Table sponsors may invite people to sit at their
table, or we can fill the table. This year's auction goal is $50,000.
3.
Water storage tank $2,000 In Tanzania, we dug a bore hole and later added a pump, generator and
secure pump house. The last piece of this well project is to install a
large storage tank on a raised concrete platform to hold water.
The tank is needed asap for the staff family we have living on the land and the widows we provide water to daily.
4.
Child Sponsors $35
Rescue a child! 30 new child sponsors are needed before January 1. Then, we can make plans to rescue 1 to 3 more orphans, placing them in our first Kulea home!
But Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26
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