Support!

Friends,
Below is the support letter I am sending for my upcoming short-term mission to Mozambique.  I would love for you to be part of my support team.  If you wish to contribute but would prefer to send a check rather than use the Chip In, please e-mail me through my profile and I will get you the information that you need.

Thank you in advance!
Katy

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Dear Friends & Family,


Have you ever been afraid that getting water might cost you your life? Have you ever worried whether the water you drink might cause you to fall sick? Have you ever worried that your husband, who was leaving for months to provide for your family, might not come home again? For countless women in Africa, this is part of daily life. They walk to crocodile-infested rivers to draw their water—water which is often contaminated with cholera or other bacteria. They work all day in the fields, leaving children as young as 3 or 4 to take care of their infant siblings, because their husbands have traveled hundreds of miles away to find work in mines.

The Chapel has adopted two villages in Mozambique in an effort to combat these sad circumstances. Our mission, called Fresh Passion, began by providing fresh water to these villages. Now we are providing them with Living Water—that is, the good news of Jesus Christ. Twice a year, teams from the Chapel travel to Mozambique, where we partner with an organization called World Relief to provide spiritual teaching to the church leaders, women, and children in the villages of Chiamite and Koca Misava. We are also working with them to find new ways of improving the local economy so that the men won’t have to travel so far to find work.

Why am I telling you all of this? I am excited to tell you that I will be joining the next team going to Mozambique! On May 24, 2011, a team primarily made up of people from our ABF (much like a Sunday School class) will be traveling to these two villages for almost two weeks to provide biblical teaching and aid in the current financial project we have developed with them—hand-knit bags.

This mission is a little bit scary, but a lot exciting. And it has started to take on a special meaning for me as well. In addition to Bible teaching, we also plan to do a health lesson. Witchcraft is still common in these villages—as in many places throughout Africa—and illnesses or abnormalities are often viewed as curses. Our teams have dispelled those myths on things such as infertility by providing medical information and personal testimonies. Do you see where this is going? This May, I will have the opportunity to share our family’s journey with Down syndrome as part of a health lesson in birth defects and abnormalities. It’s hard for me to believe that God has had this timing planned since before I was even born. Here we are, less than a year into Roo’s life, and I have been given the opportunity to literally share him with the world.

I would love for you to be part of this adventure with me. How can you do that? First, you can pray. Please pray for our team, as we prepare lessons, as we travel (May 24 – June 4), and as we teach and worship with the people of these villages. Please pray for my family and those who will be helping here while we are gone. And of course, please pray for the villages themselves and the people in them. If you would like to receive e-mail updates and prayer requests, you can include your e-mail address on the form or just reply to this message.

Second, we would greatly appreciate any financial help that you feel led to provide. The total cost for the team is around $21,000. The Chapel is planning to provide around $8,000 of that, but we would love to raise enough that we wouldn’t need it. Checks should be made out to The Chapel and mailed to me, along with the form I have included here. Please do not put my name on the memo field of the check. This prevents you from being able to get the tax deduction from your donation. Simply mail it with the form, and we will make sure your donation goes to the correct account and that you get a receipt. You can also donate online at http://diaryofazookeeper.blogspot.com/ by clicking on the “Chip In” box on the right-hand side of the page, but online donations are not tax deductible.

Thank you in advance for your help. I can’t wait to tell you more!

Love,

Katy & family