Kenya update – and some good news

Kenya, News, Poor, Relief and Development
Water in Samburu The rains have failed in April so the crisis continues. Yet there has come some recent hope of sustainable solutions for the future. Read this sms message just received from Edward Buria: ‘We are so overwhelmed by discovering water in our Wamba centre and we are now sinking a 3 million (£30,000) bore hole that will supply water to thousands ... also other good news is the Lengusaka sand dam project. We have done a lot of progress on that and hope to have all these projects commissioned before end of year'. The Wamba Centre Wamba is a key town in Samburu 4 hours north of Meru and in recent years Edward Buria and the Newfrontiers churches have established a major centre there to provide a base…
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Development Studies from a Christian perspective – pt 2 – Becoming contributors to Mission

Christian ministry, Development, Equipping, Poor
Having explored some of the definitions of ‘Development' and ‘the Poor' in the last blog we will now look at some of the differences between the world's and church-based models. First, I would like to look at a variant of Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of need. Maslow's pyramid of need Maslow was a psychologist who developed a theory of how our actions are determined by our physical and emotional states. In his pyramid he has five levels of need: 1. The physiological needs - food, water etc 2. The safety and security needs - protection including housing 3. The love and belonging needs - the need for belonging in a community 4. The esteem needs - personal recognition by the community 5. Self actualisation - to be what you are meant…
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Development Studies – Christian cf Secular pt 1

Development, Equipping, Poor
Recently I gathered the students from my church, Church of Christ the King in Brighton, UK, who were taking degrees or modules in Development Studies from the local universities. I had become aware that these courses, being secular in nature, tend to discourage our students by having little place for the spiritual dimension of mankind. And yet, if true transformation is going to take place - which must be one of the major goals of any development programme - it is important to address the ‘inner man' not just the outward circumstances. Understandably, secular courses do not make room for such a consideration. What is Development? We began the evening by asking the question ‘What is Development?' On a flip-chart I was able to write contributions from them such as…
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Ministry Health Check pt 6 – The ‘NGO’ statements

Christian ministry, Equipping, Evaluation, Good Practice
Last time we looked at the statements that have a spiritual impact. In this final part of the series I list those statements that we would expect to apply to any work of this nature, whether Christian or secular, NGO or Aid Agency. These are coloured green in the PowerPoint presentation. 9. Who? It is clear who the ministry is for, why we are doing it and what is the best approach It is known what other ministries provide a good model and where there are the gaps in provision It is known what service clients want 10. When? The ministry has clearly defined objectives and activities with a structured schedule and budget There are short, medium and long term plans with a built in flexibility so as to be…
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