Prayer Update: Ebola

The global response to the Ebola hemorrhagic fever outbreak in West Africa was slow to start, but as the government of Canada’s first shipment of protective gear reaches Sierra Leone a massive effort on the ground is racing to contain the virus and care for those affected.

While there are 3400 confirmed deaths in West Africa, it is believed that the virus has actually taken far more lives as many people were not accessing medical facilities early on.

Today the world media announced the first case contracted outside of Africa. The woman, a Spanish nurse working in Madrid, was treating two Spanish missionaries who died of the virus while receiving care in Spain.

There have been no cases of Ebola in Rwanda or Kenya where we and our CBM colleagues and partner churches live and work. East Africa is taking great precaution to screen all visitors and to limit travel from any Ebola outbreak areas.

As Canadian Baptists, we do have partner churches in Liberia West Africa that are ministering at the heart of the current Ebola Outbreak. Zion Grove Baptist Church in Brewerville, Liberia, is currently working to help over 5000 people in its immediate community with prevention. You can support this relief effort directly through CBM. Visit our website here.

Prayer
Please join us in praying for churches that are ministering to their congregations and neighbours in the midst of this terribly situation. Pray for peace and security within the affected communities. Pray for the safe distribution of food and supplies for the thousands of people that are in desperation, for the medical workers and volunteers that are on the front lines of care, and for the thousands of families suffering through loss and grief.

No act of kindness, no matter how small is ever wasted.

Eight Years Old!

Ava and her pals having a

BIRTHDAY BLAST!!!

Ava celebrated her Eighth Birthday this past weekend with her teachers and some of her Rosslyn friends. They had a garden tea party filled with dancing, games and yummy snacks. Here are a few snap shots of the party.

Miss Sarah Idsardi, Miss Lindsay Lane, Emma,
Indera, Pheobe, Ava and Marna

Miss Melanie McKee, Miss Kerry Jividen (and Zuri), and Erica

Ava and Zuri having fun in our garden

Daddy leading some silly games

Pheobe, Ava, Indera, and Marna

on a butterfly hunt in our garden

Mommy’s homemade Birthday tutus

The girls playing on the tea party 

cushion with their baby owls

Emma and mommy made each of the girls 

baby owls as party favours

Thinking Ahead!

 CBM Project Officers’ Meeting Today in Nairobi

We had the pleasure today of meeting with our colleague, Lenny Mbogo, and three of the project officers within our CBM ministry teams in North Eastern Province and Nairobi, Kenya. 

September and October are the planning months within our annual project cycle as we evaluate each year’s first three quarters of ministry and fine tune our project planning for the coming year. It is an important time of reflection and collaboration as we ask the question “how can we be better?”.

Lenny serves as CBM’s program officer for Africa where she has been overseeing 44 CBM/partner projects and 6 CBM/CFGB/Partner projects for the past few years. It is a HUGE responsibility, but thankfully we have a great team of partner and CBM workers who are passionate about helping local churches effectively bring hope and healing into the brokenness of their communities. We deeply appreciate her ability to both encourage and challenge us to become more effective in the work that we are doing.

Geoffrey sharing about the challenges facing the 

communities that CBM is assisting in our relief efforts

While our funding as CBM global and national field staff comes directly from the generosity and support of churches and individuals who wish to donate to CBM as our "partners in mission”, the actual ministry projects that we and our colleagues are engaged in are funded from a number of sources including third party agencies (Such as Canadian Foodgrains Bank, Baptist World AID, and other organizations), special donor appeals (Such as the Ebola campaign or the current Relief Campaign for CBM), and direct giving to CBM (through general giving or directed donations through the CBM website or annual gift catalogue). Wow,... there are a lot of links in this paragraph! But please follow the links if you are interested in contributing to our ministry with CBM in Africa. :)

These funds that are entrusted to CBM in Canada are accessed around the world through project grants that our CBM staff and partners work on together with the communities that we serve. This project approach to ministry enables us to work with local churches and community members to identify the local needs and resources, and to walk together in a thoughtful and intentional way. 

Please keep our team in your prayers as we seek God’s leading as we work with our church partners and local community stakeholders in discerning ministry priorities for the coming year.

You can learn more about what CBM is doing in Africa and around the world through our website at www.cbmin.org

Aaron, Erica, Laura, Lenny, William, 

a waitress photo-bombing, and Geoffrey

“But you, O God, do see trouble and grief; you consider it to take it in hand.

The victim commits himself to you; you are the helper of the fatherless."

Psalm 10:14

Ava turns Eight!

H A P P Y   B I R T H D A Y

A  V  A

October 1st was Ava’s eighth birthday. She went to school in her beautiful birthday tutu made by mommy. She is very excited for her birthday party that we will be celebrating with her friends and teachers on this Saturday afternoon. 

Ava wants her birthday celebration to be a garden tea party with lots of dancing and games. We will be sure to share pictures of all the fun.