-Scotts Valley, CA<\/p>\n
It all began in January 2004, when Pastor Mike mentioned that 15,000 children die EVERY DAY in developing nations, and for the amount of money the U.S. and Europe spend every year on pet food\u2014slightly over 13 billion dollars\u2014the health and nutrition needs of these nations could be met. (Statistics from Bread for the World<\/a>)<\/p>\n And we asked ourselves, \u201cSo what can we DO about this?\u201d\u00a0 It seemed, not much, but we decided to launch out and try to make a difference.\u00a0 Initially we thought we would select a particular area and send donations for about six months, then selecting another area in need.<\/p>\n We began supporting a CWR project in the Central African Republic where we sent money for tree saplings and seeds for an agriculture project.\u00a0 We next supported relief for refugees from the violence in Darfur in Western Sudan, also through CWR.\u00a0 From 2004 \u2013 2006, my son was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Niger in West Africa, and we became aware of drought and famine there.\u00a0 Our donations were funneled through CWR to the United Nations World Food Program for this effort.<\/p>\n Then in August 2006, CWR asked us to help fund an agriculture project in the South Sudan.\u00a0 Our donations helped this group of Sudanese Covenanters, many just returned refugees from the 20-year civil war, to begin a new life.\u00a0 Donations helped them rent farm land, a tractor, tools and seed. Church leaders and workers were paid with corn grown on the land.\u00a0 Over the years, the project became very successful.\u00a0 When there was flooding in other areas of South Sudan, people working on this agriculture project were able to share out of their plenty.\u00a0 We then set the goal to help them purchase land of their own close to their own homes.
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\nOctober 2006, a revelation! <\/strong> Pastor James Tang paid us a visit.\u00a0 Pastor Tang, a Covenant missionary pastor, is Sudanese and experienced first-hand some of the tragedy on his country by the civil war that began around 1980, although he said it had been building up for many years before.\u00a0 We listened in fascination to his stories as he showed us pictures of the folks we had been helping out.\u00a0 The most amazing thing was that he had wanted to come and meet this congregation who had made the agriculture project a reality.\u00a0 He expected a very large congregation\u2026I suppose we have perhaps 150 to 200 in attendance each Sunday; we\u2019re a family-size church where everyone tries to know everyone else\u2026.so we seemed like a rather small group to him.\u00a0 But what truly amazed us was the fact that it was our little congregation, pretty much all by itself, that supported this project.\u00a0 We had no idea!<\/em> We had thought our donations became part of a large fund that supported the project.<\/p>\n