Glocal

Beyond the Campus - Glocal Involvement

In our church, we call ourselves glocal trekkers. It's a new word -- Glocal. It highlights our present reality. Our world has shrunk, or as Thomas Friedman said, "we live in a flat world". Daily we enjoy the benefits of our world being flat from the information we gain to the products we use to the places we have traveled. We live in a global village and our church seeks to live there also, so we are involved in helping people locally and globally!

As a glocal Christ Follower we look into our world – the world on our doorstep, the world in Mexico, the world in Africa – our world, and we feel in our spirits, "it does not need to be like this.” When we think about the stupid poverty of kids dying with no food in their bellies, or of people dying when they have no money to pay for the necessary medication, or of kids not receiving sufficient education, or of the tragedy of children being neglected, our hearts sigh - it does not need to be like this.

This is why we started the glocal initiative when i grow up. Jesus came and he came to bring transformation. He came to change the world. We too seek to change the world and we will start with children across the globe. The when I grow up glocal initiative operates very simply. Each month $30 will help children in Kenya, children in Mexico, and children in Fresno County.

Yes, you can do more, and yes you can use your talent and skills in Kenya, Mexico or here in Fresno County, but so much of what is needed is resources, and that’s what we are primarily asking many to give.

Outlined below is a detailed description of our when i grow up glocal initiative.

If you have any questions, or would like to learn more about how to get involved, please contact:

Nanci Brandt
559-643-0615
or
email: whenigrowup@reedleyfbc.com

A Beloved Slum the full-length documentary

when i grow up 2007 documentary

Our glocal initiative descriptions:

Huruma slum – Nairobi, Kenya, Africa.
Furaha Community Center:

In the middle of the second largest slum in Nairobi called Huruma (350,000 est. pop) is the incredible Furaha Community Center (Furaha is Swahili for ‘joy’). Four incredible young Christian Kenyans lead this center – Chris, Dan, David & Kerry.
Each of these young men grew up in the slum and with the high school education they managed to obtain, along with the college work they are currently doing, they could have left the slum life. But, God has placed on their hearts a stirring vision to see the orphans of the slum given hope and a future. So they have all stayed to bring such hope.
It is young leaders like these that are the heroes of Africa.

It’s hard to describe what walking through the slum of Huruma is like. Even pictures don’t capture the smells and the oppression that hangs over the slum. It is never quiet. The only color is the gray of the concrete houses – no flowers, no colors – just gray.

Dan Ooko, like all of the Furaha leaders, lives in the slum in a single room. It is 10 feet by 10 feet with a bed. There are twenty other homes on his wing of this five story concrete apartment block. All twenty homes (rooms) share the same restroom – a hole in the concrete. There is no running water so it is carried up in buckets. The water is not clean and so you have to use purifying tablets before you can drink it – if you can afford the tablets. You live constantly with some infection in the midst of an infected slum.

But hope is being birthed. The hub of the Furaha Community Center is a school of 350 children. Of the children, 80% are orphans and at least 50% of them are HIV positive. The school receives no government funding but with the help of incredible volunteers from within the community, they are running a school that brings hope and a future.

Here’s the vision:

Our church community will stand with the Furaha community to help them bring hope and a future for the orphans of Huruma.

Our glocal ‘when I grow up’ initiative in this slum is to provide spiritual, financial and material support to the orphans and the community of Huruma through sponsoring the running of the Furaha Community Center.

We see Furaha and its leadership as a ray of hope in the grayness of Huruma. Every day they care for orphans and bring them vital friendship, education, guardianship and spiritual care.

They do this with no resources – the leaders and the volunteer teachers rummage through trash heaps finding items to sell for money to survive.

Our Furaha Community Sponsorship will:

Provide each leader, teacher and care giver with an income enabling them to focus more consistently on caring for the orphans.
Help pay for the rent of the school building and provide funds to improve the facilities.
Provide for resources to help the school function and develop - children will have desks to sit at, textbooks to read and learn from, pencils and crayons to use, drinking water and usable toilets.
Contribute to an HIV & AIDS health program and a ladies empowerment program, and microloan enterprises.
Help fund the spiritual program run as part of the Furaha Community Center.
In time, develop a school feeding program to provide the children with at least one meal a day.
Expand to help bring the Kingdom of God to the desolate and broken slum of Huruma.
Provide a major opportunity for the many skilled educators of this church to bring their knowledge and experience to the Furaha school.
Enable the multitude of skilled and talented business leaders, medical workers, administration workers and tradesmen in this church to use their skills and talents to help improve the entire Huruma slum.

An under-resourced Furaha Community Center has already brought hope to 350 orphans – can you imagine how much more hope a better resourced Furaha could bring to the estimated 10,000 and more orphans in the slum of Huruma!

Redeemer's Church can bring financial, educational and training resources
that Furaha Community Center would never have. Furaha Community Center brings care and constancy to the orphans that Reedley could never bring. Together, the orphans of Huruma can be given hope and a future. It’s a glocal partnership – this
local community partnering with another local community on the globe.

Kilimambogo & Kusatawi Village, Kenya, Africa.
A rural farming project:

A bumpy and wild two hour drive from Nairobi finds Kilimambogo and Kusatawi - two rural communities in Kenya, Africa.
Our church community will work alongside Watoto Wenye Nguvu (Swahili for ‘Children of Strength’ and an international charity) in caring for the orphans of this area. Watoto Wenye Nguvu runs a safe house for at risk orphans in Kusatawi. These orphans are at risk of being abused or sold into marriage, slavery or prostitution.

The safe house sits on 6 acres of land including a farm which grows various crops producing food for the safe house and some food for the feeding program Watoto Wenye Nguvu runs in the local school of the Kilimambogo district.

Redeemer's Church has a wealth of farm and irrigation knowledge. The goal of this part of our glocal initiative is to harness that knowledge to teach and train the orphans to develop the farm which sustains them, provides employment and could supply some income to the safe houses.

The skills we bring to this small farm could be multiplied across Kenya helping many other similar projects needing farming assistance.

El Viviente Que Me Ve, Mexico.

For the past few years Redeemer's Church has been developing a church partnership with El Viviente Que Me Ve.
This is a small church about 45 minutes drive inland from Ensenada which is reaching out to the many locals of this underdeveloped and impoverished Mexican community. El Viviente Que Me Ve sits in a small valley not far from the towns of El Porvenir and San Marcos along with the many scattered hillside homes dotted across the landscape.
Hundreds of people have been part of the teams that have gone from this church to serve alongside the Christians of El Viviente Que Me Ve in helping them extend the Kingdom of God in this needy region.

Anyone who has visited El Viviente Que Me Ve cannot travel the mere 70 miles back to the US without feeling such sadness and injustice at what geography can bring. Two completely different worlds, only an hour’s drive apart.

But the church and the Kingdom of God are in the geography defying business.
As Christians we do not believe that our longitude and latitude should determine whether or not we live or die; whether or not we have food in our bellies; whether or not we are educated and given a chance.

This next stage in our developing partnership with El Viviente Que Me Ve will provide essential help in addressing two major justice issues – children hungry for food, and children hungry to learn.

Children hungry for food:
With the support of the ‘when i grow up’ sponsorship, El Viviente Que Me Ve will host a weekly Saturday breakfast in one of the local
communities for the children of the area. Most are poor and malnourished and this breakfast will be a very practical way to help not only the children but the parents of the children. Adopting a ‘no child turned away’ feeding program has the potential to see hundreds of
children receive a healthy, tasty breakfast ……and receive caring, Christian friendship.

Children hungry to learn:
In Mexico education is only provided to the eighth grade equivalency. After that, school is essentially private and families have to pay for it – buy books, uniforms, transportation etc. For the average family in the El Porvenir area a year’s income can only pay for one child’s bus fare. Most teenagers don’t go to school beyond the eighth grade. Most of the employment opportunities go to the men. Teenage girls have only the hope of getting married to someone who will provide for her, but they usually end up pregnant and unwed before they are 18 years of age. Many become abandoned young mothers. Our sponsorship will create a scholarship fund to send young girls to high school thereby helping prevent early pregnancy as well as giving these girls a chance to receive higher education and a better life.

Fresno County, California, USA.

Vision: Providing hope to children by providing support to their parents.

The Reality:

Many families in our community are struggling with issues of neglect and abuse. In Fresno County there were 3,017 families where children were identified as being at risk of being abused
or neglected in the last year . This count doesn’t include the individual children associated with each household.

According to the Pew Commission on Children
in Foster Care, parents who have dealt with the CPS system reported feeling “vulnerable”. They know they have not provided nurturing care for their children. They feel sad, guilty, and angry. And they argued that they are viewed as “lazy, uncaring, and unfit, without being given a fair opportunity to be heard or to receive the resources they need to turn their lives around.”

When a child’s parents are facing a multitude of stressors in their lives and don’t feel equipped
to deal with underlying issues that caused these stressors, this negatively impacts the children. Children look to their parents for support and guidance, and when their parents are lacking a solid support system in their own lives, this makes it difficult for the entire family to move beyond the crises in their lives.

Statistics & Definitions
As identified by CPS
June ’06 – May ‘07

58% of children were at risk of neglect.

Neglect results from parent(s): failing to provide adequate food, shelter, and/or supervision; exposing children to domestic violence; substance abuse; or failing to meet child’s medical needs.

24% of children were at risk of abuse (physical, emotional, sexual).

12.5% of children were at risk because their caretaker was absent.

5.5% of children have siblings at risk in their home*.

* Includes any household where more than 1 child is included.

¹Statistics provided by the Department of Child and Family Services.

How can we help?

We want to be a part of the preventative process whenever possible. Our desire is to help children stay with their parents whenever possible, and to help them reunify with their parents when that is the best option. Our goal is to come alongside families as they face crises in their lives by providing support, encouragement, hope, and love through relationship and practical help. Our hope is that a child’s future will be changed in the process of their parents making positive changes through these relationships.

Financial Support:

Money given to ‘when i grow up’ will be used in Fresno County in a variety of ways to help families meet their children’s basic needs. Potential ways this money can be used are: helping with medical expenses, home repairs, hygiene (home and personal), counseling for children, beds, school supplies, and childcare. As needs are brought to our attention, careful consideration and discernment will be given to each situation before money will be distributed.

Ways you can be involved:

Short term -

You might have a skill, passion, or heart desire that can help strengthen families in crisis. Some examples of how this can be done are: providing a few hours of childcare, mechanical car maintenance, medical guidance, home repairs, helping clean a house, giving someone a ride, or tutoring a child.

Mentor -

If you and/or your family have a heart to get to know a child, parent, or a family on a more relational level, you can help by offering hope, guidance, assistance, wisdom, and love to others who find themselves in a life crisis.

Team Decision Making -

Participate in a team meeting where finding the best solution for a child is the goal. Those involved in these meetings include parents, social workers, community members, and support people involved in the child’s life.

Foster Parent -

Provide a loving home for children while their birth parents negotiate life and take crucial steps towards reunification.

* Information, training, and support will be provided to all mentors, team decision making participants, and those interested in becoming foster
parents.