August 2019 Prayer Letter

The Kuwaa Mission has completed another year’s work of helping the Kuwaa People as they continue to work to rebuild their lives and communities after years of civil conflict, the Ebola crisis and the ever-present complications of access / transportation to their communities after the heavy rains during our summer months.  The roads turn into a clay quagmire that makes it impossible for vehicles to travel upcountry.  We have helped rebuild many bridges within their area, but the main road is the government’s responsibility and they have neglected this responsibility since the war started in the late 1980’s. Inflation and extremely high unemployment remain two of the biggest obstacles to development. 

While we are able to hire 3-4 people to help us with our programming, the small amounts we can afford to pay them are not anywhere sufficient for their needs and the needs of their families.  We continue to work with the Lutheran Church in Liberia to do what we can to install hope for a brighter future. Our well program continues to excel.  To date we have installed 33 new wells, 7 in just this year!!  Two wells were hand drilled to a depth of 80’ and are providing abundant water in the large town of Fassama. 

Our Children’s Bible School this year again had over 100 children in attendance, many of whom were Muslim.  Fortunately, both religious groups work and live peacefully and respectfully with each other. We taught stories common to the Koran and the Old Testament.  We have distributed well over 100 sanitary napkin kits to adolescent girls and the demand continues to far exceed capacity. We have helped rebuilt the school in Belle Baloma that now has rooms for K-9 grades, we supplied roofing materials for churches in three villages where they had already begun to make mud blocks to repair / replace their damaged church walls. We are in the process of developing a program whereby churches, schools or individuals can adopt a village church or school and help in the rebuilding of the facility, providing much needed supplies, training, and hopefully actually travel to Liberia to witness the work they are sponsoring and the work that the Kuwaa Mission has accomplished. 

If you would like additional information, please contact Stan Olsen at the address on our web page:  www.kuwaamission.org.

Below is a list of our accomplishments to date. Thank you for your support over the past 10 years and we join you with prayers for Liberia.

KUWAA MISSION 10 YEAR ACCOMPLISHMENTS 

  • Established an excellent working relationship with the Lutheran Church in Liberia (LCL)
  • Visited all 16 villages and in conjunction with the villagers determined their immediate and long-term needs
  • Distributed over 150 water filters to individuals, churches, schools, clinics and demonstrated their use
  • Provided at least one potable water well in 15 villages, most for the first time
  • Installed 33 new wells and rehabilitated over 20 others
  • Received 501c3 status from US Government
  • Received Non-profit status from Liberian Government
  • Provided evangelist scholarships to students at Lutheran Literacy Center (prior to receiving our 501c3 status)
  • Provided one nursing scholarship (prior to receiving our 501c3 status)
  • Distributed yearly medical supplies for two area clinics for 10 years and conducted nursing workshops at the clinics
  • Distributed yearly school supplies to village schools
  • Conducted teacher training workshops
  • Conducted Children’s Bible Schools for four years with average attendance of over 150 children
  • Built a new 9 room clinic with solar power that is now being run by the Ministry of Health
  • Rebuilt over 30 bridges to provide access to new clinic and increase economic development of the area
  • Partnered with local villages to rehabilitate roads between villages
  • Lived, worked, prayed and worshipped with the people
  • Instituted “Community Led Total Sanitation” workshops (Highly successful UNICEF program)
  • Conducted 5 well maintenance workshops to teach local villagers how to maintain their wells
  • Implemented “Days for Girls” program in three villages. Provides reusable, sanitary menstrual kits to school girls

Bella Baloma School

Lowoma School

WHAT HAS THE KUWAA MISSION DONE THIS YEAR:   2019

  • Installed 7 new wells
  • Repaired 5 existing wells
  • Conducting Children’s Bible School in Lowoma in conjunction with the local Muslim leaders (158 children attended)
  • Conducting two sanitation workshops
  • Inspected the clinic in Kondesu and met with the staff. Delivered over $1,000 worth of medical supplies
  • Conducted Days for Girls workshops in Lowoma, Kondesu and Ballama and delivered over 150 menstrual kits
  • Met with Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) and the LCL to begin the Big Belly program to teach pregnant women about the changes in their body and proper nutrition. We are also working with the LCL to further the Days for Girls program.

Gatema Church

HOW CAN YOU HELP THE KUWAA PEOPLE?

  • Pray for the people and the Kuwaa Mission
  • Become a volunteer in American or in Liberia
  • Become a “Partner Congregation”
    • Adopt a church or school
    • Place the Kuwaa Mission in your church budget
  • Donate much needed funds:
  • $5 provides one child with school supplies for one year
  • $15 provide a teacher with supplies for one year
  • $15 provides one blackboard with chalk
  • $25 provides one rechargeable light
  • $35 provides one bag of cement including transportation (25 bags required for one well)
  • $350 provides roofing materials for a church / school (material only, approx.. 240sf)
  • $800 provides one hand pump (material only) excluding cement
  • $2,000 provides labor to dig and install one hand pump
  • $5,000 provides one complete well
  • $15,000 provides materials for a village church
  • $25,000 provides materials for a 4-6 room school house

Word Version                            PDF Version

Your contributions to the Kuwaa Mission are tax-deductible.  We are a 501c3 non-profit organization.  Our tax ID number is 27-5458111

Donations can be given in two ways:  A Check to the mission address or PayPal on our Website: 

Kuwaa Mission, PO Box 90513, Anchorage, AK 99509

www.kuwaamission.org                          Facebook: Kuwaa-Mission

Shop like you normally do on Amazon but make a small contribution to the Kuwaa Mission with every purchase.  Please consider adding the Kuwaa Mission. 

July 2019 Prayer Letter

A LETTER OF THANKS

         Half way through this year, it is now a good time to say thank you. First, we say thank you to our God for allowing us to help our Kuwaa brothers and sisters find a way to Him, and that they have a good Pastor, Rev. Paye, who is leading them spiritually. Second, we thank the Kuwaa people who helped with the projects – dig new or repair old nonfunctional wells, build and repair the road system, repair class rooms, and build a fully functional clinic. Third, we thank God for helping our volunteers and  the Kuwaa women to work together in training mothers on better child care and prenatal care. Fourth, for helping volunteers teach Vacation Bible Schools and for providing school teachers on location training and training on how to teach Bible classes. Fifth, for providing funds for training Evangelists and others. It has been a wonderfully blessed 10 years.  Fifth, for providing funds for training Evangelists and others. It has been a wonderfully blessed 10 years. I want to thank God also for the people who have taken the message about Kuwaa Mission to heart.

I also want to thank our God for touching peoples’ hearts so that they dedicated some time to serve over there, especially Stan Olsen and Cindy Ellis Bye. Now is the time that decisions have to be made. New Board Members are needed. Volunteers willing to go to Liberia to help supervise work projects are needed. Offerings are needed to carry out the projects.        

The Board of Directors are praying and asking for God’s direction in work projects. They have decided to focus on engaging new people, groups of people, and congregations to get them involved. Can you help the Mission by volunteering your service? The Kuwaa people still need our help. It takes people power and funds to do it.

May God bless our willingness to help and support the Work of the Mission. May he also bless you, my Christian brothers and sisters. Another big thank you to Bishop Daniel Jensen Seyenkulo who was a co-founder of the Mission and who still paves the way for the work among the Kuwaa people and others.

Dick Thompson, a founding father of the Mission

Word Version                            PDF Version

Your contributions to the Kuwaa Mission are tax-deductible.  We are a 501c3 non-profit organization.  Our tax ID number is 27-5458111

Donations can be given in two ways:  A Check to the mission address or PayPal on our Website: 

Kuwaa Mission, PO Box 90513, Anchorage, AK 99509

www.kuwaamission.org                          Facebook: Kuwaa-Mission

Shop like you normally do on Amazon but make a small contribution to the Kuwaa Mission with every purchase.  Please consider adding the Kuwaa Mission. 

May 2019 – Kids4Kuwaa Materials

These items are available for your Day School, Sunday School & Vacation Bible School. Kids4Kuwaa Is a part of the Kuwaa Mission ministering to village children in Liberia, West Africa. Contact: Ed and Diane Stelling for more information .  Kuwaa5Diane@sbcglobal.net.                                          

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Your contributions to the Kuwaa Mission are tax-deductible.  We are a 501c3 non-profit organization.  Our tax ID number is 27-5458111

Donations can be given in two ways:  A Check to the mission address or PayPal on our Website: 

Kuwaa Mission, PO Box 90513, Anchorage, AK 99509

www.kuwaamission.org                          Facebook: Kuwaa-Mission

Shop like you normally do on Amazon but make a small contribution to the Kuwaa Mission with every purchase.  Please consider adding the Kuwaa Mission. 

Prayer Letter April 2019

Dear Friends of the Kuwaa Mission:

Kids4Kuwaa is a special project of the Kuwaa Mission, providing needed funds for the Kuwaa children living and going to school in their remote villages in Liberia, West Africa.

Kids4Kuwaa began some 10 years ago with a young 8th grade girl in Alaska who wanted to help the Kuwaa children. She collected “noisy offerings” of loose change deposited in small metal buckets during the offering portion of the church services. Since then, many churches, Sunday schools, Christian/Lutheran schools and Vacation Bible Schools have also been likewise encouraged and have responded in like manner.

Last month for example, Abiding Savior Lutheran School of Lake Forest and Christ Lutheran School of Costa Mesa in Southern California adopted Kids4Kuwaa for their 3rd quarter chapel offerings and raised over $2000 for the Mission. We praise God for their prayers and support of their brothers and sisters in schools in Liberia. Their offerings have been used for school supplies, Christian teaching materials, teacher training, water filters, school repairs and school medical supplies. These schools are located in remote villages off of the motor road in a remote area of Liberia.

Please consider helping these children. Let us know if you would like to adopt Kids4Kuwaa with your Sunday School, Church School, and Vacation Bible School. We have children’s coloring pages, bookmarks and a brief visual presentation available for your use. You may also wish to adopt one of the schools for continued support and share letters with the schools and their teachers.

Thank you and God bless your own personal and/or congregational mission efforts locally and globally  as we proclaim that Christ is risen! He has risen indeed! Hallelujah!!

Sincerely in the Risen Christ,

Ed and Diane Stelling

Advisory and board members of the Kuwaa Mission

You may email us at: kuwaa513@att.net, or kuwaa5dane@sbcglobal.net

You may also call us at: 949/243-6328 or 949/309-8236

PDF Version of the Letter                                   MS-Word Version of this letter

Your contributions to the Kuwaa Mission are tax-deductible.  We are a 501c3 non-profit organization.  Our tax ID number is 27-5458111

Donations can be given in two ways:  A Check to the mission address or PayPal on our Website: 

Kuwaa Mission, PO Box 90513, Anchorage, AK 99509

www.kuwaamission.org                          Facebook: Kuwaa-Mission

Shop like you normally do on Amazon but make a small contribution to the Kuwaa Mission with every purchase.  Please consider adding the Kuwaa Mission.  

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March 2019 Prayer Letter

Imagine that you get up one morning, walk into your kitchen to put water on for coffee or tea – and no water comes out of the tap. You look around and maybe find a few water bottles or ice you can use – but what next?  You cannot shower!  You cannot do laundry!  What would you do if the nearest grocery store is miles away- and you have no car because there is no road to your village?  The nearest source of water is a dirty creek that is drying up in the hot, dry season.

This situation is happening daily in remote villages in Liberia, West Africa.  The water wells they depend on for drinking and cooking may break down or run low during dry season.  For example, in the town of Gatema that Stan Olsen and I (Jenny Cosgrove) visited in January, one old well hasn’t worked in years and the one which the Kuwaa Mission installed several years ago, was going dry.  It is not that far into dry season and already the villagers were using it for drinking water only, and families were rationing their use to every other day.  Sadly, we have since gotten reports that they are resorting to using the dirty creek for drinking water again.

Safe drinking water has resulted in better health, thus children and adults are living longer.  The village populations are increasing and the current pumps are used more often.  These pumps need periodic repairs and there is a need for more and deeper wells in the towns as well.

We are really excited by a new development in well drilling – our new hand drilled (instead of hand dug) well in Fassama is deeper than any of our older wells.  This new approach is needed in so many villages where the water table drops as the dry season progresses. We are asking for your help to repair wells and dig more of them for the Kuwaa people in remote villages.  This season, we have already repaired or dug/drilled seven more wells, but it hasn’t been enough. 

The need is great and urgent. Your one time or monthly tax deductible donation can bring drinking water to so many who need it. On the Kuwaa Mission facebook page or website you will find a donation link.  Alternatively, you can mail a one time or monthly contribution to assist us in providing clean water upcountry.  It may not seem like a lot, but $5 a month from many caring people would go a long way to providing clean water for a village.  Will you please help us?

We also would like to suggest a new program where we pair groups such as congregations, schools, and charity groups with specific projects.  Your partnership could include clean water wells, assistance for school children and their teachers, women’s health programs, and/or assistance to village churches and evangelists.  Please contact Stan Olsen if you would like to learn more about this special program. ( solsen@kuwaamission.org )

As always, we are so grateful for your prayers and your support.  The Kuwaa people also send their greetings and many thanks for your help.  They thank God for you and so do we.  Na mama o – (thank you in Kuwaa).

PDF Version of the Letter                                   MS-Word Version of this letter

Your contributions to the Kuwaa Mission are tax-deductible.  We are a 501c3 non-profit organization.  Our tax ID number is 27-5458111

Donations can be given in two ways:  A Check to the mission address or PayPal on our Website: 

Kuwaa Mission, PO Box 90513, Anchorage, AK 99509

www.kuwaamission.org                          Facebook: Kuwaa-Mission

Shop like you normally do on Amazon but make a small contribution to the Kuwaa Mission with every purchase.  Please consider adding the Kuwaa Mission.  

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