November 2018 Prayer Letter

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.  Wonderful are your works; that I know very well. 

Psalm 139:14

Menstruation isa gift. It is a part of a natural and efficient cycle that continues God’s creation through human reproduction. Menstruation is a beautiful thing because we are fearfully and wonderfully made!

But, have you ever thought about what the 5000+ girls and women of Kuwaa Chiefdom do because they do not have reliable access to menstrual health care? They use whatever materials they can find, often resorting to grass and leaves and other dirty materials. This often leads to serious infections. Without a solution they miss school and work activities.

Kuwaa Mission distributes Days for Girls kits throughout the Kuwaa Chiefdom, providing health education and sustainable feminine hygiene kits for the Kuwaa girls. Several church groups, quilt clubs and sewing groups work to sew and assemble Days for Girls kits.  These sustainable feminine hygiene kits will last a girl for up to 3 years. Even more importantly, the kits are distributed with health education. The girls are taught their worth, how their bodies function, and how the human race continues because of them. Girls replace confusion and shame with knowledge and dignity. As Celeste Mergens, founder of Days for Girls International, says “Each kit is a reminder to the girl who receives one, that she is loved, that she is worthy of education, and opportunity. That she matters.”

Kuwaa Mission recently shipped 496 Days for Girls kits for distribution throughout the Kuwaa Chiefdom. Each kit contains: 2 pairs of panties, 2 washable panty shields with pockets, 8 washable flannel liners, a washcloth, a bar of soap, 2 Ziplocs for soaking and washing the items, all in a cotton drawstring bag. Those 496 kits represent 89,280 days that girls can remain in school and active in their communities. The kits will be distributed by Korpo Barsay, Kuwaa Mission’s Liberian health worker.  They will also be distributed by Jenny Cosgrove, Kim Tahini, Laurie Juelg and San Olsen when they travel to Kuwaa next spring. Please pray for our mission.

A special thanks to the groups and individuals who sewed and assembled the kits for this shipment: Lord of Life Lutheran Church (North Pole, AK), Cross of Christ Lutheran Church WELCA (Welch, MN), Sun City Summerlin Quilt Club (Las Vegas, NV), Terri’s Friends (Reno, NV) and Christ our Savior Lutheran Church (Anchorage, AK). Days for Girls International (www.daysforgirls.org) has developed and field tested the kits and the educational programs. In the past 10 years, over one million kits have been distributed to girls in over 100 different countries by DFGI. Kuwaa Mission is pleased to be partnering with this organization.

Your donations to Kuwaa Mission make the transportation and distribution of the kits possible. The area is remote, and the logistics are complicated.  Kuwaa Mission also supports continuing health education for our health worker Korpo Barsay. We are also working with Lutheran Church in Liberia to help facilitate setting up a micro-enterprise to sew kits at their women’s’ center in Monrovia at some point in the future. We welcome individuals and groups who would like to sew and assemble Days for Girls kits. For more information, visit our Kuwaa Mission website (www.kuwaamission.org).

With gratitude,

Sue Zager – your fearfully and wonderfully made sister in Christ

Days for Girls – Kuwaa Mission Partnership Coordinator  email:summerlinlvnv@daysforgirls.org

Please reachout at Webmaster@kuwaamission.org.  with questions or if you want to help! 

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: 
The Kuwaa Mission c/o Bethany Lutheran Church 1340 8th Street. Slidell, LA 70458

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.  

October 2018 Prayer Letter

With profound gratitude to all the men and women who have and continue to serve the Kuwaa Mission! For most of you, I imagine, the pictures you have seen of Liberia and the Kuwaa people are hard to relate to.  The pictures I have posted over the years, show people who continue to live much like they did when I lived there between 1970 and 1980.
The picture to the right is of me on a Kuwaa farm sometime around 1974, although I could imagine a very similar picture being taken today.  The thing that strikes me about this picture and is locked in my memory are their smiles.                             
They worked harder than anyone I have ever seen, but always with a smile. My attitude towards work was formed by the many days spent side by side with them clearing a farm, burning the cleared trees, mudding houses, cutting grass, or chasing birds away from the rice fields. The list goes on.  While they worked, they sang, laughed and engaged in the most animated conversations.  Work was about community.  You came together to work in the morning and finished the day eating as a group around a large bowl of rice.                       
The Kuwaa people continue to live a difficult life, but you will seldom find a picture that isn’t full of smiles.  These people truly appreciate everything that the mission has done for them.  With the resources donated to the Kuwaa Mission, we do our best to provide for their most basic needs.  The joy on their faces is profound even if from the first water from a new well, a new clinic that provides the most basic of health care, or the recent work with Days for Girls to provide women with the most basic feminine hygiene kits. All of the pictures you have seen on our website show their gratitude for what your donations have allowed the mission to do.    
As the webmaster for the Kuwaa Mission website, I have the privilege of showing everyone the fruit of your donations and hard work for my Kuwaa family.  I am personally grateful to each of you for your prayers and for the financial support you continue to provide. 
We ask that you continue to pray for the mission and for the Kuwaa people.  If you don’t already do so, please consider a donation as everything helps and the Kuwaa people appreciate it greatly. 
If you are interested in helping, we are always looking for volunteers!  There are many ways to help.  Are you a website designer, do you enjoy marketing, do you like crafting, sewing (like the Days for Girls projects) or do you want to make a life changing visit to the jungles of Africa to help some of the most genuine and appreciative people you will ever meet!

Please reach out at Webmaster@kuwaamission.org.  with questions or if you want to help.

Your brother in Christ,

Todd Thompson (Mulumba), “The Chiefs Messenger”

Proud son of Rev Richard and Doris Thompson

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:
The Kuwaa Mission c/o Bethany Lutheran Church 1340 8th Street. Slidell, LA 70458

www.kuwaamission.org                          Facebook: Kuwaa-Mission

September 2018 Prayer Letter

I will praise the Lord at all times; his praise will always be on my lips. (Psalm 34:1)

I learned a lesson a long time back. No matter how I feel if I can remember to praise the Lord, things will get better. Another thing I learned is this: God will bless the work I have to do if I can praise him. So if I want to succeed, or if I want the work to succeed, I need to praise the Lord.

I praise the Lord for allowing Rev. Dr. Jensen Seyenkulo Jensen and me to meet together to plan the Kuwaa Mission. I praise God for my brother Jensen because God is using him to accomplish his mission in Liberia. As Bishop of the L. C. L., God’s work continues to march.

I also praise God for raising up Stan Olsen and Cindy Ellis to keep the Mission going. I praise God for using them to accomplish many wonderful and helpful projects. God used them mightily.

I praise the Lord for all the Mission’s Board members who helped raise the funds to do the work, and held up the work in prayer. Along with them I want to praise the Lord for the faithful Liberian co–workers.

I beg you to join me in praying for the Kuwaa people that they all come to faith in Jesus and are saved.  I encourage you to continue to pray for Cindy Ellis that God’s comforting and healing hands would be upon her.

Your brother in Christ,

Rev. Dr. Dick Thompson, Co–founder of the Kuwaa Mission

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:

The Kuwaa Mission?c/o Bethany Lutheran Church?1340 8th Street?Slidell, LA 70458

www.kuwaamission.org                                   Facebook: Kuwaa-Mission







					

		
		
	

							
	

				

			
						

				Kuwaa Mission Prayer Letter August 2018
			

								


				

			
For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.  Wonderful are your works; that I know very well.  Psalm 139:13-14




 Kuwaa Mission to aid in providing Health and Wellness Education for pregnant women through Big Belly Business book distribution.


 To promote healthy pregnancies and combat Liberia’s high maternal and early childhood mortality rates, the Open Society Initiative for West Africa launched the Liberia Big Belly Business pregnancy book.  The Kuwaa Mission is joining in this effort.


“After the end of the civil war, Liberia’s maternal mortality rate soared to 994 out of every 100,000 new births. Upon assuming office in 2006 as Africa’s first democratically elected female president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf promised that her government would make efforts to curtail the high maternal death rate. According to the World Health Organization, that number was reduced to 640 in 2013.  However, the outbreak of the Ebola virus in 2014 ravaged the country’s weak health system, with maternal health being no exception. The situation led to an increase in the deaths of pregnant women. Because of the poor state of the health system and the increased death rate, Liberia was again rated among the highest in Sub-Saharan Africa with high maternal mortality.” (http://www.bushchicken.com/big-belly-business-pregnancy-guide-launches-in-monrovia/)


The term ‘big belly’ is often used informally in Liberia to refer to a pregnant woman.  Several health organizations throughout Liberia have joined together to bring the Big Belly Business book and pregnancy training to women throughout Liberia.  The Kuwaa Mission is joining into this effort to provide books and training to women (and their partners) in the villages of the Kuwaa chiefdom. 


The Big Belly Business book provides women with health literacy and empowerment information to help expecting women learn how to have a healthy pregnancy, safe delivery, and a healthy baby.  The month-to-month guide allows pregnant women to anticipate the various changes to their bodies and instructs them on what to do each step of the way.  It also gives advice to the husband, extended family, friends, neighbors and community members to take an active part in caring for the pregnant woman.




Pages from the Big Belly Business book. Photo: Jefferson Krua


The illustrated Big Belly Business book was written in simple Liberian English for easy understanding by Liberians who may not be well-educated. Prominent individuals such as Elma Shaw, T. Michael Weah, and Chase Walker all contributed to its contents.


We thank you for your generous support of the Kuwaa Mission and for your prayers for the work of the mission and the Kuwaa people we serve.  Please pray for the Big Belly project and for all the women and infants who will be strengthened, encouraged and supported through it.  And may God richly bless each of you with the joy of his presence in the month ahead.


In Christ’s service,


Rev. Carol George, Kuwaa Board Chair




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:


The Kuwaa Mission?c/o Bethany Lutheran Church?1340 8th Street?Slidell, LA 70458


 www.kuwaamission.org                                                     Facebook: Kuwaa-Mission