The Kuwaa Mission teaches classes as well as installing wells, repairing bridges, providing tuition for evangelists, and medical & school supplies. Here are some of our classes: Pump technician training- installing pump head Training men to maintain the wells providing safe drinking water for wells the KM provided with your support. Days for Girls Kits. Young women taught how to use them for their monthly cycle. Children holding up David and Goliath photos to color. Training teachers to teach Bible School to children. These teachers are proud of their training certificates. In Belle Baloma. Completion of a hygiene class:  Cindy Ellis teacher

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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: 

Donate

Kuwaa Mission, PO Box 90513, Anchorage, AK 99509

www.kuwaamission.org                          Facebook: Kuwaa-Mission

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THIS IS A WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR!

       Here we are in February. Potentially, we have come through the worst part of winter. But it is also a time of the year where the weather can be unpredictable. We thank God for remaining our God and keeping us as his people and caring for us in all weather. 

We are also thankful for our relatives, friends, and our brothers and sisters in Christ who have traveled with us along life’s journey. We American Christians often forget to thank the people who have remained our brothers and sisters through good and difficult times. And so it is with God: We often forget to thank God and often treat God as a stranger, rather than as the one who definitely has been with us every step of the way. Our God who never neglects nor forsakes us. The one who always is there to help and befriend us. The one who always loves us.

All Christians are witnesses; some Christians are not only witnesses in normal life but in their calling as missionaries.  Part of our witness as missionaries is to show respect for different cultures and traditions.  A Christian who is called to become a missionary must learn that every culture is different and different cultures have different ways of greeting people.  Those greetings are often more formal than our American greetings; and they might differ between the first and subsequent meetings.

In the Kuwaa culture, there is a formal way of greeting that is typical whenever you meet someone, known or unknown. When two people meet, they must greet each other and then inquire as to one another’s health or situation. The person first addressed answers to the positive or the negative followed by their own inquiry.  The first party responds in kind.  Somewhere along the line of exchanges, they thank God for the other person and God’s help for that person. This formal greeting is repeated regardless of how often or how familiar two people are. 

Sometimes we Americans get tired of such rigid formality. We sometimes forget that it is important to the people we are living or interacting with. Through your greeting, regardless of how many times you do it, you are signaling whether you are their friend, and when they reciprocate you know if they are your friend. As a Kuwaa missionary, learning the proper greeting exchange is one of the first and most important things we had to do. 

There are at least two other things a person must do to show a stranger that they accept them as a friend. When a traveler comes to a town, whether or not they are known to that town, they must inform the villagers if they wish to stay the night, why they are visiting and if they come with a white (friendly) heart. The traveler then presents himself by offering the town people a gift, usually a small amount of money or something else and says, “This is my white heart gift to show you that I come as a friend.” The town’s people will then welcome the traveler with their own white heart gift, usually rice, meat, palm oil and some spices so they won’t go hungry during their stay. They also show him/her to a room where they may stay for as long as needed.  The visitor may then share their reason for visiting, or they might wait until the following morning.  The town will then break word (give their answer) regarding the visitors stay.  This process is called the exchanging of white hearts. White heart exchanging shows their happiness and thankfulness for their encounter with each other. If the town’s people feel any deception or unfriendliness, they will not exchange their white heart and they won’t accept the visitor.

If they accept each other’s white heart gifts, a deeper relationship (a deeper friendship) can then be formed. As a relationship grows, someone might offer a red chicken to their special friend.  This gesture shows everyone that they share a special bond and deep friendship. Here in America we might call them blood brothers or sisters.

Jesus has given a red chicken to each of us, and we have given our white heart and red chicken to him.  We have given our white heart gift to the Kuwaa people through the things we do for them through this mission.  We give thanks for them (our white heart), and we give to and live for them (our red hearts).

Your red chicken partner in Christ,

Dick Thompson

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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: 

Donate

Kuwaa Mission, PO Box 90513, Anchorage, AK 99509

www.kuwaamission.org                          Facebook: Kuwaa-Mission

Please subscribe to our mailing list if you want to receive our monthly update letter.  

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I’m sitting my temporary apartment in Albuquerque, NM for three months while my wife Sally is busy working at University of New Mexico Hospital during this Covid-19 epidemic (‘m staying busy taking part in the big mountain bicycling scene). It seems like such a short time ago that much of the world, especially Liberia, was dealing with another epidemic:  EBOLA.  This year they are again fighting a novel disease and again the Kuwaa Mission will not be sending people to Liberia.  While we here in the US seem to be losing, or more accurately have lost, the battle against COVID-19 the people in Liberia seem to be doing fairly well.  They apparently learned their lesson from Ebola:  listen to the doctors!

Receiving room at the Kondesu Clinic

We did have very successful 2020 year:

• 3 new wells
• Repaired 3 existing wells
• Conducted 2 Children’s Bible School programs
• Conducted 2 Community Lead Sanitation Programs
• Delivered $1000 worth of medical supplies to the two Kuwaa clinics
• Provided funds to complete a new roof and provide paint for the school in Belle Baloma
• Provided funds to purchase and install a solar system in Belle Baloma so that they can conduct night school for adults.
• Provided bibles for evangelists and churches
• Together with the Lutheran Church in Liberia’s Bishop Daniel Jensen Seyenkulo visited the three largest Kuwaa villages and reconfirmed their support for the work of the Kuwaa Mission and their agreement to continue to work with us.
• Teamed with the Gbarpolo County Development Association to bring cell phone coverage to three Kuwaa villages. Now anyone can contact people in those villages directly by phone from the United States.  This simplifies our work tremendously.
• Continued to support the Lutheran Church in Liberia work to train additional evangelists who will return to their villages and work with Rev. Paye. Paye is the pastor assigned to the Kuwaa  Lutheran Churches of Bopolo County.
• Signed an agreement with the Lutheran Church in Liberia (LCL) for the support of Rev. Paye to enable him to carry out his duties more effectively.

Cell phone tower with solar panels and dish

This coming dry season, starting in January, we hope to provide funds for one more well, one Children’s Bible School and one Sanitation Program.  Due to Covid here in the US we were not able propose a grant for well funds this year. We will continue to work with the LCL for Rev. Paye’s support.  Since we are not traveling to Liberia we will not be able take with us any of Days for Girls menstrual kits.  Days for Girls has changed dramatically how they are structured so we are working to find a way to continue to provide these essential kits to young developing women.

Korpo Barsay conducting a Days for Girls program

The Kuwaa Mission has been extremely rewarded this year by the strong continued financial support from individuals and congregations.  We need your continued support now more than ever as we work through the world wide COVID-19 spread and our reduced opportunities to serve the Kuwaa People. We are always looking for volunteers, both here in America and those willing to expand their horizons (and possibly their comfort zones a bit) to help us further our work. We continue to develop two new programs:  ADOPT A CHURCH and ADOPT A SCHOOL.  The schools and churches in the Kuwaa area desperately need help bringing their facilities up to a reasonable working standard.  With Covid-19 and the years long problem of extremely high unemployment it has not been possible for the people to generate enough funds, especially up country, to maintain and rebuild all their buildings.  A few thousand dollars and tons of prayers will do wonders.  I ask each of you individually and as congregations to consider adopting a school or church and be responsible for developing a relationship with the people.  It will one of the most rewarding challenges you will undertake. In the following school photo please note the portable blackboard.  A blackboard is a piece of plywood painted black and generally nailed to the wall.  In some schools the students have benches, some do not.  In only one school are there chairs with a writing surface, concrete plastered walls and concrete floors.  In the other 15 villages the photo below is typical with the possible exception of chairs/benches made from bushes in the forest.. 

Typical classroom. 

Again thank you for your support and as we enter another Christmas season let us be thankful for so much the Lord has blessed us with.  If you have any questions about the church / school programs please feel free to contact me. Stan Olsen, CEO

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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: 

Donate

Kuwaa Mission, PO Box 90513, Anchorage, AK 99509

www.kuwaamission.org                          Facebook: Kuwaa-Mission

Please subscribe to our mailing list if you want to receive our monthly update letter.  

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.   

Thanksgiving Prayer Letter

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ A blessed Thanksgiving to you all! This has been a rough year for all of us. It has also been a rough year on foreign missions.Missionaries could not be sent overseas because of the Coronavirus. However, this year has been a blessing to the church and its organizations also. Out of necessity the church had to develop new strategies to carry on its ministry and mission. The same is true of the Kuwaa Mission. The Mission had to develop new strategies to keep the Mission going forward. The Mission was blessed because the goal, as reported by Stan Olsen, of at least one well in each town was completed. Thanks be to God for the dedication of Stan. While the wells and hospital were being built, a few Kuwaa men were trained. Two months ago, at a Board of Directors meeting, it was discovered that the work to help the Kuwaa people rebuild their infrastructures could still go forward. Bishop Jensen, Pastor Paye, and Mr. Sami Zinna joined the Zoom Board meeting. The Board learned that there were other projects that could be done under the supervision of one of their own people. The first thing they requested was that the Mission provide the funds to finish putting up an internet tower. That was easily accomplished. Now Pastor Paye can keep in contact with the Evangelists in each town. The next thing that they requested was a Solar Energy System so that they could conduct adult education classes. Funds are available to accomplish this project. Again we thank God for providing the funds. The third project they suggested was the remodeling and rebuilding of the churches and schools destroyed by the Civil War. The Board said that they could do this project also if the funds come in to buy the materials needed to rebuild the buildings. The Board is confident that the funds will become available. The beauty of this project is that we don’t need to send someone over to supervise the work program. They can do that themselves. All they need is the building materials. We rejoice and thank God because we know that God’s people will provide. This program is an answer to prayer because we don’t have to send anyone to Liberia with the Coronavirus raging. This is another reason to thank the Lord. Another reason the Kuwaa Mission asks you to celebrate Thanksgiving is for all the brothers and sisters who have helped and/or supported the Mission’s work, and for those who are or will be helping and/or supporting the work program. You have and/ or will make it possible to help the Kuwaa people to have better physical and spiritual lives.

         From this war tattered building to this newly constructed block building 

From Idol Worship To Baptism

A blessed Thanksgiving to each and every one of you! And a very big thank you for your help and support of the Kuwaa Mission. Your brother in Christ, Dick Thompson, Co–founder of the Kuwaa Mission

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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: 

Donate

Kuwaa Mission, PO Box 90513, Anchorage, AK 99509

www.kuwaamission.org                          Facebook: Kuwaa-Mission

Please subscribe to our mailing list if you want to receive our monthly update letter.  

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.