Video Editing - Portland Oregon

I've been working the past couple of days on editing the video from our journey. The ladies here in Portland - Laura, Erin, and Karin were all quite articulate and emotive during the process - and combining that with some of Mike's comments - the feature will end up being very informative and powerful. I'm really excited about how it's turning out at the moment. Tim Bata from Uganda is midway through the recording, and he's collected several local artists playing traditional music for the soundtrack. I feel my best method of conveying the mission and purpose of this organization is through video, so I'm glad this is turning out so well.

My parents are heading back out to Sudan this next week. My dad will be teaching the Bible to some pastors there, and my mom will be doing some teaching as well - helping with English and maybe some Solar Panel cooking for the bushlands. You can be praying for them for the long trip, the safety there, and that they will be a major encouragement to the friends in Sudan. The security in Sudan isn't the best at the moment.

With my parents heading over, they can also take a couple luggage items, which means that we'll be sending some gifts for the kids and staff in Sudan. There have been some great gifts that have arrived in the office recently - a package of clothing dyes and sewing materials for the widows, and 3 boxes of soap, shampoo, washcloths, and toothbrushes from a lady and her kids in North Carolina! If any of you would like to send some small gifts over - particularly Portland people since this is at a late hour - let me know. They can take letters, some clothes, toys, anything light and small.

Emmanuel Sitaki (ERM) had a great turnout for his seminars this last week speaking on the orphans in Rwanda. He is speaking this Saturday at Central Bible Church (8815 NE Glisan Street, Portland, OR 97220). Some of the video and pictures from our trip will be showing there, and I'll be giving a little spiel on how cool Rwanda is and what the team there is doing.

Nick Kipkorir emailed from Kenya this past week and mentioned a couple of things. One was that another client of theirs died of HIV. Also one of the ladies in the Renew program (Sex Worker Recovery) was trying to get a job in town and the man asked her to sleep with him to seal the deal. She refused and he tried raping her, and she escaped and was able to talk to the police. You can be praying for her and the other 4 ladies as they continue to search for life outside of the sex industry.

And thanks to everyone who has been in contact with me recently regarding involvement! Dan Holcomb (the New York Dan) is most likely going to be a campus rep at Houghton for Lahash. I'm not sure what that looks like yet, but I'm excited - both Dans are excited...
Kara Starr has been thinking and praying about the leprosy ministry in Southern Sudan, and would like to take that on. She'll be a rep for the Lahash and IWASSRU project down in San Antonio Texas. If anyone else wants to get involved - please email or call. You don't have to be a professional or anything. We are all learning in this endeavor together!

We have lots of prayer needs at this time. I've been thinking a lot about prayer and dependency on God. Laura Iatesta, in her video interview, mentions that she was touched by the dependency on God of the friends in East Africa. Because they don't have a security blanket in life, they must depend and trust God. She was inspired by the devotion and faith and trust that she saw. So it is good to pray, and all of us involved appreciate it so much.

* Pray for the video project, and for the direction as 2006 plows ahead with lots of ideas and dreams and needs
* You can also remember the ladies of Renew, and the difficulties they are facing pulling from prostitution and entering into new life
* Pray for Jo French as she and pastor Amos in Tanzania continue to battle AIDS and develop the child sponsorship program
* Pray for monthly support for Lahash for each of the projects - and that people will be able hear of the needs. There is so much interest and compassion, it just seems to be a matter of getting the news out. And you can pray for me (Dan Holcomb NW) for my monthly support cause.
* And you can pray for the people and the peace of the region. Sudan just had a summit of the African Union, and Kenya's been in the news with the collapsed Nairobi building. Pray that the deep peace of the Messiah will break away the tribalism, hatred, corruption, war, and disease that strangles these nations.