Renew - The Kenyan Sex Worker Recovery Program
Over the past year Lahash and SCF have been talking with several Prostitutes in the city of Eldoret Kenya. The fires of the HIV virus are burning out of control - and it is tough to know where to start with efforts in battling AIDS. One of the projects currently underway is a Sex Worker Recovery Program.

During November and December of 2005, the staff of Lahash and SCF interviewed several prostitutes - called "Parking Girls" in Kenya. These women were chosen because of their interest in leaving the sex industry. They were profiled, and plans were made to create a long term assistance program where the women could receive counseling, micro loans, education, accountability, and friendship though a network of Kenyan and American partners.

Currently there are five courageous women who have left the often lucrative "Parking" profession to seek new life, new hope, and new healing. We are helping out with some temporary basic rent and food allowances while we try to plug each of the women into business or educational opportunities.

They have also been paired up with ladies in the United States via email, with the hopes that new friendship, encouragement, and hope will strengthen their resolve.

I've asked the women if it would be okay to share their stories and pictures online. They've agreed to it - and Karin and I have uploaded the story of the women.

Renew - Kenyan Sex Worker Recovery Program

Thank you to all of you who've been supporting this program recently. The women are so grateful. Josphine emailed me recently with the following words:

"Yesterday I was asking God for forgiveness for all that I did before. I didn't know the real meaning of life but you have shown me. I thank all the staff of Lahash along with SCF for bringing me to who I am and thank you for caring for those who are less privileged."

We still need lots of help with this program. We still need about $150 a month to cover all of the expenses. And the team in Kenya is in negotiations to purchase a small clothing store - which will be used to employ a couple of the women and provide money for the SCF. They have estimated this cost at $1000.

And we need people to pray for these ladies as well.

* Pray for Nick and Dr. Oronje that they will make the right decisions when making plans for this program
* Pray for the 5 ladies. They need encouragement, healing, and hope for the future. They are battling depression and suicide.
* Pray for safety. One of the ladies recently tried to get a job and was told she would get the job if she had sex with the man. She refused and he attempted to rape her.
* Pray that the women emailing the ladies will be able to encourage them and be able to bridge the cultural and language barriers.

Nick's Story
Nick Kipkorir is the director of the Silas Christian Foundation and is the primary contact for Lahash in the city of Eldoret. He is also my friend from childhood. He and the team in the slums of Silas and Munyaka in Eldoret have been aggressively tackling the complex AIDS situation there.

While we were in Tanzania on this last trip, Nick pulled out one of my journals and starting sketching and writing about his life. We are working on letting you understand more of the lives of each of our partners at Lahash, so I've uploaded what Nick worked on that evening.

For those of you interested in helping with the sponsorship of kids in Dodoma Tanzania, Nick's story provides a startling insider's look at what the lack of education and care can do to a family and a community in East Africa. And his sketches are fascinating as well. You can read the whole story at Lahash: Nick's Story

New Lahash Trip Segment Online
You can now check out a new segment of our trip to Africa this past fall. It centers on the relationship and partnership between a Home Community at Imago Dei Community Church in Portland, Oregon and some Sudanese. Karin Rosain heard about the needs of the widows in Southern Sudan from Susan Tabia. She organized the home group and together they collected donations for a yard sale that was held at the end of summer last year. They ended up raising $800 from the sale. The rest of the story can be seen in the video.

Uganda's Elections
Please pray for the nation of Uganda as the people vote on the 23rd for president. There have already been some clashes and allegations of fraud. BBC article here.

Amazing Grace Update
Susan wrote the other day from Uganda. She mentioned that Alpiyoso (the elderly gentleman that has assisted with the St. Bartholomew orphanage for several years) was collecting materials for the new dorms and while he was gone his hut burned down - the fire consumed all of his belongings. You can pray for him, or if you'd like, send a donation to help with the reconstruction of his hut.

Kenya AIDS
Nick writes that things are going well in the Silas slums. The Renew ladies have been using their time to help out at Dr. Oronje's clinic and have been assisting with trash removal in the slums. It seems to be working out really well. The group collected a bunch more bags of trash the other day and burned it.

Nick is planning on traveling downcountry to Kibera to help with the Orphan school there. He will be taking some photos for Mama Margaret, and for Lahash.

New Music Tuesday
Tim Bata has been working hard on some new tracks for the upcoming documentary on the trip. You can hear one of the new tracks on the background of the Sudanese Widows video segment. I've also uploaded it into the media section so that you can hear the whole song. It's very beautiful traditional sounds - exquisite really. Tim said it's pretty hard to find the artists that still play this type of music. I'm really excited with how it turned out. You can listen to it here.

Meeting with Blood:Water Mission
Yesterday Karin and I were able to meet Jena Lee of Blood:Water Mission, and talk about their vision for Africa. Dan Haseltime of Jars of Clay popped in for a bit to chat and give his perspective on partnership, arts, film, the church among other things.


I was pretty impressed with what Blood:Water is doing. Jena is 24, just graduated from Whitworth college, and has taken on this huge task of battling AIDS. She and the band started out this past year with 1000 bucks in the bank and a dream. Now they've been able to drill 58 wells, meet with some world leaders, and have raised a million dollars this year. Of course they've made some mistakes along the way, but Jena was humble about that and honest.

I think one of the first mistakes an American makes when trying to get involved is come in with a heavy hand and an outsider's agenda. In fact, Lahash originally was "Grassroots Aid for Africa." I've since changed that to "Grassroots Partnerships with Africa." It's a critical switch in my opinion. True development takes place in a relational partnership where culture, faith, and the long term health of a community are the focus. And aid can be a one way street and patronizing to one party. But a partnership reveals that both parties need each other, and I solidly believe that the faith, community, and culture of the people in Africa can teach us immense truths about ourselves and God.

Dan Haseltime spoke a bit about our generation's disinterest in "story" and how Napoleon Dynamite is an example of how all we are interested in is "character." His goal is to focus on artistically telling the true stories of Africa, and one of his ideas is to create an institute where students can study about social justice, arts, aid, and the gospel. He also wants to set up a film festival where students can travel to Africa, film a movie or documentary, and then become the storytellers back in the United States.

It was an encouraging meeting, and I'm really glad Jars of Clay is taking the opportunities that they have as spokespersons for their concert goers to speak about the realities - both the hurt and the hope of Africa.

Week update:
It's a chilly but sunny day here in Portland, Oregon. Later on today Karin I and will be heading over to a meeting with Jena Lee from Jars of Clay's Blood:Water Mission initiative in Africa. It will precede a Jars of Clay and Derek Webb concert.

ERM Concert
Speaking of concerts, ERM and itafari are hosting a benefit concert for the orphans and widows of Rwanda. Samputu and Igneli will be there - and I'm creating a short video for that concert to help raise awareness of Emmanuel Sitaki's work. The picture on the right is Emmanuel at the kickoff event for ERM.

Africa Movies
There are a couple of interesting movies that are produced in Africa that look awesome. The first is called "Invisible Children" and it is a documentary about 3 mzungus (white guys) that travel to Northern Uganda to see the children affected by the LRA attacks in the region. I'm really interested in that. You can view a trailer on the website.

The second movie is called "Tsotsi" and its about a young thug in South Africa's slums who experiences an event that dramatically alters his life's direction. Trailer

I haven't seen either of them - but thought I'd give the heads up anyways.

Photo from Nick
Here's an image from Nick of Dr. Oronje on one of their recent visits to help the AIDS orphans in the area. They purchase the food in bulk in town, and then head out with a bicycle to visit the families and kids that have no means to purchase clothes or shoes - school uniforms or food.



Prayers of the people
Some things you can be praying for this week:
* The search for a board and the processing of paperwork for Lahash
* Renew Program - the ladies are very interested in starting a small store. I'll have more details on this soon.
* My personal support. I'm at 8% of my total needed, and have just sent out some letters yesterday.
* Church integration in Portland. We are speaking with a couple of churches here in Portland about networking with them. Please pray that the presentations and dialogue will go well.

Amazing Grace Children's Choir Music Video
The video of the kids at Amazing Grace singing the song "Oh Mama" is now available to download in the Lahash media section. The song was written by Ezbon and Lasu, and recorded by Tim Bata. It's part of a 6 song album that will be sold here at the Lahash website soon- with proceeds going to support the kids in Uganda and Sudan.

I didn't know that I'd be shooting a music video when I arrived at the orphanage this past November. But Ezbon and the staff there were eager to create a video that would be shown to the Kampala TV audience, and help spread the word about their new album.
So we ended up spending most of the time there in Adjumani filming for this video. It was a pretty tough experience! Most of the younger kids aren't fluent in English, and I'm not fluent in Arabic. So we had to move the kids around through an interpreter. They had been practicing some moves in the months before we came, so luckily I didn't have to create the dance moves. We didn't have a CD player, so we rigged up a big boombox with a cassette deck and had that running juice off of a car battery. It worked pretty well! Until I got home and tried to edit the video - CD and tape music run at slightly different speeds - which made it challenging to sync up the voices and images.

We of course had style differences and completely different approaches to music and filmmaking. Ezbon actually wanted me to make 6 music videos while we were there! And I had to keep in mind that it was going to be shown in Kampala, so it was a more laid back style. We tried to think of some creative shots - at one point I sat on a motorcycle and we drove around the kids. We decided to drive over to the Nile one day and shoot some scenes there at a fishing lodge. The kids loved the excursion, and we got some of the best footage at that spot.

So now the video is up and available to view. Hope you enjoy seeing the kids perform. And thanks so much to everyone who helped sponsor this music project. The video and CDs and tapes will be a great income generating project for the orphanage, and the kids are really proud of being able to share their story and voices with others in Uganda, Sudan, and the rest of the world. They will be performing for churches and conferences in the upcoming months!

New AIDS Photo Gallery
There's a new photo gallery up in the Lahash media section. This gallery focuses on the current HIV/AIDS situation in Kenya. The photographs were taken by me (Dan) and by Nick Kipkorir in the past 2 months.

Corruption
Corruption has hit Kenya hard. It seems as if every politician in the past two decades has been corrupt in that country. And it shows. Kenya - along with the rest of the continent of Africa - has declined in life expectancy, healthcare, and the standard of living. The selfish leaders have been storing up the cash, creating false projects, buying new cars, and even knocking off those that try to tell the truth about the crisis. All this is happening while millions are in desperate poverty, suffering from AIDS, and recently actually starving to death in Northern Kenya. You can read the BBC Article here.

Praying for Blessings
Sojourners just posted a new article on The Prayer of Jabez author Bruce Wilkinson and his failed dreams for Africa. It's a very interesting read - tackling the question of what to expect from the "prayer-in-blessing-out approach". Why are there families in Sudan that pray with way more faith than I do, and yet they are starving to death, being shot, and suffering from AIDS? I think it's a question we all seem to wrestle with at some point in our faith. Those simple formulas promoted by some just don't always compute. From my own personal experience, I have decided that God still enjoys our prayers, and we are supposed to pray with faith. But ultimately we aren't guaranteed what we want or "blessings" just because we follow a formula. In fact most of the prophets, disciples, and saints (including the Messiah) all suffered terribly. It is more mysterious that a simple prayer - I know that much.

Other News
I'll be posting the new Amazing Grace music video tomorrow, so stayed tuned for that!

I met the other day with Victoria Trabosh, who runs the organization itafari. She just went live with a website, and is promoting a concert by Samputu Ingeli here in Portland. You can read about more details regarding that event on the foundation's website.

Enjoy your day everyone, and pray for the Lahash team, please. We are making big plans right now, and want to understand how to best use our resources, time, and energy. Pray that the right people will form for the board as well. Thanks so much for your participation in the hopes of Africa.

"God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house. God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives. God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war. God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them." - Bono

Bono just gave a speech at the annual prayer breakfast in Washington DC. Speaking to President Bush, King Abdullah, and a couple thousand others, he called on the U.S. to respond to the urgent needs in Africa.

Seriously, this is one of the best speeches I've ever listened to! I think it will be a landmark speech in history. I highly recommend clicking over to the speech page and listening to it in MP3 format. Bono's heart so clearly comes out in his rough history with the church and his heart for Africa, and his bringing together of such diverse people into one common goal. It's so encouraging to hear his perspective.