"We must be global Christians with a global vision because our God is a global God." — John Stott





The Haitians who immigrated to the DR, both before and after the earthquake of 2010, did so for the opportunity for better lives. However, many of these individuals could only find work among the sugar can fields. A batey is a company "town" where sugarcane workers live. The sugarcane companies are responsible for providing basic necessities for the residents, but often do not. Batey 50 is an isolated community of around 40 -50 families miles from the nearest major road with no electricity, little access to clean water, and no school for their children. UBC has decided to adopt Batey 50 for the next 3-4 years. Together we will walk alongside these families, exploring ways to improve their quality of life. As we journey and partner with Batey 50 we hope to gain a wider view of the Kingdom of God, and to see what they have to teach us about life and faith.

Our first trip will be May 13-22, 2012! Contact toph@ubcwaco.org for more information.

Kenya

The Kianga Project is a socially proactive business focused on improving the quality of life for Kenyan women and men living with HIV/AIDS.

Through partnering with local HIV support groups, empowering them with creative design training, and providing markets for their goods, our goal is to help our Kenyan partners live fuller, healthier lives and build sustainable futures for themselves and for their families.

We collaborate with our Kenyan friends to design and create beautiful items- jewelry and accessories inspired by traditional African techniques and made with materials that are readily available from the inner-city slums where they live. They bead, craft, and create right from their homes while drinking chai and laughing loudly, often balancing a baby or two. So much joy goes into every piece.

Every partner is paid a fair wage for their work, and the profit from its sale is put right back into the project to help meet our partners' immediate needs, save for future needs, and invest in project development. It's business redefined, where success isn't measured by how much profit we can put in our pockets, by what kind of positive change can be stimulated in lives and communities.

Check out our store to see some of our beautiful items. Your purchase can help send a child to school, buy a bag of beans for a family's dinner, pay the rent of a modest home, or fund other economic endeavors. Our friends are also enrolled in a microfinance program that helps your contribution go further by lending it back out for other community projects.

Join us in sharing the light. The Kianga Project





On the sidewalks, in the alleys and on every hidden corner of our planet millions of street children tried to sleep last night...cold hungry, abandoned and alone, exposed to predators. Everyday the number grows as more children struggle for survival by fighting for scraps of food and searching for a warm place to sleep.

Meet Pastor Boniface. A man who sees past the darkness that they are living in. He focus's his energy on sharing the gospel with them; casting light into the dark places in inner city Nairobi. He has been consistent physical presence for over 13 years. A father figure that helps reconcile runways back into their homes, and helps find small jobs for others.

These children have found an escape from their emotional and physical pains by inhaling small bottles of glue. Orphaned, barefoot and malnourished they habitually spend the scarce money that they do earn from odd jobs not on food or water but on a more immediate fix. Incidentally the same solvent-based glue that the wider world uses to cement shoes together. With plastic bottle perched at their mouths, the children breath in the glues toxic fumes destroying brain cells until they pass out or fall asleep forever.

If you were to visit Pastor Boniface and his ministry you would ride into Nairobi early in the morning, and wait for the boys to stagger in to line up against a brightly colored local business wall. Taking the glue bottles away from them, he preaches from the Bible (some boys even know memory verses) and hands out milk and bread to each. This meal may the the only real nourishment that they receive for the day. Then they disperse in the morning darkness before the police would come to try to break up the meeting. From there you would either go with Boniface to the next destination or back to a place 30 minutes outside the city, where the surrounding land is still being developed.

One past UBCer writes on his blog, "the day literally starts to change from darkness into light."

You would come along a place that seems too good to be true after what you just have seen in downtown Nairobi. The Liberty House is first a home to Pastor Boniface and his family, yet it doubles as a place of refuge and rehabilitation for the street children. It is not a orphanage, it is a home that proclaims to the boys ARISE and SHINE for your light has come. Since the opening of the Liberty House in 2008 as many as 15 boys have based there and as few as 2, it depends on each individuals need and the discretion of Pastor Boniface.

The vision is still not complete, yet a strong foundation has been laid. The hope is to let this house proclaim LIBERTY to all that come for help. Teaching the boys skills to get jobs, to break the cycle of poverty, in the past has been successful. With the upcoming addition of a Boarhole (Water Well) in 2012, the land will now start to produce agriculture. Its exciting to see what other projects and ideas will spring forth in the future with the new addition of clean water!

Please continue to pray for Boniface and his family as he continues to serve faithfully in this ministry. If you would like to follow Boniface on Twitter his handle is @LibertyHouse254. And if you are given the chance to go to Kenya, please make a point to spend some time serving with him and listening to his story in person. If you are not able to go, check out this video made in 2007 by a UBCer to get a sense of how unique and incredibly gifted this man of God is.

Any questions, ideas, or connections please email Jenne.Blackburn@yahoo.com