Monday, October 8, 2012

Moving Forward

Hello Everyone!

    Here's an update for all of you who have supported this project God has been guiding me and Anna on in Southern Africa. We are still moving forward! Doors are continuing to open and God is shining light on what we need to keep being productive for His people to gain opportunities. With that being said, One Heart Africa is now an official, registered non-profit organization! We are still in the legal process of gaining full 501(c)(3) status, but the process has been started.  We couldn't be more thankful! Anna and I got married 2 months ago which was a huge step in this calling. We are happily and eagerly learning about each other constantly. I am so happy to have a partner like Anna to pursue these goals with. I'll try and break this down into a few different categories of progression.

      Since our last trip in January, the school has been painted, all windows and doors were put in, steps built, separate building for toilet was completed, inside walls plastered, and the entire school has been painted inside and out. We have started a contract with a local carpenter to build all of the desks and chairs out of local wood so that they are strong and durable. Recently, we were blessed with a large donation to start building the well. The well is a huge necessity for life there and we are so happy they will finally have clean water! This water project requires us to purchase a generator since there is no other electricity in the village. To reach the water source, they must dig 60-80 meters which we pray to have this finished within the next month. When we were there last time, some of the teenagers were asking if they could take classes at night after the young ones had class during the day. Many people are eager to learn. So, now we will have a generator to light the building at night. Because of the growing demand for classes, we hope to add more rooms to the school in the future. Though we have plenty of land to expand on, we are continuing to pace ourselves for now until we become more established in this village. 

      A week ago, four students from the University of Botswana visited Licilo with Mancoba as their guide.  We were blessed to have them at the school and to receive an update from them. They lead a VBS-ish program with the kids, painted, and participated in the feeding program.  Here are a few pictures from their visit.

The kids playing "Duck-Duck-Goose" outside of the school

Look how far Sharing Hope has come!


Ashton playing with some children in Licilo

Women of the village preparing food for the feeding program

 They love Mancoba!

The village area surrounding the Sharing Hope School
 
    Mancoba has been taking some classes for business administration through a school in South Africa. We are very thankful that our partner is stepping into his leadership role gracefully. It has been an honor getting to know him and keeping up with all he is doing to keep us organized. He has gotten us established as a non-profit in Swaziland and created many partnerships for us. There is a local church in Mozambique that said they would go into the village with us to translate to the people there. We are very thankful for this generous resource since we are planning to take a team of about 8 people with us in July 2013. This trip is simply meant to build awareness of the needs these people face and to also build on existing relationships within Licilo. We will be having an informational meeting about our trip to Mozambique on Monday, October 15th. If you would like to attend to rejoice or possibly join the team, email us at either RyanJCarmichael@gmail.com or OneHeartAfrica@gmail.com.

      Until our next visit, we are trying to gather enough money ($10,000-$15,000) to buy a vehicle for our organization to transport us all and make our projects come together in a more timely manner. We have been depending on public transport in the past, but if any of you have taken public transportation in Africa before, I'm sure you can see the benefit of having a personal vehicle. It would be much easier to transport a group of Americans and our building supplies into a rural village with our own car. I have been working full time in construction to keep this project funded as Anna is working and finishing up her last semester at Lee University. We raised $1,200 through our wedding registry to get us started on the van, so for now we are just working and continuing to pray for this project. We really want to see these people have the opportunity to learn about Jesus and provide for their families in a safe, economically productive manner. Please join with us in prayer for this project so that we can still be making steps forward and spreading the love that we have been so graciously given to us by our Father.

All the best,
Ryan and Anna Carmichael


P.S. - You can now "like" us on Facebook! You gotta love technology.

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