Hi from Mike & Lyndall ....

In two short weeks we will be heading out to Australia! We will miss our work here but it will be great to catch up with friends and family and share with you in Oz what is happening over here. [see WA itinerary below if you would like to catch up with us]

Foundations........ "Build strong Foundations" is what I felt I needed to say to the leaders we are working with this year. But God had something there for Imara as well. We are working at building strong foundations ourselves in many areas of our work. As growth has taken place, we are needing to build stronger capacity in Imara before the next step. What does that mean?

Foundations for Mercy Projects:

You will hear the word "Spolarship" in the future.... what does THAT mean?! Well, we now have five mercy projects - Kondoa and Mairowa supported by SBC, Mwika by Australia, Karanse by Perimeter, and Likamba by Jon and Candace. Each ministry has a school but is being run in different ways. We need to get each one on a similar 'foundation'. Enter the Spolarship program!

"Spolarships" is simply a combination of the words Scholarship and Sponsorship. We are currently doing a bit scholarship work and a bit of sponsorship work in our projects now. We want to continue giving the children a great education.... while also helping with some of the childrens social, spiritual and health needs as well. So that is why we will introduce Imara Spolarships to all our mercy projects. Other foundational areas we are looking at is our project workers effectiveness, reporting, onsite financial management, spiritual development etc are all being refined and looked at. We want this program to be a blessing to the kids, the community, to you the sponsors and supporters, and to be a joy to us at Imara. Pray with us as we seek to build well!!

Foundations for Leadership Work:

While we have great encouraging testimony from many pastors we work with, we have been trying to identify 'indicators' of our progress with our unity, discipleship and DNA work. Using indicators has not been something we have been strong in the past but its a foundational area we need to develop so we can see how we are going with our leaders.

Foundations for Evangelism:

Stanley and Paul are refining our evangelism approach somewhat. We are still using film at night as a seed sower, but during the day we are now teaching simple foundational truths in seminar format to the new Christians.  We are also working with youth in the Arusha area in the schools and higher educational places.
[Stanley recently started his own church with discipleship groups as the foundation- pray for him. this is the second we have now within our Imara staff!]

Foundations for HIV/AIDS:

Lyndall and Esther and team just graduated another 14 village volunteers. We have 177 in many villages of Tanzania now. Elizabeth is coming soon to re-look at a grant we are applying for to enable us to conduct a more detailed and concentrated effort into two areas - Arusha and Mwika. 

Lyndall says: Our team of Esther, Eva, Elijah and myself (Lyndall), have just completed our 12th training session. We have now trained 177. These sessions take 3 weeks: 2 weeks in the class room and one week doing field work. This class did their field work at Mwika, on the slopes of Kilimanjaro. It is a densely populated area and there are many people suffering from AIDS in this area. Some we visited Have Kaposi’s Sarcoma which is a cancer of the connective tissues. Many of these people are living at home far from medical treatment and the only treatment they receive is from our volunteer health workers. The people and their families are very appreciative of the help they receive, both physical and spiritual support.
Yesterday in Arusha, we went with one of our volunteer health workers, Rebecca, to visit a very sick young man who was dying of AIDS. He was suffering a lot of pain from Kaposi’s sarcoma. I have seen hell and it’s name is Kaposi’s Sarcoma. Rebecca has been regularly visiting this young man. By God’s grace, we were able to bring him some physical and spiritual comfort. He died last night after our visit. We are thankful that through the volunteers we have trained we can now reach many more people. This is the church in action.

Other News:

We have had our normal profusion of teams join us June through August. I have been pleased at how our Imara co-workers have handled things and the teams have been a blessing in the various areas of ministry they were involved in. It was great to have Jerry and Judy Kaye Thames with the YP team in July... they blessed Karanse and Mwika very much. Fred and Howie were here at the same time at Mairowa and Kondoa. Fred dedicated the water project up at Mairowa.... so many people are blessed with that water!! Roger and team were here too last week in Mwika. We will be starting building very soon on the plot. Paul Prentice really encouraged our team last week and will be with us again next week.

Gabbie George is doing an internship with us for 6 months from Sydney- she is already a help to us as we prepare for Australia. And Meagan has taken over from Miriam to look after the 5 schools we will have next year. They are both sharp! Welcome both of you wonderful ladies!

Prayer Points:

• The HIV/AIDS team and the village volunteers... I don't know how they do it when they go into the houses of the sick month after month. Lyndall is my wife, but I have to say to you all that I hold the highest admiration for her, Esther and the others as they pour themselves out for those folks.

• Jenny in Australia who is still trying to sell her farm. We need her here!

• Likamba: donors in the US to pick this school up

• Mwika children and widows: that we can build solid foundations in Australia and here for them in the management and financial areas so they can be blessed. Same for all our projects. We are doing great overall... but we want to do the BEST or BETTER!

• Us on the road in Australia.

• Our house- to finish it well and finance for it.

Love and blessings from us both and see some of you in Australia!

Mike & Lyndall

Western Australia Itinerary

[Margie Brookman [ kdma@westnet.com.au +61 417963827] in WA can make bookings if would like to like to hear or talk with us]

Sunday 2^nd September               Lyndall             Grace Church Bunbury [Dave Moore]

   “         “         “                         Mike                Vineyard Australind [Danny Sullivan]

Wednesday 5^thSeptember           both                 Augusta Church (Trevor & Carol MacIntyre)  1.30 informal at MacIntyres 

Thursday 6^th September              both                 Plantagenet Family Church [George & Hillary Hartley]

Friday 7^th September                  both                 King River Fellowship, Albany [Mac & Maureen Cameron]

Sunday 9^th September                Mike                Denmark Family Church [Nick & Chris Robinson]

“            “        “                         Lyndall             Kendenup Fam Church [Kevin & Kerry Watterson]

Wednesday 12^th September        both                 Metricup – Paul & Mandy French

Sept 13^th, 14^th, 15^th  ?                                         Down South, Busselton Noel & Steph Kara to advise

Sunday 16^th September              both                 Blackwood Family Church combined with Boyup

Wednesday 19^th September        both                 Jim Wall Donnybrook home group

Sunday 23^rd September              both                 Lake Joondalup Baptist Church

    “           “    “      Evening       both                 Church of the Living Water Mandurah – Dave Hunt

Sunday 30^th September              both                 Church of Christ Warwick

Wednesday 3^rd October              both                 Kathy Lamp home group

Sunday 7^th October                    both                 West Coast Fellowship [Phil and June Allen]

Wednesday 10^th Oct                   both                 Cornerstone Church? [Peter & Lesley Hack] 

Sunday 14^th October                  both                 House of Glory [Mike & Edna Walter]

  “           “     “                          both                 Gin Gin Fellowship 3.30pm afternoon tea at Judy De Vries

Wednesday 17^th October                                    Depart for Newcastle

17^th – 31^st October                                             Newcastle

Wednesday 31^st October                                    Depart for Auckland

Saturday 10^th November                                     Return to Perth

Friday/Saturday 16^th-17^th Nov                             Perth MissionOz Imara Conference

Sunday 18^th November                both                Wembley Downs Baptist Church – [John & June Matthews]