Sisters In Service

Shouts of Joy

UNICEF designates Mali the fourth poorest country in the world and its capital, Timbuktu–once a fabled city of wealth, trade, and education–the poorest region in Mali.

Last year SIS announced our hopes to send funds to the Timbuktu Women's Center in Mali for100 sewing machines. The machines were to be given along with a Bible to women who were graduating from the vocational training program. As graduation drew near it looked as though there would not be enough funds to award each woman her promised sewing machine. So when the funds were donated to SIS and sent, and the machines arrived in time for graduation, our friends in Mali shouted for joy! The ministry leader wrote: "Warm and sincere greetings in Christ Jesus. By the grace of God and the Sisters in Service donation, 100 sewing machines were purchased, arrived safe, and were distributed to single mothers, widows, and women in distress. Thank you so much for these precious tools that give daily hope to women who never had such great economic wealth in their entire lives. Thank you indeed. Your servant in Christ, Pastor Nouh Ag Infa Yattara"

Sewing machines are only part of the reason the people of Mali are celebrating. Through the Mali Village Project, the work of Pastor Nouh and local ministry partner TNT, new classrooms were built in the village of Infizouane, and 33 children from the nomadic Bella tribe attended the first grade. The Bella children have never before received such an opportunity for education–a key to escaping lifelong poverty. Next year the first batch of students will be promoted to second grade, and a new group of first-graders will begin the journey of learning.

Also over the past year, the well in Infizouane was equipped with an India pump and two storage basins. The villagers now have improved access to the well and the necessary water for their gardens and animals.

Another exciting project underway is the Noah's Ark Youth Center. This year land was purchased and the building is under construction. When the center is complete, it will house an outreach for 50 orphans and needy children who will receive food, care, academic tutoring and biblical teaching.

The people of rural Mali are increasingly open to the gospel as Pastor Nouh and other local leaders show them God's love–meeting critical life needs and offering hope for the future.

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Creative Advocacy

by Michele Rickett, SIS Founder/President

"Sing Amazing Grace quietly. Shhh. More quietly. As quiet as a whisper." That is how Lori Berg helps an audience feel what it might be like to be at a church meeting in N. Korea.

Lori is a woman of creative skill in acting and music who read InterVarsity Press bestseller, Daughters of Hope. God moved her heart to become a passionate advocate for women who suffer to serve. She began by gathering her friends, fellow Christian actors in Los Angeles, to get ideas on how they could dramatically portray the stories of women in the book.

"I read the audience a portion of Park Choi's story, and we sing Amazing Grace with her in mind. I chose her story, I told them, because I am the same as Park Choi." I concluded with another song of encouragement to use our life stories to affect others for Christ, "Each One Reach One." My closing words remind the audience of the one who could not tell her own story or speak for herself." Thus, the need for Sisters In Service advocates.

Lori and I met for coffee when she came to Atlanta to visit friends recently. She shared that she is refining a musical and dramatic presentation on Daughters of Hope for churches and groups. If you'd like to have Lori come to your area to represent SIS through her one woman show, you can contact her at loriannberg@yahoo.com.

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China Update

Encounter the Warmth of God's Love

Widowed two years ago, Ye Guoji must now support her young son and two grandchildren alone. Her husband's long illness consumed all her assets except a pot, a lunch box, and four bowls. Many women in her area live in tattered tents made of animal skins, but she had no place to live, not even a tent. The family had to move in with a relative, who had little space and one bed. Ye Guoji lives in Qinghai province, 10,000 feet above sea level. Temperatures can drop to -31 F six months of the year. Arable land is scarce.

Among displaced Tibetan families in China, households headed by women suffer greatly, for the culture offers little chance for them to earn money. Families like Ye Guoji's are classified as Tekunhu–"without assistance cannot survive." They receive 100 lbs. of flour, some land, and the equivalent of $30 per person each year. Many Tekunhu families perish in Qinghai's harsh winter.

In 2006, SIS began working with a Hong Kong-based ministry to refugees and minorities in China to build brick houses for Tekunhu widows and single mothers. The local government furnishes stoves, stovepipes, and cooking pots.

Houses provide not only shelter from cold and wild animals, but improve the health of families and livestock. Some women use the equity to secure a loan to start a small business. A house also frees children from constant repairs to tattered tents so they can go to school.

In spite of her poverty, Ye Guoji sends her three children to school. She knows it is the only way to be lifted out of poverty.

The Tekunhu program director visits recipients of 400 houses built since 1997. "We have witnessed families prosper after receiving a warm shelter to build their lives upon. To many, this is the first time they have encountered God's love."

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Egypt

A New Future for Girls

SIS is being asked to help change the future of Egyptian girls.

Recent studies have shown that 34% of Egyptian women are physically assaulted by an intimate partner and nearly 80 percent of women in rural Egypt testify that beatings are common and justified if a wife burns food, neglects children, answers back, denies sex or wastes money. Some organizations provide health education to women, but few teach boys how to respect girls and manage their anger or girls how to build a sense of dignity that could protect them from abuse.

Smart Heart, sponsored by Learning Ideas for Emotional Health (LIFE), is one such program. LIFE trains local women to lead groups within Christian and secular schools. Groups increase openness, improve relationships, and change behaviors–enabling girls to set healthy boundaries, resist abuse, and express and manage emotions.

LIFE is asking SIS for funds to train 1600 leaders at $20. each to reach 6000 adolescents. SIS is praying and seeking God's provision to help this program reach and empower girls.

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India Update

Women in the Lord's Labor Force

Through our sister ministry, TENT, we provide a 30-day entrepreneurial and evangelism course to train Christian women leaders from throughout India. Women are equipped to to teach job skills and basic financial management to other women and to share the Gospel and are given seed funds to organize self-help women's groups and start local microenterprises.

Each group, averaging 12 members, develops small businesses that repay the loans in 10 monthly installments. Savings and repayments go into a revolving fund to assist other women. Job-skills include embroidery; making candles, soap powder, juice, and jellies; growing mushrooms, mangos, and flowers; and raising poultry and sheep. Women choose skills most likely to succeed in their area.

Lalitha, one of the women trained, applied for a government subsidy loan equivalent to $2250. When the government asked for proof that she has a working knowledge of technology, she produced the program's training certificate and the government sanctioned the loan. She will have to repay only half of the loan; the other half is a subsidy. This was an encouragement to her and to the program.

In 2006 alone, we helped to equip 71 grassroots leaders and 2,600 women were involved in 213 self-help groups. Their microenterprises will bring 7,797 people higher household income. In addition, 350 women from Hindu and Muslim backgrounds became new seekers of Christ.

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Resist the Darkness of Exploitation

In least reached places women's problems begin when they are little girls: child marriages, slavery and sexual exploitation, among other evils.

SIS is launching an initiative to take strong action to resist the evils of exploitation. With your support we are going into the worst situations to learn what God is inviting us to do. We need to face some of these girls with Jesus' love. We will be learning of and connecting with best practice implementers in order to empower the most effective local initiatives that demonstrate the greatest impact on this plague of injustice.

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