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East Coast Gal on 7,000-Mile African Walk to Raise Money for Clean Water
On January 26, 2012, Covenant News reported Amy Russell, a member of Trinity Covenant Church in Manchester, CT, embarked with two companions, Aaron Tharp and Marty Yoder on a two year, 7,000-mile journey from southern Africa to its northern coast as a way of calling attention to the need for clean drinking water in developing world nations. The trio hopes to raise $8 million to fund water projects worldwide, says Amy. After securing a support vehicle and collecting supplies they are schedule to follow some of the eastern coastline of Africa, then travel north along the Nile River though Cairo, Egypt and continue to the Mediterranean Sea. Others from Walk4Water will join them for selected portions of the trip.
Amy graduated from North Park University in 2010. She says the Africa Walk is the next step in her education about poverty. She was the president of the university’s chapter of International Justice Mission, a Washington-based human rights agency with which Women Ministries partnered in the Break the Chains project. While at the university, she took a class to learn more about extreme poverty. She was still a student when she founded Walking4Water, a ministry that contributes money to charity with 100 percent of the funds supporting projects in developing nations.
She has already logged plenty of miles preparing for the trek through Africa. Last summer, she walked through Connecticut and covered 500 miles in California to bring attention to the dire needs of people around the world. Walk4Water encourages groups and individuals to arrange similar fundraising experiences.
How’s that for a “Just Woman?” Check out the full article on the Covenant News website for more details.
Global Missions In An Historic Partnership
“We have never had an opportunity like this”
Chicago, IL
In a groundbreaking move in early February, representatives of Evangelical Covenant Church, World Vision US, World Vision Congo, and Congo Covenant Church (CEUM) signed a Declaration of Partnership that representatives called “historic” and “unprecedented”. The four entities are committed to raising needed funds to pursue major development in five areas of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the Covenant has served for 75 years and World Vision for 65 years. Work will address clean water, health and hygiene, food and agriculture, education and literacy, and economic development.
The new initiative is called Covenant Kids Congo and will be built on World Vision’s established model of child sponsorship raising funds in support of development work in critical areas of need. It will officially launch this fall with the Covenant will observance of Hope Sunday where individuals, families and congregations will be asked to sign up to sponsor one or more children at $40 a month. The monthly sponsorship will be aggregated into a dedicated fund that supports the projects that well be developed in the five core areas of need, benefitting entire communities and the families that live in them.
President Walters observed, “Trying to take on a challenge of this magnitude could be described as a bit crazy. But that is the kind of God we follow, taking us to difficult places in the world.” We have many examples from scripture like the “craziness of a small David taking on the giant Goliath.” God is using you and me to answer the prayers of the 1600 Congo churches.
The Congo “is the most desperate country in the world”, Gary Walter, President of the ECC said. It is rated 187th out of 187 countries on the poverty scale. The country has been ravaged by war, especially in the eastern portion of the region. An estimated 5.4 million lives have been lost over the years.
In the northwest, where the Covenant’s work has been centered, children are dying from preventable illnesses, especially malaria. In one Congo church, 20 children died in just one month! Families walk miles to draw water from streams that are polluted. Families are fortunate if they can secure one meager meal a day. The area is remote. It takes two weeks to reach the region by boat from the capital city due to the lack of transportation infrastructure.
Although the representative from World Vision Congo admitted concern when first approached with such a large undertaking in such a remote part of DR Congo, where his organization has not had much presence, he reports, “we visited and were encouraged by the work that the CEUM and the Covenant had built over 75 years. What gives us confidence is that there are already an established foundation there—hospitals, schools, clinics and developed leadership—which gives us a platform for what we do best. We have never had an opportunity like this, where an entire church denomination makes this kind of commitment.”
“God has placed Congo on the heart of the Covenant for 75 years,” President Gary Walter said. “Hope shows up when people who care show up.” Watch for ways your women ministries group can get involved.
Find out more about Covenant Kids Congo on the denomination's website.
Devotionals Blog
Visit the Women Ministries devotionals written by Emily Montfort...