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Welcome to Jubilee Christian Fellowship
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Missions Jubilee Christian Fellowship has paid for the establishment and continues to support a children's home in Mieze, Africa under the umbrella of Iris Ministries....Jubilee's money at work in Africa
Pemba, Mozambique
July 7, 2009
Dear Friends and Partners in Ministry,
We
frequently remind ourselves that our
ministry goal is not just to alleviate
suffering and hardship...nor is it even just
Christian conversion. While each of these is
a step in the right direction, either one
without the other is incomplete and only a
partial response to the gospel. Our ministry
goal is transformation: spiritual,
material, and societal. Only this full-orbed
transformation can release Jeremiah 29:11
“hope and a future” into a life or a
community as the Kingdom of God begins to
break through in its fullness.
Transformational
Power of Love
Noviane Project:
Another Miracle in Progress
Our Noviane
Project has created a small Christian
community near the Iris-Pemba Base...a point
of light in the darkness of a sprawling
village of 50,000 unbelievers. Four
extremely needy families now occupy the
three houses we`ve built there: a total of
17 children and six adults. All came to us
desperate and hopeless, clothed only in
rags, hungry and homeless.
Most of the
children had never been to school before and
had no expectation of ever being able to
attend school. And without an education,
they knew their chances of breaking out of
the cycle of grinding poverty, degradation,
and hopelessness were virtually nil. Now,
however, the 12 children of school age are
enrolled in Iris` Christian primary school
and they are so excited to be heading off to
school every day.
The latter
two families to arrive in our Noviane
community were headed by single, totally
blind mothers. We`ve really never seen
people in greater need and such utter
desperation!
The first of
these two families arrived from a distant
village about eight months ago: a blind
mother, four very sad-faced young children,
and their nearly blind grandmother. (Two
more young grandchildren, nieces of the
mother, have since joined the family
constellation.) In the picture below, note
the expressionless face of 11-year-old
Jordânia on the left. Extreme poverty and
hopelessness rob people of all normal
affect.
The
transformation this family has experienced
in such a short time with us has been
amazing. They now have Jesus in their hearts
and he has filled their lives with hope and
joy. The children—and even their blind
mother—are now secure and happy and never
stop smiling and laughing. Jordânia`s
constant laughter and new-found sense of
humour is a wonderful testimony to the
transformational power of the Father`s love.
Only a few
months ago, the fourth family joined our
community: a blind beggar woman from the
inner city and her two young children,
Betino about 8 and his sister Isabela, about
11. (We say about
because the
children not only don`t know their birth
date, they don`t even know the year they
were born...an indication of how little
their existence mattered to anyone until
recently!) They had lived lives of extreme
hardship, abuse, and degradation...again as
witnessed by their lifeless eyes and
complete lack of affect. In the picture
below, the small cloth-wrapped bundle beside
Isabela included everything they owned in
the world when they arrived.
But once
again, as they have opened their hearts and
lives to receive faith, hope, and love from
their heavenly Father and the Christians
around them, a miraculous transformation has
been taking place. The children are in
school for the first time. They now have two
good meals a day. They have new clothes, a
safe place to sleep peacefully at night,
even a few toys...and many new friends.
Trust and joy have replaced fear and
hopelessness...and Jesus has plundered hell
once again!
. Dr. Don & Elizabeth Kantel
More Pictures
and Stories
“Mieze Model” for village transformation:
http://web.mac.com/kantels/Kantels/Kantels_Website.html
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Jubilee Christian Fellowship - 707 Downie St.- Stratford, ON, N5A 1S4 - (519) 273-4441 email - jcfellowship@wightman.ca |
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