Help & Recovery in Gambella, Kenya

For the past year, BUMC has partnered with Global Hope Network International (GHNI) to assist with development efforts in the Kenyan village of Gambella. Just this summer, our Vacation Bible School Safari kids sold crafts to raise funds for water filtration units for the village, and the July 12 services featured a live video feed from Gambella to show the BUMC family how our support is helping our brothers and sisters in Africa. Click here to see a YouTube video that shows the Gambellan women singing songs of thanks for the reception of a demonstration acre that will help them learn life-saving agricultural techniques.

Jeff Power of GHNI recently reported the sad news that Gambella was attacked by a band of thieves who came in the light of day and shot and killed six Gambellans. When the rest of the village fled, the thieves stole animals, money, and household items from almost 200 families. Below is a note from Jeff with an update on recovery efforts in the village.

Hello everyone, I’m now writing from our Asian staff conference in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Thank you so much for the outpouring of support to help Gambella, Kenya in its recovery. Wubshet & Habiba [GHNI staff members] have returned to Kenya from our African staff conference and will continue working with Gambella's leaders to get the best immediate help to the most critical families.

One woman whose husband was killed in the attack was out working in our community farm plot three days later, removing rocks and pulling weeds. She said, "I lost my husband and I lost my animals. This is now my hope." We are committed to giving her renewed hope, in every way we can.

And the village has redoubled its efforts in development, determined to not let this stop them.

I'm amazed.

I'll have more info for you when I get another update from Wubshet & Habiba.

Thank you, again, for your tremendous care.

The people of Gambella are humbled by all this help from around the world.

--Jeff

P.S. We are giving great training to our Asian staff in our new model of TCD (Transformational Community Development). More on that later. Staff are here from Afghanistan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia and China. We've shown them a 10-minute video of Habiba telling the motivating story of how much Gambella has grown and tramsformed in the last 1.5 years.

P.S.S. If you wish to give to help the Gambella recovery, here again is the PayPal link.