Such a gracious God!

I have been praying that support for Mark Yemba will continue to come in during the difficult months after Christmas. As I keep reminding God, I am not a gifted fund-raiser at all, and I always need his help.

I am always impressed when God takes my small efforts and turns them into something much bigger. I had thought I might raise a small amount of money, and provide a service for our rural communities, if I offered Christian Bibles and other books for sale through the church account with a Christian bookseller. This hasn't in fact made a lot of profit yet, but what has happened is that kind people have donated their second-hand books for sale, and these are raising more money than the new books.

Thank you Lord!

Then I appealed for more photos to send to Mark, and here is one of the beautiful photos I was sent.

E-mail from Bishop Francis Loyo 20-02-09

Dear Jenny,

Many thanks for your continuous concerns in the education of Yemba and we valued your supporting spirit and kindness.

Please you are not alone in this venture but we are remembering you and all friends who have given you this support. We pray for you and we assure you of our full support.

At the moment am in Juba where I can access the internet and will go back to our diocese today and will proceed to Kampala for some work.

We have just finished our Bishops and wives retreat and last 3 weeks we had a big convention organised by the Mothers Union to at least bring us together. Thousands of people gathered and prayed for the lasting peace in the country wide.

Be blessed,

+Francis Loyo.

Crisis in support for a Sudanese student

Mark Yemba Soro was born in south Sudan in 1988,and orphaned at the age of 6. When Mark was offered a place at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa, Bishop Francis Loyo of Rokon Diocese asked for support to meet Mark’s university fees and living expenses.

Individuals and parishes in the Deanery responded magnificently, and have met the first term’s fees and living expenses. Now, at the start of the second term, there is an urgent need to raise our level of giving. The falling pound has resulted in a 10% fall in the value of every pound we send. Meanwhile, Kenya also faces economic crisis, resulting in inflation and higher fees. The combined effect of these two changes has been to increase this term’s fees from £648 to £768. The extra cost to Mark has deprived him of some of the money he needed to live on.
At present, we therefore need an estimated £374 per month.

Dear heavenly Father, Please show me how to respond to what, in human terms, is a crisis. May I find the proper balance between doing all that you have equipped and called me to do, and putting my trust in you.

I pray especially that Mark may not suffer hardship because of our own national economic crisis, and feelings of insecurity. Help us, Lord, to keep a sense of proportion.

I pray also that you would bless Mark's studies, for his sake, as one of your little ones with no other support but you; as a member of a nation that sorely needs his love, his courage and his skills, and as an individual with a human right to develop to his maximum potential.

Lord, in your mercy, hear my prayers. Amen

Supporting a Sudanese student through university

Mark Yemba Soro is a twenty-year old orphan from the Diocese of Rokon, in South Sudan. He was orphaned during the long Sudanese civil war at the age of six. He and his sisters found shelter and support with Bishop Francis Loyo and his wife, Mama Linda.

They were deeply impressed by the strong Christian faith which Mark's parents had passed on to their children, and also by Mark's hard work and dedication to his education. Seeing his potential, they sacrificially funded his secondary education in Uganda (South Sudan had no secondary schools at that time), and Mark gained the local equivalent of our "A" Levels. Mark was offered a place at university in Kenya.

At this point, Bishop Francis contacted a friend in the Blandford and Milton Deanery, and asked for urgent prayer for Mark, saying that he desperately needed support.

Bishop Francis and Mama Linda were quite unable to go on funding Mark's education, and they were just praying that God would take care of it. The people of the Deanery responded immediately, and have so far funded fees and living expenses for one of two semesters in the first year, and the fees for the second semester.

Dear God, please help me to continue to be radically dependent on you, but also wise enough to respond when you show me that there is something I can and should do. Please don't let Mark's education falter now, for lack of support..

Can you help the wild bees?

Wild bees support our populations of wild flowers. They have also been shown to make honey bees more effective as pollinators when they are in competition with them.

The wet summer has been disastrous for wild bees. It would help them if gardeners made some plans to help them get through the winter. To see how, please go to:

http://www.foxleas.com/PDF/wild%20bees.pdf

To see more about why, please go to:

http://www.sbes.stir.ac.uk/people/goulson/intjourfoodagricenvir2003.pdf

Lord of all creation, I pray that you would help humankind to value and care for your beautiful and wonderful wild creatures.

The limits of human power

Lord, you know that today I stand humbled before you. We tried to help, using our human resources and wisdom, and it was not enough. It was not nearly enough.

Father, engrave this lesson on our hearts: it is not our human strength or resources that the world needs, but your almighty and loving power. Help us to realise that we are merely poor and imperfect servants of that power, not its directors or masters. Imperfect as we are, Lord, we your Christian people ask that you would use us to speak mercy, peace and truth to the needs of our world.

Help us, Lord, to be really radically dependant on you.

From poverty and weakness for the poor and powerless

Father, hear the prayer I offer for a young Sudanese orphan who, at the start of his first year of Unversity finds himself without the means to meet his fees. The deadline for payment is so close, Lord, that I know I am utterly powerless to take any practical action that will resolve this dilemma in time. But the universe and everything in it is yours. The cattle of a thousand hills are yours. I pray for Mark to be filled with assurance of your love and blessed by the provisions of your divine providence. Please Lord, could just a small herd be credited to Mark's account?