Humanitarian Couple's Conference

In January we had a Humanitarian Couple's Conference in Johannesburg. 12 of our 13 couples who are serving all over South Africa were able to attend. These amazing couples are serving in Rwanda, Burundi, Gabon, Kinshasa, Kenya, Lubumbashi, Madagascar, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Zambia.

 

On our previous mission to Ukraine we had the opportunity to attend two Humanitarian Couples Conferences with couples serving throughout Eastern Europe. We really enjoyed the chance we had to meet other couples who were serving Humanitarian Missions. It was fun to hear about the different types of projects they were doing and to get new ideas for projects we could implement in Ukraine.

 We wanted the couples in Africa to have the same wonderful experience that we had had in Ukraine at the Conferences we attended. We spent months preparing for this Conference. We decided that we would have the couples participate in the conference as much as possible. We assigned couples to be in charge of the morning devotionals which included the music, a spiritual thought and the prayer.

Our theme for the conference was "Providing in the Lord's Way".  We asked a few couples to share some thoughts from a talk given by President Uchtdorf  entitled, "Providing in the Lord's Way."   We asked couples to share some of the things they do as  Welfare Services Missionaries.  We learned that some of the couples are teaching English classes in their branches or wards, some are teaching piano, or music to church members.  One sister shared that she is planning on teaching Family History in her branch. Couples shared how they were involved in "Mormon Helping Hands Projects" as well as Disaster Relief, or Emergency Response Projects. We asked a few couples to share a specific project they worked on this past year that helped promote self-reliance.

 Sister Van Wagoner shared that she wanted to teach some of the women in Burundi a skill that would help them to become more self-reliant. Sister VanWagoner is a very talented woman. She decided to teach the women to sew. Her goal was to teach them how to make dolls. The plan was to make 50 dolls that they would donate to an orphanage and then the women would be given some fabric to make something for themselves. It was a huge undertaking. The women gathered scrap material to be used as stuffing for the dolls, then they got busy making dolls, and clothing. They even painted the faces and added hair which wasn't easy to find in Burundi. In addition to all the other challenges Sister VanWagoner faced she also had to teach the ladies to sew with the use of an interpreter. The original goal of 50 dolls was exceeded and I believe they ended up with 80 dolls. What a wonderful accomplishment.

 

 

Elder and Sister Davis shared the project they did with Therese and the girls school that I posted about previously. The Davis's provided some appliances for a girls school cooking lab.

 

 

 

Elder Johnson shared some photos of one of his water projects in Kinshasa.

 

The final day the couples learned about the LDS Addiction Recovery Program and the Strengthening Marriage and Family Program. 

 

 

We concluded the week with a beautiful testimony meeting followed by a trip to the Temple. 

It was a wonderful week that we hated to see end.

We really did enjoy spending time with these amazing missionaries.

 

We know that it isn't easy to leave homes and families behind to serve a mission for 18 months.

 

We are blessed to serve with wonderful people like the Moody's who have returned to Africa to serve a second Humanitarian mission.  

 

 

And the Lee's who are currently serving their 6th Humanitarian Mission.

 

We are so blessed to work with these wonderful couples and to learn from their examples of Christ like service.

 

My Mission: Hermana Clark

this is a wonderful short video that helps explain why we serve missions.

Notre Dame School For Girls in Lubumbashi

One of the most rewarding things about doing Humanitarian Work is meeting the incredible people who dedicate their lives to helping the poor and needy. We had the opportunity to meet such a lady  in Lubumbashi a few months ago. We had gone there to visit our Humanitarian Couple, Clark and Shelley Davis. While we were there they took us to see a few of their projects. Elder Davis had told us about Terese before we arrived at her school for girls. Terese and her husband live in a modest home on a small parcel of land where they have built a school for girls. A few years ago the Humanitarian Program provided some sewing machines so that Terese could start a skills lab to teach the girls a marketable skill. Elder and Sister Davis wanted to be sure the previous project had been successful before decided to propose another project with Terese. The Davis's  asked about the sewing machines. They wanted to know if they were still in operating order and if they were being used.  This is what they found.

 

Terese had the sewing machines not only in working order but stored in this cabinet.

 

 Terese then took them to this classroom that was filled with beautiful dresses

Terese explained that the girls not only had learned to sew but they had also learned to knit.

Elder and Sister Davis were so impressed that they were happy to propose we do another project with Terese. Her dream was to have a cooking lab for her girls. Her  husband was building a new classroom and they needed help with the appliances for the cooking lab. Terese and her husband had even saved up enough money to buy some of the pots and pans and utensils for the cooking lab.

The girls were so excited about learning to cook that they made their own aprons.

 

When the Davis's came to our Humanitarian Conference last week they shared these wonderful pictures of Terese and her girls.

 

I love this picture of Terese and the gratitude that shows on her face. She truly is changing lives of hundreds of girls in Lubumbashi.