Raise the Roof!

Dear family, I want to take a moment and share with you about a project that the Live Wires Class is involved with this summer. It is called Read to Raise the Roof.   I subscribe to a Christian magazine for children published by Focus on the Family called Club House. In the June edition, I read an article about the efforts of a small and modest group who call themselves Widow's Might. Widow's Might was started by a woman named Fern Sanford. She and her husband were missionaries in Uganda before Mr. Sanford passed away. Mrs. Sanford formed Widow's Might in 1997 in response to the devastating genocide in Rwanda.   The genocide in Rwanda began in 1994, and left thousands of helpless orphans in its wake, all alone and with no way to provide for themselves . Mrs. Sanford joined a group of 11 widows and took them to Rwanda in 1997 to begin their work as Widow's Might. This group focuses its efforts on the orphans and youth of Rwanda who have been traumatized by blatant and open genocide , who have no parents, no education, no skills to speak of, and no way to provide for themselves. These children have no future. They struggle daily for the very essentials of living (food, water, shelter, and safety), things that are mere givens for us, that we take for granted every day. Widow's Might provides not only food, water, and shelter for these children, but also helps provide an education, helps them learn a skill or a trade, helps these orphans develop ways to earn their own money, helps them develop self-esteem and an identity, and most importantly, helps them find salvation through Jesus Christ.   Focus on the Family is joining with Widow's Might through Club House magazine, connecting Christian children in the United States to other of God's children in Rwanda, to build a ministry center in Kigali, the largest city and capitol of Rwanda, where thousands of orphan children struggle just to live, alone, every day. This ministry center will have a kitchen to provide meals, a series of work rooms where older orphans can work at a trade to earn a living, class rooms for education, a chapel for worship, and dorm rooms for housing.   The cost of this ministry center is $350,000. Club House magazine challenged its readers to pay for this ministry center. I decided to help, and when I shared this idea with my Sunday School class, we decided together that we would all get involved.   When Pastor Steve heard of our plan, he told our Sunday School class about his mission trip to Haiti, which was devastated by a massive earthquake. He told us about an orphanage in Haiti that he is involved with. That orphanage has needs as well, specifically, for windows, at $500 each. Our class discussed the orphanage in Haiti, and decided that since Pastor Steve was already involved with that orphanage, that we would give all of the money that we earned to Haiti instead.   Meanwhile, an anonymous donor who had already sponsored one of the members of our Sunday School class made an offer to match whatever money we raise this summer so that an equal amount of money can go to both Haiti and Rwanda.   So, this is where you come in. This is where you can help.   Members of the Live Wire class are Reading to Raise the Roof this summer. We are looking for sponsors. You can sponsor one or more of us at a penny for every page that we read this summer. At the end of the summer, we will show you a log of our reading activities and tell you how many pages we have read so that you can make your donation. Some of us are pretty enthusiastic readers, so you can specify a maximum amount that you want to donate, regardless of how many pages we read, if you so choose.   Our sponsor sheets are posted at the back of the Frank L Fenton chapel. You can sign up there to sponsor one or more of the children in the Live Wires class. We will begin sharing with our sponsors how much we read and collecting your contributions on August 21st. All of the money must be mailed by August 31st.   When the Live Wires go back to school this fall, no doubt, our teachers will ask, "What did you do this summer?" We will be able to say that we worked this summer to help build a ministry center for orphans in Kigali, Rwanda and that we helped provide windows to an orphanage in Haiti.   The Live Wires class is Reading to Raise the Roof in Rwanda and in Haiti this summer. One behalf of our Sunday School class, I wish to thank you for helping us in our efforts.   Liz Sexton