Despite exams, these STAND students gathered to present their donation to PPF.

STAND, the student branch of the Genocide Intervention Network, has active groups on college and high school campuses across the nation. The STAND chapter at Mount Tabor High School began in 2007 under the guidance of Ms. Laurie Schaefer, a tenth grade English teacher. Current sponsors also include Ms. Eileen Coates, Ms. Emily Bennett, Ms. Carrie Bennett, and Ms. Becky Maier. STAND membership at Mt. Tabor has grown each year, climbing over the one hundred mark during the 2009-2010 school year. It is encouraging to know, in this racially diverse school with an enrollment of approximately 1700 students, that there are so many students who truly care for other people. Mount Tabor’s STAND members specifically focus their efforts on addressing the genocide in Darfur, and the purpose of the organization is to educate other students and community members about the genocide in order to raise funds to help victims.

During the club’s first two years of operation, funds were raised in order to provide protection for the women often victimized at displaced-persons camps in the Darfur region, as well as to support a much-needed school in Darfur. With the assistance of the Persecution Project Foundation (PPF), students became aware of the great need for safe drinking water in this region of the world, and it was decided that all monies raised during the 2009/2010 year would go towards PPF’s 100 Wells Campaign. STAND held a “Dance for Darfur” in the fall and the “Darfur Fast” in the spring, with the goal of raising $5,000 to donate to the 100 Wells Campaign. All who participated were touched by the generosity of the students and community, and were thrilled to present a check of $10,500 to PPF on June 2.

On behalf of thousands of Darfur refugees who will benefit from the generosity of the Mt. Tabor STAND club, PPF would like to thank these courageous young people who decided to make a difference in their world.

No related posts.

These men are in the process of drilling yet another borehole in Jaac.

According to the UN, the war in Darfur has killed 300,000 people and displaced another 2.7 million. Other estimates put the death toll as high as 400,000 killed.  

Escalating violence in Darfur means more refugees – people fleeing the conflict zones. And one of the major “safe zones” where refugees go is the community of Jaac, on the Southern Darfur/Southern Sudan border. Since 2005, the community has grown from a few thousand to now over 200,000 displaced persons. People are spread out over a couple hundred square miles of flat, dry “no man’s land.”  

Persecution Project Foundation is feverishly working to provide a basic water canopy for the population in Jaac. The 100 Wells Campaign has drilled 62 clean water wells in Jaac, with plans to complete 100 by the end of 2010. But this aggressive goal is totally dependent on God’s grace working through the generosity of thousands of Christians in America.  

By using your community in America to support their community in Darfur, thousands of lives are saved. But, most importantly, many souls are saved as well. God has presented PPF with a perfect opportunity to teach the Gospel message in word and deed to many people who have never heard about Jesus Christ. We give them something their bodies need: clean water. And then we introduce them to the Water of Life that nourishes their souls. 

This young girl gets a mouthful of fresh, clean water from a new well.

War is a terrible thing. It is our responsibility to do what is within our power to promote peace. But even when peace seems impossible, Christians can still be encouraged, because we know God is sovereign. Our God uses the wickedness of men to work great good. In the case of Darfur, wicked men are killing and destroying to promote their own selfish agendas. But God is using the extreme upheaval in Darfur to drive many people to Faith in Him. In the end, this is the only way peace will come to Darfur – or anywhere else in the world.

No related posts.

More than 100 years ago, the boll weevil destroyed much of the area’s cotton crop and forced farmers to diversify by planting other plants – including peanuts, which became a new cash crop. In gratitude for the unexpected blessing of this little bug, citizens of Enterprise built a monument in the center of town as a reminder that good things can come from unexpected places.

Matt Chancey presenting the PPF ministry at the 100 Wells fundraiser.

But Enterprise is also the home town of PPF Director, Matt Chancey, and recently, many of his family and friends turned out at a reception to support PPF’s 100 Wells Campaign. At the event, Matt introduced his neighbors to the work of PPF and told them how they could engage in “active compassion for the persecuted.”

“It’s really easy to live in a bubble,” said Chancey, who has been with PPF since its incorporation in 2000. “Christians are so blessed in America that we forget that much of the Church is still being persecuted.”

Justice Parker with PPF's Matt Chancey.

Assisting Matt at the reception was Justice Tom Parker from the Alabama Supreme Court. Justice Parker drove down from his office in Montgomery to serve as Master of Ceremonies. “The most important job I have is not being a judge, but being a servant of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,” said Parker. “More Christians have been killed for their Faith in the last 100 years than in the last 1,900 years. And we have a responsibility to intervene and assist our brothers and sisters who are suffering.”

Matt commented how easy it is to organize a small event like the one in Enterprise and encouraged the participants to become ambassadors for the persecuted by hosting their own events, whether it is in their homes, churches, or places of business.

“All of us have something to give persecuted Christians. Whether it’s our time, prayers, or financial assistance, we can all do something. That’s why our motto at PPF is ‘Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.’”

No related posts.

Rodney S. and his small group at Anchor Community Church.

Dear PPF,

One day, I was listening to a local radio station, and they did an interview with someone about Persecution Project Foundation and the 100 Wells Campaign. When I got home from work, I went to the website and watched the video, and it really touched my heart.

I did a little research on PPF and saw that over 90% of all total donations go to program services. So for a small donation of $35, I could help provide clean water for one individual for his/her entire lifetime and get a 100 Wells T-shirt to wear to tell others about the project.

I attend Anchor Community Church in Locust Grove, Georgia. Our pastor and Missions Director thought it would be a great idea to bring up the project in our small congregation.

We started collecting money each week and when we reached $35, we would have a drawing to see who would get the next shirt. We just had our ninth drawing and our goal is to continue until each member of our group has a T-shirt. I pray we will be able to reach 100’s of others in our community and that other small groups in our church do the same thing.

In Christ and for His Glory,
Rodney S.
Anchor Community Church

No related posts.

Participants in the Walk for Water

I had presented a program about the needs in Jaac to all the participants two weeks earlier. With materials in hand, the walkers proceeded to gather sponsors for the event. All of the participants worked hard, and with a matching check from another church family, $7,588 was raised!

O’Brien, Florida boasts a blinking light, a convenience store, and a lovely brick post office in a beautiful, rural country setting. It is not the size of the group, but the HEART, that matters. With the Persecution Project motto, “Do what you can, where you are, with what you have,” anything is possible when we all work together with the Lord’s help.

What a difference we can make for our persecuted brothers and sisters and to encourage our young people, the next generation, to get involved with missions also. Blessings to all from Northern Florida Christian Center in O’Brien!

No related posts.

“For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.” 1 Corinthians 12:12, 27

By its very name, a divine appointment is when an individual or a group of individuals meet one another not by chance, but by an orchestration of events governed by our heavenly Father.

We’ve all experienced divine appointments at some juncture in our lives. When we met our spouses, when we found the perfect job, and even when we found a ministry partner who complemented our talents and abilities.

Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 12 that God is ultimately in charge of how the Body of Christ functions. We read in verse 6 that “there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all.”

In March, our Lord enabled two of our ministry partners to work together to bring water to Jaac. A divine appointment to demonstrate that we are indeed many members, yet one body.

Mariel and Ken are preparing for a May wedding.

I was contacted early in the month by Mariel, a bride-to-be from Michigan. She and her fiance, Ken, acknowledged that they both had been very blessed by God and felt that they already had everything they needed. Instead of accepting personal wedding gifts, the couple invited their guests to donate to the drilling of a well in Jaac through Persecution Project Foundation.

Her only concern was that they might not raise enough money to cover the cost of an entire well.

I mentioned to Mariel that PPF had just received a first-time gift, designated for wells, from New Hope Community Church in Ohio. I explained how the gifts received from her wedding could be combined with New Hope’s donation. Lord-willing, we would then have enough to drill another well.

New Hope Community Church worship service.

Mariel excitedly agreed and quickly added New Hope’s name to her wedding registry. I sent the wedding website link to the pastors of New Hope to encourage them that their gift was being leveraged. The pastors were so excited that one of them posted a blog to the members of the congregation and included the link to Mariel’s wedding website.

I then sent Mariel a link to the pastor’s blog. She wrote back, “This is so cool. ; ) I feel tearful and goose bumps all at the same time. Thank you for partnering us with New Hope. I’m eager to see what our awesome God is going to do!”

Many members, one Body, and an awesome God orchetrating it all for His glory.

No related posts.

God has, for the past few years, placed a burden on our hearts (my husband’s and mine) to somehow teach our children to celebrate Christmas differently than everyone else does. The problem was that I thought this meant we just needed to spend less and that would teach our children that Jesus is the “reason for the season”.

This year, God led a Sunday school teacher at our church to choose the “Advent Conspiracy” curriculum to be a short-term adult class as a filler for the few weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

The following Sunday, we attended our first Advent Conspiracy Sunday school class entitled “Give More”, and I came home in tears. It was about giving more valuable things to those who mean so much to us; giving things like time, homemade or handmade gifts, or contributions to a cause that would mean something to that special person, instead of spending to excess on things those special people don’t really need. The emphasis of the segment was on getting away from the consumerism that permeates all of American society, especially at Christmas.

I realized this was the answer I had been looking for. I told my husband about the letter that we had recently received from Persecution Project Foundation, and asked him what he thought about the 100 Wells Campaign T-shirts and about the idea of doing Christmas differently this year. He asked me to give him the day to think about it. He watched video clips on Persecution Project’s website, and at the end of the day, he told me he believed we should order a shirt for everyone in his family.

Brad Phillips visits one of the newly completed wells in Jaac.

The shirts arrived in time for Christmas (thank you!), and we prepared a short presentation to explain to the family why we were doing something so different and “weird” this year for Christmas. We aren’t sure anyone else will follow along and do Christmas differently with us next year, but we are taking the Advent Conspiracy message (which we believe is a very Biblical message) to heart and from now on we are going to “Spend less. Give more. Worship fully.” with our celebration of Christmas.

God saved the best part for our family, however, and the story does not end with the shirts presented to my husband’s family. Before we left our home for the family Christmas gathering on Christmas Day, my husband was explaining to our four-year old what we were doing with the shirts. He explained that the money for the shirts was going to help the children in Sudan to have water to not only quench their physical thirst, but also to open the door for them to be told about Jesus who can quench their spiritual thirst and give them living water. My husband played some of the Persecution Project video clips about the 100 Wells Campaign, and explained to our four-year old that providing water will let these kids know that Jesus loves them, came to die and rise again to save them from their sins and that anyone who loves Jesus with their whole heart can go to Heaven to be with Him forever.

At this moment, without any prompting, our little boy looked at my husband and said, “Daddy, I love Jesus with all my heart.” It brought us both to our knees in tears of joy and thanksgiving. It’s the first time he has verbalized his love for, and faith in, Jesus.

We originally thought that God was bringing this all together to use us to make an impact on our extended family, while we were doing something small to help bring water to Sudan. What we now see is that God brought this all together at the right time to allow the 100 Wells Campaign to have a profound impact on us. It brought understanding of the love of Jesus to our oldest child, and changed our Christmas morning into one of the most precious and worshipful experiences we have ever had. It was the best Christmas ever, and we can only imagine what God has in store for us as we “do Christmas differently” next year and from now on.

Thank you for being part of God’s plan for us. We are so glad God has blessed us to be able to contribute a small portion to the bigger work you are doing in His name.

I have included a picture of my husband’s family. My husband and I are seated on the floor in front, and the three boys are ours. Caleb, our oldest, loves Jesus with all his heart!

Sincerely,

B.W., Zanesville, OH

No related posts.

One of the new wells.

I was somewhere between Gok Machar and Jaac with my team. It had already been a long day. What was supposed to be a three-hour journey had doubled. It was well past dark, and our vehicle was weaving in and out between trees and thorn bushes, trying to avoid the occasional stump protruding from the “road” that was really nothing more than a glorified cow path.

All of a sudden, PPF Director Matt Chancey yelled out, “Hey, stop the car! There’s our rig!” Off the road a ways, lit up like a Christmas tree, was one of our drilling rigs busily drilling another borehole to bring fresh water to the thousands of people in Jaac.

PPF's Matt Chancey washes a child's feet and presents the Gospel during a shoe distribution.

It was a beautiful sight. There was no moon, so the stars were very bright. It was a peaceful night, but not a quiet one, because the air was filled with the hammer-sound of the drilling rig as it pounded its way deeper and deeper through the dark red soil.

Although it was late, the noise of the rig had attracted a lot of attention, mostly from men and boys standing around watching the work.

I felt an overwhelming sense of peace and thankfulness at that moment. I remembered how difficult it had been to finish the first few wells in the community. Now I was witnessing the 41st well being drilled!

Residents of Jaac gather for a time of worship.

By the time I left Africa to return home for Christmas, the 45th well was completed. At the time of publication, the 52nd well was operational in Jaac. Our goal of reaching the half-way mark to 100 wells by Christmas was met. PRAISE THE LORD!

Of course, God uses means to achieve His ends, and that means I need to thank you, our ministry partners, for helping us achieve this aggressive goal in the middle of a world-wide recession. We know God is not worried about the economy, nor should we be. The year 2009 was filled with incredible challenges, but none were greater than God, and He provided for all our needs and many thousands of lives were impacted by the work you have chosen to support.

29 students graduated from our pastor-training program.

In addition to the water project in Jaac, we also witnessed the fruit of our other ministries to the community. It was my pleasure to be joined by my good friend and PPF ministry partner, Larry Warren of African Leadership. Larry and I were privileged to attend a graduation ceremony of 29 pastors in Jaac who had completed more than 500 hours of training sponsored by African Leadership. It had been two years since Larry had last been with me in Jaac, and he summed up the changes in one word: “health.”

Darfur refugees in Jaac eagerly await a PPF shoe distribution.

PPF’s medical clinic in Jaac was very busy, as we received the first of hopefully many shipments of shoes and medicine using our new truck, “Mercy,” to save us thousands of dollars normally spent on expensive relief flights.

It was a wonderful trip, and I felt so privileged to have been chosen to be a part of this vital work in a barren land forgotten by the rest of the world. It reminded me that the same God Who watches over the sparrows has remembered His suffering people in Jaac.

Medical ministry at the PPF clinic in Jaac.

I know most of you reading these pages will never have an opportunity to see this miracle for yourselves, but I hope my words and these pictures convey at least a hint of the magnitude your prayers and testimony of giving have made in the lives of the people in Jaac and other communities in Sudan.

As I write these words at the close of 2009, the words of a powerful hymn keep entering my mind – and I trust they will carry us all through a new and exciting year:

A village celebrates with PPF staff over the completion of a new well.

“To God be the Glory, Great Things He Hath Done!”

No related posts.

According to the IRS, Persecution Project Foundation is a non-profit, tax-exempt corporation. But the reality is that PPF is a network — a network of Christians united by the goal to engage in active compassion for the persecuted and the needy.

Every day, we receive letters from members of this network all across America — and even beyond. Many just contain a donation towards our work. But many contain letters of encouragement and prayers for safety and success in the work.

One of the most encouraging members of our “network” have been the students from Providence Christian School in Dothan, Alabama. It began a few years ago as a class project for third-graders. More and more students have since joined the cause and started a modern-day children’s crusade to help the persecuted and the needy.

Some have walked their neighborhoods raising funds. One started a lemonade stand and donated all proceeds to PPF. Rather than buy bottled water at the school, some students have placed a collection jar on their teacher’s desk to collect funds towards PPF’s 100 Wells Campaign.

One teacher called to say that she saw one of her students praying at the school water fountain for the persecuted in Sudan!

When Christians begin reaching outside their own “insulated” circles, they discover the wonderful gift of grace that comes from giving. This gift of grace from God is incredibly addictive. The Acts 20 passage teaches us that “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” This is not just a cutesy moral maxim, it is the plain reality to a majority of our donors.

Thank you for your encouragement to us. Thank you for your sacrificial giving. And thank you for being a blessing to so many persecuted and needy in Africa who are not able to thank you personally.

No related posts.

No related posts.