Thursday, December 13, 2012

Funding Falls

As you know, howFar Ministries and The How Far Foundation are faith based initiatives. We depend 100% on your gifts and donations to maintain our work in sub Saharan, Africa.
 
While the works grows - more churches are planted, young pastors are sent out, more people come to Christ, more physical needs are met - funding has fallen to an all time low.
 
Donations in October and November were only $2,758.00 against a budget of $11,000.  At this level of funding howFar will not be able to continue.
 
Please ask God how you can help to sustain this life changing ministry - and send your gift today!

Click above to donate or send your tax deductible year end donation to:

The How Far Foundation, Inc.
4295 Suwanee Mill Drive
Buford, Georgia 30518

From Warrior To Pastor


In the summer of 2005 Tenges, a young Maasai warrior, knelt down on a construction site at Orkung'u, Kenya. The building under construction was a new church...and Tenges knelt to pray.


 The village he lives in is Jipe Orkung’u, which means "High Ground" in Maasai. Tenges had just completed the Eunoto Ceremony moving from a boy to a warrior in the Maasai culture. Raised as an Animist, with a Catholic influence, Tenges had no real understanding of who Jesus Christ was...until he heard me talking to a group of laborers building the new howFar Ministries church in his village. 

Tenges stood in the shade, just outside of our circle, and listened. After the others had returned to work the young warrior approached and said, "I want Jesus Christ". 

There next to the new church, Tenges knelt, we laid hands on him and prayed with him - and he became a follower of Jesus Christ. Over the years Tenges has had his struggles but he has continued to move closer and closer to his Savior.

Today Tenges is Pastor Jacob Tenges Meijo. He is preaching the same gospel message he heard from me...and many are coming to Christ!


Where are your donations going? They are going to bring young men like Tenges to Christ and these young men are faithfully serving the Savior who came to rescue them.

"Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory forevermore."  Galatians 1:3-5, (NASB)

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

M23 Rebels Capture Goma

Last week M23 rebel forces took control of eastern DR Congo including the howFar compound located at Mudja. We have had no contact with the village and are deeply concerned for the safety of our friends. We are praying for there protection.



For more photos on the situation in Goma Click Here.

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Growth In East Africa


Our churches in Kenya and Tanzania continue to grow. Pastor Reuben ole Tiges, Overseer of our churches and projects east of Lake Victoria, reports, “All is good here and the Lord is manifesting Himself tremendously with many people turning to Christ. The church too in Lossimingori is completed. Pray for us brother because of the drought and the terrorists who threaten our peace.” 


The church at Lossimingori, Tanzania outgrew the facility howFar Ministries built for them in 2007. The community raised funds to build a new structure which they completed and dedicated in October.



Mudja Stabilizes


The most recent report from Eastern Congo, sent by Pastor John Mundola, is very good news. “The rebelles are very far from Mudja they are not near, so Mudja is not ender their control.”  (Goma, DR Congo.) The situation there remains difficult for the Batwa of Mudja. howFar has sent $2050.00 in aid for food and medicines so far this year.

To donate go to www.howFar.org

Monday, August 27, 2012

DR Congo Update - Photographer, Phil Moore's Photo Journal

The situation near the howFar church plant at Mudja, Dr Congo remains perilous in spite of a tenuous cease fire. 

Click the link below to view photos taken in an area less than 25 miles from our compound.

Photographer Collection: Phil Moore in CongoPlog Photo Blog


Please continue to pray for the Batwa church at Mudja.

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Our Church In Danger Of Attack

Our church at Mudja, located in a Batwa village, 25 kilometers northwest of Goma, is in danger of rebel attack.

howFar has been working in the Batwa Pygmy village of Mudja since 2009 to bring education and economic development. 



Congolese soldiers in North Kivu Provence, DR Congo. Photo by: MSNBC News

Now, as M23 rebels close in on Goma, they must first go through Mudja.

We are praying for our friends in Mudj and for the howFar Ministries church there.

howFar has sent $1000 in humanitarian aid this week to our team on the ground in Goma to purchase food and medicines for the impoverished residents at Mudja.

For more on the situation see the attached article "UN Condemns Congo Attacks As Rebel Advance Threatens Goma".



UN Condemns Congo Attacks

howFar will you go?

Monday, July 9, 2012

"...Lives Which Were Perishing"

Yesterday we received this encouraging message from one of our partner villages in Africa.



Greetings and blessings friends at The How Far Foundation.

This is a message from the Maasai community living in Orkung'u Village in Taveta District of Kenya.

1. We thank The How Far Foundation for the great help of relief distribution they have been distributing to the community for the last two years. T
his has helped many lives which were to perish due to starvation at the end of last year and even now. The community appreciate your donation and many thanks and blessings is directed to the How Far Foundation and his donors.

2. We also thanks The How Far Foundation for the contribution of funds that help buy school textbooks for the newly built and sponsored Orkung'u Primary School. The community which was starving for lack of food were required to buys books for their young children. They couldn't imagine how God responded to their prayers when How Far Foundation donated books worth thousands of Kenya Shillings. This is awesome. God Bless How Far Foundation and its supporters.

Reuben Kipampi ole Tiges, Elder on behalf of the Maasai Community


Your partnership with The How Foundation is helping to meet the physical needs of people who, through no fault of their own, cannot help themselves.

Thank you for sharing your resources with the people of Orkung'u, Kenya!

Mark Maynard
Founder
howFar will you go?

Friday, June 29, 2012

"First Baptism"

Pastor Immanuel Lazier baptizes a young Maasia believer in a cowtank.  It was his first baptism after we ordained him into the ministry. Central Tanzania, January 2012


Watch for the story of how God called him and transformed his entire village. 

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

They're Coming To America


The New York Times has named Clarkston, Georgia, “The most diverse square mile in America”.

Why? Every year thousands of refugees come to the United States seeking a better life. In the early 1990′s, the process of resettling refugees began in the community of Clarkston, a small town located within metro Atlanta. Since that time, approximately 60,000 refugees from over 150 different ethnic groups have been resettled in this area.

With so many refugees coming to Atlanta, Renee and I decided to go and see for ourselves. How? We took a team of 40 to work a summer camp with partner organizations Cross Pointe Church and Clarkston-based Friends of Refugees.


One hundred elementary and middle school refugee children, from countries like Burundi, Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan, Iraq and Iran, gathered at the Clarkston Community Center for a week of fun and education.

Why did we participate? 

Because these refugees are people who have been forced to leave their country in order to escape war or persecution. They need hope - and they need the gospel of Jesus Christ! These international people groups are coming, right to our backyard, like never before and howFar is committed to reaching them for Christ.


In June of 2013 we plan to return to Clarkston for two weeks. We’ll build relationships with the students at camp, do block parties in the apartment communities where they live, and share our stories with their families.

Want to join us on an international mission trip right here in the USA? We’re ready for you to come!

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

"Three Small Coins"




The three of us sat, waiting, under the rickety parapet shielded from the already intense morning sun. We were waiting for our laundry, laid out on the sparse and withering courtyard grass to dry, when Abraham Mbwana approached. He greeted us with the traditional Swahili, “Hamjambo sana”. “Salama”, I replied! Abraham wore the Muslim “topi” on his head.

“May I show you something?” he asked. “Sure”, we said. A dirty old handkerchief, tied at the corners, pulled from a pocket in Abraham’s cut off trousers, was laid out on the table. Once untied several coins fell onto the scratched and stained plastic surface. I picked one up turning it in my hand for inspection - 1 Heller, Deutsch Ostafrika, 1907. Our new friend hoped to sell us some German colonial coins, lost for nearly a century, that he had found. 

I love history, particularly the history of the countries where we work, so I overpaid Abraham for three small coins. Satisfied with his business transaction Abraham went back to his work as a day laborer in the courtyard of the small hotel in central Tanzania.

Several minutes passed and Abraham approached again. This time a very different question. “Will you come to my home and pray for my son?” he asked. With a smile of understanding and a hastily muttered, “Thank you, Father”, I replied, “Who do you think that we are?” “Watu wa Mungu”, he said.  "You are men of God." “Yes”, I said, “we are. How can we pray for you?” “My son has been bitten by a snake. If he does not get better, he may die.”

As Abraham Mbwana, a desperate father, pleaded with me, a “masungu”  - a white man, and an infidel according to his Islamic tradition, I knew what was about to happen. 

Twenty minutes later a shirtless and shoeless Abraham, now settled into the back seat of our little car, directed us across a series of dirt roads to his home. The weathered and deteriorating mud bricks of the building, nearly washed away each year during the rainy season, barely supported the perforated and oxidized metal roof.

“This way,” he said. The hallway, illuminated only by open doorways at either end and tiny rays of light emanating from cracks and pin holes in the roof, split the musty building at midpoint. A group of women and children, gathered around a charcoal pot, sat on the ground at the far end. Abraham gestured and we followed him through an open door.

“These are my sons,” he said. The two boys were on a large bed pushed up against a mud wall in the single room apartment. One sat and the other lay beside him. The tiny boy who sat, huddled against his brother for comfort and security, immediately began to cry. “Where is their mother?”, I asked. “She died last year,” he said.

“Why did you ask us to come here?”, I said.

“I want you to pray for Juma,” he said.

“Abraham”, I asked, “Does your Imam ever come to pray with you?”

“No,” he said.

“Then why do you, a Muslim, want us to pray for you?”

“I have heard that, through Jesus, people have been getting back their life through healing,” he replied.

“Who do you think that Jesus is?”, I asked.

“He was a good prophet.”

“If he was just a good prophet how could he heal anyone?”

There was no answer.

“Mohamed wrote that Jesus was a good prophet and that everyone should listen to him. If Mohamed said to listen to Jesus do you think that Jesus was a liar?”

“No”, he said.

“Abraham”, I explained, “ the truth is that Jesus is much more than just a good prophet. He told us who He is. He is the Son of God. That is why He is able to heal the sick”.

Over the next several minutes Abraham heard the gospel.

“Abraham, una mwamini Yesu Kristo?”, I asked. “Do you believe in Jesus Christ?”

“Ndiyo”, he said! “Yes”!

“Are you ready to change?” I asked.

“Ndiyo.”

A prayer, led by Pastor Reuben, the Overseer of our churches in East Africa…and in that instant, Abraham placed his trust in Jesus Christ, and moved from the kingdom of darkness into the marvelous Kingdom of Light.

The smiling father spoke, Juma moved to the edge of the bed, and began to remove the filthy rages wrapped around his foot and ankle. I had noticed the awful smell when we first entered the tiny room. Now, as the covering was removed, I nearly gagged. Rotting flesh on the swollen ankle revealed what I had hoped that I would not see. “Father,” I prayed, “if you do not heal Juma of this infection, he will die.”

I knew that the boy had been listening to everything that had been shared with his father. “Juma,” I asked, “do you believe that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, can heal you?”

“Yes,” he replied.

“Do you know that you have a much bigger problem than your foot?”


He just looked at me.

Another gospel presentation including sin, and wrath, and mercy and grace.

“God’s Word says that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Another prayer, this time for temporal and eternal healing.

“Juma”, I asked, “Una mwamini Yesu Kristo?”

“Yes”, he said. And Juma, a boy first born into Islam, was “born again” and became my brother in Christ.

For the next one half hour we talked about God’s Word and about His Son. We talked about what it means to be a Christian. We talked about how hard it might be for them to follow Christ.

The heat, carried on the wind that blew through the open windows, told us that midday had almost passed. One final prayer with these new Christians and it was time to go. I turned to step across the threshold but my way was blocked.  The women, once gathered at the far end of the passage, were not sitting just outside the door.

A young woman rose and said, “My name is Hadija. Will you pray for me?”

With a smile I replied, “Who do you think that we are?”

“I see that you are men of God.”

“Yes,” I said, “we are.”

“I am not able to feed my baby the way I should,” she said. As she spoke she pulled up her blouse revealing an open soar on her breast.

“O God,” I wondered, “is that cancer?”

Once again, in that Muslim household, the gospel was clearly and openly presented.

And Hadija also became my sister in Christ.


In a remote courtyard, in a tiny hotel that we had never planed to visit, on a rode that rarely saw a car, God used three small coins that had once been lost, to put in motion a series of divine events. Events that led to the redemption of three lost Muslims that I never would have met.
“…you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth." (Acts 1:8)
He is greatly to be praised.


Endnote:

Three times we tried to leave the house of Abraham, Juma and Hadija that day. Each time, I had an overwhelming feeling that God was not finished with us yet. Three times God called us back. First to share with others. Second to take them Bibles. Third to take them food.

Mark Maynard
Handini, Tanzania 2012

Thursday, May 24, 2012

May 14, 2012 howFar Golf Fundraiser

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What a terrific day of golf! The tournament raised $3500 toward our new Toyota F70 for use in sub-Saharan, Africa. www.howFar.org

Friday, April 27, 2012

What's Up at The Foundation

The primary mission of howFar is to share the gospel of Jesus Christ in the least reached areas of the world. That is how we, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind". (Luke 10:27)

Did you know we also have a way to obey the second command, "Love your neighbor as yourself"? (Luke 10:27)

That's what we do at The How Far Foundation. Water, education, food and agriculture...we help people do what they cannot do for themselves.

CLICK HERE to check out our facebook page.

Like what you see?  Then "like" our page!