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URGENT NEED: Car for East Africa Mission

While in East Africa we hope to purchase a vehicle to help us more efficiently accomplish our mission and humanitarian aid work.

The largest expense that we have on the ground is the cost of renting a car. Over the years, we have spent enough to have purchased a new 4WD SUV many times over. Lord willing, we will be able to invest in a vehicle that will enable us to use our financial resources for additional ministry and aid projects.



The investment for a used Toyota EE104ST, imported from Japan, is $8,813.00.

If you are able to make a one time, tax deductible, donation toward the purchase of this car please contact us immediately. The deadline for this necessary investment is April 15.

The purchase of this vehicle will save the foundation $2100 on this trip alone. But more importantly, it will enable us to take the gospel message to more places than ever!

My driver and personal assistant in Mombasa, Maurice Amadi, will rent the car to other mission and humanitarian aid agencies through the year turning it into a profit center for The howFar Foundation. Maurice, who is a professional driver, will also drive the car when rented so that it is kept in excellent condition. The income generated will be used to cover my expenses while in East Africa making it possible to go more often.

To donate contact mark@howFar.org.

East Africa Mission - April 2009

I will be returning to East Africa, visiting our churches and humanitarian aid projects in Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi, from April 28 through May 22, 2009.

Watch for the full agenda coming soon!

howFar to Deliver Rotary WAPI's to Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burindi

The How Far Foundation, Inc., an international humanitarian aid agency, will deliver 400 Water Pasteurization Indicators to rural areas in East Africa in April of 2009. Our partnership with the Rotary Club of Buford/North Gwinnett to deliver a simple and effective means of insuring safe drinking water falls into our mission of improving the quality of life for those living in remote rural villages in Sub-Sahara Africa.

"Rotary Club of Buford/North Gwinnett & North Gwinnett HS Interact Club work to make Water Pasteurization Indicators – A way to improve world health and save the lives of children through safer water!"

"BUFORD, GEORGIA - Rotary recognizes that children are the future of the world. Rotary believes that healthy and happy children are a key to achieving the goal of building international understanding and peace in the world. The Rotary Club of Buford/North Gwinnett continues to celebrate the commitment to World Understanding throughout the month of February.

Together with the Interact Club of North Gwinnet High School, the club made Water Pasteurization Indicators (WAPIs) on Valentine’s Day – February 14th. Water pasteurization is needed in many places around the world where water is contaminated, causing disease and death. The microbes that cause these diseases can be easily killed by heating water before drinking.


WAPIs are short poly-carbonate plastic tubes that are half filled with soy wax and heat sealed on both ends. The soy wax melts at about 158 degrees F, a temperature that kills many microbes including Giardia, Entamoeba, Cryptosporidium Guinea, Worm and other Worms, E Coli, Shigella, Cholera, Rotaviruses, Polioviruses, Hepatitis A virus and pasteurization of milk.

WAPIs are effectively used for water pasteurization in third world countries because they are so simple to understand. The WAPI is put into a bowl of water, which is then heated by the sun or other heat source. The wax melts at the appropriate temperature, indicating that the water is safe to drink.

Rotary recognizes that over one billion people do not have access to safe water. Preventable waterborne diseases are responsible for approximately 80% of all illnesses and deaths in the developing world. Children are especially susceptible, with nearly three million deaths each year. The deaths of three million people every year due to contaminated water is the equivalent of losing as many people every five weeks as the total deaths caused by the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004. This is an astonishing number of deaths – with most being children."

(Source: The Gwinnett Citizen)

Carolyn Hill, Rotary Club of Buford/North Gwinnett Founder said, "We are so excited to partner with Mark, and the How Far Foundation, because we can be sure that the WAPI's will be delivered directly into the hands of the people who need them most".


"Demonstrating a WAPI, Water Pasteurization Indicator, in a slum near Bujumbura, Burundi. Clean water is a crucial issue here...children still die because of bad water in this village.

The How Far Foundation, and howFar Ministries, will use the introduction of the Water Pasteurization Indicator as a platform to share the gospel message. As we teach about clean water we will introduce them to the "living water".

John 4:9 Therefore the Samaritan woman *said to Him, "How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?" (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)
John 4:10 Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water."
John 4:11 She *said to Him, "Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water?
John 4:12 "You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?"
John 4:13 Jesus answered and said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again;
John 4:14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life."

If you would like to contribute to this gospel centered clean water project contact howFar Ministries at mark@howFar.org.

2009 Kenya Orphan Sponsorships

The How Far Foundation and howFar Ministries is pleased to announce that 72 orphans have been sponsored for the 2009 school year.

Each year The How Far Foundation and howFar Ministries partners with St. Patrick's Baptist Mission School in Mtongwe, Kenya to provide education sponsorships for orphaned children. Funds for sponsorships come from individual donors who generously give $80 per student. The funds provide tuition, books and uniform for the entire school year which begins in January.


St. Patrick's Baptist Mission School is a private christian school offering a high-school preparatory program. The intake ratio for students entering the first grade in Kenya is 30.3%. Only 23.1% of those students receive a secondary education and 3% go on to a university. (Source:UNESCO). Statistics show that students who receive a primary education in a private school are many times more likely to pass the test to advance to secondary schools.


In 2008, St. Patrick's Baptist Mission School had a total enrollment of 410 students. One-hundred and ten are orphans.

Scholarships are still needed for the remaining 38 orphans. If you would like to make a tax deductible contribution of $80 to give an orphaned child hope for the future contact The How Far Foundation at mark@howFar.org.

Thank you to all of our 2009 sponsors.

Renee Maynard
Board Secretary - howFar Ministries, Inc. and The How Far Foundation, Inc.

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Hillary, Mark, Renee, John, Sharon, Caleb and Mike
(Mark II, Adrienne, Mark III, Brian, Thomas and Logan are not in the photo)

East Africa Women's Ministry

Recently, we received the following e mail from our friend and ministry partner, Pastor Patrick Marisia. Pastor Patrick founded Steadfast Baptist Mission Church in Mtongwe, Kenya 20 years ago.


"...I have come urgently (to Mombasa) because there is a conference for women from Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania (some from Rwanda and Burundi they did not make it due to transport money) but we are thanking God for 50 women who arrived last night and 6 this morning, thay are sleeping at your mum Eba's.

Tell mama Renee that the work she started for teaching women is going on very well, and the materials she left for women leaders is spreading to far countries. I wish she could just one day see for herself the work she started and even teach these women from different nations.

They are expecting 200 women from outside Kenya and they have contributed money to feed them but they do come with their own transport to and fro.

For two months now our church elders in the leadership of Bonaya they have been fasting and praying and sleeping in the church 60 days now for the will of God to be seen in His servants work.

We thank the Lord for what He is doing in Steadfast Baptist Christian Mission Churches and your prayers always.

Greet for me the entire church members and your family."

Women's Conference Kikatiti, Tanzania 2005

In July 2005, Renee helped to begin the Steadfast Baptist Christian Mission Women's Ministry along with Pastor Patrick's wife, Margaret Marisia Wafula.

One of the things that is rarely seen in Africa is women's ministry of any kind.


What an incredible joy it is to see the work of God spreading to, and through, the women of East Africa.