SHARON TWP.:Thirteen-year-old Hannah Christian has never been to Africa.
But over the past week, she has felt a kinship with a group of children in Nairobi, Kenya, who get two meals a day, five days a week at a school operated by Gospel Harvest Ministries. The meals provided for the schoolchildren are typically porridge, corn mush or rice and beans.
“They are very poor and can’t afford food, let alone anything else. If it weren’t for the school, they could go for days without eating anything,” said Hannah, an eighth-grade student at Cloverleaf Middle School in Lodi. “It makes me thankful that I can eat as I please and never have to think about having to do without.”
Hannah and her mother, Brenda, are among the more than 50 people at Connection Church who took the five-day Rice and Bean Challenge to raise money for the Nairobi-based Gospel Harvest Ministries’ school.
Each household is asked to eat only rice and beans and redirect the money that would normally be used to buy groceries to a special offering today. That offering will go directly to the African ministry.
The Rev. Tony Myles, lead pastor at Connection Church, said that in addition to raising money to help the more than 40 children at the school, the challenge raises personal awareness of the average diet of orphans in Third-World countries, like those at the school in Nairobi.
“It definitely messes with your digestive system,” said a light-hearted Myles. “But it helps us understand what it means to live sacrificially. When I sit down and pray before each meal, I find myself more grateful because while I’m doing this by choice, the children in Third-World countries don’t always know when, or if, their next meal is coming.”
Second year for challenge
This is the second year that the church, which attracts an average of 200 people to its 9:15 and 11:15 a.m. Sunday services, has issued the rice and bean challenge. Last year, more than $1,000 was raised for a floor in the school.
Last Sunday, the local congregation heard from a missionary to the school about how the floor has meant the children don’t have to sit in the dirt all day.
The missionary, Cathy Perman, spent five months this year working with Gospel Harvest Ministries and gave parishioners a firsthand account of what life is like for children at the school. Perman, a Youngstown native who lives in Mishawaka, Ind., shared photos of the school and children to help give worshippers a glimpse of life in Nairobi.
“The needs there are so much greater than the resources that they have. Without the support of churches like Connection, there wouldn’t be a school to help the children,” said Perman, 62. “When many of the children first came to the school, they were having a lot of stomach problems. In talking with their parents, the bishop discovered that it was because they were not used to eating, sometimes going three days without food.”
Gospel Harvest Ministries (www.gospelharvest
ministries.com/) is a government-registered entity in Kenya. It was founded in 2002 by Bishop Lawrence Owino, who visited Connection Church last year, to share the Gospel with the people in Nairobi.
Financial aid urgent
The most urgent need of the school is financial support to pay its one teacher $250 a month and its one cook $150 a month for living expenses.
The school also needs financial support to hire two more teachers, build another room, purchase textbooks and teaching materials and sponsor students.
The congregation at Connection Church, which traditionally devotes 10 percent of its finances to mission work, is hoping to provide enough support via its rice and bean challenge to help with those financial needs.
“Because the fees to send items over to Africa are so costly, we have decided it is best to send a monetary donation,” Myles said. “The good thing about this challenge is that it doesn’t require people to find extra money in their budgets. They simply give what they would have normally used to buy food, other than the rice and beans.”
Connection (www. connectionchurch.org) is an evangelical, Christ-centered, Bible-based nondenominational church. It was established eight years ago and originally gathered at Regal Cinema. It moved three years ago to 2524 Medina Road in Sharon Commons.
Brenda Christian said that she was drawn to the church by its commitment to helping people develop a deeper relationship to God and by its mission to make a difference in the world.
“It’s a place where you can get your heart and mind in the right place and that makes you want to do what’s right, including helping people who are less fortunate,” Christian said. “When you look at how little the children in Africa have, it really makes you appreciate what you have. It’s been a humbling experience and one that has made me even more thankful for a daughter who can take the attention off of her needs to see the needs of others.”
Colette Jenkins can be reached at 330-996-3731 or cjenkins@thebeaconjournal.com.
