Sabbath Message 7/5/34/120                                                                                                    

Dear Friends,

Today is the Seventh of Ab. Commencing from 1 Ab we went into a trial of woe.  On 1 Ab in the middle of the night (1 AM) the Owina Market in Uganda caught fire and CCG lost a great many valuable items. We lost the tailoring school with 18 machines and the shoemaking school with its machine and the tent-making school with its machine. We also lost the Goodwill shop with many millions UGS lost. There was also a death in Kenya and other problems. However, the reorganisation is going well and Tanzania is being reorganised as well as Kenya. We have a solid coordinator for the South in Dar who is a businessman.

Bizimana informs me that the government is providing some assistance in the restoration of the market. CCG Goodwill shop managed an 11 million UGS bank loan for reestablishment and other churches came to the assistance of the churches directly involved in the losses.

Four machines were provided from the seamstresses in the north and another two from the west of Uganda.  Malaysia came to their aid and provided money for eight machines. Congo DR provided two machines. Also South Africa came to assist the tailoring schools with another eight machines and so we have decided to establish another school in Kenya. We are examining putting the school in Nairobi with 32 students. Uganda is providing a tailoring teacher fluent in both English and Kiswahili. Jared Nyameri the Coordinator for Nairobi area overall has volunteered to run the school in an eight room facility of his. Australia and US will examine providing the shoemaking machine and the tent making machine to get the schools back up and running there. The government may be able to assist in some construction materials.

Our finance arm will assist the graduating students with their own machines which is our normal practice. The graduates pay off their loans quite efficiently usually in four months or so over the next training period.

Once we have the thirty-two trained in four months or so from Kenya we will establish two groups in Tanzania and another two or three in Kenya with the training school in Nairobi and the factories outside of it with one inside and we will grow that also to assist the unemployed or poor women there. The ultimate aim is to have sewing schools of 50 machines turning out 200 seamstresses or tailors every four months each. Uganda and Kenya will then train the people for East and Central Africa. West Africa will be set up in a year or so. In this way we have been able to train many people and overcome the shortages of education and give careers with basic education in English and Kiswahili and French etc. in the Bible Study courses.

The Kampala school was at 18 machines when it burned down. We had hoped to get to the 50 machines fairly soon. We have been given a setback. We will rebuild. There were 30,000 trade shops burnt in the market.

We will also be looking at other projects in Kenya, Uganda, Southern Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi and the Congo. A copier has been provided from South Africa and is being sent via Uganda. That will enable the Congo DR evangelism campaign in the SE. Note the international cooperation in CCG now.

Kenya will have main projects developed in the Homa Bay district and in the NE, SE, SW and in Northern Tanzania and in the Mwanza and Dar areas. We need many seed and fertiliser projects with fishing cooperatives and chicken projects and goat and sheep raising. We will develop and grow.

We still have until the 10th of Ab before we are through this period. Please pray for our brethren and pray that we may overcome. God is telling our people to increase their diligence in the faith.

Wade Cox