Pastor Mathew Kaka - Farewell

Kaka, Red shirt. Preaching:April 27, 2014.

Pastor Mathew Kaka - Farewell

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in an trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God"- 2 Corinthians 1: 3 - 4.

Pastor Mathew Kaka of Boma Christian Center has passed on to be with the Lord in eternity.

On Monday April 28, while responding to a distress call from his sister who was being beaten by her husband was descended upon by his brother-in-law with a machete inflicting deep wounds on his face, arms and legs. Unfortunately, there was no adequate medical help for him in Boma. He is survived by his wife Tina, 2 year old son, Allan, and 2 month old daughter. Violence against innocent people has given rise to many young widows and orphans in South Sudan. Pray for Tina and the two young children hat the Almighty God comforts them in their hour of great loss and sorrow.

Tina, right, holdind 2 month old daugher.

Tina and her friends after church service. Tina is standing extreme right and the girl adjacent to her is holding the 2 month old daughter.

 Here are more pictures of Tina and Pastor Mathew Kaka:

Front row ,Mathew Kaka (second from left to right)

                      

Henry chats with Pst Kaka in Dec.2013 

 

FAITH LEARNING CENTER - MAY 2014 UPDATE

A multi-grade class at FLC

FLC re-opened on March 17, 2014 after ten months of closure necessitated by an armed conflict between rebels and government forces for the control of Boma. The school reopened amid much excitement and enrollment peaked at 168 within 2 weeks. However, severe hunger in the region has caused a significant decrease in school attendance. The resources flown into Boma earlier this week for the  launch of a school feeding program beginning on Monday, May 5 is expected to reverse this trend. With limited staff and under difficult circumstances, we are teaching combined grades and will be able to keep the students moving forward until further resources are available.

A few positive developments have taken place since the re-opening of the school:

Part of supplies for feeding program

• Being the only school functioning in the whole of Boma Sub-County, FLC received and will continue to receive teaching and learning resources from UNICEF
• The children received a gift of T-shirts donated by Coram Deo Academy in Flower Mound, TX
• SEAP staff in Boma recovered 40 school desks and an old plastic table from the soldiers in the nearby barracks
• Ken repaired the roof of Grade 1-2 Classroom block after strong wind damaged it recently.

Boxes of supplies from UNICEF

The school, however, continues to face some challenges:

• Both school and staff water wells are not functioning; their immediate repair is essential
• Additional desks are needed
• Ken says that the recently repaired roof is unlikely to survive the strong winds during the current rainy season because the wood has been damaged by ants and weevils; further repair is needed
• Wooden pillars supporting veranda roofs need replacement
• School's latrine doors need replacement
• As the expected growth of school attendance takes place, there will be need for additional teaching staff and associated resources.

Further needs of the school will continually be evaluated and determined according to unfolding circumstances such as more families re-locating to Boma, availability of food and security.

HENRY OKUMU
African Director
SEA Parners

Students wearing Coram Deo T-Shirts

Roof being repaired   

APRIL 2014 VISIT TO BOMA PROJECT

Offloading supplies

APRIL 2014 VISIT TO THE BOMA PROJECT 

On April 29 I left Wilson Airport for Boma aboard a plane charted through AIMAIR.  The main objectives of my visit were to:

• deliver initial food supplies for launching a school feeding program at Faith Learning Center (FLC)
• deliver supplies for staff needs including teaching and learning resources 
• initiate a collaborative effort with the local civilian authority in order to secure food aid for alleviating the suffering of the Boma                    community during the present severe famine in the region.

Starting a feeding program at FLC has become essential because the famine is adversely affecting our student's ability to attend school. The aircraft did 3 rotations from Loki delivering 1,100 kg of cargo. This will help in the short term, but we hope to find a more permanent solution to the hunger problem by engaging into partnership with UN/WFP in this feeding program

I did have the meeting with local leaders and secured the needed documents for obtaining food aid from the UN/WFP.  I plan on visiting their offices in Juba next week to formally make the requests.

SEA Partner's staff is a great team; they remain motivated and are doing amazingly well in difficult circumstances. The water well pumps are not presently working so the staff has to fetch dirty water a kilometer away from our compound. There is urgent need for repair of the wells to improve the living conditions for our staff and for the community.

Your unceasing prayers for them is equally needed.

HENRY OKUMU
African Director
SEA Partners.