The Latest Around Wild Hope

Wow! Everyone around Wild Hope has been on the move in a big way!

Peter and Tammy and their crew (AKA The Russell Family) were in the States for two months. They were in and around LA and up to Canada, over to Colorado and back again before landing in Nairobi last Saturday night. After such a wonderful season in Tanzania, they had much to share and they had a great time connecting with people and telling them Wild Hope stories in person ☺. God so blew them away with the supportive enthusiastic response that greeted them everywhere they went. They were blessed up one side and down the other as they racked up the miles.

Byron and Lisa and their crew (AKA The Borden Family) finally left the States and arrived here in Tanzania mid-May. These first weeks have been absolutely packed full of the details of immigrating, house-hunting and general settling. Phew! They are totally relieved to be here and to have found a house to move into. Life is starting to feel sort of normal to them as they unpack those boxes of familiar household things shipped from Portugal months ago.

We have a summer team that just arrived! Six young people from Portugal and/or Santa Barbara are with us to experience God in new ways, grow, get their heads and hearts challenged and their hands dirty as they help out. We are really looking forward to this time together seeking God, volunteering in different service oriented ways and experiencing the fullness of what the Lord has in store for this summer.

We’ll catch up again soon. I hesitate to say, “When things settle down,” but I think you know what I mean ☺

Photo taken by Jesse when the summer team hiked the gorge.

Introducing... Our Site!

Tadaaaaaaaaa!

Wild Hope has a Brand New Website.

A million thanks to Trevor Borden for designing and building our simple and lovely site.

And hats off to Skyler Russell, the young man behind the camera for almost every photo. Beautiful pics!

Nets to the Rescue!

Wild Hope was given a generous donation that allowed us to purchase 250 very special mosquito nets.

These nets are actually infused with a mosquito repellant so that they physically protect the area they cover while also driving other mosquitoes from the room.

Malaria is still the number one killer disease in Africa. Recent studies show a deadly link between malaria and HIV/AIDS because each disease weakens the body, making it easier to contract the other.

We were so pleased to distribute these gifts. It's always a joy to make an immediate difference :-)

Artisan Project Grows!

The lovely ladies brought their lovely work by the donkey load!

Tammy and Wild Hope's dear friend, Julia Veenstra, spent the weekend together working on new product ideas, quality control, and other areas of training.

Remember back in December when we were projecting that the project would soon be helping more than these six original ladies? Well there are now 32 additional Maasai women benefiting from our Artisan Project.

God is good! Hurray!

Chase's Perspective

Just to refer you to Chase Russell's blog Superman Digital Movement. With such a great title you might get the clue that Chase is a creative and fun 8th grader and his take on what's going on in Tanzania is fresh. Having just read his three most recent posts, we thought you might enjoy hearing from one of the younger members of the Wild Hope community.

Enjoy!

Lots of Gear!

Wild Hope was just given 250 nice soccer jerseys, plus LOTS of shorts, socks, warm-up outfits and goalie gear!

The lovely Lynzi Blacker of u2u donated what she had collected from the AYSO league in Santa Ynez Valley so that we can outfit future teams!

The photos above show our Small Nyotas before uniforms and after :-) These uniforms were brought over in a separate donation by another group. Now we have matching sets for an additional 8 teams, and many more in mixed batches.

We are so thankful to Jez and Lynzi at u2u!

God is With the Poor

Just to share this clip of Bono accepting his award from the NAACP a few days ago.

Wild Hope won't be getting an award or an ovation. Still, we are proud to take our place among those who have committed their lives to bring hope in Africa.

Why? Because we believe in the call of Isaiah 58 to spend ourselves on behalf of others. This is OUR calling. Insignificant as we might seem in the face of the crisis in Africa, we respond.

We know that God is in this because, as Bono says in his speech, "God, my friends, is with the poor and God is with us if we are with them."

That's where we want to be.