"The Boundary Lines Have Fallen for Us in Pleasant Places" (or God's Gift of Land)

The line from Psalm 16 captures how the team here at Wild Hope is feeling about a beautiful open 20 acre piece of land outside the city of Arusha. As we signed off on the purchase, our (almost disbelieving) minds were rocked by the fact that God has provided a piece of earth for our dreams to grow on.


(Staking the boundaries)

Let me go back...

Many of you will know that, from the beginning, Wild Hope has dreamed of a base called home where the fullness of life would flourish. Hardly daring to put words to it, we have hoped for a place to plant ourselves; a place where work, ministry, hospitality, training, demonstration projects and experiments can flow together to be a blessing here in Africa. In short, we dreamed of a retreat and training center with working gardens. In biblical terms, we have wondered if there was a little corner of Africa where we might live in Shalom with the land, each other, the community and our Creator.

Big dreams for a little team!

God must be a big dreamer too :-)

Somewhere along the way during this last year, He has sent us a small group of amazing partners who decided that they would like to see this thing go forward. To our own great shock and amazement, God allowed Wild Hope to recently pay cash for 20 acres of African soil.

This land is surrendered to our Maker. He is the one who provided the finances, led us to the plot and walked us through the weeks of dialogue and discovery with the local community.

We at Wild Hope are willing tenants, hoping to honor Him in the way we care for this piece of earth and the neighbors He has given us around it. Smile with us about this: all our neighbors are Maasai :-) They are quite surprised to find two families from the United States who speak their language (!) coming to join them in their community. As for us, we are happy to oblige.

Obviously, there is much to be done. First up on the to-do-list is to drill for water. We are praying we find good water and soon!

In time, as funds are adequate, we will begin to build. We will build our homes, a gathering place where we can teach and train, hospitable quarters for future teams, and gardens that utilize the earth in a Creation-honoring way. These are our initial dreams, but we know that more will unfold as we begin.

Please join us in celebrating this gift of land. And pray with us that it truly will be a place from which life springs forth.


The Wild Hope Team on the land


Looking out toward some of our neighbors

We Are Thankful (and Our Hats Are Off To...)

There is much to be thankful for this year!

We have some very special news about "the land" but that will have to wait till next week.

Today we just want to say a heartfelt thank you to Byron's dad, Oscar Borden. Oscar worked for 12 years in East Africa. Though he moved away many years ago, his heart and mind still carry a love and concern for this place.

Recently, Byron was telling his father about the lending base we want to raise so that we can increase the number of micro-loans to our African friends. Wild Hope wants to start with a dedicated $30,000 for this express purpose.

Oscar lives on very little at his home in Florida. He cares for others, tends to his work, and visits Byron's Mom in the full-time care unit where she lives.

Not long ago, Oscar wrote us to say that he had a CD coming due and he wanted to cash it in and send the whole sum to our lending-base fund.

This little note is just to say "Thank you, Oscar!" We wanted to honor you for giving the very first $1,000 to what we fondly call The OCB--or Oscar Clarence Borden-- Fund :-)

We are inspired by you!

A BIG Thank You!

Big thanks to our wonderful friends at 24-7 Prayer!!

Every year at the global gathering of the 24-7 family, there is a raucous auction, done with great celebration and hilarity, that raises funds for someone who is close to the movement and in financial need. This year it was decided that half of whatever was raised would be sent to Africa via Byron and Lisa so that we can assist an old Maasai woman who is like family to Wild Hope.

Ngoto Milai sold most of her cows to educate her children. Sadly, the local school was so under average that her children never scored well enough to go on and complete their high school education and they have never been able to find paying jobs. Her last couple of cows died in the drought a few years back. When Byron was in her area some months ago, his Maasai Mom asked him if there was any way we could help her begin some sort of small business so she could provide for her children and grandchildren.

Everyone was shocked and delighted when the auction raised $2,000! You would have been shocked too, given that the items sold were things like a spiral notebook decorated with photographs and jar of home made jam :-)

With the $1,000 that we have for this dear Maasai mother, we will be able to help in two significant ways. First off, a gift of goats or a couple of cows will be a huge blessing. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, we have enough in hand to set up a small business co-operative with this lady and a few of her friends who are in similar circumstances.

We are absolutely thrilled we can bring two forms of assistance with this one wonderful gift!

And by the way, Lisa put one of our Christmas stars, made by Wild Hope Artisans, in the auction and it sold for 50 euros. That's $70 and that's a record for a Wild Hope Artisan star!

Oh and PS... If you hear a rumor that Lisa was called upon during the auction to enter a Flamenco Dance-Off (the crowd pooled their resources and paid 100 euros to see the contest) then we thought we'd better let you know that, yes, it's true. She danced her little heart out :-)

October Hurries On By

Family...

The Wild Hope Moms (Lisa and Tammy) have been in full-on home school gear around here. The kidlets (aged 17 down to 8) are faithful and (almost always) sweet students. Of course, no one is perfect! And we moms admit that it can just as easily be one of us who is feeling cranky and less than inspiring.

Still, we are thankful for a good start to the school year and we celebrate with a welcome break. Chase turned 15 at the beginning of the month and this weekend sees most all the crew off on a camping trip to Lake Natron. Poor Sianna had to stay home with a fever :-( At least she's with her excellent mom, Tammy. Tammy was staying home anyway because the Russell family are raising four puppies that lost their mama! Phew! It's a lot of work but, oh my, those puppies are cute (and healthy!)

A place to settle...

Byron and Peter have spent hours and hours and days and weeks, scouting out land, leads to land, rumors of land and plots of land. Wild Hope is dreaming of a place to do demonstration gardens, house teams, do training, build residences etc. There has been much activity around this dream in the last few weeks but no official news quite yet. Please pray! We'll let you know as soon as there is something to know :-)

Sales up for the Artisans...

The cool of July and August has pretty much faded and we are into warm October days. There is a buzz of activity toward the Christmas rush on our Wild Hope Artisan products. Warm weather and Christmas go together for us and Christmas means a lot of sales for the project. It's very exciting to see eager shop owners making orders these days. We are thrilled to see the hard work of the women Artisans being appreciated and valued and purchased.

New ideas and plans bubble along and we take steps toward making things happen. These are good days. So much hope!

PS: The latest on Sianna is that she has Scarlet Fever. Goodness! We're praying for good recovery and that it doesn't move through all the kids...

A Little Dinner Party

On Tuesday night we threw a little dinner for the Nyota Football Club boys. Out of respect for Ramadan, we ate late and had a nicely reserved kind of gathering.

Still, there were plenty of smiles as Coach Toby passed out prize shirts to different players who shone at the tournament a few weeks ago.

How blessed are we to get to come alongside these young men in an effort to face and overcome the challenges of their situations?

Hint: Very Blessed!

Artisans on the Silver Screen :-)

The Wild Hope Artisan Project



|
Wild Hope's good friend, Jenelle, has been visiting here in Tanzania for the last three weeks. One of her helpful projects has been to edit together this 2 min video about The Wild Hope Artisans. The idea was to have a brief visual to tell people who purchase these products in the U.S. a little more about the partnership we have with these Maasai women.

We are blessed indeed to be a part of empowering these friends.

Enjoy! (And thank you so much, Jenelle!)

Chickens and Champions

Wild Hope's adopted football team (soccer to those of you who live in N. America) is all about chickens and champions at the moment :-)

As you know, we are partnering with these young men from an economically challenged area of Arusha because we are so impressed with their determination and self discipline in sports as they seek a way to rise above the challenges of the circumstances they live in.

The latest with Nyota FC is that they have launched a chicken rearing project with a micro-loan from Wild Hope. Byron and Peter have helped them with their plans, looked at all the angles with them and generally been there to advise and encourage. Now the first batch of chickens have been raised and sold and the second batch are housed in the hen room where they cluck their way to chubbiness.

Profit from the project will help with team costs for things like new cleats, transport etc etc. The team here at Wild Hope is proud of the guys for their creativity and hard work in this.

We're also proud to say that the team just won the cup in a local tournament sponsored by our friends at Young Life. Yesterday afternoon we watched the Nyota boys pull off a 3-0 victory in the final match. What a rush! The guys danced after every goal and the crowds of kids who were there to watch went wild!

Later, as we crammed into the tiny passage way outside the hen room, (this area has become the club house!) we told them what great examples they are to the young kids growing up around them. Holding their big trophy cup up high and singing their victory songs, the team looked to us like the champions of the world :-)