Peace Gospel Blog

You might have seen in recent news that South India was hit by what is believed to be the worst flood there in 100 years. Our native team is scrambling to respond with relief aid in the form of food, water and tents. It is estimated that 2.5 million are homeless, seeking refuge in government-run relief camps. We have several churches and one widow's seamstress business school in the villages along the lower half of the Krishna River, which was one of the hardest-hit areas. We fear that our seamstress school there is completely gone, as it was situated close to the banks of the river and is completely submerged at the moment.

Please contribute to our relief fund today to help get much needed relief supplies to those most in need, and to help us rebuild our churches and our widow's seamstress business school. As the average daily wage in India is less than $2, just remember that no gift is too small!

Give online at our website:
http://www.peacegospel.org/disaster-relief/

Or give through our Facebook Causes page:
http://apps.facebook.com/causes/93382

The "Friends of Peace Gospel" Network was recently established in response to our constant exposure to highly qualified indigenous ministries requesting partnership with our organization. Honestly, we had felt a little overwhelmed with all of the requests, especially considering that our focus has been solely on South Asia for the past 16 years, and many of the friends we've been meeting are from Africa, the Pacific Rim and Southeast Asia. However, as we received grant applications from many of these ministries, we realized there was an opportunity to partner with them in a limited capacity while developing relationships that could later grow into full partnerships. Our process of review and accountability parameters remain the same as with our top-level partnerships in South Asia, but our level of financial commitment to members of the network is not as deep due to obvious limitations.

We invite you to learn more about our first member of the network, an indigenous ministry in the Republic of Chad. More information will be forthcoming about other pending members, including ministries from Uganda, Kenya, The Philippines and Israel. As these members earn a deeper level of trust and partnership with our organization, you will start to see a move away from our focus on South Asia toward a more global reach in impact, Lord willing. We hope you will stay tuned, and continue to pray for our efforts to empower native missions through micro-enterprise.

We are happy to report that we have recently reached our fund raising goals for the launch of our new goat farm in Nepal! Work on the new land is already underway. We are very thankful to all of you who contributed toward our goal to make the project a reality. Our native team will care for the farm, and the profits will go toward our existing orphanage and other ministry efforts in the region. Consider helping us grow the farm by sponsoring the addition of one or more baby goats at the farm!

• sponsor a goat, or goats
• sponsor a goat, or goats, in someone's honor
  

Our good friend Kirby Trapolino has recently launched a blog about surviving off of $30 of food for 30 days. The purpose of his blog is to bring awareness of the plight of the world's poorest: the millions of South Asia's urban slum dwellers who live off of an average of $1 per day. In his desire to heighten awareness of these "poorest of the poor" and their needs, he is living off of $30 of food for 30 days March 30 - April 28. He will be calculating what he would have usually spent on food during that same time, and will donate that to our orphanage in India. We challenge you to do the same! Follow the link to track Kirby's day by day progress through the challenge:

30 Days on $30 Challenge

We recently partnerned with an indigenous Nepalese church to launch a new orphanage and its supporting goat farm in Nepal. Phase One of the orphanage has already been completed and we've been able to take in a handful of orphans. However we still have a lot of work to do, and the funds for the goat farm are yet to be raised. We're also supporting the work of this church to conduct outreach efforts in remote mountainous villages within Nepal. Less than 2% of the population is Christian, and hundreds of villages are without any established body of believers. Please join us in reaching out to Nepal's estimated 1 million orphans, and the the millions in need of the hope of the Gospel.

 • help us reach our goals in Nepal
 • help our Nepal work in someone's honor

About two years ago the Lord brought us into a relationship with a small church working to reach out to the rural poor in areas surrounding Kathmandu. After over a year of planning, we are ready to seek funding for an orphanage and a goat farm operation to sustain the work. Thanks to record-setting exchange rates with the Nepalese Rupee, we have an opportunity to fund the project for only $23,000. The more we learn about Nepal, the more we are burdened to begin this work. Poverty is extreme with 1 out of 2 living on less than $1 per day. Furthermore, it is estimated that 9% of children under the age of 14 are orphaned, making for an orphan population of about 970,000. To help you envision the impact your donation can have, we're dividing the start-up costs into 1,000 shares at a value of $23 each, as the total cost of launching the operation will be about $23,000. The orphanage will have a framed inaugural certificate at its entryway, upon which we will list "friends of the orphanage" who donated at least one share toward its start-up costs. [ sponsor a share of the Nepal start-up ]

We take you to South Asia and back in 4 minutes!