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Let’s raise another roof!

Yesterday, on the first day of Spring in Madison, New Jersey, it snowed! And today it was cold, but still beautiful flowers appeared in my backyard. Spring has sprung and soon the rains will come to both the USA and Africa.



I find it interesting that WorldHope Corps gets asked to help raise roofs in the rain in Africa!

The first such request came from Friends of Mzuzu Community Organization (FOMCO) when our mission team was there in March 2007, to help feed AIDS orphans during a rain storm. Once we saw and felt the water pouring into the small brick quarters where 200+ orphans were fed, our nine member team pooled our resources and donated $500 to fix the leaks on the roof of the orphan care center before the next rains came.


The second request came last spring, in May 2008, from the orphan care program we support, run by Mzuzu United Methodist Church. Just after returning home from my annual mission trip to Malawi, I got an urgent email from Pastor Copeland NKhata: “…robbers have stolen the tent that we had used as a roof on our church!” He was referring to the relatively expensive, waterproof covering on the wood and thatched-brick church where 150 people worship together. The simple sanctuary is composed of wooded planks and a dirt floor with sun or rain streaming in depending on whether it’s the dry or wet season in Malawi. It’s also the building where they feed 60+ orphaned and abandoned children in their care.

I posted a blog alert and many of you responded immediately with a desire to help raise the roof. Together we raised $2,000 in 10 days to replace the roof on the HopeChurch in Mzuzu that had been stolen by thieves during a rain storm! See June 3, 2008 blogpost


This spring our challenge is to raise $8,000 to put a new roof on a brand new medical clinic currently under construction, before the rains come. The project is called St. George Hope Health Centre in Uganda. WorldHope Corps friend and sponsor, Tom Dilts, alerted me to this opportunity and need last month, and made the first donation. He had been successful in getting two congregations to help build the foundation and walls of the Health Centre, but they now needed a sponsor for the roof. I told him I thought others would be interested in helping (since this seems to be one of our specialties).



WorldHope Corps assessed and qualified the need, and now seeks support and resources for a rural medical clinic that serves those who are poor. So, I posted the need and profile of St George’s Hope Health Centre on this blogsite: see March 16, 2009 blogpost

If you feel lead to contribute, you can designate a donation online at our website: www.worldhopecorps.org

Or send in a check to help raise the roof. Just email me at info@worldhopecorps.com and let me know your check in on the way.

This is one way God answers prayer: by inspiring believers in God’s inclusive love and justice to hear the cries of orphans and windows in distress, and to respond with tangible acts of loving kindness to people they have never even met.

And that’s how WorldHope Corps operates: by connecting available resources with qualified needs, facilitating specific ways to make a difference in the world.
Thank you for responding. Together, we can raise another roof!

Happy Spring time, my friends!

Michael J. Christensen, Ph.D.
Founder, WorldHope Corps, Inc.
11 Ardsleigh Drive
Madison, NJ 07940

For more information on this and other WHC sponsored projects, visit www.worldhopecorps.org

For mission updates, visit http://michael-christensen.blogspot.com

For email contact: info@worldhopecorps.com
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