With the Lord’s help, through you, Empower Dreams was able to come alongside of a successful businessman who was an orphan himself, and purchase this beautiful and large playground to help Fountain of Life Orphanage grow its ‘for profit’ daycare that is helping the orphanage move closer to the extremely valuable financial sustainability.
Huge Discipleship leverage with Audio Bibles
Rugged, solar powered, long lasting Audio Bibles have proved highly effective in oral culture discipleship movements and recent partnering with Jeff Buell at 10:24, and Daniel Kinuthia at LuLuThemani, Empower Dreams helped provide more of them to Inkiito in Namanga, Kajiado county.
Over the last 10 years partnering in Kenyan and Tanzanian villages that are culturally driven by oral stories, where everyone gathers to hear one share. Many of them cannot read or write, so orality is the primary means of communicating history and truth. The vast majority of the most unreached and unengaged around the world, cannot read or write either.
These specific audio Bibles are loud enough to fill a small room, so that 30-40 can hear the Good News in each setting. Each unit lasts on average over 7 years, reaching many hundreds of the unreached with the Gospel.
If you are interested to learn how you can help bring the Gospel to oral cultures with proven ministry tools, please reach out to Info@EmpowerDreams.org.
Asian Home Churches
As we’ve partnered with Cultivate Leadership for the last 9 years, God has used the founders, Kevin and Lisa Evans preparedness and faithfulness to build amazing teams like those pictured below to help reach Asia for Jesus. This has been done with long term sustainability through ‘Cultivating high quality Leadership’ . To make it personal, Andrew and Angela, are the second and third from right below, with their team.
Would you be willing to pray for Andrew and Angela, their team, and all the many other similar teams in Asia as they face the time pressures of demanding careers, family, the preparation and needs of ministry and the tremendous government pressure?
2020 Rear view mirror
Wishing you the greatest Christmas
Your friends at Empower Dreams wish you and your family the very best Christmas and New Year. We will reach out in January with ‘2020 Highlights’ of some of what God used you and us to accomplish. May the Lord show each of us how best to live to have the Jesus in us speak the most powerfully to the unbelieving world.
Complete Tragedy Leads to Hope and the Lord Used You
The Team at Empower Dreams is so thankful to have been able to partner with you to help make this Whitfield dream a reality (pictured above). As we all know, this blessing could not have come at a better time for the Whitfield’s and their ministry.
Please see the note below from the Whitfield’s to you.
“Hey Guys! Just to pass our thankfulness for helping making this a reality. Such an amazing display of God’s favor and goodness. Brand new car, did not have to sacrifice anything we need here in the bush, at half the price. So thankful! We aren’t going to publish anything on our side until our Christmas letter, but wanted you all to have the joy of knowing Pappa has provided perfectly. PAYTON must be so happy...so much of this was made possible from a communities response to his life! Love you guys and thanks again for being you!”
We praise the Lord for being able to partner with you.
Your friends at Empower Dreams.
Great new Empower Dreams Donation Options
Empower Dreams is excited to announce that it is now an official Facebook Charity. There is a permanent Donation button on our Facebook homepage and we or you can now create Facebook fundraisers for Empower Dreams. Very important to note that Facebook does not take any fees for this service. Recurring monthly giving is supported. Facebook deposits 100% of the funds raised directly into the Empower Dreams bank account.
Empower Dreams has recently been included as a Fidelity Investments Charity. This allows people and organizations to make tax deductible gifts from their Fidelity Accounts directly to Empower Dreams.
Empower Dreams has switched its website payment service to Donorbox. This service will offer more features with lower expense.
PLEASE NOTE: If you have regular monthly giving set up on our website, it will fail in October. Please go to the website and reenter the giving particulars.
Walking with low-income people
In the original “When Helping Hurts” book, Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert highlighted the ways that our giving can have unintended consequences by creating dependency, destroying self-esteem, and several other ways.
One of the unintended consequences of the book is many American churches and ministries went into ‘Neutral’ in their benevolence giving. In their latest books, “Helping without Hurting in Church Benevolence” and “When Helping Hurts, the Small Group Experience”, they make it clear that this broke their heart and they offered one important guiding principle, when in doubt about giving and/or helping error on the side of giving and/or helping.
“Helping without Hurting in Church Benevolence” is a great resource for you, your church, and your small group while walking with low-income people.
Payton Whitfield, Eleeo Project Partner, Zambia
The Whitfield's, our Eleeo Project partner in Southern Zambia just tragically lost their amazing son, Payton (see the picture). Please pray for Luke and Elise and his sisters, Macie, Emma, Tazzie, & Avery, and brother, Chi Chi.
#GeorgeFloyd #HopeForAmerica #YourRole
Flood at Naomi's Village
Please pray for our friends at Naomi's Village
Covid
Today is World Health Day and Empower Dreams is praying for you and all our ministry partners during this world health crisis. The most dramatic impact has been to our partners located in Asia. Many new believers and budding leaders have lost their income and communities are starving, but through this, they are still trusting in God and participating in discipleship training. Their faith is inspiring. The food sent previously was made possible by your generous response and we now request that you respond with prayer for these growing churches.
Maasai hear the Gospel for the first time
These Maasai are hearing the stories of Jesus in their mother tongue for the first time through ruggedized, solar-powered audio devices. In 7 years, over 600 units have been delivered through trusted local partners like Bonface (voice in the video) to Kenya and Tanzania.
Each unit spreads the Gospel on average to over 200 people per month, lasts over 7 years and the testimonies of salvation and transformation abound.
Critical Food Shortage Relief Effort in Northern Vietnam:
The Hmong people in the Ha Giang mountain region of Northern Vietnam have a short term food shortage crisis due to limited work opportunities for Hmong immigrants working in China. The lack of opportunities in China may be driven by a slowing Chinese economy in manufacturing, the timing of the Spring Festival, and recently complicated by the coronavirus work stoppage. Consequently, the male heads of households returned to Hmong with little or no money.
Empower Dreams is raising $2,500 to give to Partners of Empower Dreams to purchase 30kg of rice for each of the 120 poor households with whom they have been closely working. Roughly $21/house.
These Hmong have had their homes demolished when the local government has found them having home church and yet they continue. They are courageous.
Due to a real hunger for Christian Discipleship materials by the Hmong, last year, this same Empower Dreams partner to the Hmong asked Empower Dreams to fund the development of local language high quality discipleship materials. We completed this funding last year and the materials will be ready for printing in May or June.
Highlights - 2019
Dear Friends, We wish you a great Christmas holiday for you and your family. Below are some highlights of what the Lord did this year through your prayers and finances. Please know that any year end giving can be received online till the last day of the year or in the mail by December 30th.
2019 Nutshell & Year end giving
A great deal of Asian church development, Audio Bibles in Africa, Kenyan ministries powerfully cooperating, revenue stream development for Nairobi orphanage’s move towards financial independence, ECFA recertification and a continued focus on excellence in non-profit governance are 2019 highlights.
Peru Christmas Outreach Success
13th Year of faithfully bringing Christmas with the Gospel in partnership with the Fergusons, the Gabinos, and local churches who passionately care about changed lives. We thank the Lord for all those Empower Dreams donors that gave to help make this possible!
Peru Christmas Outreach
God is doing great things in the first two day of outreaches in the Peruvian Andes. Thanking the Lord for all of you whose giving helped with permanently changing lives in partnership with local Peruvian churches. Please be praying for the next two days.
Fast Growing Discipleship
High Impact Legacy Giving: Matching Fund for Asian Discipleship making & Home church support. Donations matched dollar for dollar up to $9,750. Double your impact.
August 28, 2019 - Empower Dreams has received 2 matching grants dedicated to funding our longest term partner at Empower Dreams in Asia, as they expand their Disciple making movement to a new Asian people group and increase their Bible teaching support to aid the health and growth of their Asian home churches. The funds will provide a new translation to the disciple making curriculum and leadership tools already effectively used by thousands throughout Asia. If you would like more specific details, please reach out to info@EmpowerDreams.org so we can share more directly on this opportunity to double your giving this year.
The 2019 Maai Mahiu Ministry Summit
The 2019 Maai Mahiu Ministry Summit has concluded today and what a huge blessing it has been for all. This was the first year the summit was Kenyan planned and Kenyan led. It was a true answer to prayer.
Robyn Howard-Shriver
The Lord is my strength and my song
Exodus 15:2
Fountain of Life Boys home
100% Funded - A move towards “Sustainability”
We thank the Lord and those faithful supporters who participated in $7,000 of funding and making the dream of another step toward sustainability possible for the 46 boys at Fountain of Life Boys home in Nairobi, Kenya.
