Local Relief: When Neighbor Helps Neighbor

 It seems everywhere we turn the state of the economy stares us in the face: home foreclosures, lost jobs, closing and bankrupt businesses, bank failures, and political jousting all tell our nation and the world is in the midst of a crisis. And with any crisis come fear and pain … and opportunity.

You certainly are feeling the impact of these uncertain times whether you have personally experienced it or through a loved one who lost a job or a neighbor facing a home loss. The question that often comes to us is, “How best can I help? How can I show God’s love and compassion?” Align Ministries can play a role in assisting you with the desire to give financial assistance to a friend, neighbor, co-worker, or church member, a desire God has certainly placed on your heart.

Through what means or manner can I help? becomes the next question. For a few of us it can be awkward to mail a check, drop off groceries, or place a phone call to someone we think could use some help. For others it might be a question of “What help can I give?” Once you’ve identified a family in need provide that information to Align Ministries. Align Ministries will evaluate the need and provide assistance as we determine. We can provide a service for you to deliver some financial relief to a family in need.

The role Align Ministries can play could serve several purposes: the awkwardness or embarrassment the recipient of aid might feel can be avoided as well as offering you the donor a tax deduction by giving through a non-profit organization; this is essentially no different than when you give through Align Ministries to aid an organization in New Orleans or to a church in Bombo, Uganda. Align Ministries becomes the channel God will use to distribute His blessings to others.

Consider giving to Local Relief even if you don’t have a person or family in mind; we have many families in need and can use a hand-up in this trying and tough financial downturn.

If you know a person or family in need it could look like this: You identify the person or family in need, determine how much you want to give, notify Align Ministries of the recipient, give us a brief description of their circumstances, tell us the best way for them to receive the financial assistance (check made out to them, a grocery card, gas card or department store card), tell us the manner in which you would like the gift delivered (by mail, anonymously or not, through a church, etc,), receive your tax deduction receipt, and sit back and delight that God has blessed you to be a blessing! 

Please let us help you with Local Relief and consider giving your financial help through Align Ministries. Please email or call us if you have any questions or want to get started! .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

TO DONATE NOW - SIMPLY CLICK ON THE DONATE BUTTON AND YOU CAN GIVE A TAX DEDUCTIBLE DONATION THROUGH PAY PAL

or

Mail your check made out to: ALIGN MINISTRIES

27562 Sweetbrier Lane, Mission Viejo, CA 92691-6611

IRS laws prohibits us or any non-profit organization to be a flow through account to donate money to a particular person so the donor can receive a tax deduction. So we encourage you to provide us with people and families in need of assistance. Align Ministries must be the evaluator and have complete control of where the donated funds are distributed. Align Ministries will distribute all donated funds for their intended purpose.

If you donate funds with a persons name on the check the IRS will not allow us to provide a tax deductible receipt. You will receive a letter that we received your donation.

Billy Graham’s Prayer for Our Country

Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance.  

We know Your Word says, 'Woe to those who call evil good,' but that is exactly what we have done.

We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values.  

We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.  

We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.  

We have killed our unborn and called it choice.  

We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.  

We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self esteem.  

We have abused power and called it politics.  

We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition.  

We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.  

We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.  

Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free.  Amen!

Building for Bombo

Building for Bombo - Educating the Next Generation

Together we can make a difference

How would you feel as a parent if there was not an educational system available for your children?

• The Ugandan school system is so inferior the children do not receive an education to prepare them for high school

What if the lack of an education was going to leave them with a life of poverty and begging to survive?

• 90% of the children in public school fail the national exams so most drop out

Knowing that the longevity of your life was not favorable due to illness and you would not be there for them to help?

• In Bombo Uganda 50% suffer from HIV, many know they will not see their children raised

What if you had to choose between feeding your child ONE meal for the day or sending them to school?

• At Bombo each child receives 2 nutritious meals a day along with a quality education that is Christ centered

Even if there were a school available, the quality of education is so poor that would never qualify to even attend high school let alone a college or university. 

• Donela School in Bombo has a 100% passing rate with average scores in the high 80% and 90%

What if you had no hope?

• Help give them hope for a future • • • Jeremiah 29:11

Pastor Alex and Millie shared their story of the lack of education and the hope for their nation through a Christ. We have embarked on a project that is so much bigger than we are, that we cannot see it completed except through the work that can only be accomplished through God. We hold on to the promise we see in Ephesians 3:20 "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us". We know that a project of this size can only be accomplished with prayer and financial support. God is already at work in Bombo Uganda and lives are being radically changed. We need to continue to move forward and not forget the great work that is being done and how much more can be done by a few to make a difference both here and eternity for so many. Please prayerfully consider giving generously to build a school in Bombo that will radically change a nation. One small step at a time. Let's not stop now!

Thank You from Pastor Alex and Millie

June 2, 2009

Dear Friends,

It has been an exciting three weeks for Alex and I as we have shared with you all in your various capacities and venues what God is doing in our lives, at our church, and in our community.   We just want to say a very genuine deep-felt thank you to you for giving us of your time, your resources, and most of all, your hearts. 

We will definitely keep you in our hearts and prayers.  We also look so forward to sharing more on what God is going to continue to do to transform lives in our community as a result of our partnership.  He who has begun this good work will see to its complete fruition.

Also, we pledge to keep you in our prayers.  Our experience has been that when we give of ourselves in the midst of our own lack and hardship, God has been gracious enough to out-give us!!  That is when most of the miracles we experience happen.  We will pray for your economy needs, your health struggles, your spiritual needs etc.

Thank you for helping us realize more and more of our potential as you partner with us in God’s Kingdom.  We return home with much love and hope from you, and will share with our people how wonderful you all are.

We love you all very much.  In spite of distance and differences in culture and race, we feel and know that we are one family in Christ Jesus.

God bless you.

Alex and Millie Ojera.

PS:  Please feel free to visit our website on http://www.bombopentecostalchurch.org

Pastor Alex and Millie Speaking Schedule

*For R.S.V.P. and/or more information please email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
*Necessary for Community Access, these are gated communities and your name must appear on the guest list.

Bombo Pentecostal Church and Align Ministries in Partnership

Align Ministries

BOMBO PENTECOSTAL CHURCH AND LIFE WITH HOPE

EVALUATING ALIGN MINISTRIES AND THE P.E.A.C.E. PLAN

By Pastor Alex and Millie Ojera and Don and Elaine Herr

Life with Hope:

Life with Hope is a ministry of Bombo Pentecostal Church that gives hope to people infected and affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic.  The ministry is largely supported by Align Ministries under the P.E.A.C.E. plan.  We believe that this ministry has scored a great success.

Many families that are being supported by Life with Hope Ministry were in desperate conditions by the time we took them on.  They were unable to feed themselves, and to meet their basic medical needs, leaving them too weak to look after themselves and their children. The support that we provide per family is minimal, but its impact has been tremendous.  We have seen people that were at the verge of death recover to lead fairly healthy and happy lives.  Many that were unable to work for a livelihood got their strength revived, and are now undertaking small business ventures like mat-making, selling at a market stall, or simply digging their gardens for food.  However the kind of business they do cannot meet all of their needs, therefore keeping them supplied with food supplements and medication is vital to their health.  It is not so much the money as the prayer and moral support that goes with it, that has restored life and hope.  The “clients’” dignity is not robbed by the support offered, but rather renewed as they find new strength to carry out their daily activities.  Thirty dollars a month can only go so far in our economy where inflation is taking its toll and standards of living are rising everyday.  However, this simple supplement in feeding, medication, soap, and school fees speaks volumes in the lives of the clients, and encourages them to keep hope alive.  Case examples are Annet who with help from Life with Hope was able to start up a mat making venture which keeps her going, Milly who sells food items at a market stall, Kisitu who works at a construction site, Zubeeda who sells charcoal, and Mama Daphin who offers public telephone services. 

Life with Hope has gained a reputation and is widely acknowledged not only in our community, but in the entire district for its good work.  We have been encouraged to register it as a faith-based community organization – a process which we have already embarked upon.  This way, the ministry can gain access to benefits – financial and otherwise that go towards HIV/AIDS related issues.  This is a big step towards enabling it to proceed more efficiently and effectively.

The P.E.A.C.E. Plan in Uganda

Through Align Ministries Bombo Pentecostal Church has received so much financially, materially, spiritually, and emotionally.  Align Ministries has provided support with only one requirement; that all of the credit goes to the Church and Jesus Christ. This has been a major reason for the success we are seeing. The people who receive support thank God and come to the Church for their needs; then we can provide not only the material needs, but emotional and most importantly spiritual needs. All of this has left us greatly indebted to God, and more than ever before we are sensing a duty to less privileged people.  Having been greatly blessed by the P.E.A.C.E. program, we realize that we too need to be a blessing.  As such, we are preparing the church to take on the P.E.A.C.E. initiative, and be channels through which God’s love and blessing can flow to others.  Prayerfully by the end of this year we should have a mission field where we can implement what we have learned from P.E.A.C.E. We are excited that the church is responding positively in the area of giving in support of others in this venture.

Part of the support received through Align Ministries is helping us to provide both formal and Christian education to our young people.  Education in Uganda is paradoxically cheap and expensive.  The Government provides almost free primary and secondary education, but the quality is way too low to warrant a worthwhile future for the learner.  The much better option is private school, whose charges are way too high for the ordinary Ugandan to afford.  Amazingly, even with the low charges in Government schools, many parents in our community can hardly afford to send their children to school.

Bombo Pentecostal Church has a vision to set up a primary and secondary school that provides quality Christian based education at affordable fees.  We have begun with a nursery school that has quickly gained a reputation for the quality of its education and other services provided.  The nursery school is called Donela Orange; named after Don and Elaine Herr of Orange county California, for their love and support.  We are also privileged that children of our Life with Hope clients who are in the pre-primary section are schooled with us.   Align Ministries has tremendously partnered with us in this venture by providing playground equipment, school furniture, and regular administrative support towards the school.  Besides raising a generation that will make a difference in the community and nation, a fully fledged primary and secondary school following Donela will go a long way in generating income that will help support the church.

Tertiary and University education is virtually unaffordable to most of our people.  In a country where education matters a lot (without a high level of education, it is almost impossible to get a worthwhile job) many have very little hope of making it in life.  There is a vicious circle of hopelessness where poor families’ fate is predetermined by the inability to support higher education.  Align Ministries with Peninsula Community Church has come behind us to sponsor several of our students into tertiary institutions.  In Africa, one successful member of a family is obliged to support the rest of the family by whatever means possible.  He/She is looked up to as the hope for a future.  We believe that the success of these young people will be a great resource to their own families and the community as a whole.  Two of the people being sponsored are going to Bible school.  One other who works as a support staff at Donela Nursery school is going to do a degree in Early Child Development.  These young people, among others being supported are potentially a great resource to their families, to the church, and to the community.

Align Ministries support to the pastor’s family has freed us from a lot of challenges that would have hindered the various church developments we are experiencing today.  Our ministry has gained a new dimension.  In July 2005 when we first met the Saddleback Church team, Bombo Pentecostal Church had approximately 150 attenders. We now oversee Bombo, Wobulenzi, Luwero, Kazooges Pentecostal Churches with over 800 attenders. We are instituting Classes 101, 201, 301 and 401. We will begin with Class 101 and establish church membership. Pastor Ken Garland from Peninsula Community Church in Palos Verdes, California, part of Don and Elaine’s team this September, will teach on church membership.  We are hopeful to plant another church before the end of this year.

We have seen amazing results in Promoting Reconciliation. As you know Bombo Uganda has a large Nubian population that is Muslim. We have been providing support, treated mosquito nets and food not only to our members but to our Nubian neighbors. On our first large treated mosquito net distribution, we provided nets to our Nubian neighbors before our members received nets. We heard remarks like, why are you treating us so nicely and why are you doing this for us. Only through God could we see His hand so actively moving the Muslim people in Bombo. Bombo Pentecostal Church now has about 300 Muslim background believers who have accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior and have been baptized. This is a miracle since about 15 years ago the Nubians chased Bombo Pentecostal Church from their original location with machetes and knives. Now God has placed them in our midst.

Our experience with the P.E.A.C.E. Plan through Align Ministries has been a major success among us.  We have found that the P.E.A.C.E. plan is about Promoting Reconciliation, Planting Churches, Equipping Servant Leaders, Assisting the Poor, Caring for the Sick, and Educating the Next Generation and the P.E.A.C.E. Plan is really about evangelizing and sharing the love of Jesus Christ; we can confidently say it has positively impacted our community.  We have now been inspired to take the initiative to be channels through which P.E.A.C.E. can be enhanced in Bombo, Wobulenzi, Luwero, Kazooges Uganda, throughout Africa and to the ends of the earth.