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Lois Ooms
Lois began serving in Kenya in 1969, teaching high school students and elementary
school teachers. She worked with the youth of the African Evangelical Presbyterian
and assisted the Tei wa Yesu (Compassion of Jesus) Health Center in the finance
department. In 1987, Lois began a community health/evangelism program, which
included health teaching, digging shallow wells, AIDS education etc.
Lois then worked in Eritrea for nearly two years training traditional birth attendants
and community health workers as well as presenting the gospel to Muslim women.
When the government took over the Mehrete Yesus hospital, she returned to Kenya
to work at the AIC Litein Hospital as community health coordinator. There,
the traditional birth attendant training and community-based deworming programs
expanded rapidly, reaching remote parts of Kenya. The gospel, which is integrated
into the health teaching, has helped in church planting and church growth in several
areas.
In July 2002, Lois turned over the programs to her colleagues and focused on training
both nationals and missionaries to begin simple, low-cost, community programs. As
Kenyans grew in their ability to facilitate the training program, requests from
other countries of Africa and the Middle East grew.
In January 2008 Lois relocated to the U.S. to be more available for training and
consultation with those interested in transformational development in war torn and
creative access countries. She will also be working to put the materials in a more
user friendly format.
Praise and Prayers Items Lois J. Ooms July 2008
Thank the Lord that I have been able to get 5 lessons in a rough draft; I'm not
sure how many lessons there will be as some will be combined and a few new ones
added, but it could be around 40 - 50; so I have a ways to go. Pray that I will
be able to continue making progress.
The facilitators in Kenya postponed their plan to work on lessons until sometime
in July. Pray that they may be able to meet and have good ideas.
The week of July 14 I will be doing a couple of workshops in North Carolina for
missionaries on motivating the hopeless and also avoiding dependency among the poor;
the 2 topics are very closely related.
Pray for plans to do a couple of workshops on the Cherokee reservation in N. Carolina
the week of July 27.
Thank you for your prayers for wisdom about plans to travel to Africa. Several opportunities
are coming together in Feb. and March next year to lead a seminar in Kenya for refugees
of a creative access country, and another in Madagascar, followed by a meeting of
mission leaders in S. Africa.
Pray particularly for those organizing the seminar in Madagascar as this could have
a far reaching impact in that country as people from several churches and groups
will meet together. If this one goes well, that could encourage people in neighboring
countries to also organize themselves.
In between these things I will visit a couple programs in Kenya and also a few friends
and attend a conference with people from many creative access countries in Africa.
Plans are also moving forward to lead a transformational development seminar for
women on the Cree reserve in Alberta and work editing some of the lessons with a
colleague who works in Kenya, and will be on home assignment in Calgary.
Continue to pray for the young lady working in an unreached area of Tanzania. A
recent E mail was very encouraging as she shared some of her own reflections on
what is happening and also told of some opportunities to encourage other young people
also beginning their mission work.
I am trying to put together plans to visit another supporting church in Grand Rapids,
as well as follow up good discussions I had with leaders of the International Development
Department at Calvin College, and meet with a group struggling with dependency issues
in an orphanage in Malawi.
I hope to be able to visit some supporting churches in the Philadelphia and Washington
D.C. area in October. Pray that plans of various churches etc. will fit well together.
Update on Lois Ooms
Violence in Kenya and Tibet, starvation in Darfur, unrest in Somalia, Chad, Sudan,
stories of poverty, disease, HIV/AIDS, tribe against tribe, religion against religion,
and in the midst of it all hurting, suffering people not realizing that as image
bearers of God they are crowned with honor and dignity. Holistic transformational
development speaks to these kinds of issues—this is the challenge before me—to
motivate people to see and use the resources God has given them to begin to solve
their problems in a small low cost way. The other side of my work is talking with
people from the West about—interacting with the poor so as to give dignity
rather than create dependency, issues of sustainability so programs continue rather
than fall apart when funding is reduced, empowering the community take the lead
in making plans, etc.
It is good to be in my own place and unpack some exotic 'treasures' that have been
stored for 10 years. Slowly I am trying to figure out not only how to 'survive'
in the U.S. but also to enjoy it. The choices are too many—not just a telephone
but which company, long distance, E mail, cell phone company, which type of plan
and on and on—just to talk to people!
Then there is the cereal aisle in the grocery store; I expect 2 choices of cereal—corn
flakes or weetabix; It is the small things that are confusing—how to get out
of shopping center parking lot, swipe a debit card in a machine, write the date
on a check—for me the 'right' way is to write the date first and then the
month and on and on. To make a decision about cost, I often convert dollars to Kenya
shillings in the store. Another big challenge is to begin to understand what are
people talking about—ipods (I know pea pods), blackberries (of course something
to eat), red hats (why make a point of the color of a hat).
This is not yet retirement for me—I am still a full time missionary only based
in the U.S. Officially I have a 6 month furlough to settle in. Later this spring
I will begin traveling in the U.S. to speak at churches and mission conferences.
I will also be leading some workshops for those involved in missions or going overseas
on topics related to sustainability, dealing with the poor, avoiding dependency
etc.as well as beginning to explore how some of these principles may be adapt to
dealing with native Americans or the poor in our country; later this year I'll see
which countries may be ready for me to visit—either to give advice or to lead
a training seminar. Currently I have contacts in 13 other countries of Africa and
the Middle East—most of them war torn or creative access countries which are
closed to traditional missionaries. Somewhere in my 'spare' time I will begin thinking
about how to put the training material into a more user friendly format. An on going
challenge is also to adapt materials with Biblical teaching in an Islamic context.
Even as I have been settling in, I've been answering many E mails from D.R. Congo,
the islands of the Indian Ocean, Tanzania, Malawi, N. Africa, the Middle East, Zimbabwe,
S. Africa, and of course many from friends and colleagues in Kenya who are confused
and hurting because of the recent violence. Some need encouragement, others are
perplexed about how to move forward with community programs, others find it hard
to move forward as people in the slums have scattered to various camps out of fear.
In Kenya things are now quiet but underneath there is a lot of tension as people
wait to see how this 'power sharing' will work; I hear some unofficial reports that
people are preparing themselves—just in case it does not work. It will take
years to bring healing and trust in relationships that were torn apart in a few
days.There are some positive things happening on a small scale; several of the colleagues
with whom I worked were able to take the principles of transformational development
and apply them to the tribal tensions—by God's grace their communities were
peaceful; now they have a huge challenge as others come to ask their help to bring
peace to neighboring communities. I also hear some reports of Kenyan churches mobilizing
their resources to reach out to the displaced.
Pray that even with the difficult economic times, the Lord will provide the finances
needed for the continued work in Kenya and also for my personal support; while in
Kenya I had a rent free house at the hospital but now need a housing allowance.
Continue to pray as the message of the death and resurrection of Christ is made
real to hurting people through transformational development.
Lois J. Ooms