Threads of Hope

SEWING FOR GENERATIONS 2012
In just four short years it will be our 20th year of ministry in Kenya, East Africa. Our beginning lead us to the wilderness areas of Maasailand, Naikarra, Ngoswani and the Maasai Mara. In these outlying areas, changes come slowly. Your giving and prayers and the Lord has kept Threads of Hope sewing ministry present there since 1996. the sewing ministry growth has been more prominent near the cityareas, Nairobi and Nakuru. Our heart has always been to reach the unreached in thewilderness areas. The growth of Threads of hope in Kenya has encouraged those in the remote villages to have HOPE for their own sewing projects.!!.Nearing 20 years of ministry these localities have had population growth. Much has been done through the churches and mission partners to help in the growth of these small communities of Maasai family groups. We have hoped and prayed for sometime that we would be able to establish a sewing training center and C0-Op in Maasailand . We now have the greatest opportunity to erect a sewing center - Co-op building on a Maasai Project in Ngoswani, a 100 acre demonstration plot where our Maasai Partners donated 2-1/2 acres to us to construct this outreach. The project land has been fenced and has been underway for several years now. Housing, barns, living quarters, quest housing and gardens are in place. It has become essential for the Maasai to learn new skills as the government is now allocating lines of demarcation by family groups and the land is being fenced, thus eliminating their old ways of nomadic life and free-ranging their cattle sheep and goats which is their livelihood. This project is to teach new skills to be able to survive in the future on smaller tracts of land.

The Maasai have prayerfully asked us to build this Center on the front of the property facing the main road where tourist will be able to see and stop to purchase goods the women/widows make. A blessing that will make this a sustainable project forgenerations to come. There are 10 widows wanting to start. An African lady named Agatha, a skilled sewer is willing to lead this Center. She currently has her own sewing shop in Narok, one hour away and is willing to move to this location to train in sewing and business skills. Agatha’s husband is skilled in computers. This project has all the potential to be very fruitful by ministering and training many for miles around. They will come from far distant villages and take these skills back for others to learn along with the Gospel, while learning the Word through personal involvement. Africans raising Africans God’s way. Praise the Lord!
Plans for the 1,500+ square ft. building and layout are made including a large front porch with roof and rest stop bathrooms. Construction is of quarried solid stone and metal roof. The budget is $25,000 - $18,000 for the building - $5,000 for equipment - $2,000 for the first year operating costs. Our colleagues and good friends for 16 years, Maasai Pastor William Luka and American Dr. Marty Graber will oversee the construction. We plan follow up training by Threads of Hope - Africa sewing teams from other areas of Kenya and teams from the U.S. and Canada. Profits from this center will be to support the growth of the Maasai sewing ministry and other new sewing outreaches established by them.

Some of the needed equipment will be sent in a container later this summer. A local electric company here is providing all necessary wiring. (as we are told electricity iscoming soon) We have received 1/3 of the funding. We need $17,000 more. I believe if all that have helped us in the past will give to this worthy project, it will be accomplished Africans with a new vision and a new way of bringing the Gospel in the wilderness. Remember our mothers and grandmothers had treadle machines in almost every home here in the U.S. and the country was being built on godly values with HOPE for a better future. Let us return to that hope by extending a hand up not just a hand out and maybe God’s love that compels us to do these things will reflect back to the good ole USA where we desperately need his love to abound. By giving in His love, we are loved; there is no greater gift than that which God has given us, namely, Jesus Christ.

Col.2:2 “My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love , so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in who are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge”

Al Barrett
Ministry Director
1297 Bayshore Blvd.
Dunedin, Fla. 34698

(727) 403-2033

ThreadsofhopeMVI@aol.com

www.Threadsofhope.org

A Ministry of Missionary Ventures International

“Together we are Wrapping the world with Threads of Hope"