180/182

180th out of 182 countries.
That is where Sierra Leone is situated on the United Nations Development Programme’s 2009 Human Development Report (http://hdr.undp.org/en/statistics/); Afghanistan and Niger are the only countries ranked lower than Sierra Leone. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is the UN’s global development network; they advocate for change and connect countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people better their lives. The Human Development Report comes out annually and is commonly viewed as listing the best and worst places to live. In fact, the most recent headline involving this report was that the US had dropped and is now ranked the 13th best country to live in.

I looked at this list with great interest as to where our future home country falls in the rankings. As most who read this blog know, Jeneson and I (and yes, the kids too) are currently support raising to go to Sierra Leone, Africa to help start a hospital. We are extremely excited about this newest chapter in our lives and have a great burden for the people of Africa in general and specifically Sierra Leone. So, life in Sierra Leone is rough, people are still struggling 7 years after the end of the civil war. The infrastructure of the country is still in shambles, jobs are scarce, clean water is hard to find, people are struggling to rebuild their lives, their homes and provide for their families. But, with Christ, there is hope.
Global Outreach Mission (www.missiongo.org) oversees over 50 churches and 14 Christian schools. Now, they are reaching out to help provide means for clean water and health care. Prayerfully, in the next month a well digger will be put on a container ship destined for Sierra Leone and in December the first work team will depart for Sierra Leone to start work on rebuilding the hospital. Lord willing, our personal goal is to be in Sierra Leone next fall, but that is dependent on our level of support raised. We recently mailed out support letters and prayer cards and are praying that God works in the hearts of those who received them. This is hard for us, we don’t like asking for money, but are convinced that this is what God has planned for us.

Please do us a favor? If you have received a letter and card, prayerfully consider supporting us. And, if you have not received one, but are interested in support the Lord’s work in Sierra Leone, contact us and we will gladly send one out. As always, if you have any questions about us or the work in Sierra Leone let us know and we will surely talk your ear off as we are passionate about this new endeavor.