ONMI News Brief- The Harvest & Mission compounds Restoration initiative!
Dear brothers and sisters in the Great Commission,
Shalom! As always, we want to thank God for all that the Lord has done through you, in helping Operation Nehemiah and my family to alleviate the plight of Christians in South Sudan. I pray and hope that this e-mail finds you well in the Lord!
From the last time we communicated, I promised to provide you with a field report on the progress of the harvest of crops in the Beth Israel farmland, and also in ONMI's mission headquarters, Borongole. In addition to that, I also promised to report on the restoration of basic services in both of the mission compounds in the domains of water and electrical power, which were rendered out of commission after the crisis of July 2016.
Our ground team proudly display the flags of three nations that have tremendously impacted our lives and the work of Operation Nehemiah to advance the Great Commission :
The Ground Momentum : Our administrative, pastoral and technical team headed by our country Director Timothy Levi arrived in Borongole, ONMI's main Mission headwaters to restore basic infrastructure : Water and electricity to the Missions compound
Water is restored in the Nehemiah Field Clinic
Technicians and plumbers restoring and reconnecting solar well
Solar panels are going up
Solar panels are going up.
water started flowing again
Team work
Team work
Team work
Team work
The Lord abundantly provided the funds at the end of 2017 to address the restoration of these vital services to the mission staff who serve in these compounds, and they have endured most of 2017 fetching water from outdated hand-pump boreholes located a long way from the two compounds.
These pictures are from our country director Timothy Levi and his assistant Isaac Tombe. They mobilized a team of technicians yesterday, and they descended on the compounds and began restoring everything, including fixing the tractor and preparing the ground for the next planting season.
It is a blessing to see how the Lord has used our staff to carry out the vision God has given us at Operation Nehemiah Missions, to bring a fundamental transformation both physically and spiritually to the lives of South Sudanese Christians! We are giving them the tools and they are using the tools, and the resources available at their disposal, to implement the vision and bring it to reality for their own sake. They are spiritually growing and maturing in their faith, and physically, they are supporting and providing for their families. Families are stable. Marriages are preserved, children are not languishing, and the church's role in society is relevant.
Do see what they are holding in their hands? these are the first 1000 sacks designed with Operation Nehemiah Missions Agricultural Department logo :" Product of Beth Israel Farmland, EE State South Sudan ." Deuteronomy 8: 1-17
Sim-sim drying stand
My son, Nechemyah Levi, helped me to design the ONMI Agricultural Development label on 1,000 sacks in December 2017, to hold all the grain that has been harvested! As you can see, the team on the ground are doing XYZ activities; harvesting, separating grain from chaff, and sealing the bags. What you see here are the farm products from the Borongole mission compound alone. Tomorrow, they will start storing the grain in Beth Israel farmland, and after that they will give us a complete round up, in kilograms, of sorghum, millet, sweet potatoes, etc. From that point on within the next weeks we will decide how to go about the use of the grain. There is so much food! The harvest has exceeded our expectations. The farm workers have brought their families to help with the process of getting the grain, etc. from the fields to the sacks.
The key focus is to create and lay the foundation for a permanent food bank; while the harvest from one planting season is in the ground, the previous season's harvest is being bagged so that there is an agricultural food surplus enough to feed the entire county, and then the State and country!
The Beth Israel Farm House
Grain in the sacks at the Beth Israel Farmland ready for consumption
The families ( men and women) are working together in the Beth Israel farm, harvesting grain of various varieties : millers, sorghum, sweet potatoes, to stamp out hunger and food import from Uganda
Plenty of Dry and smoked wild meat for consumption
Tractor, fixed parked, done all it could do in 2017 and it is ready to embark on the next work in farm beginning March 2018
Our Country Director Timothy Levi, (l) visited the village of Opari and sat down with Statesman and Elder the Rev. William (Center) to discuss how best Operation Nehemiah Mission can serve his community. He said, they don't need hand out. They thank God for Operation Nehemiah Missions and those who support its vision for spreading the Gospel to the community and encouraging people to work with their own hands to support their families. So he requested support for Bibles, Clean water, and farming tool
Never before we have seen the mango trees in Beth Israel Farmland flower the way they are doing this year.
Our farmer are hardworking men and women. They have been taking care of these trees very well. so we are expecting great harvest this year.
We want to move away from subsistence farming, which only serves a hand- to- mouth, short-term, seasonal food supply. March - June tend to be the months of hunger and poverty for many people because during these months, they have exhausted their food supply from the previous harvest, as they toil and wait for the next harvest, which only comes at the end of May- July.
Solar panels, electrical wiring, and well restoration projects in both compounds have kicked off, beginning with the well in Borongole Mission headquarters. By tomorrow, they will be able to see water flowing in the 5 outdoor facets within the compound. The dry season is settling in, and it will continue until the end of March, when rainfall start up again. So, all the fruit trees planted in the compounds will require watering during this dry season. The wells will provide the water for that purpose, not to mention the blessings fresh and clean water can bring to the staff working the two compounds.
Prayer need for the first - 2nd quarter quarters of 2018:
1- I will be traveling to South Sudan with my son Nechemyah and at least four other
missionaries friends beginning from the last week of February to the first week of March 2018. Mission budget for the trip stands at - $10,000
2- We are working on putting together entrepreneurial hardware store in Nimule for our staff to start generating income locally so that they can support themselves and the community in general .
3- Water bottling system on Mountain Gordon - $18,000. Self supporting income generating initiative
4- Next phase (1st Quarter 2018) preparation for 2018 agricultural initiative - Land preparation, clearance and expansion - $5000
7- The re - installation of the Hydra-form Block making Machine from Gordon Mountain to Borongole - $500.00
8- Restoring and stuffing of the Nehemiah field clinic medical facility Borongole - $5000.00
9- Nehemiah Trumpet Call 97.3 FM Studio construction on Mountain Gordon - $10,000.00
10- Church support toward evangelistic outreach- $3000.00
21"Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen." Hebrews 13: 20-
In His grace
William Levi, Founder and Overseer
Operation Nehemiah Missions'
PO Box 563
Lanesborough MA 01237
www.operationsnehemiah.org
413-7704711
