Love is in the Air
The month of February seems to have an extra emphasis on Love. Patti’s recent trip to Tanzania also had a prominent theme of Love. The eyeglass ministry team that served the Mbuguni area through MOST Ministries (Mission Opportunities Short Term) was filled with Christ’s love that flowed to the Next Life students and staff, the translators, the clients that came looking for better eyesight and even those in public spaces that were there to serve them. Reports from NLF staff and board members are that the students are thriving because they are feeling God’s love on campus and they are being fed. (If we’ll admit it, we take our abundant supply of food for granted!) The safety, celebrations, reunion with friends and worship times were all wonderful gifts of love from our loving Father above.
Please be in prayer if you think you would like to join us on a mission trip next year. Contact Patti @ nextlifefound@gmail.com with any questions
God’s Goodness
It’s overwhelming to think how God has blessed Next Life Foundation over the years. In 2013 Laurence and Patti started with an idea of teaching young people a skill in a Christian atmosphere, so they could support themselves. Today there are almost 100 tailoring graduates and around 20 carpentry alumni. We now have our own campus with running water in the bathroom! We just completed a three-room building to house the guard’s sleeping quarters, a temporary office, and a kitchen. The perimeter wall is about one-third completed and our dreams for expansion continue.
(in progress)
God is faithful to incline the hearts of the young people towards Him. Morning Glory and Evening Glory are the morning and afternoon devotional times to thank the Lord for provisions, safety and His Son who sacrificed His life for our sins. Students volunteer to lead these worshipful times in prayer, singing and scripture reading. When Pastor Elia has a conflict on Fridays and can’t lead the hour-long devotion time, Obed, our former student who is now our assistant tailoring teacher, prepares the lesson, songs and prayers and does a great job teaching and leading the students and staff. May God continue to lead them in the Holy Spirit on their faith journeys.
Next Life Mission Statement
Over the past number of months, the board of directors has struggled with revising our mission statement. As I’ve said so many times, “life is so hard in Tanzania”. As an American, it takes some time to wrap our heads around all the layers of difficulty. We help our students, their families & our staff in their lives outside the classroom, which we didn’t anticipate at our inception. We have taken a number of “our kids” for medical care and paid for staff healthcare, financial support when their homes were unlivable, small “loans” to start a small business for the single mom, and the list goes on and on. Sharing more information with you is our board secretary, Dave Butterworth.
Blessings, Patti
Over the years I have served on numerous non-profit Board of Directors. I have seen first-hand how important the mission statement of an organization is guiding the ministry toward the shared goal. A good mission statement, kept in mind on each board decision, keeps the organization on track even when there are changing administrators or board members. When board action no longer follows the mission statement, the choices are to return our actions to the existing mission or rewrite the statement.
Next Life has not experienced major board or leadership changes and we have always been in full agreement in how we follow the direction of the ministry. However, our mission has expanded to include the physical needs of some of the Tanzania board, staff, students and at times the families of students. Therefore, it was time for a review of how we were serving and then adjusting the statement to match.
The initial NLF Mission Statement was:
“To provide Christian and vocational skills to the community, focusing on the under privileged mamas and young people in Tanzania.”
The on-site director vets all the personal requests and presents those which they deem genuine to the American board for consideration. We use available funds to fulfill these requests knowing that we can only grant what God has provided through our generous supporters. The school needs are our priority and only twice have we not had enough funding to provide for the school’s monthly operating requests, and then only a small part of their request was not available. God has faithfully provided for the needs of the school and for most of the special need requests.
To reflect this expansion of our mission to Tanzania we have approved the following revised Mission Statement:
“To share Christ with the people of Mbuguni, Tanzania through vocational education, while also demonstrating God’s love by providing funding, when available, for students and staff in life crisis situations.”
As the ministry has grown, our American supporters have grown also. We continue to be amazed and thankful for the blessings for His people in Tanzania who are touched by your generous donations. We also want to be perfectly clear about how your gifts are being spent and again to express our sincere gratitude to you for making Next Life Foundation ministry possible.
