"We celebrate all that God is doing here at Living Hope, at the most southerly point of Cape Town. During June/July we have many US and UK teams with us and this week we have about 1,200 children in daily holiday clubs. Altogether we have a team of about 100 leaders serving in these holiday clubs in 5 different geographic regions. As you know, we will be losing our Life Skills Prevention Department funding officially at the end of September as a result of a USAID decision relating to no longer funding Abstinence and Be Faithful programs in South Africa. We will however, be able to roll over some exchange rate gains to keep the funding for the Life Skills Department in place until the end of the year. A couple of days ago I was sending an email to someone about the 'Dollar A Day' program and as I wrote those words I was amazed to see the acronym DAD come out as I typed the capital letters of the 'Dollar A Day' program. It hit me right between the eyes as the Lord said to me, “That is what it is all about, inviting people to become DADs to the children of Africa”. There is such an absence of fatherhood in our communities and you could become a DAD to the children of Africa. Would you be willing to play the fatherly role through the sponsorship of the Life Skills Program and effectively allow these children to have some form of fatherly input through our very dedicated staff? "

 - John Thomas, Chairperson: Living Hope, Living Grace, Living Way

27 January 2010

Dollar-a-Day Update:

John and Avril have given me updates about the Dollar a Day (DAD) campaign. I wanted to pass on the information to those at SMBC who have been a part of this program.

John wanted me to give his thanks and appreciation to SMBC. December was the greatest month of contributions to the DAD program. This was largely due to the SMBC awareness of Living Hope’s funding issues and the generosity of our SMBC congregation, Preschool, Children and Students.

All in all, DAD is going slowly.  Because of the lack of funding near the end of 2009, John went to his King of Kings congregation and asked them to supplement a few months of Life Skills Programs. King of Kings Church came through and has provided funds for January – March. After that, it’s a month-to-month evaluation, watching God provide in His time. If the lack of funding continues to be an issue, the Living Hope staff (EVERYONE, not just Life Skills/Prevention Programs) will take a 15% salary cut; this will further ministry a few more months, maybe even to the end of the year. Avril stressed that this isn’t just a Life Skills Educator Issue; Living Hope is a team, and they’ll all sacrifice for this program that they believe in so much!

Living Hope is VERY grateful for Shades Mountain’s support – financial, sending teams, sending staff (me) and being behind ministry in South Africa. As SMBC continues to focus on its missions emphasis- going and making disciples in all nations– I pray that our Preschool, Children, Students and beyond will grasp the vision of Living Hope and realize the importance of their contributions, whatever they may be.

Please continue to pray for South Africa and the Life Skills Program at Living Hope. God is doing big things in Cape Town and Shades Mountain will be blessed by being a small part of it! Thank you for sending me and allowing me to invest in these people long-term.

Melanie Dill

Living Hope Volunteer