You, Me, and the Women & Childrens' Advocacy Centre

Greetings,

Within a matter of a few weeks I will be boarding on a plane to Burtigny Switzerland for a 3 year commitment as the newest member at the Women & Childrens' Advocacy Centre. As I prepare to embark on a journey that God has commissioned me to, I want to invite my family, friends and fellow believers in Christ to partner with me in this ministry. I would first like to briefly share with you how I arrived to this point, the work I am undertaking as a nurse and how I believe you play an important role in this mission.

In the Fall of 2006 I was in a transitional place in my life and God was starting to lead me into some uncharted territory. It was at this time, as I sought His guidance for me to be engaged in sustainable global community health development missions; that I also found peace and a comforting family at a refining time in my life. I was soon after called to Switzerland, where I took a class with Youth With A Mission and unbeknowst to me soon, an answer to where God had been directing me over the past year. I spent the majority of 2008 in Switzerland, as I returned in the Autumn for an internship with the World Health Organization.

It was during this time that God revealed to me the fusion of my passion and the vision of the Women & Children's Advocacy Centre. God had been revealing to me how my giftings, my passion for the weak and needy throughout the nations and how to utilize my nursing skills together for His glory. Out of my own curiousity I sat down with the Director, as we shared for hours we discovered that we were what the other had been searching for! I began to volunteer the next several weeks, surveying the needs of various global mission organizations that serve women & children in at risk populations including; trafficking, poverty, disease prevention and justice issues. In analyzing how these needs were being met, why certain needs were not being met, who was meeting these needs and how can these ministries be effective in meeting their communities needs with a long-term interdependent outcome. It was with this mindset that I was inclined to be involved and the same in which the Centre operates from. The Women & Children's Advocay Centre serves people by bridging any gaps of resources, training and information.

As I will be returning in April to begin as the Community Health Development RN, I will be addressing those issues related to health care needs (sanitation, hygiene, maternal/child health, nutrition); through research, collaborating resources, and equipping community health workers in developing these areas. This will require my participation as a field liason to go to these nations to assess and serve the communities. Translating into a tangible effort, I will first be going to Mali, Africa. A community had opened a nutrition clinic, that had failed to remain to open due to a lack of trained, knowledgeble health care workers. I will be looking at ways to serve this community to re-open this much needed clinic with a trained staff, equipped with relevant resources.

I am seeking your support in this mission. I believe that God has called me to the Women & Childrens' Advocacy Centre and that there is a calling over His body of believers to be engaged in the nations; serving and defending the weak, poor and oppressed. I would like to invite you to share with me in this ministry. Specifically, this would mean:

• Prayer/Encouragement support: This is a battlefield to enter into the nations. I need regular committed prayer and for those called to stand in intercession, willing to pray for me and this ministry. Also, to serve to communicate any word of God (encouragement, etc) that God may be speaking through them. This is a partnership and one cannot stand alone in this ministry.

• Financial support: The monthly support I will need is $2,277. One time donations are helpful as well. Any opportunity to share this need, along with others sharing about the mission and needs for me to be able to do this ministry financially would be helpful.

• Accountability: It is important to have the support of the church to ask the tough questions in my productivity, in the work I am doing. Any opportunity to share with the church and be commissioned by the church in this mission is important to carry this burden and for this to be a shared partnership as a ministry that is dependent on all the parts of the body of Christ be utilized for His purpose and glory!