NEW from World Mission

June 2011

In Honduras we send four medical/dental teams and a veterinarian team annually. We have sent water well drilling teams four times a year to the EL Paraiso District; however, we anticipate new drilling sites for the near future in collaboration with the Diocese of Honduras.  This program, besides the drilling, includes a water hygiene teaching program, an ESL program, VBS, and introductions to micro enterprise projects.

We are sending church planting teams to the Nueva Esperanza area and have built a multi-purpose building to house the newly formed home churches as well as a community center which offers courses in the trades. These teams also award scholarships each year to deserving students at the high school and university level.

The Diocese of West Texas has formed partnerships with two dioceses in Mexico: Northern Mexico and Southeast Mexico.  

In Northern Mexico we have vocational training projects and VBS in Piedras Negras.  We have introduced the "Godly Play" program in the Monterey area.  Currently, given security issues in northern Mexico, we do not send short-term teams to this area; however, ministries initiated in partnership with the local diocese continue to flourish. 

In Southeast Mexico we send a medical/dental team, a veterinarian team, and a program of continuing education for the clergy annually. We also have introduced the tapestry program for the women there as well as baking and animal husbandry projects for micro enterprise. We have two full-time missionaries in Southeast Mexico who work with children and church-planting ministries.  The Water Ministry has begun working in Southeast Mexico and plans to extend its ministry to other areas of need in the region.

In Uganda the Women's Vocational Training Center in the Diocese of Nebbi, initially funded by DWTX, is now self-sustaining and continues to add new curricula.  A revolving bank program for the women to start micro businesses serves more than 150 groups, and now a scholarship program which provides secondary and university education to children of diocesan clergy has three new university scholars.  A tapestry program has also been instituted in Nebbi, and a nation-wide tapestry workshop will be hosted in July.  Teams supporting these projects typically go out two to three times yearly. 

Threads of Blessing (tapestry) ministry has begun work in Hoima (Diocese of Bunyoro-Kitara) and Erussi (Diocese of Nebbi) and works with Uganda’s Women of Purpose ministry.

Also in Hoima a radio ministry originates that reaches thousands of people in the region with the Good News as shared by the Bishop of Bunyoro-Kitara.

We send, each year, family teams to work in the summer youth camps in Russia and Belarus. We also send teams in the winter to work in the orphanages that are connected with the camps. We are helping them set up computer programs and learn better farming techniques.  We sponsor several transitional homes and a new home for single mothers in St. Petersburg which help the orphans and young mothers integrate into society.   In Minsk a safe house program teaches life skills and provides opportunities to develop social skills with on-site counseling available. 

Just this past year we were offered a wonderful opportunity to fund a beautiful children's Christian publication that now is available in both Russia and Belarus.  Through this media children and their families may enjoy the stories and games while learning more about the Gospel. 

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Haiti has been a focus of Episcopal Relief efforts, and DWTX disbursed about $130,000 for this purpose in 2010.  We have a long-term missionary doing medical work there, and a short-term team will work this summer in a partner school while doing exploration for future medical teams.