June 2023: May Field Study Returns to SIFAT Campus

Editor’s Note: Each month, we mail an article with our contribution statements to the previous month’s donors. Click here to download a PDF version.

Written by Kathy Bryson, International Training Director, and Kaitlyn Glenn, Learn & Serve Program Assistant

We recently completed our May Field Study, “World Hunger and Malnutrition: Practical Skills to Make a Difference.” This training equips participants to serve in their communities and empower citizens through public health and community development. Students from the University of Alabama at Birmingham earned college credit when they joined us for 10 days of training. Prior to the UAB students’ arrival, international community leaders finished a week of training. Many UAB participants commented that the May Field Study was not only a valuable experience, but it was enlightening about the issues that so many people face around the world and the ways we can help.

SIFAT co-founder Ken Corson (center left) and SIFAT trainer Bayron Morales lead a class during our May Field Study, which was comprised of 48 participants representing 14 countries.

View More →

Worship on the Water 2023

Worship on the Water at Lake Wedowee this summer …

Our summer will officially kick off with the first weekend of WOW at Lake Wedowee! Please help us spread the word about our nondenominational worship services that will be held throughout the summer from Memorial Day Weekend through Labor Day Weekend at 9 a.m. under the pines at Lakeside Marina.

Each Sunday during the summer, we invite different speakers and musicians to lead our nondenominational, casual service on Lake Wedowee!

View More →

In Memory of our Dearly Loved Brother
— Cecil Edwin Contreras —

In late March, we received word that our beloved engineer in Ecuador, Edwin Contreras, passed away.

Written by Tom Corson, SIFAT executive director

SIFAT Ecuador Engineer Edwin Contreras

We can hardly believe that we were just standing beside you as you directed our SIFAT team building the addition at the church in Machachi two weeks ago. Today, you have gone ahead of us into the arms of God. We can only be happy for you, as you have graduated from this earthly life of pain, sickness and struggle. You have heard the Savior say, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joys of thy Lord!” But, we are sad to say goodbye because we will miss you more than words can express. We have depended on you. When we have needed you, you were there for us and for the children in the impoverished barrios of Ecuador!

Edwin and Miguel, our maestro (project foreman) review blueprints. Miguel will be leading teams in Machachi to finish the construction project there.

Most people would have retired. Although you were sick and your body in pain, you continued to work as the hands of Christ. You felt God’s deep call to help the suffering children. You were faithful to that call until the very end of your earthly life.

View More →

Happy Easter!

It’s Friday, but Sunday is Coming

More than 2,000 years ago, followers of Christ were hopeless. On a Friday, their Savior had been crucified on a cross, the most terrible way to die. The message for Christians is hope. It’s Friday, but Sunday is coming — and with it is resurrection and life eternal! God gave HOPE to the world for those who believe and have faith in Him.

Isaiah 61:1b tells us why Christ came. “He has sent me to bring good news to the poor, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor.“ This all was sealed by the resurrection of Jesus, which we celebrate every Easter.

View More →

March 2023: SIFAT Intern’s Appropriate Technology Learning Curve

Editor’s Note: Each month, we mail an article with our contribution statements to the previous month’s donors. Click here to download a PDF version.

Written by Madison Gnoose, Learn & Serve Intern

Appropriate technology is the most intimidating part of my internship so far. I did not spend much of my life before SIFAT working with my hands or with tools, because someone else was always around to do those sorts of things. Plus, I have always felt more comfortable in academics. Picture someone who majored in wildlife, fisheries and aquaculture. Do you see someone in a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service uniform tracking bears, running through the forest looking for endangered woodpeckers or wearing waders while wrestling alligators and catching man-eating catfish. Now, erase that image! I was the girl who used artificial intelligence algorithms to better guide coastal conservation and understand waterbird migration and wrote manuals for citizen science water quality monitoring groups. I sat at my computer all day. Halfway through my junior year was the first time I considered learning additional skills and using my ecological knowledge to help real suffering human beings, not only wildlife. It became my dream to help developing communities in agriculture, which meant I needed to learn these skills first.

After graduating college, as I read over SIFAT’s website and prepared to apply for this internship, I remember thinking, “Learning about poverty, global hunger and how I can help? Yes, that’s exactly what I want to do! Leading youth in loving those in need as God loves us all? Amen! Gardening? Amazing! Constructing water filtration systems, fuel efficient wood-burning stoves and other technologies? Well …”

Madison Gnoose is one of our campus interns this year, serving alongside our Learn & Serve staff.

View More →