We’re starting a new weekly blog post – This week! One frequently asked question we receive is what do you do when the international practicum isn’t going on or it isn’t the summer. We want to give you some insight into what happens all during the year at SIFAT, so on Mondays, we’ll post what’s going on our international campus in Alabama, what short-term mission teams are on international trips, where SIFAT staff are speaking and other items of interest.

So…this week:

Wisconsin UMVIM team – We have a work team on campus all week renovating and repairing the duplex, education building and possibly more. We’re so thankful they made the trip south to help us.

Monday, March 28: CARES event in our Global Village

Tuesday, March 29: Executive Director Tom Corson speaks at the Anniston Noon Rotary meeting in Anniston, Ala.

Wednesday, March 30: SIFAT representative participates in a missions event at Western Heights Baptist Church in LaGrange, Ga.

Friday, April 1: CARES event in our Global Village.

Friday, April 1 – Saturday, April 2: Learn & Serve Retreat – Liberty Crossings UMC

Friday, April 1 – Sunday, April 3: International Training Director Kathy Bryson is attending the Global Health & Humanitarian Summit at Emory University.
Sunday, April 3: SIFAT founders Ken and Sarah Corson are speaking at Union Church for UMW Day.

We have two YouTube videos to share with you. The first video shows some of the well drilling that Bolivar Sanga is leading in communities near Ixiamas. Troy, our summer intern, shared about the drilling in his previous posts. SIFAT learned how to use this manual drilling system from Water for All International. If you have been reading our blog for a few years, you may remember in Spring 2008 when Ixiamas intern Addison traveled to Santa Cruz to learn how to drill from Terry Waller of WFA. Since then, SIFAT has been teaching this technology in the Practicum and Field Study trainings.

The second video was made by internado director Rachel Parsons Tenorio, Mateo (Rachel’s husband) and her mother, Marcia Parsons. It will give you an overview of a short-term trip to Ixiamas – from traveling to seeing the town to current projects around the internado (boarding home). If you are interested in taking a team to Ixiamas, please contact Peggy (perdidopeg@aol.com) or Ivan (romani@sifat.org).

Short-term mission teams, our international field study training participants and Learn & Serve youth groups have been coming and going since May. Wow! There are so many different perspectives and experiences to share, but SIFAT needs your help.

Did you go on a life-changing trip to Bolivia, Ecuador or Zambia? Are you a student, chaperon or youth leader who spent a day and night in our Global Village and served in our local community? Or, maybe as a university student or Haitian community leader you learned simple, appropriate technologies that can save lives and meet basic human needs. If so, we would love to hear your story.

Submissions for the SIFAT Journal or SIFAT blog may be made by emailing your story (with a photo!) to Marie, lanierm@sifat.org. For possible inclusion in the Summer 2010 issue of the Journal, please send your article in no later than July 2, 2010.