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This fall’s CARES program is Around the World. Students have the opportunity to visit homes in our Global Village, where they learn about the country represented and participate in hands-on activities. From folk dancing in the Philippines to making tortillas in Guatemala, students (and their chaperones!) tour the world in just a few hours. Quick Facts:
To book a CARES event, please contact cares@sifat.org. Short-term Mission Team Leaders: We have updated the team leader info page with new versions of some of the forms. To view this page, click here or go to www.sifat.org/tlinfo.html. The forms are at the bottom of the page. If you have questions, please contact us. For general information about SIFAT’s short-term mission teams, visit our team page. Room is still available for 2009 mission teams. If you are interested in leading a team from your church or being added to an existing team, contact Peggy Walker, walkerp@sifat.org.  Sharing God’s Love in Practical Ways                         April 2008 We hope you’ve had a great April. Spring is in full bloom on campus. You can read summaries of the articles in this month’s Journal below. To download a complete version of the SIFAT Journal, click here or go to our news page. A Chance to Make a Difference – Today almost 30,000 children under the age of five will die of mostly preventable causes. More than 70 percent of the planet does not have clean drinking water or sanitation. While statistics can be overwhelming, there are solutions that can change this– one community at a time! Our Fall Practicum will teach community leaders self-help skills in the context of Christian community development. You can be a part making a difference in our world by providing full or partial scholarships for our students. Contact Kathy Bryson (brysonk@sifat.org) for information about donating scholarships or finding other ways you can get involved with the Practicum. Reflection on a Deaf Teen Retreat – A group of deaf teens from Dallas, Texas, participated in a SIFAT retreat. These students were given an opportunity to learn about other cultures and themselves during their time on campus. Tom Hudspeth, pastor of deaf ministries at Lovers Lane UMC, wrote a reflection about his experience after participating in the slum experience in our Global Village. Learn & Serve Update – Spaces are still available in our Elementary Learn & Serve session (June 29-July 2). The cost is $150 per person. Weeks 1,4 and 9 are already full! Limited space remains during the other weeks. If your youth group is interested in coming, please register soon. Individuals are also welcome to participate. Learn about the elementary session and how to register on the Learn & Serve site. Contact Learn & Serve director Jamie (waldhourj@sifat.org) if you have questions or need more information. Sarah Trust Fund Update – We have almost reached $130,000. Remember, our goal is $200,000 by November 2008. Please consider giving to this trust fund, so that SIFAT can continue sharing God’s love in practical ways in future generations. SIFAT Remembers: Two Groups that SIFAT Targets – This month, SIFAT cofounder Ken Corson remembers his home in Sapecho, Bolivia, and how living with the poor helped his family understand being poor. He explains the term “mid-pew America” and how SIFAT wants to be a bridge between the First and Two-thirds Worlds to empower Christians to help one another. Practicum Alumni Visit – Jhony Bandela, of Hydrabad, India, graduated from the Practicum in 2006. After returning to India, he realized these were classes his wife, Prasuna Gajula, needed to attend. Prasuna graduated last year, and she returned to India prepared to implement what they learned in Grace & Truth Ministries. Prasuna and Jhony returned to the United States this year to visit churches supporting them and to share the new expansion of Grace & Truth Ministries. Claude Hurtt Joins Staff – If you have called the SIFAT accounting office recently, you may have spoken with Claude Hurtt, our new accountant. Claude has taken the place of Scotty Turner, who returned to Florida with his wife Jane to be closer to his father. We wish Scotty and Jane the best, and we welcome Claude. If you have need to contact Claude, feel free to e-mail him (hurttc@sifat.org). From the Desk of Tom Corson – Tom returned from a trip to the Holy Lands. In this month’s column, he shares how being in the Holy Land, where he encountered the effects of civil unrest and tourism, is vastly different than being His Holy Lands. Tom challenges us to no build stone temples in memory of Jesus’ life, but rather, to make our own bodies His temple where we get involved and act out His command of loving our neighbor. Don’t forget that you can donate to SIFAT online. Do you want to find out about ways to get involved with SIFAT? Click here. Are you interested in learning practical skills to address hunger and malnutrition in the developing world? SIFAT is partnering with the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the Sparkman Center for Global Health to offer a 10-day field study course on SIFAT’s international campus near Lineville, Ala. To get the latest information about this year’s first course, please visit our Field Course Study page. You can contact Kathy Bryson (brysonk@sifat.org), international training director, if you have questions or would like information on how to register. SIFAT is partnering with the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and the Sparkman Center for Global Health (www.sparkmancenter.org) to offer periodic seminars/workshops combining the best in academic research with appropriate technologies in a community development context to address basic human needs essential to good health. This two-week intensive program will cover food and nutrition and related issues and is a field experience component of the |
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The dates for our 2009-2010 CARES events are now posted on our website. Visit 
