The Good Works Program was initiated by action of the Council of Elders in August 2003. I was honored to be asked by the Council to coordinate this program, and I would like to report in this article on the progress of the program to date.

The purpose of the Good Works Program is to provide an organized outlet for members of the Church who have the desire, time and ability to organize local fund-raising efforts to benefit members of the Church all around the world who have special needs that are not addressed in the regular budget subsidies from the home office.

Though we do support our congregations and members in many areas of the world with hundreds of thousands of dollars of budgeted subsidy, needs do arise from time to time that are in addition to those subsidies. Over the years, we have heard from members who desire to help in these circumstances, thus the program.

In the 15 months since the program began, the generous, loving efforts of many brethren have fully or partially funded eight projects. These projects have already or will soon benefit the members and congregations in the Philippines, Ghana, Kenya, Cameroon, Togo and Rwanda. Other projects are sure to arise in the near future.

Later in this article you can read reports from our coordinators in each of these areas on how the projects to date have impacted and benefited our brethren.

God's people are generous and caring. This has been shown anew in the response to the creation of the Good Works Program. On behalf of the members who are on the receiving end of the projects, I thank everyone who has contributed through direct involvement in these projects and prayers for God's blessings on the program. The details of the Good Works Program and the individual projects are presented and updated at the "Resources" tab of the United Church of God Web site: ucg.org.

Individuals Can Give to International Fund and Assistance Fund

I would like to make clear one aspect of the Good Works Program that some may not have understood. It was not designed by the Council of Elders as a restricted account to be funded by direct cash donations from members or other supporters of the work of the Church. That is, we do not encourage individuals to send direct cash offerings to be used by the Good Works Program.

If an individual wishes to make such cash donations as part of their offerings, over and above the basic tithe, in order to help fund the needs of our brethren in less prosperous areas of the world, we encourage them to send their donation to the generic "International Fund" of the Church (without specifying a particular country or region).

We very much appreciate the ongoing donations to the "Assistance Fund" and the "International Fund." We anticipate that these donations will continue, and have budgeted accordingly. For those inclined to give donations to the "International Fund," we request that there be no further restrictions other than to say "International Fund" either on the memo line of their check or an accompanying note.

It is best not to further designate the contribution by country, since, as described above, the ongoing needs of those areas have already been budgeted, both in the income and expense budgets. It is possible that more contributions could be received as designated for a particular country than there are legitimate needs or ways to responsibly spend the monies in that particular country. In such cases, if the donor designates the funds as only to be used for that particular country or region of the world, the Church is in the position of having funds that it cannot use, thus potentially depriving other areas of those funds and creating additional red tape.

To repeat, if individuals wish to give or continue giving cash offerings to help finance the efforts to help members (and carry out the ongoing work of the Church), they may contribute to the already-established "Assistance Fund" and/or the "International Fund" (without specifying a particular country or region). Such donations will be used to underwrite the subsidies that are included in the regular budget of the Church (which amount, as stated above, to hundreds of thousands of dollars per year).

Group Fund-Raising for Good Works Program

On the other hand, if you would like to help with the Good Works Program, here's how to proceed. Following these steps will help to make this program work smoothly. Thank you for your help!

1. Survey the list of projects described at the "Good Works Program" area under the "Resources" tab of United Church of God Web home page (ucg.org).
2. Work with your local pastor to engage in the fund-raising efforts, and make it clear that the effort is separate from tithes and offerings.
3. Send a check to the home office to the attention of "Tom Kirkpatrick, Coordinator of Good Works Program," indicating the project or projects that the funds were dedicated to. Please indicate in a note that accompanies the check that any surplus funds (over and above the amounts needed to meet the needs of that particular project) can be used to help with other "Good Works Program" projects. Otherwise, the Church will need to return the surplus.
4. If there is not one particular project you wish to limit your support to, please indicate in the note accompanying the check that the funds can be used to support whichever current or future projects are deemed most urgent by the coordinator of the Good Works Program.

Fund-Raisers

In the brief history of the Good Works Program, quite a variety of fund-raisers have been done by members in local congregations. From car washes to concerts to publication of a Sabbath/Holy Day cookbook to silent auctions to penny rolls, brethren in numerous congregations have shown energy and creativity in devising ways to support the program.

Pictured here are a couple of those efforts.

Now let's hear from our coordinators (senior pastors) of the Church's operations in areas that have or soon will benefit from the projects that have been listed to date.

Ghana (Melvin Rhodes)

The Agona congregation of the United Church of God is delighted and truly thankful for the generosity of members of the Church in the United States who helped raise the funds for their new church roof.

Agona is a village in Ghana, a country in West Africa. With help from people in the United States, members there were able to begin work on a church building some time ago, but were not able to finish it. As most of the members in the area are subsistence farmers earning little, if any, cash, there was no hope of finishing the building without outside help. That financial assistance was raised through the Good Works Program and the roof was finished in time for the Feast of Tabernacles 2004.

By the middle of December, the Ghanaian Church members will also be benefiting from another Good Works Program fund-raiser. Money was raised to help with the purchase of a van for the Church office in Kumasi, Ghana. The van will be used on a regular basis to help isolated members get to church services each week. It can also be used on an occasional basis for other church needs.

Many thanks are extended by the Church members in Ghana to their brothers and sisters in the United States for their warm generosity.

Philippines (David Baker)

A Good Works project was initiated in the Philippines to help our unemployed or underemployed members better their standard of living. We have tried to do this by providing short-term loans to some members, educating a couple of young adults and providing a few grants to help some of our members start a small business.

As an example, funds were provided for a member, Donato Mogar, in San Quentin, Pangasinan. Mr. Mogar is elderly and disabled and his wife is also disabled. He had served as secretary of the local community for several years, but he lost his job last year when the meetings were moved to Saturdays. Some Good Works funds were provided to Mr. Mogar to start a small home-based grocery store. His wife also helps provide income for the family by selling meat in the local market. Mr. Mogar is very grateful for the help that he has received, which allows him to support his family.

Here are some quotes from a couple of Philippine members regarding the Good Works Program.

"Last summer was a really trying time for me and my family. With our down economy and my daughter having dialysis two times a week, naturally our income was less than our expenses. So I was really hoping and praying for business deals that would help us make ends meet. After a year of fervent prayer and work, God granted us the multinational account we have been praying for.

"Since it was a big company, we had to advance most of the expenses for the services we offered. Unfortunately, we barely had money. We asked some friends for help, but they were also in need of money. I was left no choice but to borrow from a lending company. But the interest was so high my daughter thought it was an unwise decision. Thankfully, our church has a Good Works Program which helps people in need...

"God has been so kind and merciful, and we are very thankful to Him for answering our prayers and using Good Works as an instrument for supporting our need.

"On behalf of my family, we earnestly express our appreciation to Good Works of UCG. Thank you so much."

Evelyn B. Soriano

"My family and I would like to express our sincere gratitude to the Good Works Program. Without it, and the assistance from the Church as well as from other brethren, life could have been very miserable for our family as we traversed through the unfamiliar financial difficulties.

"With four kids all in school, we were able to negotiate the 'no income gap' without the kids stopping school, which could have been a traumatic experience for them. Until now they are making good with their studies. Yes, there were days it was too dark at home, when the electric company cut off our light, no gas, no water, no food. But our pastor... has been very helpful and quick to empathize [with] our predicament. There were times, in fact, many times, when I had to rush to [his] office in order to send to my family in the province their next meal's budget.

"What we've gone through could have been too grim to remember without the assistance from the Church. I learned later it came from the Good Works Program. All of my children are blessed with their performance at school and they know the Good Works Program helped them [continue in] school.

"After a few long months we are now recovering to a level enough to provide for my family. The opportunities which are now opening are just unexpectedly great!

"Thanks to the Good Works Program. The Good Works Program is truly a work of love!"

Arnel G. Angcos and family

Kenya (John Elliott)

The new Good Works Program has already significantly benefited our brothers and sisters in East Africa. Generous contributions to two projects this year have provided faithful attendees with humanitarian aid and a much-needed church building and office.

The long rains failed in East Africa this year, decimating hopes for the garden crops most members rely on for food. The first Good Works project provided emergency grain relief during July in the form of maize. It was distributed to all our hungry members in the region until crops finally began to grow.

During the month of August a second aspect of the project also kicked in. Since members typically depend on surface water of poor quality for drinking and cooking, our leaders purchased and distributed stainless steel water purification tanks to all member households. A family can now pour their normal water into the top of the tank and receive clean drinking water through the spout below.

A third aim of the project was to decrease the number of incidences of mosquito-borne malaria in the region. Recurring malaria infections are common among the brethren, causing sickness and sometimes death. In mid-November the distribution of insecticide-treated mosquito nets was made to all member households in East Africa. Malaria can only spread if a mosquito feeds on an infected person and then on a healthy person. Since sleeping environments generally have no protection against mosquitoes, the disease spreads quickly and mainly at night. However, the chain of infection is broken when an engorged mosquito makes its last landing on an insecticide-treated net. Such nets now cover the beds of our members and their children.

A fourth application of the Good Works project was to provide artemisia tea leaves as an antidote for malaria victims. A German company trained our five deacons to plant and harvest an Africanized version of the artemisia plant whose herbal properties very quickly remove the effects of malaria from patients. We purchased two kits containing hybrid seeds and have begun growing plants for distribution to our members.

The African brethren are very appreciative to those who have contributed to the enhancement of their physical lives through these programs. Various initiatives like the garage sale at the Mansfield, Ohio, congregation were instrumental in funding this Good Works project.

A second Good Works project focused on our need for property and buildings to house a central office and church meeting facility in Migori, Kenya. Our main office is in the Kenyan capital city of Nairobi where two deacons live. Yet three of our five deacons live in Migori and oversee the majority of our congregations in East Africa from there. The local congregation outgrew our leased building and it has been difficult to find the facilities we need to do the work of God in that area.

Consequently, deacons John Otieno and Moses Meraba found suitable land to purchase that will meet our needs there for years to come. Thanks to a fund-raiser at the Feast in Wisconsin Dells, most of the funding for this project was raised in a single event.

The land has been purchased and fencing is being erected around it. Soon we will begin construction of a church hall and office on the site. The land also provides us with a regional site on which to grow the artemisia plants that can treat our malaria-infected members.

Deacon John Otieno wrote on behalf of the Southwest Region congregations:

"First and foremost, I would like to express the thankfulness of the brethren concerning the relief grains and the land. In fact they appreciated it very much... [the brethren] have been blessed at the time of need, especially during the time of hunger. It is nice to have brethren with the same mind to help, and also for those who volunteered to contribute for that program also. May our Almighty God bless you all richly and give you long-lasting life. The brethren say, 'Keep up Good Work which is in you.'

"Second to that, they are also happy with the plan... to help them have their own church hall in Migori which will also help us serve from the centre of all congregations in the Southwest. We pray that our beloved Father will also keep those who have started that Good Work to continue with it till it be completed, may more blessings come to them abundantly. This hall and the land will help the Church in the future, too."

French Africa—Cameroon, Togo, Rwanda (Joel Meeker)

In several African countries our brethren have difficulty finding suitable halls. This is either because meeting halls simply don't exist, or because the price is too high. In several places we have rented apartments for the use of the church, but this is relatively expensive in the long run and occasionally presents other difficulties.

In addition, most African governments expect churches to own their own buildings, and resist accrediting church organizations that don't have their own building. The governments are usually somewhat repressive and they don't trust organizations that don't have a fixed base because it might be hard to find them if the government wanted to intervene in some way. This has caused us long delays in gaining official recognition and in some cases has meant the inability to be legally recognized.

This government recognition is necessary for us to operate legally in these countries (have bank accounts, have phone lines or post office boxes in the name of the Church). Not being recognized can place our brethren at some risk of being mistaken for belonging to a secretive or illegal entity.

Cameroon

Two congregations in Cameroon are in need of church buildings, one in the economic capital of Cameroon, the city of Douala, and the other in the extreme north of the country in the village of Yagoua. This project will allow the Church better legal status, create a better reputation for our brethren in Cameroon as well as permitting them to attend church functions in an adequate facility.

Rwanda

Currently the congregation in Giti, Rwanda, is meeting in a bamboo structure on a member's property. However with recent growth, they are at the point of outgrowing this venue, and the local authorities have informed them that if they wish to operate legally, they must build a structure on other, Church-owned property, not in someone's yard.

Not being recognized can place our brethren at some risk of being mistaken for belonging to a secretive or illegal entity. This is presently the case in Rwanda.

The members in Rwanda, in spite of very difficult economic circumstances, are faithful in contributing their tithes and offerings, which do not cover the expenses of the Church in their country. This project will permit the congregation to purchase a plot of land and to contract a suitable building of concrete block.

Your contribution to this project will allow the Church better legal status, create a better reputation for our brethren in Rwanda as well as permitting them to attend church functions in an adequate facility. Thank you for your help!

Togo

Currently the congregation in Lomé, Togo, is meeting in a member's home. However with recent growth, they are at the point of outgrowing this venue.

The members in Lomé, in spite of very difficult economic circumstances, have faithfully saved their tithes and offerings for years and recently purchased a plot of land. The Good Works project will finance the construction of a suitable building of concrete block on this site.

Your contribution to this project will allow the Church better legal status, create a better reputation for our brethren in Togo as well as permit them to attend Church functions in an adequate facility. Thank you for your consideration.