Rwanda (MNN)–Christian Resources International’s Fred Palmerton says their newest project is resourcing public libraries in Africa.
It’s a direct response to the AIDS epidemic–and the request for help came roundabout from the government. Their contact, a missionary Paul Kim became the link between the government and CRI.
Palmerton explains, “They have realized in Uganda that the only way that they see of stemming the AIDS epidemic is through Christian beliefs. That is why they asked missionary Kim to establish the library there with Christian books.”
Resourcing libraries is one way to reach people with the hope of Christ who may never have heard of either Christ or CRI before.
They’re excited about the potential for outreach in the near future. “We expect the Rwanda shipment to arrive within 30 days from today. The Ugandan project has been up and running now for about 45 days.”
Kim says the Ugandan project has been growing. He shares that while seeing the library set up, he got a call from a carpenter in Korea. This man wanted to come to Uganda to do something for the ministry and agreed make bookshelves and tables for the new library.
That left the issue of funding. Kim says he then got a call from a woman in Los Angeles. She wanted to do something for the library. “I asked her to donate to make shelves. She sent $2,000!” The carpenter lost no time in making shelves and tables. As of the last report, he’d already completed 30 shelves.
As great as the excitment is for seeing the Uganda project become reality, there was already requests for help in Rwanda and Ghana.
Filling those requests may prove to be a challenge. For each library resourced, CRI puts at least 20-thousand volumes on the shipping container. Palmerton says it doesn’t always stop with one container, either. There are already plans in the works to send a second container to the Uganda library.
That means CRI needs Bibles, books and bucks–used literature to send, and the funding to get them there. To help, go to: http://cribooks.homestead.com/index.html.
