Global Hand Washing Day in Omega

We posted this picture to show you our Global
Hand Washing Day activity with the students in
our kindergarten.

We promote health issues as part of our work
here in the Omega 1 mission.

To teach the children while they are still young will
help in the present and will bring even more rewards
in the future.

Diarrhea is a big problem in Africa, especially in
the rural areas. By teaching the children at this
young age they will learn that by just plain
washing one's hands, that it can do a lot for
preventing them from having this problem.

This photo was taken as they were washing their
hands before they ate their morning snack.

Radio bible

In the picture you can see one of the radio bibles
in the hands of a gentleman.
We have distributed as part of a test project
bibles to people handicapped and for those
who do not know how to read.

At the end of last year we received about 20 of these
solar powered radio bibles. At first we took the bibles
to our mission and we showed them to the people. There
was a great interest and we distributed them to several
blind people and others.

As a result of the interest we will add to our future activities
the distribution of more of these solar bibles throughout
our mission and if possible, even to further areas.

These solar radio bibles are a great resource and allows
people who have trouble seeing the opportunity to hear
the word of God.

New Teacher for Omega Kindergarten

The kindergarten project in Omega opened in April
of this year 2010.

There have been new developments during the first
six months. We renovated a small room that we
have dedicated for a kindergarten. Also, we have
added some small tables and a new teacher. Now
we have two teachers working with the children.
The kindergarten's room can fit 25 children.

In the picture I am standing to the right of the
new teacher (sitting down in green shirt). She
has three years experience working with kindergarten.

The kindergarten is comprised of children from two
of the local tribes, the Mbukushu and the San
(Khwe, one of the five San/bushmen tribes).

The children are attending from 8 to 12 o'clock
Monday through Friday.

The daily schedule begins with a bible devotion
then a small breakfast. Then it is on to educational
activities which include language (English and some
local languages), mathematics, sports and when it is
possible, a lunch.

The kindergarten's schedule follows that of the local
school. So the children become accustomed to a normal
school's program. But they also have time to be kids
and play as normal children do.

Thanks to the Lord for helping us to begin this project in
the Omega 1 village located in the Bwabwata National Park.

May God Bless You

Regards,
Lukas

Omega 1

In January 2009 I returned to Namibia and
decided to look for a new areas to extend my
volunteer work.

I discovered Omega 1 and in February I arrived
in the village to see if there were any needs. After
visiting the village three or four times and meeting
with and talking to the people, we decided to live
in the community of Omega and help re-build the
church that existed there.

When we arrived the church was in a wooden building
which was in bad condition.

In August 2009 we decided to move the church
from the wooden building into a brick building
which also needed renovations.

Since August 2009 we have been working to renovate
the new church building and also we have opened a
kindergarten that has 25 to 30 children attending
daily from Monday through Friday.

At this time we have done about 50% of the renovations
and we are making progress almost daily.

Futures plans are to expand the kindergarten area to be
able to have approximately 50 children daily. At the moment
the kindergarten space is sufficient for 25 children.

Kongola 2007

In November 2007 I returned to Namibia
to do help build the Kongola Center (in picture)
and build a church in the village of Sangwali.

It took ten months of hard work to complete the
center as seen in the picture. There were 12 of
us whom worked for the whole ten months and
other volunteers arrived and spent a month at a
time.

After completing the work in Kongola and Sangwali
I left Namibia in September 2008.

First time - Oshivelo 2007

In June 2007, I arrived in Namibia for the first time
as part of the group in the picture (above).
We landed in the capital Windhoek in June.
Five of us came from Spain to help build a church
in the Ovambo Land region of Namibia. The
church was built in Oshivelo.
We worked for one month until we completed the
church. The picture was taken after we finished
and before we left Namibia.
At this time the church has 18 people baptized
and attending services, 40 members and is
growing.

Introduction to this blog

Welcome to Life's Territory blog. In this blog
we will post articles about what we are doing here
in the Caprivi and Kavango regions in the northern
part of Namibia.
In this first posting I would like to describe some of
the activities we are doing.

In April 2010 we opened one kindergarten in a Eyey
(tribe) village called Sangwali in the Caprivi region,
the northwestern most part of the country of Namibia.
We occupied a building near a church and opened the
kindergarten for approximately 30 children. It has
been active since the beginning and is growing slowly
but surely.

Also in May 2010 we opened another kindergarten
in a majority San (Khwe) village called Omega 1 in
the east Kavango region.
We actually re-opened a kindergarten which was
closed when the South African Defense Force left
in 1989.
Omega 1 was an old military base from the time of the
occupation of Namibia by South Africa.
The building was used during the occupation time as
a kindergarten for the soldiers' children.
It was closed in 1989 as a kindergarten and after
20 years we've re-opened it again to it's original
use.
When we arrived in August 2009 the building was
in dire need of repairs. For the first nine months
we worked to reclaim the building from it's abandoned
state.
Though the building is in better condition we are still
a ways away from finishing the renovations.
At the present the kindergarten has about 25 children
from several local tribes.
Just like as the building we are in the process of
improving and developing the kindergarten.

The priorities of our kindergartens is to educate the
younger children so as to give them a better start
when they attend school. If they are prepared they
will perform better during their school years.
The education consists of areas such as social,
educational and spiritual.

There is more to do and we are here to also
develop the areas that we are living and working in.

At this time I would to thank all the people who
have supported these projects and made it possible
for us to work in Africa.