My Amish Friends

My Amish Friends, most of whom won’t get this email 🙂 , celebrate Epiphany.  For a number of years our family lived with many Amish farms next to and near our land and home. 

They were a joy to know, and one of the fun celebrations for their community is the Celebration of Epiphany – 12 days after Christmas – celebrating the arrival of the Wisemen to see Jesus.  

It is a celebration of the first Gentiles to worship Jesus – a message of hope that He came to ALL PEOPLE,  as the angels said about the GOOD NEWS OF GREAT JOY!

Wow!  The Wisemen came from the East.  Now YOU can partner with FAME and send help and hope to the North, South, East, and West to ALL PEOPLE!  

The word “epiphany” though is used in English to mean “A sudden and striking realization!”

Many years ago, when I was pastoring a church in Indiana; I had an “epiphany!”  I had a sudden and striking realization that our church’s partnership with FAME didn’t impact one country, one continent or one people – FAME impacts ALL PEOPLE  with the GOOD NEWS OF GREAT JOY!

In 2021 YOU sent HELP AND HOPE to 73 Global Partners in 43 Countries – that’s a continuation of the Gifts the Wisemen gave, that’s a continuation of the Gift God gave to the Wisemen! 

Maybe you can have an “epiphany – a sudden and striking realization” that some of the best use of your gift-giving can be through FAME – to send help and hope in a way that for ever $1 you give to FAME 2 people will HEAR THE GOOD NEWS! 

Thank you for your partnership- and could you end 2021 with an “Epiphany Gift” to bring help and hope to the world’s most vulnerable?    

Blessings,

Jeff Coon
Director of Development

It’s Over!

Sometimes when it’s over, it’s over! 

This was the year the Christmas tree didn’t quite make it to Christmas day. (Yes, those are the needles on the floor!)  For many of us, we spend weeks, and some of you, months preparing for Christmas, but all-of-a-sudden, the 26th hits and it’s over!

The tree flies out the front door, the decorations head to the attic, the poinsettia goes to the compost pile (I know some of you still have kept one alive from 2010), and I probably should go ahead and throw away the tree lights since they won’t work next year anyhow! 

So when Christmas is over for us, there is one thing that we at FAME have been grateful for year after year!  The Spirit of Giving by so many never stops.  Year-round generosity is common for SO MANY OF YOU! 

Thank you for your spirit of Christmas, your spirit of giving that is year-round!  

It’s a good thing because the needs of our global partners aren’t seasonal.  Hunger, disease, illness, tragedies are year-round too! 

In a rural mountain village, a young boy was attempting to cut down a tree to provide for the cooking fire for his family.  A slip of the ax, and he was cut severely and bleeding dangerously.  Just 2 years ago, this emergency would have been a life-threatening situation.  But because of YOU, there is a small clinic within half-hour travel for him and his family.  He was treated, protected from infection, and is on his way to perfect healing – again let me say, BECAUSE OF YOU,  and your spirit of Christmas that is year-’round he is healing! 

As you pack up Christmas this year.  Thank you for not packing away your IMPACT through generosity! 

Happy New Year and May God Bless you for your generosity! 

Blessings,

Jeff Coon
Director of Development

Have You Lost Someone This Year

So have we.  My mom, our brother-in-law Tom, a daughter-in-law’s grandpa, other cousins, an Aunt….  It seemed like there needed to be a way to honor them all.

Below is a way you can honor a loved one you’ve lost in this past year or two. 

This will be the first Christmas without both of my parents, they lived into their 90’s so their losses were sad but not tragic. They will be missed. 

One of the things they were passionate about was helping people globally.  As children and teens, my brothers and I met dozens of missionaries around our dining room table and at the events we attended. 

One country which stands out for me was Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). We met many folks who served there, and I specifically remember my dad arranging projects for Zimbabwe.  Jim and Joyce Frasure, Ziden and Helen Nutt, Dale Marshall, Dennis Pruett, the Pembertons, Bob and Rosella Reeves, became friends in my parent’s home. 

In Zimbabwe, there is a hospital that is so remote that many staff must travel 100 miles (5 hours in that region) to find quality appropriate housing.  They are building Staff Housing Accommodations and naming the facility in Memory of FAME’s first Executive Director Bob and Rosella Reeves – so why not fully fund this housing with memorial gifts? 

So, my brothers and I have partnered with my parent’s church Central Christian Church Fort Smith Arkansas and FAME to send some help and hope to Zimbabwe this year.  In Zimbabwe, the Mashoko Christian Hospital is in dire need of staff housing.  This Staff Housing Gift through FAME will be in Memory of Harv and Marilyn Coon by Central, our families and WHOEVER YOU CHOOSE to honor!

You can watch a video about this project HERE or read about it here – Zimbabwe-Project-sheet-Housing.pdf 

If you are interested, you can join us in this memorial Hospital Staff Housing by going to www.fameworld.org/donate  and as you give choosing the Reeves Project Fund- Sustainable Projects, place their name in the Memory/Honor of section and write Mashoko Memorials in Comments.  In January we will email a special edition of FAME’s E-News which will share those Memorial Gifts! 

You may have lost a dear family member or friend this year, their memory can live on at this hospital where people are treated in the name of Jesus and hear a message of hope.


Jeff Coon
Director of Development

Emergency Delivery

 

It was a middle-the-night Emergency Birth, No Clinic, No Hospital, no Pre-Natal unit – – the mother and father were traveling and came to a small remote village!  Tragically, the only place that they could find for this newborn to be delivered was a makeshift delivery area in a barn. This may sound like the Christmas story, and it is.

But that is not the only family who have had less-than-adequate facilities for the arrival of their newborn- even now around the world!

But because of you and your generosity, thousands of babies have been born and will be born with facilities that make for safe deliveries and improved care for any type of emergency.

Thank you for your generosity, providing global partners with what they need to give care in the name of Jesus – because it was Jesus who came into the world vulnerable, and under less than perfect conditions in order to bring help and hope to the world’s most vulnerable.

Thank you for your partnership!

Bill Warren
Executive Director

GIVE NOW

Unexpected Announcement

The story of the shepherds has been told for centuries.  But the unexpected thing about the shepherds… they probably would’ve been considered some of the most undesirable and most vulnerable of Israel at the time of the coming Jesus.

But the angels of heaven chose the most vulnerable and least desirable as the FIRST to hear the GOOD NEWS OF GREAT JOY.

When YOU partner with FAME – that is the same!  The world’s most vulnerable, those who live places many will not go, those who many consider the least desirable, those who are underserved…that is who you give, send, and go to – so that they can hear the GOOD NEWS OF GREAT JOY. 

It is becoming clear, that every dollar given to FAME is then used for medical evangelism with our global partners – it is adding up that this year 2 people hear this GOOD NEWS for every $1 given to FAME.

That means you can give $50 to FAME and 100 people will be treated in the name of Jesus and hear the GOOD NEWS OF GREAT JOY that is for ALL PEOPLE!

That sounds like a GIFT YOU CAN GIVE of any amount that will impact some of the world’s most vulnerable – maybe even shepherds or many like them in 2022!

Thank you for your partnership in UNEXPECTED ANNOUNCEMENTS going to those least expecting help and hope!

Thank you for your partnership!

Bill Warren
Executive Director

My First Backpack

I bought my first backpack in Junior High and I was inspired by its name and ready to summit every mountain.  It was called “The Kilimanjaro!”

I have never climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, but in a few weeks a friend of mine will, and he’s doing it to raise funds for a clinic for which I care deeply!  In the Kisumu villages of Western Kenya, along Lake Victoria, some of Kenya’s poorest of the poor live with no clean water and no access to healthcare.

Kenya’s third-largest city … Kisumu has one of Kenya’s highest poverty levels and the worst set of health indicators according to Columbia University.  39% of Kenya’s population lives in this city!

His Healing Hands, a FAME partner, has just installed a solar-powered water well and water tower system in preparation for this clinic.  The next step is to raise funds for this primary care clinic with will serve at least 200 people every day!

People who have NO OTHER access to healthcare.

Mark Yeaton, a school teacher who has cycled over the Great Divide on a coast-to-coast ride, is my friend taking on Mt. Kilimanjaro’s 20,000-foot summit!

He’s climbing this mountain to “move a mountain-sized” project forward;

$20,000 toward a new clinic for the Kisumu people!

Gifts to EVERY STEP COUNTS will go toward this Kenya Clinic as part of the FAME Reeves Project Fund!

Can you give a gift equal to how much I spent on my first backpack?  It was $50 in the 1970’s.  It climbed a few mountains with me, not much impact really – but YOU can give $50 and it will help thousands of the world’s most vulnerable overcome mountain-sized problems in their lives…AND they will hear the good news of Jesus – the mountain mover!  You can have a mountain-sized impact!

Give Now

December Prayer Calendar

As 2021 comes to a close, we reflect upon the lives that have been changed around the world through medical evangelism this year, especially those that have had no access to healthcare. We also reflect on our many blessings, you being one of our greatest blessings, as you faithfully support the ministry of FAME through your prayers for the staff, the FAME Board of Directors, scholarship students, volunteers, missionary partners, and other partners in ministry.

During the month of December, we ask that you join us in prayer for many of our Missionary Partners who humbly give of themselves, as they minister to people in their communities abroad. These partners are either hosts to our mission teams, missions where we have provided a grant for a sustainable healthcare project, or are a partner mission to whom we have sent much-needed medical supplies.

We also ask for prayers this month for our FAME Scholarship recipients. These bright young students are studying to be medical professionals in their home country and will then serve with a sponsor mission there providing medical care after graduation in the name of Jesus. We are honored to be able to assist these Christian students by providing scholarships to help fund their medical education.

Please also continue to pray for Haiti and the political unrest there. Some of our mission partners in Haiti are listed this month. Pray also that the ports open in Haiti so that we can ship a much-needed shipping container of medical supplies to a partner there.

Lastly, continue to pray for the covid virus and that in the coming year, we will see an end to this virus that has affected so many around the world. Currently, many missionaries are under travel restrictions and are not able to return to the states. Please pray for them as well that they may be able to return home.

Merry Christmas and Blessings to you and yours.

Click here for the December Prayer calendar

Mountain Size Opportunity:  New Health Clinic in Kisumu Kenya

KILIMANJARO CLIMB AND YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE

A clinic in this area will serve nearly 10,000 people a year who have NO other options.  In addition, evangelism will be the focus of the hope provided to the patients they treat!  

Here’s how YOU CAN be the DIFFERENCE, this need seems like a mountain-sized obstacle, but Jesus said, “say to this mountain, move….”  and a friend of FAME in Southern Indiana has taken that literally!  Mark Yeaton, a teacher and cycling enthusiast who has ridden across the USA,  has decided to take on a Mountain – literally!  In January Mark is going to attempt to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, Africa’s largest summit to raise funds for the FAME PROJECT REEVES FUND with this Kisumu Clinic as the focus of his Climb.

  • Kilimanjaro is a mountain of about 20,000 feet
  • Kisumu Clinic is a project of about $20,000

Mark’s goal is to raise $1 for every foot of Mt. Kilimanjaro so EVERY STEP COUNTS!

Can you JOIN MANY OTHERS BY FUNDING 100 FEET ($100) and help the people of Kisumu with a gift to FAME BY GIVING TUESDAY (NOVEMBER 30) for the REEVES PROJECT FUND- because EVERY STEP COUNTS!

Thank you for your partnership,

Bill Warren

November Prayer Calendar

Thank you for your continued support of the ministry of FAME through prayer. You continue to be a  blessing to people all around the world!

This month we have several conferences that we will be attending. Two of the conferences will be in Louisville, KY; the TECH (Technical Exchange for Christian Healthcare) Conference on November 11 and the GMHC (Global Missions Health Conference) November 11-13. Please pray that God will direct the conversations at these conferences and that some partnerships can be developed with people from all over the world. These conferences are great opportunities where God can bring people together!

One other conference/convention we will be attending is ICOM (the International Conference on Missions) November 18-21 in Richmond, VA. ICOM is a great place for us to connect with our mission partners and to those interested in missions.

Please pray also this month for many of our faithful volunteers that help us with our mission of sending help and hope in the name of Christ to the world through medical evangelism. They are a blessing to not only the staff and board of FAME, but also to our mission partners around the world and the people to whom they are ministering.

Lastly, pray also for many of our FAME partners for whom the board recently approved grants for sustainable healthcare projects. Please pray for the safety of the workers and that no obstacles come up that would delay the progress. Pray also for the hearts of the people who will be treated through these hospitals, clinics, and ambulances; that they will be open to the Good News of Jesus Christ, and that they too will know the hope that we have in Him.

Blessings in the coming month and may you and yours have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Click here for the November Prayer Calendar

Night of Hope Update

On October 22, a crowd of FAME Partners came together to Impact a global partner in Ghana!  Over $40,000 was raised to fund Nurse Housing in the most remote region of Ghana for a clinic to function best sharing the gospel, health and hope!  The goal of nearly $52,000 was almost reached, and many other good things occurred.  The family of the first Executive Director, Bob and Rosella Reeves were honored for their vision and impact on millions of the world’s most vulnerable. Enoch Nyador reminded us that “Medical Evangelism Works!” Thank you for your prayers, participation and partnership that have allowed FAME to bring access to healthcare, that brings access to the good news.