Africa Initiative
In November 2015, Sandraneta Hall, president of Operation ReachBack, Inc. (ORB) Portland Oregon Chapter and her husband Tom traveled to Nairobi, Kenya for a five-week "ReachBack" mission trip. The goal of the mission was to assist Edward Muliro, an ORB member, to establish a community computer café in his hometown of Webuye. Installation of the "Muliro Operation ReachBack Computer Café" has commenced. The initial building phase is complete. The appropriate electrical accommodation were completed in December 2018. Grand opening of the computer café was slated for 2019, but was delayed due to COVID-19. In March 2023, the computer cafe opened in grand style and continues to be a beacon of hope education and hope in the community.
Visiting the Motherland exceeded that Hall's wildest expectations. They traveled to many neighboring towns and villages and were reacquainted with long-time friends, yet the highlight of their visit was the worship experience at the Lavington and Glory Land Seventh-day Adventist Churches. The Hall's are pleased to report their mission project a success.
As a result of the Kenyan experience, and upon return to the United States in January 2016, the Portland Chapter of ORB voted to sponsor the educational needs of three Kenyan children. Since then, in 2017, the Portland Chapter has expanded its Africa Initiative to include partnering with Living Testimony Organization (LTO) to assist in sponsoring more than four hundred orphaned children whose parents have succumbed to HIV/AIDS. From April through August 2017, the Halls hosted Elijah Katama, Founder and CEO of LTO in an effort to support the Portland Africa Initiative Project. Supplies and funds were raised through personal donations, the sale of unique handcrafted artifacts created in Kenya, concerts, and speaking engagements. Reaching back to help others is soul satisfaction.
God be praised for all of His mighty works.
June, 2021 Report re: Water Project in Kenya
Health Initiative
In April, 2015 Operation ReachBack, Inc., Flouriche, People to People Ministries, and six Portland area churches partnered to present a dynamic five-say health ministry outreach that attracted more than two hundred enthusiastic participants to the auditorium at the Adventist Medical Center. Health evangelist, Rico Hill, host of the 3ABN program "From Sickness to Health," presented a sundry of topics utilizing video clips from his popular TV series and secular news broadcasts to lend its credibility to his high-energy lectures. Professional vegan chefs demonstrated how to prepare healthy recipes and provided samples each night. The event ended with a graduation and an exquisitely complete vegan banquet with more than one hundred attendees. Many volunteers from various venues and area churches assisted in the success of this health initiative.
To inform the community, ORB members distributed fliers and posters to health clubs, natural food stores, doctors offices, and health spas. In addiiton to the media such as metro area newspapers, radio and TV spots. To finance this free community event, organizers solicited a grant for the project entitled "Creative Evangelism" from the conference which was supplemented by the local area churches. To nurture the newly formed friendships from the health initiative, several follow up events were scheduled. The community interest was so high that a ten-week follow up series was conducted to assist those who desired to make significant life style changes in their lives. On night five of the follow-up sessions more than fifty people signed up to attend. At the end of the follow up series forty-seven, who completed the series, reported substantial weight loss, lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol, and enhanced life style habits. The Portland Chapter repeated its Five-day Community Health Outreach effort in October 2016 and the ten-week follow-up program in March 2017 with similar results.
Tutoring Initiative