GLEANINGS OF THE HARVEST, INC.
GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA

Mission Mission Statement Gleanings of the Harvest is a Christian based ministry devoted to breaking the cycle of poverty in Kenya and Malawi by providing education and long-term mentors/discipleship for the poorest of the poor.   We see education in developing countries as essential for children when it comes to breaking the cycle of poverty and becoming empowered, self-sufficient adults. Gleanings of the Harvest is committed to providing education for children and adults in Kenya and Malawi to attend primary school, secondary school, and college.   We see discipleship and long-term relationships as essential in equipping students to be whole.  Gleanings of the Harvest is committed to helping the people in Kenya and Malawi feel dignified, equipped, empowered, and loved by connecting students to mentors that will provide a good spiritual foundation for the rest of their lives.  We see a connection between two nations and two cultures under one God.  Gleanings of the Harvest is committed to fostering this vision by allowing people in America to partner with us through sponsorship, mentoring/discipleship, or both. Education is one of the largest felt needs for the developing world, especially in Africa.  Both children and parents want the youth to go to school, but opportunities to get a quality education are limited.  Our organization sees education in Kenya and Malawi as one of the best gifts someone can give a child in the developing world.  It isn't a free handout, which contributes to dependency and a lack of self-respect.  Rather, partnerships in education require students to work very hard to succeed.  This establishes dignity, equips students with job skills that will help them to be self-sufficient for the rest of their lives, and gives them tools they need to fulfill the purpose to which God has called them.  Our goal is to give children in the most desperate areas access to quality primary schools, secondary schools, and then either trade schools or universities.  After visiting Kenya and Malawi numerous times and researching their economies, we are convinced that a high school education does not equate to many job opportunities.  Many students do well and work hard all the way through high school, only to go back to the slums where they started because there were no good jobs available.   In Kenya, we have recently established a partnership with a primary school (Kindergarten - 8th grade) in the Kibera Slums, the largest in Kenya.  This Christian-based school is in the middle of the slums, has a good foundation, and the students in this school have performed better than most throughout the country.  Our vision is to sponsor some of the neediest children in this school through the end of 8th grade, and also help out with projects in the school like better lighting, teacher training, etc., on an ongoing and long-term basis.  By 2015, we want to be able to sponsor 15 of the students who cannot afford to pay for a secondary school (high school equivalent) education, and increase that number by 5 each year through 2020.   We hope to sponsor 5 children in financial need from that school to go to high school in 2015, and increase that number by 5 each year through 2020.   In 2016, we are looking to sponsor 3 students each year enter a university or technical college on a yearly basis, and increase that numebr by 2 studets each year through 2020.  Our goal is to make it self-sustaining by requiring all university graduates to volunteer back at their school in Kibera to mentor and disciple students for 2 years, and then to commit to sponsoring one student. So far, Gleanings has been sponsoring a total of 10 students through college at a 4-year University.  The first college graduate who was sponsored by Gleanings of the Harvest was recently hired to work with Support Service Delivery Integration under the Malawi Red Cross Society. In Malawi, we are partnered with Pastor Lenson Mbisa from the Assemblies of God.  He is a pastor of a local community church, and our organization sponsored him through his education at the Malawi Assembly of God School of Theology.  Through Lenson, Gleanings has dug a well for clean water that services three villages.  Because of our contact with Lenson, we have also been able to connect with his college and the staff at the school of theology.  We have now sponsored over 30 other pastors who could not afford tuition to go to this college, and many of them are now back in their own villages pastoring a church there.  The country of Malawi is very rural and there are not enough trained pastors to help shepherd each community in the country.  There are many people with the calling to be pastors, but few have the resources to do anything but practice subsistence farming.  We are committed to continuing to sponsor pastors to get their education, along with keeping in contact with some of the pastors like Lenson. We try to facilitate discipleship, accountability, and relationships by yearly trips, emails, phone calls, and most of all by connecting our sponsorees to churches and discipleship programs.  In Kenya, two of the students whom we have been sponsoring through high school and college are getting ready to graduate from their university in 2014.  They have recently committed to visiting the school that we are partnering with in Kibera to disciple and mentor one class weekly.  Because they were both from the slums and have gone through a very similar path, the students really connect well.  We are trying to improve those types of relationships to ensure the sponsored students are getting the foundation of the Gospel in as many ways as possible.  Additionally, the pastors that we are sponsoring in Malawi are learning how to disciple others so that when they graduate, they can start a church of their own and help their community.