#inspiration

May 19
1 min

Spring Newsletter! See the inspiring change

The 2022 Spring & Summer Newsletter is here! Eight widows living with HIV/AIDS in Makueni County, Kenya were trained on bee farming and received start-up kits. All the hives have bees and they have started making honey! The training was hosted by SIA Grant Partner Ndekanga Self-Help Group. In this newsletter we feature: 14 graduates from the Home of Hope in Uganda Two SIA Grants that are supporting financial empowerment for women in Kenya Photo collage of SIA Partners and the

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SIA Team

Oct 14, 2021
1 min

Fall Newsletter! Sunflower oil in Malawi, Financial Empowerment for women, & more

The 2021 Fall & Winter newsletter is here! Samuel and Rhoda Teimuge held a training day at their farm in Kerio Valley, Kenya. Teri farm is a model for agroecology, which helps to replenish, rather than deplete, the soil. They are growing cowpeas, spider herb, amaranth, and chilies. In this newsletter we feature: Vocational training for young women who have dropped out of school in Uganda Universal Love Alliance providing transportation services during the pandemic lockdown Ph

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SIA Team

Jul 1, 2021
3 min

"God is the Process of Love in Action"

Today we honor and remember Barbara Deal, SIA Board Member and my dear mentor, who passed away two years ago this week. (Read my tribute from 2019.) In 2017, she gave an inspiring talk at Winni JFO about service and recognizing the Divine Spark in each person. Listen to the full 45-minute talk online. An excerpt from Barbara's talk is shared here: Wisdom from Barbara Deal: One way of pointing to God, that I have just recently been playing with, is to describe God not as a Bei

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SIA Team

May 20, 2021
1 min

Spring Newsletter! Read success stories, community impact, and what inspires our grant partners

The 2021 Spring & Summer newsletter is here! Ubuntu Community Organization opened their new brightly-painted office in Githurai, Kenya. Ubuntu’s leader, Lilian (in the polka-dotted shirt) has enlisted volunteers to support women in the community. This will also be a place where people can use the internet and access low-interest loans. In this newsletter we feature: Zoom Trainings for SIA Grassroots Partners A Tragedy That Changed My Life - by Fulgence Ndagijimana, SIA Grant

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SIA Team

Dec 17, 2020
2 min

Our Dreams for SIA

Last year, at the conference in Kenya where we dreamed up the African Advisory Board, I asked those gathered about their vision for SIA. I asked, “What’s your wildest dream for SIA?” Out of the conversation, we honed in on a tagline for our work: “SIA is social and economic justice not charity, with God in the center.” What else do we dream for Spirit in Action? Canaan Gondwe (Malawi): To see change in the people we work with. Better livelihoods. Abundant life. To see change

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SIA Team

Nov 19, 2020
3 min

Remembering our history

Spirit in Action was founded in 1996, when founder Del Anderson was 90 years old, which means that next year will be our 25th Anniversary! When the Spirit in Action Board met on Zoom last weekend, we took time share our history and tell the stories of SIA's early days. Letter Ministry Marsha Johnson volunteered with Del for years before SIA was an official organization and she was the first Administrator, from 1996-2007. Marsha told the story of Del's ministry which inspired

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Dennis Kiprop Kurgat: A catalyst for positive change

SIA Team

Jul 23, 2020
4 min

Dennis Kiprop Kurgat: A catalyst for positive change

Today we hear from Dennis Kurgat, who is a member of the SIA African Advisory Board. He lives in Eldoret, Kenya and has been part of the SIA team for 12 years! My Background Story I grew up in Eldoret, close to the Ilula Training Center in Kenya. I come from a family of six kids: three boys, three girls, and I am the firstborn. The first 15 years of my life were relatively stable with steady income from the family farm. My Dad had a good job too. I didn’t know what it meant t

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SIA Team

Jul 15, 2020
3 min

Welcoming Discontinuities as a Gift

This week we honor the anniversary of the passing of Barbara Deal one year ago. Barbara was a SIA Board Member and also a member of the Legacy Circle, supporting SIA with a bequest from her estate. From Barbara Deal: I’ve come to recognize that these things that look to be negative, that look like they are outside of God’s Plan, are really a gift. And I call that gift discontinuity. Our discontinuities can be our greatest friends, the greatest threshold to truth and to learni

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SIA Team

Jun 17, 2020
3 min

Hope in Hard Times

"These crises have laid bare the failures of our systems. It is time to do the hard things the right way."

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Wisdom from Del: "We come alive in God’s Spirit"

SIA Team

May 26, 2020
3 min

Wisdom from Del: "We come alive in God’s Spirit"

Today we share some of Del's wisdom to encourage you. Some are facing need on the front lines. All are facing uncertainty.

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“Core of Community” – A Message from Diana Halpenny

SIA Team

Mar 24, 2020
1 min

“Core of Community” – A Message from Diana Halpenny

Today’s blog post is a message of togetherness from our Spirit in Action North American Board President, Diana Halpenny. In this time of uncertainty and adjusting, we remain committed to helping communities in Eastern Africa thrive. In the coming weeks, we’ll be reaching out to our partners to hear from them about their needs and how we can best support them. We are seeing, all around the world, the power and resiliency of community. Everywhere, there is wealth of love, carin

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Wisdom from Barbara Deal: In the midst of crisis…TRUST

SIA Team

Mar 17, 2020
2 min

Wisdom from Barbara Deal: In the midst of crisis…TRUST

Today’s post is wisdom from Barbara Deal, which she wrote and shared at a retreat in 2017. (Note from Tanya: I have had to postpone my trip to Kenya due to the precautions around COVID-19. This message from Barbara about trusting and letting go seems particularly relevant today.) I’m realizing that nearly everything I’m sharing with you is another way of talking about trusting God. In order to become truly one-pointed, and put the Yearning for the Kingdom of God first in our

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Wisdom from Barbara: Cultivating an evolving prayer life

SIA Team

Feb 11, 2020
2 min

Wisdom from Barbara: Cultivating an evolving prayer life

Words of inspiration written by Barbara Neighbors Deal (1948-2019) Barbara greets the elders in Kakuuto, Uganda. (May 2019) I’ve spent my lifetime longing to experience the depths and heights of prayer. I want to discover how prayer works in the world, and how God uses prayer to work in this world. I’ve yearned to have my life evolve into a living prayer, to live that experience that Paul described as to pray without ceasing. So that all, all becomes living prayer. In the lit

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SIA Team

Oct 15, 2019
1 min

Prayer for a Time in Need of Empathy

I wrote this at Winni Journey Farthest Out this summer and now it’s officially included in Unitarian Universalist Association’s online library of worship materials! Small Business Fund leaders in the market near Aboke, Uganda. Together they form a small savings club to help each other out. God, teach us to consider also how others experience the world. To understand how my reality and their reality are different and yet they share qualities of the same core desire. Teach us

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SIA Team

Aug 27, 2019
3 min

A connection-centered movement

The truth is that Spirit in Action is bigger than just giving or receiving money. We’re about more than “helping” or “serving.” Spirit in Action is about connecting. Trips and visits like the one that Kathleen King, and Barbara Deal and I took this May-June was about spending time with people. I am more and more convinced that to really know and be known by others, we need to spend a lot time, in different contexts, together. (Left to right) Winkly, Baxter, Matthews, Kathleen

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SIA Team

Jul 8, 2019
3 min

Remembering and honoring Barbara Deal

It is with shock and grief that I write this tribute to a dear friend and colleague, Barbara Anne Neighbors Deal, who died on the morning of July 4th in Eldoret, Kenya. She experienced cardiac arrest, while in recovery from surgery in Eldoret in mid-June for a perforated intestine and septic shock. In her last days she was lovingly looked after by dear friends (both long-time and new friends) Samuel and Rhoda Teimuge, Gloria Teimuge, Naomi Ayot, and Amy Rogers. We know so man

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“We can’t learn until we unlearn” – Wisdom from Del

SIA Team

Apr 23, 2019
1 min

“We can’t learn until we unlearn” – Wisdom from Del

From Del’s Writings, June 2005, Age 98 We accept each challenge, each change, and seek guidance and respond in coming forth with an answer. Day by day there is growth, change, fresh manna. Yesterday’s manna is not good enough for today. My focus is coming forth as this new person each day. On this pilgrimage from sense to soul, from self to Christ, from outer to inner, is an ever-changing, growing, fresh manna daily. Meditation is our blessed tool, our instrument. Meditatio

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SIA Team

Feb 19, 2019
2 min

“Love is woven tight with justice.”

Guest post by Turinawe Samson, Director of Universal Love Alliance (ULA) in Uganda. Friends, looking at 2018 we at Universal Love Alliance (ULA) moved a step forward and you are ones who enabled us to take this step. We received financial support from the U.S. Embassy–Kampala, Spirit in Action, the ULA Foundation and its Board members. I attribute your generosity to your love for justice, equality, inclusion, respect, and acceptance of all people. Human beings are inwardly al

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SIA Team

Dec 4, 2018
4 min

“You and God are greater than you know”

This post is adapted and excerpted from my recent sermon at First United Methodist Church of Point Richmond in California. You’ve heard that Chinese proverb that says, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” We tend to use the quote as a way to encourage people to focus on the first step rather than the whole huge length of the journey ahead of them. Just take this step and then this step, and then another step. If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you

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SIA Team

Nov 13, 2018
4 min

A Practice of Welcome

Guest post by Michael Hegeman Getting to travel to East Africa to meet with Spirit in Action partners gave me the opportunity to experience the power of hospitality. Everywhere I have traveled around the world, I have met with people who welcome me in ways I can only describe as mystical. The two key components I have discovered revolve around shelter and food. “You are welcome,” is a phrase I heard repeatedly in our visits with the people of Malawi, Kenya and Uganda. Yes, w

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