SIFAT offers opportunities for Christians to get involved personally, both to learn from others and to partner with them in missions. The idea of SIFAT was conceived in the jungles of the Alto Beni of Bolivia in 1976 when Ken and Sarah Corson took their four children and moved to Sapecho to be pastors of a Bolivian church. Realizing that the homesteaders there needed more than spiritual nourishment, Ken and Sarah began work in integrated development with the people of the village. The Quechuan mayor of the town, Benjo Paredes, became a Christian that year and has been a great Christian community leader. Benjo and Ken cofounded CENATEC (Centro Nacional de Tecnologia Sustenible), a nonprofit Christian organization in Bolivia. CENATEC was the mother organization out of which SIFAT was born. In 1979, the Corsons returned to Alabama and established SIFAT as a training center for meeting basic human needs. Since then, CENATEC and SIFAT have worked closely in many endeavors. I got to meet Ken and Sarah yesterday. They are some really awesome people. Their son runs SIFAT now. The camp director is Nate and he is married to Laura...they both work there...in fact...they were married on site. Yesterday was their nine-month anniversary. It was also Dr. Richard Stryker (our District Superintendant's) birthday. Frank took the tour for a second time. I had planned to but enjoyed visiting with other pastor wives and the D.S.'s wife, Jennie, and their precious little one, Finda....so I stayed behind....besides it was hot as rip. Lunch was served a little before 12 and we feasted on grilled hamburgers and hotdogs cooked for us by the summer staff, mostly comprised of college students. One of those college students, Paul, led our music for the meeting portion of the day. He was an excellent musician and had the sweetest voice. I was really surprised when I looked up and there was my sweet Hamp. Hamp was one of the youth from First Methodist Alex City. He is in college at Auburn and one of my most favorite individuals. He has a beautiful voice too. You ought to hear him sing Awesome God. It was a great treat to spend a little time with him and the other staffers. They actually gave up their one and only day off to do this for us. What a great group of young people! They are all working the summer camps program. There are seven weeks of camps. They have already been through five and only have two left. SIFAT has a blog that you should visit so I provided a link for you to check it out. It is an amazing place and I am so glad our district has started having their picnics there. I don't know who made Bro. Richard's birthday cake but Frank said it was delish. On our way home, my sweet niece Ramona called and filled me in on next weekends project. Many of us are meeting at Randy and Amanda's lake house and doing yardwork and fixing the split rail fence. Since Randy's bout with ALL...yard work has been ignored....so...we are going to be really Good, Good Samaritans next weekend...and get it in shape so that that load will be lifted from them. Hope your Saturday was a great one. Still wishing for rain here. We had a little shower...but not nearly enough.
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