Andrew Kojelis - From Canada

Andrew Kojelis

Andrew Kojelis, as a 24 year old was watching 100 Huntley Street 12 years ago. On the screen was Cal Bom-bay talking about freeing slaves in Southern Sudan. These slaves had been taken captive by the predatory Islamist attackers from the northern Govern-ment. The ruling party in the north was (and still is) National Islamic Front. Cal Bombay showed the video of a group of slaves which had been purchased back from captivity and bru-tal treatment by their masters.

Andrew sat transfixed by the horror and the need of these un-dernourished and obviously abused women and children. His heart was broken and moved deeply.

Just before his 25th birthday Andrew went to his mother Anne, a nurse working at Brantford General Hospital, and said, “Mom, if I don‟t get birthday cards and ask people to give a Loonie or two instead, do you think I can free a slave?” Anne answered, “Why of course you can!”

Freed Sudanese slaves

One thing you need to know about Andrew. He suffers from a very rare condition called Rubenstien-Taybi Syndrome, a condi-tion which limits mental de-velopment and has some unusual debilitating physi-cal attributes which make him appear very awkward and uncoordinated. It has no affect whatever on his spirit and heart. Andrew has been a Christian for years. Occasionally, his actions in church could be disrup-tive, but he belongs to a church which not only accommodates him, but loves him for who he is.

On that first birthday they announced it far and wide, mention-ing what Andrew‟s desire was. When it was all tallied up, An-drew had raised over a thousands dollars. The next year Anne limited his guests to fifty people, since a birthday party can cost a lot, and Anne was footing the bill. When Andrew went through the list to limit it to fifty people and he had to say „no‟ to some names, tears flowed from his eyes. But, with those fifty people at a Barbecue, financed again by Anne, more than two thousands dollars was raised.

Andrew asked his mother, “What happens they are free? Do they have enough food?” Anne told An-drew that many people in Southern Sudan were starving be-cause of the war and genocide against the people of the south. Strangely this happened just a few weeks before Cal Bombay wrote a letter to supporters of 100 Huntley Street that the Slave Redemption program had been corrupted, and that the Missions Department of Crossroads was phasing over to starting farms in southern Sudan.

Cal with one of the first tractors sent to Sudan

Andrew‟s decision was that from now on, he would have birthday par-ties to raise funds for the building of farms in southern Sudan. He chose Cal Bombay Min-istries to handle those funds. The guests began to increase. Volunteers jumped in and helped Anne in preparing for the birthday party every year. Suppli-ers provided food and materials either freely or at reduced prices when they heard the details of Andrew‟s vision.

Inside the front door of the Kojelis home there is a very large pickle jar with a slot in the lid. Rarely does anyone who comes to their home escape without surrendering all their loose change, and often more, into that jar in preparation for the next birthday party. Andrew has a paper route. Every cent he gets from that small job goes into the jar. His whole year centres around the next party. Someday he wants his birthday to be held in the Sky Dome in Toronto, he says.

Cal and Andrew with MPP Dave Levac

This year, on Sept. 25th his party already had over $4,223 in the jar, and at the end of the evening of cele-bration and Christian enter-tainment by the Torchmen Quartet, more than $10,200 was raised. Over these past twelve years, this young man with Rubenstien-Taybi Syn-drome, but a very big heart, has raised a total of over $83,000.00 for building farms in Southern Sudan to feed the hungry. This year, 2010, the MPP for Brant, Dave Levac pre-sented Andrew with a Citizen Award, not the first in the last few years. This page would not exist if it were not for An-drew Kojelis, his mother Anne, and other people just like them and like you. Heart is what it takes!

Margaret Juan - From Africa

South Sudan is a place of desolation, destruction, ruins of war visible everywhere. Four million people had been internally displaced, though that has been reduced to about three million now.

Margaret Juan

A small part of that reduction is a woman trying to raise and feed her six children alone on a fertile but unfriendly piece of land off the road which is not really a road at all. Her husband is in the poorly paid (if at all) Southern Sudanese Army, and rarely home. Many great sacrifices are still being made by the rural village people due to the non-existent economy in the rural areas.

But Margaret Juan is a determined little lady. She has a face of pure joy at what has begun to happen to her, and to a small group of five farmers nearby. They heard about, and asked for help from the Savannah Farmers Cooperative which is sup-ported solely by Harvest Sudan which is a subsidiary of Cal Bombay Ministries.

One of the basic principles of the Savannah Farmers Coopera-tive (SFC) is to help small farmers increase their growing acre-age from the normal one or two acres, into large enough acre-ages that they can become self-sufficient through the sale of excess produce. These small acreages are scattered over hun-dreds of square kilometres in south-western Equatoria State.

SFC helped this farmer who now has an excess of maize for sale.

Four hundred and thirty-one individual farmers have applied for this help from the SFC. Only about 150 have thus far been registered with the SFC, and many of them have yet to get the help needed to plough their cleared and now in-creased acreages. This is due to a simple but solvable problem. Many of the tractors of the SFC need repair and fuel is not readily available. SFC charges a very nominal fee per acre to plough the land. The fee is cheaper still if the small farmer can supply the diesel. Often the fuel which they get is polluted fuel, and fowls the injectors.

These small acreage farmers we call “Out-Growers” who will grow their crops and sell them to the SFC at fair market value to provide the new industrial sized Grinding Mill now under construction, with enough grain to keep it busy, and to add value to the finished product.

But Margaret Juan was one of those in this small group of five which applied and received help from the SFC machinery.

It was Sunday, August 22, 2010 when we first met Margaret. The day was dreadfully wet. Rain drove us into a small grass-roofed hut to meet with several small farmers. It was muggy and hot and too many people were sitting knee to knee in the small hut.

Crops growing in a field that was ploughed by SFC

She had her story to tell. She had settled on her husband‟s traditional land, but had to work very hard clear-ing the land, raising and feeding her children. She started with an acre or less. While that land was growing its first crop, she cleared more acreage. She finally reached six acres which SFC ploughed for her. She produced more of every-thing she grew than she needed for her own family. She had excess to sell.

New hope and new maise in a freshly ploughed field

Result, the older of the six children were in school getting their first taste of education. She is well-dressed as are her children. She is working on her next two acres. She has bro-ken free of the dependency syndrome which has so many Southern Sudanese in its grip. She is free and happy, self-dependent and thrilled with the little group of farmers as-sociated with the Savannah Farmers Cooperative.

Happiness for families with your help and support of CBM

They grow such things as maize, beans, okra, sweet po-tatoes, cassava, sorghum, ground-nuts (peanuts,) rice, tomatoes, dodo (chard,) cab-bage and onions. It was never like this before.

She grows everything she needs, and can now buy things she cannot grow. Matches, salt, kerosene for her lamps, clothes: the luxuries of life are now available. She does not consider herself poor anymore. She sees a really bright future.