NEWS

11/18/09

Hello IM Supporters,

We have just received crafts from the small groups in Zambia!

The groups are doing great in regards to the six-month course, and are now preparing for their income producing projects. Please contact us if you would like us to send you crafts to give as Christmas gifts, or if you would like to present our ministry at a local event.

In the coming months, we are going to begin having monthly updates from the small groups, which will include pictures and details of how each group is doing!!

Thank you for all your support, and please keep praying for GODS will to unfold within the Impact ministry.

In Christ,

Bryan Donahue

 

 

10 /03/09

Hello Everyone,

A lot has been unfolding over the past several months, and I wanted to share some of the major points with you.

We have received approval to salvage another property for funding our missions! It's a 300 room hotel that we will start working on this coming week.

The architectural materials from the Chinese theme park have been shipped to an architectural salvage reseller, and they should begin selling the items very soon.

The small groups in Zambia are making progress, and the crafts they have made are ready to be shipped to the U.S. by next week.

We have received approval to present our ministry at SEU in January, and are working to schedule many more college and universities within the next year.

We are also attempting to build momentum with the Church exposure strategy that was started last year.

Our DVD has been finished for a couple months now, but I have been so busy that I have not attached it to this site. I will do so within the next couple weeks.

The next season of our mission is going to become more and more demanding, and therefore, I will be handing off some of the A to Z operations to our team.

Also, if we are able to generate much needed funding within the next several months, we can then begin planning our return to Zambia next year.

My intentions are to become much more informative with our supporters in the near future, which will include updates here, on our Facebook page that is up-and-coming, and regular video updates from-the-field.

Thank you again for all of your support, prayers, and encouragement.

This is a great article of what people are doing all around the world to love their neighbor!!  www.current.com/1rlre4c

GOD BLESS,

Bryan Donahue

 

7/17/09

Impact Missions in the Orlando Sentinel

Bryan Donahue of Impact Missions, a Christian nonprofit ministry that offers help to the poor in Africa, said German allowed his organization to salvage copper, aluminum, doors, windows and other materials from the site several times so it could be resold to fund the ministry.

Salvaging the materials has been incredibly beneficial to us," Donahue said. "We would not have been able to get where we are without their support."

7/10/09

 

 

ONE Campus Challenge | INT'L | USA |We've just posted video of Obama's speech "A New Moment of Promise," given this morning in Ghana's Parliament.

 

As we get ready to begin our live chat with our policy team on President Obama's trip to Ghana, I wanted to compile a short list of articles on the visit. It's getting a lot of press, so I'll try to keep up and update when I can.

 

Washington Post: Obama offers blunt, optimistic message"President calls on African nations to seize control of their future by building strong, democratic institutions and eliminating corruption."

 

New York Times: In Ghana, Obama preaches tough love"President Obama traveled in Africa as a potent symbol of a new era but also as a messenger with a theme: help is on the way, but take responsibility for yourselves as well."

 

Washington Times: Obama: Africa at moment of ‘promise'"To adoring crowds, and with a nod to his own success as an African-American, President Obama on Saturday used this relatively stable democracy to challenge the rest of Africa to rise above conflict and corruption as they seek to gain the world stage."

 

Associated Press: Obama in Ghana: ‘Africa not separate from world affairs'"An American president who has "the blood of Africa within me" praised and scolded the continent of his ancestors Saturday, asserting forces of tyranny and corruption must yield if Africa is to achieve its promise."

 

Chris Scott

 

Excerpts from President Obama's speech "A New Moment of Promise"Jul 11th, 2009 9:43 AM ESTBy Aaron.Banks

 

President Obama just finished speaking in Ghana and I wanted to share a few key quotes:

 

I am speaking to you at the end of a long trip. I began in Russia, for a Summit between two great powers. I traveled to Italy, for a meeting of the world's leading economies. And I have come here, to Ghana, for a simple reason: the 21st century will be shaped by what happens not just in Rome or Moscow or Washington, but by what happens in Accra as well.

 

I do not see the countries and peoples of Africa as a world apart; I see Africa as a fundamental part of our interconnected world - as partners with America on behalf of the future that we want for all our children. That partnership must be grounded in mutual responsibility, and that is what I want to speak with you about today.

 

...We must first recognize a fundamental truth that you have given life to in Ghana: development depends upon good governance. That is the ingredient which has been missing in far too many places, for far too long. That is the change that can unlock Africa's potential. And that is a responsibility that can only be met by Africans.

 

As for America and the West, our commitment must be measured by more than just the dollars we spend. I have pledged substantial increases in our foreign assistance, which is in Africa's interest and America's. But the true sign of success is not whether we are a source of aid that helps people scrape by - it is whether we are partners in building the capacity for transformational change.

 

Across Africa, we have seen countless examples of people taking control of their destiny, and making change from the bottom up. We saw it in Kenya, where civil society and business came together to help stop post-election violence. We saw it in South Africa, where over three quarters of the country voted in the recent election - the fourth since the end of Apartheid. We saw it in Zimbabwe, where the Election Support Network braved brutal repression to stand up for the principle that a person's vote is their sacred right.

 

Africa doesn't need strongmen, it needs strong institutions.

 

People everywhere should have the right to start a business or get an education without paying a bribe. We have a responsibility to support those who act responsibly and to isolate those who don't, and that is exactly what America will do.

 

With better governance, I have no doubt that Africa holds the promise of a broader base for prosperity. The continent is rich in natural resources. And from cell phone entrepreneurs to small farmers, Africans have shown the capacity and commitment to create their own opportunities.

 

Aid is not an end in itself. The purpose of foreign assistance must be creating the conditions where it is no longer needed.

 

Africa gives off less greenhouse gas than any other part of the world, but it is the most threatened by climate change.

 

Wealthy nations must open our doors to goods and services from Africa in a meaningful way. And where there is good governance, we can broaden prosperity through public-private partnerships that invest in better roads and electricity; capacity-building that trains people to grow a business; and financial services that reach poor and rural areas. This is also in our own interest - for if people are lifted out of poverty and wealth is created in Africa, new markets will open for our own goods.

 

When children are being killed because of a mosquito bite, and mothers are dying in childbirth, then we know that more progress must be made.

 

With strong institutions and a strong will, I know that Africans can live their dreams in Nairobi and Lagos; in Kigali and Kinshasa; in Harare and right here in Accra.

 

"What happens here," he said, "has an impact everywhere."

 

 

 

 

6/29/09

 

Hello Everyone,

 

Impact was successful in implementing more cell groups, which have begun their six month spiritual and practical program. More crafts have been made, and sent out in anticipation of the Missionary General Conference.

 

We hope and pray thatthe conference attendeeswill see our strategy of empowering the impoverished and want to partner with usby representing our ministry to their Church.

 

Please be in prayer for what GOD wants to accomplish in and through us within the upcoming months.

 

Blessings,

 

Bryan Donahue

 

 

 

 

Hello Everyone,

 

It's time to return to Zambia! Impact is returning to Ndola for the month's of May and June 09'.

 

Last year we worked with Seeds of Hope International in various areas, and this is whatthey had to say ofImpact......"Bryan Donahue from Impact Missions in Florida joined us for several weeks and worked with some of our staff on various appropriate next-step technology projects. These projects aimed to help the Zambians use the resources they have to create new jobs and make the work they do now easier. Some of the items such as a peanut sheller, rocket stove and solar oven were displayed at an International Trade Fair held in Ndola which we participated in. Impact Missions has been working with SHIP and Mapalo Vineyard to start a resource center where people can come and be trained in various marketable skills such as sewing, wood carving, literacy and a piggery."

 

This year we will be working on strengthening our relationships with Seeds of Hope International, and seeking out other like-minded organizations working in the area.

 

The plan is to build upon the projects of last year and begin implementing new projects such as solar cookers, bio-digester's, fuel briquette making, discipleship training, small group bible studies, agriculture and more. Our primary focus is to continue empowering the villagers through the transfer of knowledge.

 

GOD has given each of us a ministry for our lives, and I believe Zambia is where [HE] has called us to serve at this point. Proverbs 19:21 Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the LORD'S purpose that prevails.

 

We will release an update of what GOD accomplishes in and through us upon return in mid-July.

 

Thank you for all your prayers and encouragement throughout this past year!

 

In Christ,

 

Bryan Donahue

 

 

 

DO NOT DESPAIR....GOD IS IN CONTROL, AND WILL PROVIDE ACCORDING TO [HIS] WILL!!

 

 

IMF chief warns world entering 'Great Recession' Tue Mar10, 2:31pmET AFP-Chinese investors check share prices in Hefei. Global share prices have seen a steady decline in their... PARIS - The global economy will shrink this year as the world enters "a Great Recession," the head of the International Monetary Fund said Tuesday.

 

Speaking in a taped interview with French television channel France 24, Dominique Strauss-Kahn said economic data has worsened since January, when the IMF forecast global growth in gross domestic product of 0.5 percent this year.

 

"Since then the news hasn't been good," Strauss-Kahn said. "I think that we can now say that we've entered a Great Recession." "This recession can last a long time," Strauss-Kahn added, "unless the policies we're expecting are put in place, in which case 2010 can be a year of return to growth."

 

World Bank said Sunday that the global economy will shrink this year for the first time since World War II and that the global financial crisis will make it tougher for poor and developing nations to access needed financing.

 

Trade is forecast to fall to its lowest point in 80 years in 2009, as economic hardship ripples across the globe, the bank said. The most drastic trade slowdowns are expected in East Asia, where growth had been robust, the bank said in a paper prepared for a meeting of finance ministers and central bank officials this week.

 

The ramifications of the growing financial crisis on the world's poorest nations will likely remain for some time, the bank said. Because richer nations are borrowing more, developing nations are being squeezed out and many financial organizations that have provided financing to lower-income countries "have virtually disappeared."

 

In Europe, the European Central Bank has forecast a 2.2-3.2 percent fall and in gross domestic product over 2009 in the 16 countries that share the euro. The euro-zone economy contracted by a record 1.5 percent in the last three months of 2008, dropping even more sharply than in the U.S as collapsing world trade hit the region's export-rich economies, figures showed last month. The drop in output for the fourth quarter compared to the third was the biggest since the euro was created in 1999 and the third quarterly fall in a row.