How to Help

Volunteer

Jeremy, a short-term volunteer, gets ready to take a local woman and her children home on the motorbike.

Dedicated volunteers are probably the most scarce resource. Life here is difficult and many shrink from the thought of living a life less than comfortable and "safe." But Chadians are just as valuable to God as people elsewhere; therefore, they must be reached with the gospel even if the task is difficult. We need people who have a love for lost people and who see in them valuable souls to be won for eternity. Perhaps you would consider volunteering your time and skills here in Chad or in a nearby country. We need both short-term and long-term volunteers.

Here is a list of some of our available volunteer positions:

• Nurses or nutritionist for nutrition center
• Teacher for Bible school
• Evangelist (efforts and Bible studies)
• Accountant
• Translator (English-French)
• Dentist for mobile clinics
• Eye care for mobile clinics
• Pilot/mechanic
• Construction
• Agriculture
• You may have other valuable skills

Please contact us if you can help in any of these or other areas.

melodydietrich[at]gmail[dot]com

Contribute Financially

Another way you can help is by contributing financially. Our team operates as volunteers without salaries. Likewise, the projects are funded by donations as God impresses various people and organizations to help. We are working on a variety of projects, and your financial assistance would be a big help as we seek to improve the lives of those who live in this area and share the good news about Jesus with those who so much need to hear it. Below are a few specific areas of need:

• General project needs

  There are always miscellaneous expenses in operating a project like this. Sometimes an opportunity arises that calls for prompt action. Unless otherwise specified, donations will be applied toward wherever the current need is - whether it is Bibles or moto fuel or medications.

• One-day Church projects
  • Roof tin ($600 per structure)

    The One-day Church materials have been donated already for about 35 churches, but this does not include the roofing. We get that in-country, and it costs about $600 for enough corrugated roof sheeting to cover one church building. We have 28 structures remaining.

  • Dabgue church walls ($1100)

    This year we erected a One-day Church for our small group at the village of Dabgue. The tin provides shelter from rain and sun, but since we have no walls, we cannot store our benches inside. We store them at a kind neighbor's place. For now, the group is small and does not have enough resources to buy enough brick. We need about 8000 bricks to build walls. Bricks are roughly $0.10 each, so that's $800 dollars. We'll need a few more materials for doors and security bars for windows, maybe another $300? (One person just donated 1300 unfired bricks.)

• Security/privacy wall aviation base, Phase 2 ($12,000)

  The wall (fired brick and mud mortar) needs to be plastered before next rainy season in order to preserve the brick and keep the mortar from washing away. The wall is about 850 meters long (about 1/2 mile).

• Security/privacy wall Nutrition Center ($15,000)

  The wall (fired brick and mud mortar) needs to be plastered before next rainy season in order to preserve the brick and keep the mortar from washing away. The wall is about 600 meters long.

• Aviation
  • Fuel ($35-$60 per hour)

    Fuel prices fluxuate from about $3 to over $7 per gallon. This puts the cost of fuel alone at $35-$60 per hour we operate our Cessna 172. Above this is cost for oil and maintenance and engine replacement percentage that we have to factor in. The expense is worth it though in other savings. For example, a 400-mile flight to Abeche takes about four hours in the plane. By road, the same trip would take three days. A round trip to the capitol would normally take two days plus time in town, which means three days. With the airplane, we can go, do our business, and return to sleep at home all in the same day. Now that we are finishing some of the contruction, we are using the airplane more.

• Bible work
  • Bibles ($8 each)

    We have a dream of starting a Bible research center to teach people how to study the Bible. The first step in this is to make Bibles available to the people. In 2009, we bought a case of French Bibles at $4 each, but their bindings are so poor that they fall apart after being used 5-10 times. A Bible should be of a sufficient quality to be used without falling apart. The higher-quality French Bibles are around $8 each if we buy them in Ndjamena. We can also get Bibles in the local language of Nangtchere for about the same price at our market.

  • Bible school

    We are currently on hold for the Bible school construction project. We are contemplating how a mobile school would affect the operation and size of the campus. Starting in January, we will do some trial runs of one-week mobile schools in three different villages. This involves travel and food expenses.

• Beggar fund

  People constantly come with various needs. Often, people are just looking for a free handout. Other times the person is truly needy - like the case of a blind person or a cripple. As God blesses with funds, we try to help these people in a way that they do not become dependent on us. If you would like to help, there are many options. Last harvest was affected by drought. This year's harvest is affected by extensive flooding in our region, making 2013 another especially difficult year for thousands of people. The amounts below may not seem like much, but here in Chad the average wage for a day (8–10 hours) of hard work is just $1.00.

  • Hospital bills range from a common $5 to sometimes $120 or more for bigger surgeries.
  • One kilogram (2.2 pounds) of rice: about $1
  • One kilogram of peanuts: about $1
  • One kilogram of flour: $1.50
  • One kilogram of sugar: $3.50
  • One pair of flip-flops: $1-$3
  • One bar of soap: about $0.75
  • One liter of bleach: $3
• Translation work
• AAM Compound projects
  • Deep well x3 (estimated $2500 each)

    The water table here is shallow enough (2-10 meters) that practically all hand-dug wells contain contaminated water. Our wells are about 10 meters deep, but we still filter or boil all the water that we drink and cook with. We hope to have a good well at the Nutrition Center, one at the aviation base, and one at the Bible school.

  • Water tower (estimated $3000)

    For now, either a bucket and rope or a hand pump are the two methods of getting water within our compound. We have a pump, but need to construct a tower to hold a water tank that will provide water to the various houses and gardening needs here.

• Personal needs

  Our daily personal needs are relatively small here compared to what they would be in the States. Life is simpler here. We have no water bill, no electricity bill, no heating/cooling bill, no garbage collection bill, no vehicle insurance, no land-line telephone bill, and so on.

  Our main personal expense is food, and prices are not unreasonable for the basic foods available here such as rice, millet, sorghum, white sweet potato, peanuts, black-eye peas, garlic, and onion. The main thing we miss is fresh fruit and vegetables. This last year, 2012, was a significant improvement over previous years; we were blessed with more fresh food than usual.

  Clothing wears out more quickly here in Chad. Perhaps it is a combination of the harsh sun and the laundering process of harsh soap and hand-scrubbing.

  Other needs include transportation (taxi, moto, etc) and communication (email and phone).

Donations may be made online at gospelministry.org, or they may be sent to the following address:
Gospel Ministries International
P.O. Box 506
Collegedale, TN 37315
Please include a separate piece of paper that states that the donation is for "Dietrich, Africa Aviation Ministry." Donations will be applied toward the project with the greatest need unless otherwise specified.

Pray

Not everybody can move to Chad, and not everybody can contribute financially, but everybody can pray. We definitely need prayer here. Chad can be a discouraging place to work, and we are encouraged by all the people who are praying for us and the project here, as well as for our physical and spiritual health. The work here is far bigger than we can do, but God has promised to empower us to do His work.

Satan's grip on the people here is strong, and he is enraged at progress of the gospel. Demon possession, witch doctors, and a belief in the spirits are still present, even among many supposed Christians. Please pray that God's work will triumph over Satan's plans and that the relationships we build will change their eternal destiny.