PRAYER GUIDE

“It was He who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” Ephesians 4:11-13

March–April

Program Highlight: CURE U Fun Facts

During her sophomore year of college, Katie Rae knew that she wanted to minister in an impactful way and decided to start raising money for an orphanage in Africa by holding bake sales and selling jewelry. In the years that followed, Katie Rae visited Jinga, Uganda and learned to appreciate the beauty that she found in children’s laughter and joy. Eventually, others tagged along and they called themselves “Dare to Love.” Though they never became an official organization, through Dare to Love, Katie Rae recognized the importance and potential that college students have to impart change.

Started: 2013 CURE U Coordinator: Katie Rae Spell Campuses: Appalachian State University, Auburn, Then, in September of 2010, CURE at the University of Georgia started. God was certainly Azusa Pacific, doing a mighty work in and through Katie Rae. For the next two years of her college Belmont, career, she planned events, and shared CURE’s mission with campus ministries, at sorority California State Polytechnic, meetings, and throughout her vast group of friends. All along the way, she continued to Clemson, Georgia College & State University, recognize God at work. They held their first fall festival fundraiser that year and raised $600 on the first day. From there, they hosted dances for local high school students and on Liberty, campus. During that year, so much changed in Katie Rae’s life, and her heart was turned Northwest, towards helping CURE kids. Samford, University of Arkansas, To this end, Katie Rae moved to central Pennsylvania to work for CURE International, University of Florida, where she developed the CURE U program. CURE U is a network of universities around the University of Georgia, country whose students have established a campus organization to support CURE through University of Virginia, prayer, fundraising events on and off campus and awareness campaigns with local churches Texas A&M, and businesses. These students are dedicated and passionate about serving the mission of University of Denver, CURE. They also participate in short term mission trips to our CURE hospitals. This year, University of South Carolina, and two teams will serve in our Zambia hospital and one team in Kenya. However, Katie Rae Vanderbilt.

believes that CURE U is also a catalyst for the next generation because it seeks to equip individuals who have mission minded hearts to proclaim the gospel through word and deed.

Special Prayer Request Anna Knecht, daughter of our CFO, Mark Knecht and his wife Deb, was born with a chromosome mutation that causes catastrophic epilepsy of childhood similar to Dravet Syndrome. She sometimes has hundreds of seizures a day putting her in “status epilepticus,” a state that is very difficult to stop and can be life threatening. Despite several anticonvulsant medications and an extremely stringent diet in which her food has to be weighed to the tenth of a gram, Anna continues to lose ground. Having exhausted every available treatment, Mark and Deb are now pursuing having Anna included in a program that uses a new treatment that has already proven to be effective in other children with similar diagnoses to Anna’s. Catastrophic epilepsy of childhood is a terrible diagnosis. The phrase “of childhood” stings because most of these children do not survive into adulthood. The Knecht family is hopeful that the state and federal government will consider legislation that would allow this treatment to be available to a very specific population of children like Anna who have no quality of life, and perhaps no hope for survival without it. Please join us in prayer for the Knecht family, including also their 15 year old daughter Kaitlyn, as they continue to seek viable treatment for Anna. Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the Gospel of Christ and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift! 2 Corinthians 9:10-15

March–April

Niger

Ethiopia

Uganda Kenya Malawi Zambia

Africa

Kenya Our Director of Spiritual Ministries, Christine Kithome, reported on a recent 8 day evangelistic outreach to a new area where over 3,700 were in attendance and 569 made faith commitments. The CURE Kenya spiritual team along with 58 ministry volunteers and local pastors were able to conduct door-to-door evangelism, Jesus film showings, church and school ministry and family counseling. Some of the team members were able to counsel families who had disabled children that had been hidden up to that point, and share with them CURE’s mission. In closing her report, Christine stated: “For all the above ministry results, we want to register our sincere gratitude to all our supporters local and international, whether by prayer, word or deed, individually or corporately, for without them we could not get this far. As we say “NOT TO US, O LORD NOT TO US, BUT TO YOUR NAME BE THE GLORY, BECAUSE OF YOUR LOVE AND FAITHFULNESS” (Psalm 115:1) Ethiopia We received the following remembrance from Mesfin Taye, our Director of Spiritual Ministries: “It has now been five years since we started surgical and spiritual ministries here at CURE Ethiopia. The first patient was an 18-year-old girl with a cleft lip who came to Christ. I remember her receiving Jesus and taking the message of Jesus to the family she was living with. Because she was saved, that family had access to the Gospel message. Since then, God has been leading us and helping us to reach out to children and their families with the Gospel at the bedside, through showing the Jesus film and outreach ministries. Please thank God with us for the past five years of ministry to children and their families.” Please pray for the families that continue to hear the Good News when they come to our CURE hospital in Addis Ababa, that their hearts will be open to the message of salvation. Malawi Every month, we receive precious stories about changed lives in our patients and their families – this is just one of many. Rolent is the father of Florence who suffered from a bone infection and was treated at CURE Malawi. He is so thankful to the Lord for saving him and his daughter. “I thank God for He is good. I did not know that one day this hospital would be the place of my salvation! I used to come to this place to cut grass for roofing for my house, and never dreamed that a hospital would be built here. This place was bushy but today it is transformed and I have received salvation and my daughter has received medical and spiritual healing from it. It is like I am dreaming!” Rolent promised to go and serve the Lord after his daughter was discharged for he said that he had “seen great things.” He was excited that before he dies, he has received the gift of eternal life through this hospital – from a place that was once a marsh. Niger Praise God for the provision of Dr. Willy Kemmer, who will be coming to work at the CURE Niger hospital for a few months. Dr. Kemmer will be assisting our Medical Director, Dr. Negrini, with the heavy surgical load. This is truly evidence of God’s provision, since Dr. Kemmer will also be covering for Dr. Negrini during his vacation. Please pray for our hospital staff as the number of children coming to our CURE hospital is increasing. We praise God that our mobile clinics are effectively reaching so many children in need. Uganda Each year our Global Outreach department mobilizes short term teams to minister alongside our medical and spiritual ministry staff. This summer, a general team will be serving in Mbale for two weeks. This team will spend one week at the hospital cleaning or painting, helping in the kitchen, holding, playing and praying with our hydrocephalus babies. The second week they will travel to a rural setting where they will do door to door evangelization, bible study with the mothers, and children’s ministry. Please pray for these students as they raise funds for these trips and prepare their hearts to share the Gospel. Zambia We welcome back our Assistant Spiritual Director, Namangolwa (Na) Haamumba who has just returned from maternity leave after having given birth to a precious son, Chileleko. Please pray for Na as she returns to full-time work and ministers to our patients and their families.

March–April

Afghanistan

Philippines UAE

Asia

Afghanistan Please continue to pray for the national elections that are scheduled on April 5. Pray that there will be a peaceful transition from the government of President Karzai and that there will be no interruption in the care of the patients in our CURE Afghanistan hospital. Thank you for praying for our staffing needs. We are pleased to announce that our recruiting efforts to fill senior staff positions have resulted in the hiring of an Executive Director, George Gavrus. George has previous experience working in Afghanistan and is uniquely gifted for this role in that he speaks one of the primary languages, Dari, and has a thorough understanding of the Afghan culture. He has extensive administrative and leadership experience in the NGO sector including working with a dental clinic, emergency relief projects and microenterprise initiatives. George and his wife, Georgiana, have two children. Please pray for the Gavrus family and the entire CURE Afghanistan team as they continue to serve the children and families in Afghanistan. We praise the Lord that He has brought George and his family to CURE. Philippines The Tebow CURE Hospital is nearing completion and we continue to seek the Lord’s guidance in finding medical and administrative staff that will join CURE in our mission to heal the sick and proclaim the Kingdom of God. Later this month, Victor Nakah, our Sr. Vice President of Spiritual Ministries will be in the Philippines interviewing for the Spiritual Director position. Please pray for discernment for Victor as he interviews the candidates. Our Executive Director, Leron Lehman, his wife Chris and their three children have successfully adjusted to the move from Niger to Mindanao. In an earlier email, Chris shared that their son, Drew, prayed and thanked God for great new friends and a successful transition. We praise God for His grace and protection and thank the Lehman family for the many sacrifices they have made as the ministry of CURE grows. UAE As the construction on the new CURE Oasis Hospital nears completion, the medical care for the families that are treated at our current Oasis hospital continues. An average of 500 patients are seen daily in our outpatient clinics with such services as family practice medicine, surgery, maternity care, pediatrics, urology, ENT, ophthalmology, internal medicine, and cardiology. Please pray for our staff as they work so diligently for the Emirate people who have for over 50 years, sought out and received medical care at the Oasis hospital. Pray that as we move into our new hospital, we will have even greater opportunities to continue to reflect the love of Jesus.

March–April

CURE HQ: Pennsylvania

Dominican Republic

North and Central America and Specialty Programs Dominican Republic We are thankful for the commitment of the Ada Bible Church in Michigan as they support short-term teams in our Santo Domingo hospital. On a recent team visit they presented a guitar to Pastor Tito, who has faithfully been volunteering with CURE for the past few years. Pastor Tito has touched the lives of our patients, their families, and also our staff. One of our employees shared a remembrance of Pastor Tito at his farewell party, ”During the time I have known Pastor Tito, I can define him as a person who is sincere, trustworthy, transparent with what he says and what he does. I met him in the first stage of my pregnancy, and I tell you as a testimony that his spiritual guidance gave me all the strength that I needed in this desired part of my life. Day by day, like a good father, he encouraged me to trust God because He is in control. In his work he was simply himself, he was so devoted and it was so special. He wouldn’t miss the opportunity to transmit the message to the patients and every co-worker, establishing a special bond with each and every single one of them. To have met him and shared with him during this time was a privilege and a great blessing.” Thank you Pastor Tito for sharing the love of Jesus with everyone that you met and investing so much in the ministry of CURE. CURE Clubfoot Worldwide The CURE Clubfoot India annual conference will be held this week in Nagaland, which is located in the northeast part of India. The India clubfoot program continues to expand with over 110 clinics in 18 states. Please be in prayer for Santosh George, our Regional Manager for Asia, CURE Clubfoot Worldwide, as he and his staff along with many team partners meet to strategize for the future of this ever- expanding program. CURE Hydrocephalus In an attempt to bring increased attention to the need for greater awareness and support for children suffering from hydrocephalus globally, CURE has been working with US Congressional officials to develop hydrocephalus legislation. In November 2013, a bill, HR 3525, was introduced to the US House of Representatives. If this bill becomes a law, it would help provide funding for treating children with hydrocephalus and further training of medical personnel around the world. Please pray for meetings with members of Congress and others as we hope to see these efforts move forward. Board and Staff We praise God for our CURE Board and their insightful leadership. Our President and CEO, Dale Brantner, continues to travel extensively as do other members of our staff. Please continue to pray for travel protection both domestic and international. Pray also for the families that “hold down the fort” at home. Home Office We are truly blessed with the staff that the Lord has already brought and continues to bring to our US Headquarters. There are very few “8:30 to 5:00” people here. On any given day there are still offices occupied after 5, and there is always a happy smile and helping hand to reach out to one another. This month we would like to share a promotion and new hire with you: Lee Ann Hoffman, Executive Coordinator for the Operations Team has been promoted to Office Manager at CURE Headquarters. Anyone who knows Lee Ann knows that she is the “go to” person and will always get the job done. Lee Ann has been with CURE since April 2011, first providing administrative support to the President and CEO and then transitioning to providing the same for the office of the Chief Operating Officer. Congratulations Lee Ann for this well deserved promotion. Debbie Stowell joined the CURE US team as the CUREkids Program Assistant (part-time) on Monday, March 3rd. In this new role, Debbie will be assisting Jenny England in administering our ever-growing CUREkids Program. Debbie comes to us with extensive experience in customer service, sales and project management. Welcome Debbie!

March–April