Joshua Claybourn

I recently helped redesign the website for St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Evansville, Indiana. Check it out.

Click here to learn about Project PrayGod.

PrayGod Munguatosha Mtui, the chief guide who helped Carson and I ascent to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro, is an incredibly kind, humble and trustworthy man. After all, we trusted him with our lives and safety and he certainly didn't disappoint. Indeed, PrayGod's friendship was one of the most rewarding experiences of my African journey.

Yet we also saw, firsthand, the poverty and violence that PrayGod and his family had to endure. It was heartbreaking. So when PrayGod wrote to us seeking assistance in his quest to start raising cattle, and thereby work toward lifting his family out of poverty, Carson and I were more than happy to help. To get started he needed seed money to buy a banda (a barn) for the cows. Yesterday we received a picture of the banda thus far, pictured to the left. The door and floor aren't quite done, but you can get a sense of where it's headed.

With the banda well underway, we will now help PrayGod acquire cows. Assisting PrayGod has been one of the most rewarding donations I've made in quite some time, so I wanted to open up that rewarding opportunity to friends. You can donate to PrayGod by clicking on the PayPal button below. You don't need to have a PayPal account to donate; you may simply use a major credit card.

In 2004, the average per capita income was a mere $300. Put another way, $6 is more than the average weekly income of a Tanzania citizen. So that's what I'm asking my friends to do - skip that big Hardee's burger and instead help PrayGod and his family by donating a mere $6. Or, if the spirit moves you, donate more. It's well worth it.

Three years ago today was August 14, 2004.

I recently became a new homeowner, for the first time. The house is pictured below. Behind is a yard, which Izzy no doubt enjoys.