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Hi!  We’re Michael, Claudia, Sarah, Kelly and Belinda from the Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB) Skiba pastorate. We’ll be going on a Global Alpha Training (GAT) trip to Arusha in Tanzania in February 2011 as we have been invited by local churches in Arusha who have heard about the Alpha course and want to know how to start running Alpha for themselves.  We feel so honoured to have this opportunity and are really excited about being able to deliver training that will enable them to join in the thousands of churches across the globe that run the Alpha course.  This will be the fourth GAT event that the Skiba pastorate has been involved in, previously travelling to Ghana, Soweto and Botswana.   What is Alpha? Alpha is a 10 week course which provides an opportunity for people from all ages and all walks of life to grapple with the ‘big’ questions in life in a very open and relaxed environment and to find out what Christianity is fundamentally all about.   Alpha is now run in 169 countries and 16 million people worldwide have attended the course.  Alpha has seen many lives transformed, as people leave the courses feeling empowered to make something positive out of their lives – growing the number of people that have this opportunity is worthy of support – whatever your beliefs.   For more information about Alpha, please visit the website at <a href="http://www.alpha.org/" target="_blank">www.alpha.org</a>.   What does a GAT trip entail? In partnership with a local team of people from Tanzania, we will deliver a three day training event that will outline the necessary elements needed to run a successful Alpha course – from the suggested general approach to the practical and logistical details.  We hope to host between 80 to 100 people representing as many as 20 churches from Arusha and surrounding areas.  The event is part of bigger vision organised by Alpha International where teams from all over the world will travel to run over 1000 training events in 2011 in over 50 countries.  Take a look at the video on <a href="http://www.alphafriends.org/gat/global-alpha-training" target="_blank">http://www.alphafriends.org/gat/global-alpha-training</a> to learn more about the vision for the project.  Experience has shown that 23 Alpha courses start as a result of each GAT event.   What else are we doing? Jesus did not only talk about doing good things, he actually got out there and did them!  So, we feel passionately that since we will be in Tanzania, we would like to offer our support to a local charity and help them where we can.   Sadly Hope HIV have recently told us that our projected partnership with them won't be happening. We have however found an amazing local project to partner with called Imara. You can read more about them h<a title="Imara" href="http://www.imaratz.com/about/vision/">ere: </a> <a title="Imara" href="http://www.imaratz.com/about/vision/">http://www.imaratz.com/about/vision/</a> Here is what they have told us about the work we will be involved in:  "Our team are training local villagers to become health care workers to care for those in their village...It’s helping alot of people recover where they would normally die...or it’s helping those seriously ill to die with dignity and peace...when you guys come you will go on some visitations with the volunteers to the patient’s houses...you will take gifts etc, pray with the patient and over all see what the volunteers do day in day out..". Our budget has a very modest donation for this charity and we intend to give some gifts of blankets and other necessities to villagers on our travels. Hopefully we can raise some surplus funds and increase our donation! WE assure all our generous supporters that all excess funds will go to support this work. Mount Kilimanjaro As one of our main fundraising drives, Sarah, Kelly and Belinda are climbing Mount Kilimanjaro!  Kilimanjaro is the tallest mountain in Africa at 19 341m above sea level.  It will take six days to reach the summit and they will be battling the elements and extreme altitude.   Please give generously to support all our efforts to deliver this GAT trip to Arusha, Tanzania!  You can donate by pressing the button on the right hand side of this page.   Please feel free to contact any of us if you would like further information about our trip or Alpha itself, we would be happy to provide details if you have specific questions.   With much love and thanks God bless!   Michael, Claudia, Sarah, Kelly & Belinda

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