News

We pray that this latest news finds you doing very well and that you are enjoying some great fall weather. We are still experiencing temperatures in the 90s, but at least at night the temperatures are in the 70s instead of the 80s.. Also, we are finally getting some much needed rain and it looks like rainy season is finally upon us.

Just as the weather is starting to shift here, things are starting to shift in our ministry. We have had a couple of our moms say that they would like to help us. In fact, last Saturday, the moms not only cooked the food but paid for it as well. This is truly a miracle of God, and He has been showing us that we may never know where our help will come from but that He will always provide.

At the same time, God has been teaching us how to accept help from people that have less than us. It is very easy to say that because we have more than they do, we should provide all but, is that what God wants? He has been showing us that just like when the widow put her two mites into the offering (Luke 21: 1-4) that He feels the same way about the ladies helping us here. These ladies are giving a lot to help feed the children and we need to learn to accept these gifts graciously, If we do not learn to accept their gifts and insist that we do it all on our own then why did we come here? Did we come here to help make this culture better, or did we come to create a culture of "give me"?

A culture of "give me" is exactly what happens when we provide everything for them and don't allow them to do things on their own. Even saying things like "Oh they are so poor" over and over again and they can't provide for themselves make the recipients of these words start to feel poorer than they really are and then they get an attitude that get an attitude that will be very hard to change and they should just accept their life as is. Is this really what God is calling us to do? We think not.

We have also seen that the children who seem to have less than others are the who seem to share the most. For example, we bring a few of the kids to our house every two weeks to enjoy some time with us and to eat some pizza. (Cindy is really grateful to her dad for teaching her how to make homemade pizza, and if he were alive today, we know he would be so happy to see the smiles on the kids faces as they are enjoying their pizza.) Instead of eating all of the pizza at our house, they will ask for a bag to take some home with them. We assumed that this was for them to eat later, but as soon as we got them to their house, we noticed that they were sharing their pizza with their family back home. We are so proud of the kids, and they have really come a long way since we started working with them over 18 months ago.

Land Project

We are very happy to report that we have a little over $4225 out of the $100,00 needed for our land/building project. Yes, we still have a long way to go, but we know that God is going to provide for us.

We will be making a trip to the bank soon to see if we can get them to lower the price of the land that is owned by them. We are just waiting for our non-profit status to be completed, and then we will go to the bank. In fact, this should be done any day now as we are in the last stage of this process.

Please pray for us as we go and talk to the bank. Please be in agreement with us that we will have a very favorable visit and that they will see that what we are doing is good for the community.

We love to hear from our friends and family around the world, so if you would like to share any comments, prayer requests or news about your lives, please drop us a line.

With God ALL things are possible. Matt 19:26.

Lots of love and Blessings,

John & Cindy