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Apr 17
Love0

Update from Haiti

By Blog, Envision, Involve, Media

NewsletterHaving returned from Port au Prince on Saturday night, I wanted to get this update online to share about the wonderful progress through The Chanje Movement, our spiritual and humanitarian outreach in Haiti.  Inside the letter you’ll find details of how funds were raised through last month’s MissionsRace, all about the three shelters for children where we’re helping change their future, and a few new ways (like the Amazon Smile program*) that you can take advantage of and bless our ministry.

MissionsRace was extremely encouraging, not only because we helped create and host it, nor simply because we raised over $8,000 for our international ministry, but it also blessed so many other ministries, such as My Refuge House, an outreach to women rescued from sex trafficking in the Philippines.

Being in Haiti also provided the opportunity to take the next steps in our micro-credit lending program.  We identified a potential loan officer and gave her a case load of one applicant in order to test her feasibility.  At the same time, one more small loan will now help another family start a small retail business to help feed their family.

Because of the groundwork laid on this last trip, we were able to establish a new beach-head for ministry in another community in the area, and in 2014 our teams will have new opportunities to serve and preach the Gospel.

The Amazon Smile program:

*Amazon will donate a portion of every dollar you spend to The Global Mission – at no cost to you!  This can be very powerful and add up quickly because so many people shop online at Amazon.  It’s a very simple process – the first time you visit http://smile.amazon.com you will be asked to register your charity.  Type in “The Global Mission” and select our donation mailing address (Rancho Santa Margarita, CA.)  That’s it.  From now on, each time you start your shopping at smile.amazon.com and check out, you’ll be giving to the Kingdom!

Jul 19
Love0

At a Loss

By Envision, Involve

This is really complicated.  How can I explain what’s going through my mind when my heart is beating so hard that I can’t hear myself think?

What kind of anguish is going on in a person’s life that they can entrust their young child to you and walk away?  I can’t fathom the despair, the discouragement, the denial or the complete sense of defeat that a parent would have to experience.

And despite my inability to comprehend, it happened today.  It happened.  Did that really just happen?

fatherlessYes, and more than once.

First there was the pastor’s widow.  She lives in a community of immense poverty with her five children in a house built from cinder block that remains unfinished because her husband died.  She brought us two of her sons that she cannot feed or care for.

The next girl was five years old.  Her mother didn’t come.  The little one came with the widow because her mother just had a baby boy and couldn’t physically make the trip.  But the father of the son is not the father of the daughter – that man previously deserted the family.  The new father doesn’t want her.

Then we met a five and seven-year-old sister and brother.  Her mom had come earlier but had some emergency and left abruptly.  Without the kids.  She told someone at the shelter we should do whatever we can with the children.  The dad had already abandoned the family.

Psalm 68 says that God is a father to the fatherless.  These children are His now, and we are His stewards.  I’m trying to prepare myself for something that can’t be prepared for, because we are going to be introduced to three more children in the morning.

When we acknowledged that we were willing to rescue children as part of bringing hope and transformation to a nation, we knew we would be over our heads.  Today, it is not my head dipping beneath the water that makes me gasp for breath – it’s my heart bursting with a mixture of joy and sorrow.  I cannot imagine doing this alone.

Thanks to God, and all our amazing donors, staff, volunteers and prayer partners who are joining together to make this happen.  Otherwise, there would be no help, no hope, no joy.  No transformation, just sorrow.  But there is joy.  Thank you from the fullness of my heart.

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