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November 16, 2011 Dear Sponsors, Our recent trip to Haiti took place on October 3 – 19. We were able to process 720 children on this trip due to the hard work of our 7 team members from Maine, New York and California. Soon we will be posting photos of all the children who are waiting to be chosen for sponsorship on the “child in need” page of our web site. Please help us spread the word about these waiting children! On this trip we updated the following schools – the Center of Protection and the secondary school in Terrier Rouge, Paulette, Roche Platte, Romeo, Trou du Nord and ½ the children in Danda (children with a last name starting with the letter “A” through children with the last name “Jean”). Pastor Noel also asked us to add another new school to the program so we also added 15 new children from a new school in an area of Trou du Nord called Desvarenne. This school just opened this year so all the children are preschool students. As always, for those of you whose children were absent from school during this visit, your children will be put on our list of children to see when we return to Haiti on our next trip which is scheduled for March 7 – 21, 2012. On that trip we plan to update the following schools – the primary school in Terrier Rouge, Phaeton, Juchereau, Ouvray and ½ of the children in Danda (children whose last name is “Jean-Baptiste” through children whose last name is “Volmar”). Please remember – if your child attends one of the schools we did not update on this trip, you will not be receiving updated information on your child at this time. We are pleased to report that, overall, things are going well at the orphanage. A couple of children living with Mme. Edma have found other places to live and new children have taken their place in her home. Mme. Christian also has a new child living with her. The children are happy in their new surroundings and the house mothers are pleased with their new homes and their responsibilities with the children. However, Pastor Noel has expressed concern about having an exit plan in place for the older children living there. It is very common in their culture for children to live at home well into their 20’s or 30’s so if a plan is not established and enforced, there may be problems with the older children staying for an indefinite period of time, not making room for new, younger children who need a place to live. Pastor Noel and the church will be formulating an exit plan which will then be implemented in the future. Please pray for him and the church as they make these difficult decisions. Another matter for prayer is Adeline – the mentally disabled girl who lived in Mme. Christian’s home. She has become pregnant but, because of her disability, she does not understand what has happened or what is going to happen to her. Also, during a routine visit by officials of the Haitian government they discovered her pregnancy and said that she could no longer live in the orphanage. So a family will be found to take her in and support her during this difficult time. Please pray for Adeline as she goes through these difficulties, which she doesn’t comprehend, and for the other children in her home who will miss having her there. As we reported in our previous newsletter, the sponsorship fees have been raised to $50 twice per year which started with the July 2011 payment. Statements reflecting your sponsorship pledge amount for 2012 will be sent out in January and this fee increase will be reflected on your statement. As always you may choose to pay by check or you may use PayPal. If you choose to use PayPal, please send your payment to the following e-mail address - info@hishandsforhaiti.org and please choose the option to send your sponsorship donation as a GIFT so the PayPal fee will not be deducted from your sponsorship amount. Over the next few months, you will begin to see changes with all our websites. Many thanks to our current web designer, Doug Twitchell of Virtu Software, for all he has done for us out of the kindness of his heart over the past 6 years. But with the growth of our ministry, the time has come to "grow up" and hire a new web designer, North Wind Media, who will be redesigning all our sites. Rest assured, though the outward appearances may change, we will still be here serving our brothers and sisters in Christ living in poverty around the world and serving you as you reach out to help us help them. Many of you may already be aware of this but for those of you who may not know, we also have a Facebook page. You can find it at www.facebook.com/HisHandsSupportMinistries. If you haven’t already visited, please check it out and be sure to “like” us so we can keep you current on all our activities and other items of interest. New opportunities for service continue to cross our path and we are very pleased to announce our latest program, His Hands for Indonesia. We have established a new partnership with two orphanages in Indonesia – one on the island of Bali and the other on the island of Jakarta. Both facilities are run by the same non-profit organization and are providing hope to a total of about 60 Indonesian children in need. A small team visited Bali in July of this year and enrolled 40+ children in this new program and the children living in Jakarta are scheduled to be added at the beginning of 2012. Emily Wardrick and Erin Manfredi will be working together as coordinators for this new program. As of this writing our new website is not yet up and running but when it is you will be able to find it at – www.hishandsforindonesia.org. We continue ask for prayer for wisdom for our board and especially for God’s provision as we keep walking in these good works. "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." Ephesians 2:10. This January we will celebrate 9 years of working with Pastor Noel through child sponsorship. In looking back we are overwhelmed and in awe of all that God has done and we are humbled to be used by Him to bring help to His servants in Haiti. There have been some difficult times but God is faithful and we will continue to trust Him as He leads us on the path of good works He has laid out before us. We pray that He who has called us will continue to equip us to do these good works while we look forward in anticipation of what He has in store and praise Him for the small part He has entrusted to us in His plan to bring hope to His people and their country. We pray that our eyes will continually be open to the good works He has prepared for us and we’ll just keep walking in those good works, looking forward in anticipation of how God will continue to use us to help the children of Haiti, the Great Lakes region of Africa, Guatemala, India, Swaziland, the Philippines, Indonesia and other parts of the world, and to bring glory to His name. Thank you so much for your part in this ministry and thank you for your continued prayer and support. Serving Him and the children, Jamie Charles & Matt Lenfestey Child Sponsorship Coordinators |
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