But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me,
and don’t prevent them. For such is the
Kingdom of Heaven.” And he put his hands on their heads and blessed them before
he left. Matthew 19:14
This verse is one of my favorites! Almost every day, I am privileged to witness
glimpses of the Kingdom of Heaven in the lives of children at HIS Home. I hear the voices of children praising God
from the depth of their hearts as they swing on the playground, lead worship
music on Sunday mornings, or during their evening time of devotions from the
toddler room to the teen rooms. As these
children sing to their Heavenly Father, it is pure worship! I am sure that God smiles! What a blessing to
imagine eternity with the voices of all of God’s children singing to the Lord
forever!
Another blessing at HIS Home is watching God provide for HIS
children through volunteers who come to serve.
February was a busy month with Geoff and Judy Van Berkel coming to
prepare the updated packets for the children’s sponsors. Thanks to both of you for managing our
sponsorship program! Pastor Jon Kraner
and family also arrived with a team to decorate and prepare our Pre-K
classroom. Eight students are enrolled
in our Pre-K program, and 10 three year olds will be starting school soon. The
kids love their classroom!
Merci!!!! March was another busy
month! Construction workers Peter, Tom,
Dan, and Mike came with their team members to resolve our ongoing water
problems. They re-routed our excess
standing water from the back yard to a new leach bed under the front yard. With the recent flooding in Haiti, this new
system has been successful in preventing the standing water which breeds
mosquitos that spread dengue fever, malaria, filariose, and chikungunya. Our
children and staff will all be healthier because of you! The team also did renovation of bathrooms,
and the ladies on this team helped with teaching in our school. Thanks to all of you! Our babies received a shipment of formula
when Julie Manfred arrived with friends and family members as a part of the
Milk Money Project. Donations of formula keep our babies healthy and very
happy! Our next milk delivery will be
the end of May, so there is still time to donate to the Milk Fund. Thanks to
everyone who helps to provide for our little ones! To complete our plumbing project, we recently
hired national workers to dig up all of our pipes at the main house which drain
waste from our bathrooms to our sewage system.
Pipes were replaced and redirected to our new sewage tank. This has resolved the major plumbing problems
that we have suffered with over the past year. What a blessing to have toilets
which flush properly and pipes which drain correctly! April also started with a
lot of activity with Kendra, Bill, and Richard arriving to complete medical
exams of all 91 children. Thanks so much
to ALL of our volunteers who come for specific projects or simply to visit and
play with the children!!! All of you
enrich our lives in so many ways!
Easter weekend started out with our annual swimming pool
party on Good Friday. Our children love
to swim and play in the water!
Morningstar Christian Academy directors allow us to utilize their pool
for our children, and our children look forward to this fun in the sun for
months! Friday evening, our students attending French school and church
participated in the first of three evenings of the traditional Easter Christian
concert. Twenty of our children attended
this beautiful concert Friday evening, and they begged to return the next evening
as well! On Saturday morning, 10 dozen Easter eggs were colored by the younger
children. Easter morning started out
with our worship service, and was followed by an Easter egg hunt and family
celebration. By afternoon, the children
were ready to relax and enjoy their special treats! Thanks to visitors who brought lots of fun
Easter treats!!!
There are three very special events we would like to have
you put on your calendars so that you can be praying and participating! First will be our HIS Home 300 Mile
Bicycle Ride to raise funds for HIS Home. June 22 – 27th our 3
teams of riders will pedal their way 50 miles per day for 6 days from either
Illinois or Michigan to end in Harrod, OH for our annual celebration and
reunion. You are welcome to join the riders by participating, and you can also
be a part of this event without even lifting a foot to a pedal. Go to our website at www.hishomeforchildren.org
to see how you can pledge support to a rider or sponsor the event to raise
funds to care for the 91 orphaned and abandoned children at HIS Home. As this
is our primary event for fund-raising, we depend on it to raise at least 20% of
our annual budget of $450,000 to support our children. You are also welcome to
join us for the second event, the 2015 HIS Home Reunion when children
adopted from HIS Home and friends of the ministry gather to spend a weekend
together celebrating and renewing relationships. Join us at the Harrod Volunteer Fire
Department Social room located at 123 N. Walnut St., Harrod, OH 45850 for a
weekend of fun! Lunch will be provided
beginning at 12:30 on Saturday, June 27, 2015.
Thanks for your help and we look forward to seeing you there!!! Our third upcoming event is extremely
important in the spiritual lives of our children. Our 2015 Youth Retreat will be held Aug.
2-8. Our children ages 10-13 will
participate the first 3 days, and our children ages 14 and up will be involved
the last 3 days. The basic cost for
their room and food at the retreat is $130 per child. We currently have 44 children scheduled to
attend. $5720 is a lot of money to raise
for a week, but when we consider it as an investment in the eternal destination
of a child, it is very little. Our deposit of $1500 on the retreat facility is
due now… We have a team led by Shari Farrell from Michigan coming to lead the
second annual Thrive Retreat, and their team are covering
all of their own travel and retreat expenses.
We praise God for the lives of children who were changed for eternity at
last year’s retreat and are looking forward to what God is going to do again
this year! Please join us in prayer, and
if you are able to help support a child or to help support this event,
donations can be sent to HIS Home For Children at the above address.
Haiti is currently struggling through the corruption and
violence of another election year.
Election campaigns are expensive, and every election year crime
escalates. A couple weeks ago Lovely,
who is one of our girls, was returning from church with a man from the church
walking her home. As they reached our
gate, a motorcycle stopped next to them, pulled a gun, and demanded money and
cell phones. Lovely had neither, but the
man with her surrendered what he had.
Neither was hurt, but this type of street danger happens daily around
Port au Prince and many are killed for a few coins in their pockets. We at HIS Home thank you for your prayers for
our safety and financial support as we continue to care for the orphaned and
abandoned children of Haiti.
Blessings! Chris
& Hal
And whatever
you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Colossians 3:17
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