Happy Endings, September 2009

Two little people who have just enjoyed a meal at one of the children's feeding centers supported by HF in Peru.

Dear Friends,

The summer and vacation months are now behind us. And I'm so happy that you didn't forget your spiritual family during June, July or August. Praise God that His love is constant, and His love in you is constant! May I now say "Thank you" on behalf of all those who will certainly thank you in heaven.

This month's magazine highlights the stories of several members of our family—in Kenya, Peru and Myanmar, who have benefitted over the summer because of your consistent compassion. Each has been helped in a different way by means of a different Heaven's Family fund.

As always, rejoice as you read, knowing how blessed you are to be a blessing to "the least of these" among the body of Christ.

With Gratitude,

David

Carolyne Refined by Becky Servant
The Widows Fund at Work in Kenya

Carolyne and Bradly Omolo of Kenya

As a young Kenyan girl, Carolyne Omolo always dreamed of one day being married to a devoted husband, having children, and raising them together. At the age of nineteen, her dreams began to come true. She married a handsome young man and was soon with child. But her dreams quickly faded when she discovered some horrifying facts. Her husband had been unfaithful. Worse, he had infected Carolyne with the HIV virus. A few months later, when she gave birth to a beautiful baby boy named Bradly, Carolyne learned that he, too, had been infected. Their saga was just beginning.

Some time later, Carolyne found herself lying in a local hospital bed shivering uncontrollably and perspiring with fever. She had contracted malaria and was suffering its hellish symptoms. How could things be any worse?

During her misery, Carolyne was visited by some Christians who were offering prayers for hospital patients. She agreed to let them pray for her. They not only prayed for her recovery, but they also succeeded in leading her to Christ. Plus, they also led Carolyne's husband to the Lord! Carolyne forgave him, and they reconciled.

From this mountain there was yet another valley to cross. After three years of marriage, Carolyne's husband died of an HIV/AID's related illness. This left Carolyne and Bradly destitute, with no home and no means of support. With no other options, Carolyne placed Bradly in an orphanage operated by her very poor church. He would at least have a place to live and food to eat, as well as an opportunity to attend school. Carolyne moved into cramped quarters with her impoverished sister, a widow herself with two children. She found some employment doing occasional work as a domestic helper—washing dishes and clothing. But it barely supplied her with enough money for food.

God, however, who is rich in mercy, had better plans for Carolyne and Bradly, and His plan included Heaven's Family (that's you!).

Through a grant from the Widow’s Fund, Carolyne has recently opened her own fruit and vegetable business. Her small stand now sits in the main market of her village, and everyone in her church is making a point to buy their fruit and vegetables from her. Now she can support herself by providing nutritious food for others, and she will eventually have her own house so she can bring Bradly back home to live with her. They will be a family again. Thanks so much for being part of Carolyne's story.

Carolyne Omolo, Christian business woman, courtesy of God's grace

The Bigger Picture: Because of your compassion and obedience, Heaven's Family is enabled to duplicate Carolyne's story several times each month in various poor nations. 100% of every contribution to the Widows Fund is sent overseas to be administrated by trusted pastors in order to help widows in their congregations start self-sustaining businesses. In some cases, we support older widows every month who have no family to support them and who are too elderly to work.

Elvis the Evangelist by CJ McDaniel
The Food Fund at Work in Peru

Ten-year-old Elvis Castillo. Inset: Elvis' father, Juan Castillo, holding a gift of food from Heaven's Family.

Elvis Castillo is only ten years old, but that doesn't stop him from walking fifty blocks through a bustling city of half a million people in order to enjoy a hot meal. Twice a week Elvis makes his trek to a children's feeding center in Huaraz, Peru, that is run by a local pastor named Ernesto. There he receives a simple but nourishing meal of chicken and potatoes, provided with help from the Food Fund of Heaven's Family.

Soon after Elvis was born, his mother abandoned him and his father, Juan. In order to scrape by, Juan works twelve to fifteen hours each day fixing bicycles. The meager income that he earns is barely enough to feed his son and his elderly father who also lives with them.

Due to Juan's work schedule, Elvis is left to fend for himself during most meal times, so when he learned about a feeding center that was providing lunch twice a week for poor children, he journeyed there on his own. Not only did Elvis receive a physical meal at the feeding center, but he also received a spiritual meal as well. He became enthralled with the man that pastor Ernesto always talked about—a man by the name of Jesus.

Elvis Castillo (third from right) and his friends enjoying a lunch-time meal

Elvis soon started attending pastor Ernesto's church on his own every Sunday. He told us that since he began coming to pastor Ernesto's feeding center and church, he has not only learned about Jesus’ love, but he has learned how to love others with Jesus' help. Elvis’ father, Juan, has seen such a change in his son that he began attending church every week as well. Finally, Elvis' grandfather has seen such a change in his son and grandson, that he now also attends pastor Ernesto's church! Elvis, the ten-year-old evangelist, is thrilled.

The Bigger Picture: Heaven's Family's Food Fund supports two children's feeding centers in Peru with $400 each month. Both are places where children and their parents are hearing the gospel. When Heaven's Family staff members visited Peru in July, they also provided food for forty poor Christian families, including Elvis' family, using gifts to the Food Fund.

Three familes with food from the Heaven’s Family Food Fund

Sleeping Like a Baby by David Servant
The Orphan's Tear Special Gifts Fund at Work in Myanmar

Danger Zone: A little girl in a remote Vietnamese village, sleeping without the protection of a mosquito net.

The rainy season has descended upon tropical Myanmar, and the general misery there increases under a daily deluge that offers no relief from the season's oppressive heat and humidity. The rainy season always causes a surge in sickness and disease. Mosquitos thrive in the rains, including those that carry dengue fever, malaria and yellow fever. Water supplies are easily contaminated because of all the streams that flow into shallow wells. Typhoid fever, diarrhea and dysentery become even more common. Tragically, diarrhea is the second most common cause of infant deaths worldwide.

We've been receiving a stream of emails from the thirty orphanages in Myanmar that are sponsored through our Orphan's Tear division, informing us of sick children. We pray. And when the directors send us receipts from local hospitals for their children's treatments, we do our best to pay them with contributions to the Orphan's Tear Special Gifts Fund. We've also done our best to provide mosquito nets for every child in every one of those orphanages.

The Orphan's Tear Special Gifts Fund is the source of more blessings than we can name for our forty orphanages around the world. Scores of new dorms and sanitary toilets have been built. Oxen and plows have been provided for plowing rice fields. Beds, tables and chairs have been purchased. Wells have been dug and pumps have been installed. Sewing machines, electrical generators, mini hydro-electric generators, chickens, and fingerling fish have been provided to help our orphanages become more self-sufficient through income-generation projects. And there is much more. Thanks for making all these blessings possible by your gifts to this special fund, 100% of which is sent overseas to provide better lives for well over a thousand orphans.

Children from Christ Home for the Needy with fish from their pond, and children from Life Concern with a motor and compressor for their well.

The Bigger Picture: Surprisingly, the Orphan's Tear Special Gifts Fund was not our idea. A few years ago, several compassionate orphan sponsors started sending extra contributions with their sponsorship gifts. So we created a new designation category, and for lack of a better name started calling it the Special Gifts Fund. The name stuck and the idea caught on, and in the past four years, we've expended close to $400,000 from that fund, caring for little followers of Christ in eight nations. Now we've made it possible for caring believers to contribute automatically each month to this special fund, either by credit card or through automatic bank withdrawals.

One Savvy Sauce Seller by CJ McDaniel
The Micro-Loan Fund at Work in Peru

Ernestina de Corral beside her profitable sauce stand

A year and a half ago, Ernestina de Corral was struggling to make ends meet by selling a few traditional Peruvian sauces from her street vending cart. In the past eighteen months, however, much has changed for this sweet woman of God. Last April, Ernestina received a Heaven's Family Micro-Loan of $200. She invested in her business and increased her inventory. The result was growing sales and climbing profits, which she has further invested in her business. But one challenge has continued to plague her.

If you were to visit the street market of Huarez around noon each day, you would witness a surprising sight. Women would be jumping into alleyways, men would be sprinting down the road pushing vending carts, and elderly people would be hauling large bags of goods as fast as they could up stairways. When the police sirens start wailing, everyone runs.

The Huaraz city council has recently banned anyone from selling goods on the street. Only those who sell their goods from storefronts are now legal. Any street vendor who is not out of sight when the police come through the market has all his or her goods confiscated. This new city ordinance threatens to eliminate the main source of income for many poor and even middle-class street vendors. The police are sympathetic, but they must do their job.

Most street vendors could never afford to rent or buy a storefront, so they feel that they have no choice but to sell their goods illegally. But staying in business requires keeping an eye on the clock and quick feet.

A street vendor in Huaraz

Ernestina, however, has faith in God, and she is not discouraged. She has paid back her one-year loan in full, and her increased profits are making it possible for her to purchase a small building in a newly-developed market. Through a lease-to-own arrangement, $100 monthly payments will make her the proud owner of her own building in five years, something Ernestina never dreamed of before her small loan from Heaven's Family. She's moving in this month.

The Bigger Picture: Heaven's Family has made sixteen micro-loans so far in Peru, all of which have helped poor Christian women start or expand small businesses. Their pastors are also thankful, as our loan agreement requires borrowers to give 10% of their profits to their churches. You can help lift poor believers by contributing to the Micro-Loan Fund with a one-time or recurring monthly gift. 100% of every gift will never stop working as it funds one new business after another for poor Christian families around the world.

Double Blessings by CJ McDaniel
Orphan's Tear Child Sponsorship at Work in Myanmar

B.T. John’s two newborn boys, Elias Lal Lian Thang and Peter Lal Lian Mang

That Ci, director of Rhema Child Care Center in Myanmar, is a man who has more room in his heart than he does in his home. While working as a school teacher, That Ci saw many neglected orphans who were living on the streets. The "lucky" ones were placed into Buddhist monasteries. As a Christian, That Ci felt he had to do something. So in 2001, he took action by taking into his home eight orphans—who were all destined for a Buddhist monastery—and started raising them as his own children. In the eight years he has been operating what is now known as Rhema Child Care Center, his compassionate heart has lead him to take in over ninety orphans. They all live in a few small, ramshackle buildings. Love, however, reigns there.

Yet that is not the end of That Ci's legacy. B.T. John, That Ci's son-in-law, has become equally burdened for abandoned orphans. For the past several years, B.T. has split his time between working with the children of Rhema Child Care Center and evangelizing in remote regions of Myanmar. As B.T. traveled throughout the country sharing the gospel, he came across many abandoned and orphaned children. With no one to care for them, B.T. began bringing them back to Rhema Child Care Center. That Ci welcomed them into his over-crowded orphanage.

Facing persecution from the local authorities and struggling under deteriorating living conditions after Cyclone Nargis last May, That Ci finally realized that he could no longer accept additional children into their already-cramped building. So he and B.T. devised a new plan. It was quite simple: New children would go to live with B.T. and his wife in their tiny home! New Babies Orphanage was born.

That Ci and the children of Rhema Childcare Center (at left), and B.T. John and the children of New Babies Orphanage (right)

New Babies Orphanage has been on the Orphan's Tear sponsorship waiting list since November of last year, and last month we were very happy to be able to inform B.T. and his wife that a few of his orphans had been sponsored at OrphansTear.org. Here is the surprising response that we received from B.T.:

I am very sorry that I cannot contact as soon as I got the good news that we have been sponsored, because of another blessing from God. God gave me twin sons this morning.

Thank you so much for your care and concern for us, NBO family. Now God answered our sincere prayer through you. May God bless you all.

That was a day of double blessings, in more ways than one, for B.T. and his family. Orphan's Tear sponsors are making those blessings possible. Thanks so much.

The Bigger Picture: You can know the joy of sponsoring an orphan who lives in a Christian orphanage in Haiti, India, Kenya, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka or Tanzania. 100% of your monthly gift of $20 is sent to the orphanage where your child lives. Just visit OrphansTear.org to find your child.

Pre-Order David Servant's New DVD Teaching Series
To be released in October: Jesus' Parables, Part 1

Jesus often spoke to His followers in parables in order that they might understand the mysteries of the kingdom of God. In this soon-to-be-released video teaching series, David Servant takes a closer look at nine of Jesus' parables that were specifically directed towards believers. They include the parables of The Sower and the Soils, The Wheat and the Tares, The Hidden Treasure, The Unforgiving Servant, The Laborers in the Vineyard, The Good Samaritan, The Rich Fool, The Unrighteous Steward, and The Rich Man and Lazarus.

David makes no attempt to alter or soften the challenging messages contained within any of Jesus' parables. The result is a thought-provoking study that is perfect for personal devotions, group Bible studies, and home churches.

The four-DVD set in an attractive compact case includes thirteen 30-minute teachings that were filmed in the Alaskan wilderness. Also included are short and interesting side-trips as the camera follows David to some of Alaska's most interesting places. You can order your copy for $35, which includes free shipping in the U.S., by clicking here. Jesus' Parables, Part 2 has already been filmed, and is now in the editing phase.

Parting Shot
Family Resemblance

This Peruvian grandfather and granddaughter show a family resemblance even down to their missing teeth!