Tuesday, February 27, 2007

On Line Donations

Many of you have emailed me wondering if there is any way that you can support the work in Central Asia. We now have a way that you can support with donations as small as $1. check it out at this link to Canadahelps .
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All donations will go to Possibilities international. There is a memo line that gives you a opportunity to give special instructions to Sam about where you would like this donation to go

Thursday, February 22, 2007

The Bright Side

So I thought that today I would give you an update about what is going on in the village. I thought I could show the photo of the old lady living on the street,after being robed blind, surviving on scraps she collects at the dump. I could post the photo of a young boy living out in the fields with a broken hand because he was scared to return to his drunk abusive parents. There are so many heart breaking stories to share, but I thought today I should show you a photo of the bright side . This is a photo of Tatyana teaching the kids with there new books. they are so excited to receive the new books and markers . It's nice to hope for the future. Thank you to those who provided these books

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

An angel in the clowds

It was another great week for the child sponsorship. 17 more kids were sponsored on Sunday and another couple through the week. I think that part of the success of this sponsorship program is the front line workers. Take for example Central Asia. Under the caring and watchful eye of Anya (shown above) we know that the needs of the kids will be looked after with love and integrity. Anya is an absolute machine. Please remember her and her family in prayer.

Sunday, February 18, 2007

A special thanks to the knitters from Hastings and Cambellford



Thank you so much for the wonderful knitting that you donated to the children and seniors of Central Asia. You have know idea how this will impact their lives. when they see how beautiful the workmanship, they will experience that "feeling of being special" , something that is often overlooked in an orphanage. The bags were packed today and given to Sammy ( Executive Director of Possibilities International) He and Dave, a friend of ours, will be heading into Central Asia in a few weeks to set up projects for teams going this fall. They will hand deliver these to the orphanages while there. You can follow the progress of there trip her on this blog sight. Thank you again ..слова благодарности снова

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

17 kids sponsored and rising

New total........
we now have 17 of the 30 kids in the village sponcered.
Not bad for day three !

Give me one good reason why we can't adopt.

Several years ago now, Julie and I were in Xxxxx. Our first day at the Orphanage, there was a little boy that had just been brought there by the police. His mother was caught selling him in the market for what was the equivalent to a cup of coffee. This little boy very quickly grew into our hearts. Knowing that they had a policy of no adoptions from Xxxxxx , we resigned ourselves to the fact that we could not bring him home with us. It started to bother me so I spoke to someone there, and asked why we could not adopt. In my mind I had a rebuttal for every reason.... I thought.... I was told that they use to permit adoption a few years before this, but the government did a survey to determine how the adopted kids were doing after a few year. What they found was that many of the adopted children had been used for their body parts.............!

Monday, February 12, 2007

FRST DAY OF CHILD SPONSORSHIP IN CENTRAL ASIA

This was a great weekend.. Julie and I drove down to Kitchener on Friday night and spent the weekend with Sam and his wife Vee. We had a little kingdom business to take care of on Saturday morning, then got everything ready for the kick of service in Godrich . There was a three fold Challenge this Morning...... 1. Are we sure that we are not missing the boat in our communities ? Is there more that we can do to help the helpless and the hopeless ? 2. This was the official start of putting together the team and the resources to head to the village in Central Asia to put in a kitchen at the orphanage ( Maybe next time I am there, I will be able to cook inside ) and Finally 3. This is the part that was most exciting for me. We started the child sponsorship today, AND WHAT WOULD BE MORE APPROPRIATE THAN TO START WITH THE KIDS FROM OLOVKA. We had some candid photos of the kids to give them along with the registration photo's. We had Julie and I and Sams son Scott ( remember the young lad that got the ball rolling when we purchased a house for the family from the dump?) at the table . We were able to give a little insight into the history and personalities of many of the kids, and did our best to match them up with the right sponsors. It was a funny feeling , a couple of times I wanted to say, " No you can't have that one or that she is already taken " because I wanted to sponsor them myself. I know that it's silly. Julie and I do all that we can to help these kids regardless , and the sponsorships is a way for others to get involved. The thing that makes this sponsorships so unique is that we will only have kids in locations that we have regular contact with our workers, and most importantly, that we bring teams to on a regular basis. This will give opportunely for sponsors to not only write, but to actually go themselves, or meat with people that have gone and spent time with their kid. So the totals.....12 children sponsored in the first morning..... Thank you Godrich for your support. I pray that God will richly bless you, AND THAT YOU TOO. WILL BE RICHER FOR KNOWING THESE KIDS.

Thursday, February 08, 2007

The world just got a whole lot smaller ...

Many of you will Recognise my friend Sergi . This is a photo of him at the amusement park in Central Asia when we brought the kids from the orphanages . Along with my sales job, I work night security at a car lot. Well Sammy asked me if I had instant messenger so we could do a little work with the sponsorship over the Internet at night. So last night I officially entered this new realm. I am a slow typer and a lousy speller, so it is a little laboured, but I am sure I will get the hang of it. Well David letterman ended, and so did my conversation with Sam. Then on came Sergi. My Russian is very poor, and the spelling is un recognisable, and although Sergi's English is coming along, his writing is difficult for him. Our conversation was very stifled, but just knowing he and Anya were on the other end was nice. Then my lap top started ringing like a phone and a screen came up and said would you like to talk to Sergi. I clicked on the screen, and there we were . Now this may not seem like a big deal for some of you, but it was such an unexpected blessing to me. We had a nice visit for about a half hour.
Well call is over, and I am back to sitting on a quiet lot watching the snow fall, and thinking of memories this unexpected blessing has stirred up.
You know we are literaly a world apart, from completely different cultures, but when I herd his voice say "Allo Jun" , I new I was talking to my BROTHER

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Making Orphan dreams come true!

" It's about restoring Dignity" or at least that is what we keep telling people when it comes to missions . Ed has found a way to bring this to a new level. Edbay is now up and running. Like Myself, many of you have listed "junk" on ebay before and followed it's progress with great excitement . Imagine the excitement for an orphan to produce a work of art and be able to sell it on Edbay . Check out the new works of art.

EDBAY link

Monday, February 05, 2007

Child sponsorship in Central Asia ....Now a reality

From the first time I entered into an orphanage in Xxxxx, I have had a desire to see some form of child sponsorship in place. That dream is now a reality. It is now official, and in one week from today, Possibilities International will be revealing it's new child sponsorship program. P.I. will be focusing on destinations where they not only send teams, but have a network in place. For now, they will be in Central Asia, Xxxxx, and Guatemala.
I am sure that this endeavor has turned out to be more work than Sammy originally anticipated, But I am so excited that he persevered. With the excellent network of workers in Central Asia, from administrators and translators to support workers, we have the confidence that any seeds planted here will be in GOOD SOIL. Along with the workers in Central Asia, P.I. conducts regular short term trips into the area, to visit the children first hand.
So often people ask if there is anything they can do. Through the child sponsorship program,they will be able to make such a difference in the lives of so many.
On another note, It looks like the remortgaging on our house will go through and the finances are in place for our six month stay this time next year. A year is a long way off, but we wanted everything in order so that we can concentrate on helping YOU make a short term missions trip a reality.... Perhaps you could come and spend a week with your sponsored child.

Thursday, February 01, 2007

IF YOU WANT TO KEEP UP WITH SAMMY, YOUR GOING TO NEED RUNNING SHOES

The next 4-6 weeks will be rather busy for PI.Sunday, February 11th - Goderich Bethel Church - AM ServiceSunday, February 18th - Norwood Pentecostal Church - All DaySunday, February 25th - St. Andre-Avellin, Quebec - AM ServiceWednesday, February 28th - Calvary Church (Tilbury) - Trip ConsultationFriday, March 2nd - Chatham Evangel Youth ServiceSunday, March 4th - Freedom Church (Kitchener) - AM ServiceSunday, March 18th - Family Worship Centre (Courtice) - AM ServiceMonday, March 19th - Monday, April 2nd ....Possibilities Tour to Central Asia (This trip will be to set things up for Xtreme Makeover Team in late September and also another team from Goderich Bethel in late October)Above is just mainly weekend stuff and does not reflect the many meetings and such that take place each week. As you can see....the passion I have to see Missions ignite in every church and every heart continues to grow!