Hearth to Hearth Ministries' Spotlight on Orphans newsletters
highlight the work that volunteers are doing for widows, orphans, and orphanages in East
Africa. Click one of the month links 
above
in the green banner to see
2005 and 2006 Spotlight on Orphans
newsletters. (Click
here if you do not see a green banner.) Without
sponsors and volunteers, orphans are left caring for orphans. These orphans
need a sponsor so that they can enter an orphanage where volunteers will give
them the food and care they need. HIV/AIDS has killed many adults, leaving large
numbers of orphans. Because of so many orphans in need, Hearth to Hearth
Ministries accepted more orphans into our orphanages than sponsors had
sponsored. With so many extra orphans finances are very tight. Read
the articles in Spotlight on Orphans newsletter to learn how the
orphanage administrators are caring for so many orphans with so little. Click the links
below to see this years
Spotlight on Orphans newsletters about the widows, orphans, and orphanages of
Hearth to Hearth Ministries.
Spotlight on Orphans Newsletters
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Due to the high cost of printing we have had to scale back on the size of our
monthly newsletter. We have decided to publish a
Spotlight on Orphans Extra for the internet. Here we can include
more pictures and information that we no longer have room to print.
Below is a slightly edited excerpt from June of 2006 Spotlight on Orphans newsletter.
Soon after Brian Hester and Logan Harvey arrived at Glory Center orphanage, we received
the following news from Brian:
“Greetings from Glory Center orphanage. Logan and I have much to report. First, we will
share the severity of desperation that exists here. It is impossible to turn
every orphan away who arrives at the orphanage gate with no one to care for them, no food
to eat, and only the streets to live on. We m
ust bring them in
to the orphanage to be fed,
sheltered and loved. Outside the orphanage is beyond description. We traveled to
the countryside by foot, for many miles, and Glory Center orphanage is by far the very best place
to be.
“Every moment from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. is devoted to
caring for the orphans. Moses and Prisca are busy beyond belief. They and their
four full-time volunteers work fourteen to sixteen hours daily, cooking and
maintaining this orphanage. You know all of the cooking is done over open
fires. Two of the volunteers stay and the work continues well into the night. The
teachers have very full classrooms and such a small amount of pay as to be
negligible.
“We believe the recipients of Spotlight on Orphans will be
willing to house, clothe, feed and educate these orphans. It should not be asked of simple men to decide between life and death. When a
person holds an orphan in their arms and realizes this is the first touch the
child has known, God is fu
lly revealed.”
Brian further told that he and Logan had spent all of their
available funds for bedding for the orphans who had been sleeping on the ground.
Three days later we received a letter, from Pastor Moses, informing us that
after seeing Prisca and Vane weeping over these children, the decision was made
to bring fifty-six new orphans into the Orphanage. We were also told that because of
the high cost of grain ($25for one bag of maize), and the famine relief, a
two-week supply of grain was all that remained in our storage there.
We were overwhelmed by this decision and the news that
accompanied it. We have not been able to meet the budget at either Glory Center
orphanage or Hope Center orphanage for
the past couple of months. In addition, donations and even some sponsorship fees have
not been coming in on a regular basis, leaving us in a bind. (We have been
wrestling with the idea of asking the sponsors to increase their support by even
$5 or $10 a month, as the amount we set over five years ago is no longer
adequate, and especially so during this time of severe famine, but this is
something we have resisted as a last-ditch solution.)
Fearful that our ability to care for our current orphans
would be compromised, we decided to put a freeze on new admissions, telling both pastors that any new orphans would only be accepted on an
emergency basis and then only by permission from our Board after reviewing the
orphan’s information. Many volunteers who have worked with this ministry through its
growing pains have gone into personal debt to care for the orphans. We realize
that this is a never-ending problem and, as retired people, we cannot continue
to accumulate these debts without jeopardizing our own families.
Full article
Thank you for helping Hearth to Hearth Ministries care for widows and orphans.
Logan wrote his parents from Africa:
Things are going quite well here at Hope for Children
Center. I finally met the children you have sponsored, Kevin and Velma. Kevin
was very happy for the gifts but Velma was terrified of me at first. I guess she
has never seen a white man before. I gave two dresses that fit her well and the
doll, which she was also scared of for a while because it was white. She isn’t
quite so scared of me now and I think she likes the doll.
What I wanted to write most of all
is about all the children who come to Hope’s gate but have to be turned away. I
bought thirty loaves of bread yesterday and was able to give them two
pieces of
bread each this morning. There were 60+ children at the time, but later
there was a total of 115 children today. This was probably the only meal they
have had for days. The bread is quite cheap, approximately thirty cents a loaf.
I’m going to buy more today. I would like to ask the church if it would be
possible to send me $200 a month to buy food for these starving children. I know
that two slices of bread isn’t much, but these children are starving, and I feel
that I have to do something. Most of these children are skin and bones with
swollen bellies.
I’m almost
out
of money so please try to do something. Also, if possible, I would like to do
something about their clothes. Most of them are dressed in rags, some so bad I
don’t know why they even wear them at all. Maybe you could organize a clothes
drive please send all my extra clothes with the rest. There are so many
suffering children here, but I know that our church, family, and friends can
make a difference. And please thank our church for what they are going to do in
June. I know that the church sale will help a lot. Please write back and tell me
if you think that these requests are possible.
Logan
Watch the slide show version of
this letter along with more pictures that Logan took of the orphans and
orphanages.
Orphanage Slide Shows
See more of Logan's letters
as printed in Spotlight on Orphans
Hearth to Hearth Ministries' widows, orphans, and orphanages need volunteers and
sponsors like you. Make a difference and
Sponsor an orphan today.
See other
Hearth to Hearth Ministries' websites
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