helpingothers

Mezcala Family - Mezcala, Mexico
Here are some pics of the Mezcala Family we (and by "we" I mean not just me but all of you included who have sent funds to help out also) help support in Mezcala, Mexico, about 40 miles from where we live here just outside of Guadalajara.
$50 -$70 a week in groceries; just the staples - flour, sugar, salt, maseca (corn flour for tortillas), beans, rice, eggs, soap, bread from a day old thrift store, cheap turkey hotdogs, tortillas from two tortilarias that save me their rejects and day old returns - these things make the difference between total dispair and survival. Consuela, the older lady, and matriarch spends much of her time schooling the younger children on their street in the Bible. I buy them corn and bean seeds each year for a small crop they bring in from a small plot on a steep hillside just outside Mezcala. They remove the kernals on the cobs by hand and grind the corn into flour and make tortillas and sell them as they can get three times as much for them as simply selling the corn kernals. An incredible amount of work for such a small return. Although the husband, Marcelo, works when he can get work, minimum wage here is like $5/day. There are no jobs in these small towns that pay anything near enough to support a family this size with.

New Kitchen I just put together for the boys dormitory at the new Oasis Facility - Ber

They presently house about 40 children with ages ranging from 2 to 16 years old. In addition to this, they also provide day care services for single mothers from the neighborhood. Pretty much all volunteer help is utilized in this facility, from meal preparation to keeping things in repair. The children attend school in different shifts throughout the day. This is one of
the places I deliver tortillas to from the two tortilarias that save me their rejects and day old returns to distribute to the poor.

The facility is nearing the end of a three year process which will complete full A. C. (civil association or nonprofit) status. Apart from being accountable to a board of directors, they continually are visited by government officials that come in
to supervise the many activities here at the center.
The needs are many - especially with the remodeling and the renovation of the new OASIS facility.
See http://www.loveinactioncenter.org for more information
Contact information including map can be found at http://www.loveinactioncenter.org/lia/Contact%20Us.html

Pastor Enock in Kenya has a congregation and runs an orphanage. Looks like his orphan count grew since first letter.
He can be contacted at beririnaophanage@yahoo.co.uk (yes, the mispelling is the correct addy)

His congregation above
Passover Celebration April 19th 2008, including footwashing below

From Pastor Enock
We need beds, mattresses and blankets for the orphans. The cost of a bed is ksh 3500 equal to $54USD each
and we need to have 18 beds as they will be sleeping two in each bed. Mattresses will cost us $25 each and the blankets will cost $8 and we are praying to have 36 blankets.

I have 2 congregations which are now under your ministry, and we also have 36 orphans now (up from 10 when we first started communicating) whom we are taking care of. Please, is there anyway you can join us in supporting these children? We worship under trees. We do not have shade. Please pray for us.
Thank you and remain blessed. Hope to hear from you soon. Pastor Enock

Best way to get money to him is via Western Union or MoneyGram.
You can send money online using a debit or credit card by Western Union - a check takes too long .
I send from a Western Union office at least once a month so if you wanted to include yours with mine you can spend to
me at PayPal berry@detailshere.com, SolidTrust Pay detailshere , or AlertPay berry@detailshere.com    For all donations I email you a copy of the western union receipt showing we did send the money. It's best to do it this way as then we can keep track of how much everyone is actually spending to him.

You just need his name Enock Oigara   and country Kenya, (Africa is the continent, not the country) , and branch Kisii Branch and you need to make up a secret question - like what's my dog's name. And email him three things to be able to retrieve it; the answer to the secret question, the amount sent, and the transaction identification number on the receipt from Western Union. He needs those things to retrieve his funds. It works good. Checks don't work well in this situation.
He can be contacted at beririnaophanage@yahoo.co.uk    (yes, the mispelling is the correct addy).

Send money by bankwire
HelloBer,

Account name:FAITHFUL OPHANAGE CARE GROUP.

Account Number: 0510194414740.

BRANCH;KENYA-KISII BRANCH

Correspondent bank: Citibank N.A. NEW YORK

Swift Code: CITIUS33

FED-WIRE NO. ;02100

Beneficiary Bank: Equity Bank Ltd.

Swift Code: EQBLKENA

Send check by mail but checks take a loooong time to get there and end up stolen before they get there.
Dear Ber,

Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus christ.

I still apreciate your help toward the children and am glad to hear from you let our heavenly Father bless you and add you more.Yes I can deposit the check , you can send it through this adress;

Pastor Enock Ombasa Oigara

P.O. Box 818
kisii 40200

Kenya E Africa.

Put on the check you have to write the name of the account.
FAITHFUL OPHANAGE CARE GROUP

A/C 0510194414740.

When you will send the check please tell me through the e-mail and the time it will take to arive.

Thank you for your good work. Hope to hear from you soon.

pastor Enock

M. Srikanth in India
Dear beloved brothers and sisters in christ, Greetings to you your blessed family your ministry and
all in the most precious name of our lord and saviour Jesus Christ. I already sent a mail to you informing about my gospel work activities even though you could not respond to my mail. Brother I am an extremely poor servant of God declaring the word of God door to door and condescend to visit hospitals to pray for the sick . Due to not having food my health condition is deteriorating . Please do not fear I am not a fraud . many can fear about Indians fraud. If you can give reply I shall send my work photos. Otherwise you might come to visit my congregations directly. Please accept me as your your co worker and send your benevelance as soon as possible. If you can, our lord shall bestow upon you the crown of righteousness in eternity. Your reward is great in heaven please do pray for our lord's vital services, our poor family,
your congregations, your friends, your well wishers ,your long life and sound health and every prosperity.
We wait for your kind reply. I close with NUM 6:24-26
YOUR HUMBLE AND POOR BROTHER IN CHRIST
(M.SRIKANTH)
my postal address
M.SRIKANTH
PO.ELAMANCHILI
ARYAPET,GARUVU
W.G.DT., A.P
S.INDIA-534268

The Huichol Project - 39 pages of pictures

The Huichol Indians are an indigenous tribe of native Mexican Indians who normally live high in the mountains in northern Jalisco/eastern Nayarit. Most are still pagan although many years have been spent trying to bring Christianity to them. Nine families DID convert to Christianity and then refused to continue participating in any more peyote smoking, teguino drinking pagan festivities. For this, they were burned out of their homes; with many of them still in them. There are burn victim pictures here to show that. The Christian Huichols were no longer considered Huichols by the pagan Huichols and were essentially evicted from their homeland. I entered the picture when they arrived at the Seventh Day Adventist Campamento, a camp/retreat location for SDA members, halfway between Guadalajara and Chapala. I have since left Adventism but still work with Pastor Dagoberto and the Huichols. It started out just supplying food and clothing during their interim stay there, but then a new steep barren area was found for them on Ejidado land on the AguaMilpa Reservoir in Eastern Nayarit and the task then became one of carving out a whole new community out of mountain and rock.

If you bring up www.googleearth.com and go to longitude 21 degrees 46 minutes 06.21 seconds north by latitude 104 degrees 38 minutes 42.75 seconds west at an elevation of about 923' you will see the site of the main Huichol camp. However, if you go left just a little you will see the plateau that has been cleared where they now have their adobe houses (even though the google earth map is not new enough to show the houses or the clearing) . The next big project is to get spring water up to the plateau. I need about 500' of 1" plastic pipe and a 1/2HP 2 wire deepwell submersible pump. I already have a 5000W generator up there. This is their story.

Here is a pic below of Brighton Gundani in Zimbabwe, Africa and his family photo taken in 2005.
He is holding Natalie (his daughter) , next to him is Euphrasia (his wife), and Willing , his wife's sister is sitting down. Besides trying to keep a family in Mezcala here in food, I have been funding a young African's schooling in Zimbabwe Africa. Doesn't cost much, $40/quarter. Our relationship started out with him requesting one of my Bible lesson CD's that I send out all over the world from my website at www.detailshere.com/bible.htm ; and then a Bible. He has sent me proof of his schooling as well as his grades. Some of his letters showing the situation in this country have been truly heart wrenching. I have a pdf file about Zimbabwe I can email you if you want more proof. The conditions are just unimaginable. He can cash checks there. That's how I send him money. He can also accept western union but it costs too much to send western union and they steal too much of it in costs before he gets it. Best to send him checks. Just $5, $10, or $20 is like a fortune to him.

Best way to get him money is to send a paypal payment directly to his friend's paypal account at rchitumba@yahoo.com
Be sure and put for Brighton Gundani in the memo box and then email a copy of the spend to Brighton
at bgundani@yahoo.com This method works really fast and Raymond Chitumba is honest and gives it to him.

Brighton Gundani
P O Box 1447
Marondera, Zimbabwe
Africa

Alex now has his siblings in the United States. He can be contacted at gibsonalex@yahoo.com

He's looking for ways to make money to support them all. He is working on a chicken farm right now for minimum pay.

Alex's siblings with his foster family
This has been an ongoing struggle for many years now; a story of persistence. Alex was born and raised in Brazil but also had American foster parents who put him through college in the US. They are not wealthy people; just good hearted people. Alex went back to Brazil to try and rescue his siblings. His real mother and father had split up , both were alcoholics, his mother beat the kids frequently and wouldn't give up custody of them because they were her slaves. Alex wanted to bring them to the states. Finally after several years of court trying to get custody of the kids the mother died of alcohol abuse. The father rescinded all claim to them but then it became a struggle with the judge to let them leave the country. And after even more time that finally became reality. Now Alex's foster parents are trying to adopt them. Here is a summary as told by Stan and Sharon Gibson, Alex's foster parents in the US.

"We adopted Alex from a poverty situation when he was fifteen.
It was our delight to support him and see him graduate from high school and then to see him graduate from
John Brown University. He would have never had these opportunities if he had remained in Brazil.
Upon graduation, the desire burned in his heart to return to Brazil to help his three siblings who were living in poverty. We have supported him and his three siblings throughout a several year custody battle.

We also had adopted three other teenagers, the oldest, an American boy and the two youngest girls
From Colombia, South America. From this experience, we decided to form a non-profit organization, Hopeful Hearts Ministries to continue to reach out and help other orphan children in poverty situations, especially older children.

I retired from DaySpring Cards at age seventy-one. I decided that I wanted to spend my retirement years helping as many children as possible. My wife and I have been living on my 401K retirement fund and we are about out of those funds. Other than a small amount of social security, we have no other source of income.

We are currently trying to raise the money to bring Alex and his siblings to the U.S.A.

I hope that explains better the reasons we are reaching out to others for any help and support they can give in this situation.

I know you are making a huge difference in Alex's life by helping him at various times. We appreciate your support of him. He has a good heart and we support his unselfish efforts to help his biological family.

We pray for God to reward you for this.
"He who is kind to the poor, lends to the Lord and He will reward him for what he has done." Proverbs 19:17
Best Wishes,
Stan Gibson

Alex graduated from John Brown University in 2003.

When asked what he wanted to do with his degree, Alex said, “I know I could have the good life in the USA but what I really want to do is find my siblings, get them out of the slums and give them the opportunities I had. Through a series of miracles, Alex found them.

Although they suffered severe neglect and abuse from their mother living in poverty, children in Brazil are considered the property of the mother, Alex asked Stan & I, his adopted parents, to join him in Brazil as we fought to free these kids from a horrible cycle of poverty, neglect and abuse.

When we started on this journey to rescue the kids, I and Sharon held on tight to the back of the seat as the taxi driver hit as many pot holes as he missed. We fled the threats of the abusive mother as we transported the kids to safety. I thought, “What on earth are we doing?”

I heard the Lord say, “I am just looking for someone to take a stand for these kids.” The next thought that came to mind is “All it takes for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing.”

Alex fought hard and the court finally granted him temporary custody in Brazil in late 2003 but the alcoholic mother fought back. In June, 2005 the news of her sudden death shocked us.

The long struggle ended in September, 2005 when the court granted Alex permanent custody.

His compassion for his three youngest siblings, Michelle, (16) Ingrid, (11) and Michael, (10) in the above picture, inspired 27 year old Alex to make it his mission to raise these children.

Excited over our victory, Alex shared, “Mom, it has given me such confidence to know that people care and prayed for us every step of the way.”

A benefactor is providing scholarships to a private school where the kids receive a quality education. Their grades are at the top and they are eager for the opportunity to study in the USA.

There are many lessons to be learned from our tough journey:
“Persistence pays.” If know we are fighting a godly battle, we should never give up because God is for us. It is important to be willing to take a stand for what is right.

Well, friends, we didn't stand by and let evil prevail and WE WON! Together, with your prayers, we overcame all the obstacles and victory is ours! “Thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him.” 2 Corinthians 2:14
Update as of January, 2007: Stan and Sharon are in the process of trying to adopt the three siblings, Michelle, 16; Ingrid, 11; and Michael, 10, so they can come to the USA to study. Our desire is to help them fulfill their dreams as we partner with God to help Him restore these precious children to His original purpose for them. We still need your prayers as there are many obstacles to overcome to complete the adoption process.

Bottomline - they need about $3000 more to get Alex's siblings to the US.
For bankwire information,Contact Stan Gibson at Hopeful Hearts Ministries, a registered non profit organization in Arkansas and a 501c3 under IRS guidelines and all contributions are tax deductible under IRS regulations. stangibson@cox.net Stan Gibson 479-524-5160

If you would like to partner with us as we touch eternity by helping God’s kingdom come here on earth, Hopeful Hearts Ministries is a 501C3 Non-profit organization click here to donate with Pay Pal or MasterCard or VISA. They need to finish the adoption process and fly the kids back to the US. This all takes money.

I have put Alex in several programs through the last several years to try and get him more money but none of them survived except PTE and I don't have enough for him in there yet to make a difference yet.

Proverbs 19:17 He who is kind to the poor lends to the LORD and he will reward him for what he has done.
Alex Gibson gibsonalex@yahoo.com E Bul acct A23048 Alex Gibson
Rua: Avelina Nogueira do Prado, 639
Jd. Monte Alegre- Taboão da Serra
CEP: 06755-325 Brasil
011-55-11-4771-6721 or 011-55-11-9816-1428