Oh, Victory in Jesus!

Thank you ATCC!

Father’s Day! We saw this as an opportunity to honor and challenge the young fathers from the slum to rise up and take care of their families. Preparations started weeks before, as we got the kids ready to perform songs, skits, and lessons from their English Classes. We also prepared 120 gifts for all the children’s fathers and special rice porridge and fruit for an expected 350 people. After 5 years of working with this community, it was our first event ever to focus on the fathers. We were very excited!
We arrived 2 hours early to find all of our 100 kids plus some added siblings ready to help. We set up tents, tables and chairs for the meal; signs, pictures, and balloons for the program, and laid down plenty of plastic mats for everyone to sit on. By the time the program started, we had over 200 people crowded in our house, but not one father. After some quick prayers, we started the program, trying to think of ways we could change the theme to “family day.” But just as we were preparing the change, 11 fathers walked through the door, with a few more standing to watch from the back! So we kept our theme and had the fathers come up front to receive encouraging words and gifts from their kids. All of the kids yelled “thank you, Pa!” and then we all stretched out our hands and prayed blessing over them! The men were so honored! You could see them looking at their children with so much pride…most of us were in tears!
Lots of food followed the event, and although things didn’t go quite as planned, we knew there were about 15 fathers who went to bed that night thinking about their families! This is why we do it… and YOU are how we do it! None of this ministry would be possible without your prayers, your encouragement, your giving, your love, your hands!

When one of our hometown churches visited in April, they left with a burden to help anyway they knew how! So they dressed up, baked desserts, put together videos from their time here, asked area Asian food restaurants to pitch in and put together a big fund raising dinner for our team. They raised over $7,500 for a ministry van. So we can not only bless our team but the people we work with! One day while we were taking a group of moms and their kids for vaccines, the ladies commented after riding in the van for the first time, ‘Teacher, God really knows how to take care of us!” Amen! Thank you ATCC!!!

GO DEEPER B4 WE GO WIDER!

That was the challenge given to us by one of our speakers during our staff retreat. We are expanding fast, but unless we go deeper in our walk with Jesus first, we will lose out on the impact we can make for His Kingdom! So we are examining the quality and goals of our projects and seeking God how we can bring His BEST to the people!
We were able to send two of our staff for special training on Child’s Rights and Family Values…so at the end of this month we will be hosting a special seminar to bring awareness to our “Victory Community.”  We are so excited to watch our team grow in confidence and leadership!

With Love from the Ends of the Earth,

Tim, Mel, Luka and lil one!

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