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Friends,
It is with great excitement to share with you the photos of our two new children; Benta age one and half years and Eddah, two months old. The children joined us on July 31st as a result of being rescued from a child trafficking ring in which children were being smuggled from Kenya in to Tanzania and then sold. The blessing is that these two children were saved. Sadly, the third child, less than two years old, died in the hospital from the criminal’s abuse. It is also unfortunate that authorities are unable to locate the parents, but thanks to the sovereignty of our Lord, we have been blessed to intervene on behalf of these dear little ones.
I know many of you share the same compassion as we do for these children and we appreciate your kind words and prayers. So please do not stop praying and please consider helping us financially with these children. We need to raise five hundred dollars a month for the care of these children. If you would be interested in sponsoring one of these little ones on a monthly basis, please contact us. I know I mentioned children, but I forgot to mention that our 4th child will be coming this week - a little one only 3 days old who was found in a local village abandoned by the child’s mother - it breaks my heart to share this with you.
As we continue to share our financial partnership opportunities, it is great to see the faces of those whom benefit from your gifts, your visits, and your prayers. Over the past couple of months, we have been blessed with gifts of nearly $40,000.00 - monies previously designated by donors for specific projects, including helping to complete the second orphan home and to begin the construction of a large toilet facility for Noel Academy. The toilet facility will really help next year, January ’09, and becomes necessary to accommodate the anticipated enrollment of 180 children. In addition, this month we will start the construction of the water treatment project, yet we will need additional funding to complete. Other projects, 40 new school desks and bookcases along with several cribs and changing tables for the orphanage (Noel Children’s Center) are being designed and built to meet the growing demand of our children.
Not to limit our work to the school and orphanage, we are finalizing the purchase of one acre of land were we will begin building a new community church. This as a result of a new church plant, and now the congregation has outgrown its small shelter.
With all this said, we continue to be blessed of the Lord, blessed to have so many of you interested in the work, and we are growing in an effort to live out our testimony in Jesus Christ. The staff of Build the Village are continually encouraged by the partnership of so many friends and as each of you have the opportunity please seek ways in which you can get involved. Let us share with you our list of projects yet to be funded, or are under funded:
1. Completion of the second orphan house, $5,000.00
2. Completion of the water treatment facility $8,000.00
3. Purchase of a used school van (shared with the orphanage) $18,000.00
4. Last but not least, $2,500.00 to cover the cost of our four children for the balance of this year.
Thanks again for your consideration of these unfunded projects and if there is any opportunity for Randa and I to visit with you, your Sunday School class, your church, your civic group, please email me at your earliest convenience.
To the glory of Christ,
Damon, Randa and the Build the Village Team
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