God Is Good! Target Met…

That’s right – our target was met – prayers answered!

What prayers? What target?

11 year old Heath, is a cutie who needs his family asap.
10 year old Heather, is a sweetie who needs a family asap.

Well, our church (International Church of Luzern) Youth’s fundraising project called Angels for Orphans had a target of CHF700. And it was met!

i proposed this project to our church Youth Leaders a couple of months back, when i felt led to do something more than pray for my little Heath and my lovely Heather. i had initially decided to do the fundraising by myself, but God prompted me to ask if this would be a project for the Youths. They said yes! So planning started; ideas and materials were gathered and tested. i settled on making a few simple crafts and baking cookies.

i had also wanted the Youths to come to know the power of prayer, the joy and the blessings of praying for others (even for people we didn’t know personally) and that our Lord God is mighty in answering prayers. This was something i wished i had as a youth and i wish for them to have it in their lives now – knowing this, truly, deeply knowing this would just make their uncharted journey through life a little easier.

So with that in mind, the Youth Coordinator and myself planned for the Angels for Orphans project to be introduced during a session where the Youths were studying about prayer. i was really nervous but survived (Thank God!) the rather time-constrained presentation (i could only present the project after they finished their session, which took most of the time). After which, i followed it up with 3 weeks of handouts, about Heath and Heather, about Reece’s Rainbow, about why God would want us to help the orphans, including also prayer pointers and websites of other teens who are doing their bit for these precious ones.

Then we had a Sunday morning of making the crafts. It went slower than expected but the teachers were supportive and the youths were happy to do the work. Some took home materials to work on as we didn’t get enough done that day. The following Sunday morning was focused on putting finishing touches and baking cookies. A couple of hours after that, it was Sale Time!

The cookies went the fastest! In the picture you only see one type of cookie, the other chocolate one was gone before i could even pull out the camera. The Angel Cards were also very popular. The Finger Puppet Angels were mainly bought by mothers or grandmothers for the kids. The Bell Angels (the little cardboard angels with bells in them) were harder to sell as people didn’t think them too practical (something to consider for the next project).

We are not a huge church, we are but a small family church; still, we managed to raise CHF415 🙂 Then we had a very generous offer – a couple said they would buy up all the remaining items and give a little above that, which allowed us to hit our target of CHF700! Praise the Lord!

Below are pictures of the table display and close-ups of all the items made and sold:

Table laden with goodies to sell…
All the items we sold…

We (myself and the Youths) would like to thank everyone who contributed to the success of this fundraising project, whether in buying something or in helping to make the crafts/cookies. We will carry on praying for little Heath and lovely Heather, praying that this small amount we raised will help the family who finds them to reach them faster.

syc

Fixed! And Discovery…

Hurray! My brilliant hubby fixed the computer! He came home on Saturday morning and looked into it that afternoon. He went out to get a SATA cable/drive the same afternoon and proceeded to download all my files, which was my major concern, and kept them safe. After which, he spent most of his free time over Sunday and Monday restoring the Operating System. Success by Monday evening! Then some testing and we were back online!! Thank God for a “geeky” husband 😉

So while the husband was busy trying to pump new life into old computer, i was on my little netbook (which is normally used only for writing), trying to get it to work like a big laptop, in order to carry on doing everything i want to on a computer. With that in mind, i searched the internet for a replacement to Photoshop (my version of Photoshop is sooooo very old) so i can continue sharing pictures here. (Yes i know i can just upload the raw pictures but i just like to tweet my photos and have a little control over them)

Now i offer to you my very short first ever tech review of software (and likely my last?):

Photoscape and Paint.NET

i like Photoscape for it’s easy to use interface and the quick way you can make changes such as applying sepia tones to a photo and put it into a special frame (i did not manage to create my own frame, i used one of the pre-sets). However, it does not support layers and is mainly a program to simply and quickly enhance your photos. And for this purpose, it is a great program! Below is an example of what you can do in a few short minutes:

Sepia tones, frame and text added in just a matter of minutes.

For me, Paint.NET comes closer to Photoshop. It supports layers and has similar tools and icons. The extend of manipulation is far greater than Photoscape and with the exceptions of a few functions, such as the variety of saved file format available, i’m very happy with it. The one thing i did not like was that text immediately becomes pixels and thus can not be changed after you click enter. It can be worked around if you do a little extra planning. Here is what i managed to do about 10mins into using the program:

Custom frame, text and slight image manipulation done using layers.

The best part is both programs are free to download!

Here’s a review of Photoscape and Paint.NET by Cnet. Have a read. Maybe give it a try. Let me know what you think 😉

syc

3 Lost Boys at 47…

i was not planning to post today. But i read this post at A Little Lemonade and knew i just had to join my voice with the others and shout out to the world about the Lost Boys at Orphanage 47.

Orphanage 47 is a mental institution for special needs boys aged 6-18 years old. When they reach the age of 18, they will be transferred to an adult mental institution. Where the boys are right now, they do not have the privilege of toys or books or even nice furniture. They sit in their chairs, all in the same room all day when the weather is bad. When the weather is good, they sit in their chairs in an outdoor shed. Doing… nothing… simply sitting and staring…

There are a lot of lost boys in this orphanage. However, only 3 have been listed as available for adoption. We don’t know the reason why only these 3 but i am grateful that at least they have been listed and that we can advocate for and pray for them.

So join me today in praying for Hanson, Heath and Porter, and in sharing their stories, please.

7-year old Hanson needs a family to love him.

Hanson is 7-years old and really needs a family to see to his medical needs so that he can do much better. He has US$2314 in his adoption grant. A little over US$190 more and he will be listed in the Sizable Grant category where he can get more notice. Please do help where you can.

11 years old Heath, is a cutie who needs his family asap.

Heath – my little Heath, my prayer warrior child, 11-years old and waiting so very many years already. He needs someone to love him and care for him and show him that he matters. He has US$9133.94 in his adoption grant, that’s almost halfway to a full grant. Share his story.

7-year old Porter needs to be in a loving family environment and not in a mental institution.

Porter – he is the one who has moved hearts and prompted this outpouring of posts for the boys of Orphanage 47. He is HIV+ and his delays are likely (unconfirmed) are a result of his institutionalisation. This 7-year is a recent transfer and i dare say is not doing well, being away from his wonderful baby house where he got presents and was engaged in activities. He has US$2050.60 in his adoption grant. Pray for him.

We need God to move hearts and hands and feet and mountains. We need God to bring these 3 boys their families. It will not only benefit them, but the other lost boys at 47 too. Because when their families come for them, the carers and the director of the institution would hopefully realise that there are families out there for these boys and more boys would be listed as available for adoption.

So please, if you have considered expanding your family, would you think about whether one of these boys could be yours? Would you please pray for their daily needs and for their forever families to come for them today? Could you share their stories, advocate for them so that more will see/hear about them and hopefully their families can be found?

Here are the other posts about the Lost Boys and Orphanage 47.

Whole Lotta Love

Covenant Builders

The Wonder of Boys

Orphan Report

syc