So what is Safe Families for Children?

The quickest way to describe it, is that it is a christian alternative to foster care.  It is an opportunity for the Church to be obedient to Christ by taking care of those in need.

Safe Families for Children is in many States and preparing to be launched in Canada and England.  It has been established in St Louis since the summer of 2010.  In the first 6 months they were able to help 10 children, and last year they helped 98, but sadly had to turn away over 200 due to the lack of host families.  As of yesterday morning, there were 14 children waiting in St Louis for a family to be willing to take them in.

The need for the Body of Christ to serve theses families is huge, and only going to get bigger as Safe Families for Children is becoming more well known throughout the community.

Below is just one example of how Safe Families for Children can help.




Could you help your neighbor?  Could you be a host family, or a family coach, or someone to walk alongside the parents, or help with transportation, or help support the host family with their extra expenses etc, etc ... There are so many ways you could help.  So please pray.  Ask God how you can get involved and ask Him to raise up people in His Body to reach out to the weak and vulnerable.  What an incredible opportunity we have to share Christ to those in need. 


If you would like more information please, please contact me.

Thanks

Michelle

Off to England, AGAIN!!!

In fact, I am already here. I arrived on Wednesday. Sorry for the late notice. We had been so busy that I couldn't get a post up, nor finish the one about Texas. And then, I brought a computer with me that needed a bunch of updating before I could use it. I finally finished all the updates today, so now I am able to complete some posts.

I am here working with 2 other guys to build out a handicap apartment. We will be joined this next week by another guy from my home church.

The work is going great. The 2 guys I am working with had already started on the project and a lot of the demolition had been done. But they also left some for me to do too. One of the guys, Rick, is a bricklayer and has been teaching the skill. He has been on the mission field for the last 30 years, both in Senegal and the Netherlands. He is a very interesting guy and I have enjoyed getting to know him some.

Phil, you already know about, because he is the one who I left to finish the last project that I came out to do In February. He is still here and is managing the project for us.

The project is going very smooth. We have accomplished much in the few days that I have been on the job. By the time I return home we should have what they call "the first fix" completed. From what I understand that to be is: all the brick walls up, ceiling framed, insulated, windows and door installed, electrical rough, plumbing rough, drywall on walls and ceiling and the plastering completed (they plaster a lot here), as well as a few routine maintenance items completed around the campus, which I have already been working on. Wow! Sound like a lot of work? Well, it is. No time to rest around here, we have work to do.

Here are some pictures of the work.

Gary

The front of the apartment.

Reconstruction of the bath wall.

Laying the brick

Old Pillar removed

Old Lintel removed

New Lintels installed

My brick work inside

My brick work outside

Installing the ceiling beams with Rick

Ceiling beams complete

Texas

That's right I have been to Texas and back - Mission, Texas in the Rio Grande Valley. Daniel and I went down with Aaron Sutton and Psalm 67 to check out a project for a church. It took us 23 hours driving straight through to get down there and about 21 hours to drive back not including about an 8 hour stop to get some sleep. We were gone for 6 days and was able to meet a lot of the members of this Hispanic church - some of them spoke English but not all. Aaron Sutton translated for those who couldn't speak both languages.

It was a good trip. I had a chance to get to know Aaron, his wife and daughter. Our Pastor and his wife flew down and spent the time with us. They came down to teach a few classes at the church. We are planning another trip late July to start on the work. It will take several trips to complete the work.

We are looking at approximately 250 linear feet of cracks in the drywall to be repaired throughout the building which means that we will have approximately 12,500 square feet of wall area that will need to be painted, not to mention the ceilings. The walls have the orange peel knock down finish and the ceiling have the acoustic finish. What fun!!!

We had an impromptu Bible Study with a family in the church. They came by one evening and wanted to  Study the Bible with us. This family is hungry for the Word of God. They want to know what it says so that they can live according to all that God commands. It is great to see the Holy Spirit working in their lives in this way.

The Mexican culture is very much a woman dominated culture because the men just aren't there to lead, for many reasons. So to see this man hungry is a real work of God in his life. He does not read and neither he nor his wife speak English but their kids, because they go to school in the U.S., speak both languages fluently. It is amazing to see these kids translating from English to Spanish for their parents.




We did take the opportunity to cross the border into Mexico for a few hours. A totally different way of life, such as it is in many parts of the world. We found prices to be so much cheaper.

Daniel also tried some tacos, which he liked. I was surprised that he liked them. They're not like Mom makes.










The Mexicans set up shop wherever they can to sell their goods.

Including using their bicycles.

The kids are very industrious. They will work hard to earn money to help support the family. Here is a boy that shines shoes. Don't they look GREAT!

This girl was selling gum.

I will be posting details of that up coming trip in July in the next couple of weeks. So keep watching!



Gary