Monday, May 13, 2013

Let's catch up!!

Greetings to all!  First of all, I would like to pass on a word of thanks from Ernst to all of you who prayed for him and his family and also to those who wrote him notes of encouragement.  All the traditional funeral events are over and now the family would appreciate your continued prayers as they face so many new and different things related to life without their dad, husband and friend.

Life here at the HOH has been moving along fairly normally.  The students are big into studying and school, there are various Bible studies and other studies taking place on different nights.  All in all, things are going really well.  Not far from everyone's mind, however are the upcoming school exams scheduled for the month of June, so please be in prayer as they prepare for this stressful time.

Linda spends her days helping many different people.  Today for instance she has spent most of her day at our mission's hospital helping 4 different people get to see the doctors and schedule surgeries.  One of these people is a staff member of our friends from the Lemuel Organization.  The other three come from a home for severely mentally and physically disabled children called the Miriam Center.  One of their staff and two of their kids are quite sick, so she's helping them get taken care of today.  One of the children will need to stay with us at the HOH for a few days as he gets treated for a severe infection. Linda does this on top of all her other responsibilities, so you can imagine, she's a pretty busy lady!

I (Jenny) have been busy trying to work out a new niche for myself at the HOH.  Numerous things that I have taken care of over the years are slowly being transferred over to our young leaders and it is freeing me up to start focusing on other things that the staff and residents here are not able to do.  I find the area where I can be the most helpful here at the HOH at this time is in the area of development; particularly for the moment in the area of donor relations.

It is neat to see our ministry progress over the years to the point where I feel I can let go of some things here and start focusing on other more pressing needs. This has led me to do some research on where our support team is coming from.  I have started working on some plans for developing our support base; and at this moment these plans include some extended periods of travel to see various supporters and attempt to gain others.

With this new opportunity that is in front of us to connect with our support base, we are anticipating God's provision to make these travels a reality.  We have come to understand that in order to adequately provide and care for our kids; and properly invest in their future it will require more funds.  We are asking you to help is with this need in whatever way you can.  We are trying to raise $3,500 so Jenny (and her husband Djordjy for at least part of this time) can spend 2 months traveling to various locations in the Northeastern USA, and parts of Canada.  The biggest expense is getting over there, so we want to make it to as many places as possible in the amount of time we have.  If you can please pray for us that God would supply this need over the next couple of weeks.  If you are able to help out with this need, you can send donations to Extreme Response and designate it for Jenny Reitz Compère's travels.   Their website is www.extremeresponse.org.  Their US address is:
PO Box 345,  Snellvill, GA  30078-0345.  And their Canadian address is:  PO Box 1013, Simcoe, ON N3Y 5B3.   If you have any questions about this, please feel free to contact us at houseofhope1@hotmail.com

One last thing we need to share with you is with regards to our friends in Miami who so graciously help us get food for our kids.  They have recently started their own non-profit organization so that they can receive funds for this directly instead of needing to go through their local church.  For those of you who have been giving funds for this through the Miami Shores Presbyterian Church, we are asking that you now send these funds to:  Friends of Humanity, c/o Renel Noel, 15414 NE 2nd Ave., Miami, FL 33162.  Again if you have question feel free to write and ask.  You will still receive tax-deductible receipts for these donations, just from Friends of Humanity Corporation instead of the church.

Thank you so much for your faithful support.  We know we couldn't bring hope to the children of Haiti if it wasn't for you giving us the chance to be here.  We are grateful for your partnership. Please continue to hold us up in prayer, and if you are able to help us out with the need we mentioned above, please consider doing that as well.  Blessings to you all...