Help needed for HIS Home for Children Orphanage

I typically do not like to do anything like this; but I realized that when we don’t know of needs, then there is no way we can help if we are able, and if we aren’t able to help financially, prayers are always sought on behalf of the Children and directors and staff of HIS Home.

As you all know, our family is in the process of adopting two children from an Orphanage in Haiti.  This Orphanage – HIS Home For Children – has been down significantly in their financial giving this year, and as a result, they are currently at risk of losing one of their two children’s homes. 

The result of losing their boys home will cause them to combine approximately 130 children (teenage boys and teenage girls and all the toddlers and babies) into one house which is barely big enough for the just the girls toddlers and babies.  While there are some natural potential adverse reactions to combining teenage boys and teenage girls into a single home, there are also concerns for the health and stability of having so many children under one roof. 

Additionally, the boys house which is in jeopardy of closing is where the school for the orphanage is too – so that will be a significant loss to the children as well.

In response to a final notice for rent, HIS Home has written a post-dated check for 8600$ (the remaining balance of this year’s rent) for next Wednesday, and have placed their trust in the Lord that if it is His will that he will provide for this great need.  However, good Stewarts know that prayer is only one piece of the arsenal that God has given us to accomplish His will on this earth; God works through the hands and hearts of His people.

A couple donators have offered to match dollar for dollar up to $2,000 for donations that are received prior to next Wednesday November 4th.  This means that if you are able to donate $25, then it will become $50 towards the necessary goal. 

Donations are tax deductible, and as you all know me, I can attest that I have seen firsthand this money being used in service to God and the families and children of Haiti. 

For information on Donations, you can visit the His Home Website – http://www.hishomeforchildren.com/ – under the Donations link.  Donations can be sent through PayPal from that site, or you can send donations to the Lima OH address listed under the Contact Us page.  However, donations must be received by Nov 4th to take advantage of the generosity of the matching fund.

Above all please take a few moments in prayer, routine prayer, that God will continue to bless the work that Chris and Hal are doing to help the families and children of Haiti, and that His name will be honored in everything that they do.

Jediah Logiodice

(Jas 1:27)  Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Getting closer to starting our adoption

 

It’s unbelievable in one respect; after almost 11 months, our adoption hasn’t officially started yet…  It just seems unacceptable… it took us 4 months to get our paperwork done, it took another 6 months to get the children’s paperwork done.  However, rather than asking ‘why’, now it’s just time to be thankful that we’re almost to the starting line.

Our lawyer has a copy of the children’s paperwork and is doing a final review on it.  If it meets with his approval (please, please!), then it will go to the MOFA to be authenticated, will be combined with our Dossier, and will be submitted to IBESR.  This is where the real work begins!

Braeden has been very preoccupied with the health and safety of Christella and Jeddie (David) lately; I’m very happy, but I’m not sure why.  Even in his sleep the other night he said to Amanda:  “Don’t worry mamma Christella will be home soon” (He sleep walks worse than I do).

So anyway; this week or next we’ll hear back from our Lawyer and we’ll get an idea of when the triathlon officially starts!

doubleplus doublethink from minitrue!

An interesting exercise in doublethink.

 

Nothing is true. Because we know that nothing is true cannot be true unless it is false, we can state that nothing is true is false. The opposite of untruth is truth; therefore to find the truth, we must find the opposite of the untruth. Because pure and base untruth cannot contain any truth, and because there is nothing more devoid of everything than nothing, in order to find the most pregnant opposite of nothing, we must find a word that incorporates nothing less than the total opposite of nothing, which is everything. Therefore because everything is the completed opposite of nothing, and because the most truth must be a complete opposite of the most untruth – then the truth to counteract the untruth that nothing is true is to argue that everything is true. Therefore, because we know that nothing is true is false, then everything is true is true.

Trusting & Working

Today in Church we were talking about “trusting in the Lord” and “not worrying”; but understanding the biblical idea of trust: trust with works. 

Jesus said:

"Consider the birds of the air, they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?" (Matt. 6:26).

Take for example our adoption.  Some people we know love their children as much as we do, and want their children to come home as much as we do; and yet, they have chosen to sit back and let the Lord do all the work – in His time and in His way.

On the surface, that seems to be the more ‘spiritual’ approach – trusting the Lord in everything; however, when I read Matt 6:26 – I think the bible is expecting a lot more out of us than just trust.

Consider the birds of the air’ they don’t plant, they don’t store up, and yet God feeds them.  However, it’s not as if God brings them breakfast in their nest – they have to go out and work and gather to survive.  God expects them to work for what He has promised them.

And so, I believe it is with our adoption.  God has put it in our heart to help needy children; we met and have fallen in love with our son and daughter, and God has given us the direction that He wants us to open our hearts and homes (It’s amazing how easy this comes once you set down that path).  Yet, God doesn’t want us ‘waiting around on Him’ – He wants us to recognize and realize that He is in control, and things work all in His timing; He wants us to rely on His love and mercy, and give Him the Glory – but He wants us out their working, toiling, committing and investing our hearts, our minds, our finances, and our abilities that He has given us to accomplish what He has directed us in.

So, for that reason, I wrote a quick verse during church today; I think it says everything that needs to be said:

 

A Call to Arms!

I trust in the Lord with all my might,

So I take up my armor to engage in the fight!

My day just became even happier!

It’s been two weeks since we have talked to our children in Haiti – we got the call today; the weather was really bad; so we weren’t able to talk very long, but it’s so great to see their little faces!

 

David’s ears are all better, and Christella has finally been able to move up with the big girls… she is growing up so fast! 

 

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The thing that I detest

I think everyone has something that they absolutely detest; something they find ugly, dirty, disgusting and abhorrent.  For me – it’s door-to-door salesmen.  I mean; I have low respect for salesmen to begin with; they prey, they con, they connive, the lie, they deceive; but to do it in MY home, I will not tolerate it.

That being said; I am usually just a few steps away from being out-right rude to people that show up on my door step and want to sell me something, however, the other day, a young man, whom I have known since he was born, and who has been struggling to get a job for a long, long time, called me to tell me that he was going to start selling Areus air sanitizer equipment, and asked if he could come to my house and show it to me.

My response to him was that I wasn’t interested in the product, but I would be willing for him to show up and give me a demo so that he would get credit for it and have a little practice.  He didn’t give me an exact date and time, but said he would be calling.

On Thursday evening, he called, we were going to go out, but decided to stay around and let him come over and give his demo.  My wife had changed into her pajamas, and we were expecting him to show up around 8:00, like we agreed.

When he showed up on my doorstep though, he had brought some other salesmen with him.  Needless to say I was very angry – I wouldn’t let these sleazy people in my house to sell me something, ever.  Don’t get me wrong, as a person, I’m sure this guy is great, he probably has a family that he wants to support, he probably is a great father, a son, a friend, but I would have more respect for him as a professional if he was a crack dealer.  And here he was, standing at my door step, expecting to be let in.

I had to let him in, I already agreed to the demo; but I was quite cold, probably quite rude at that, and I calmly told this young man that I was going to have a talk with him after, because he knew that I stressed that I would never let anyone else in my house, he knew that I stressed that I was doing it only for HIS benefit, so he could practice, and yet, he failed to mention that he was going to be bringing a salesmen for the company with him.

So, this salesmen proceeded to (like most house-to-house salesmen) insult my intelligence, insult my home, insult my family, and just act like a regular all around prick.  He informed me that the central circulation system I paid to have designed and installed into my brand new home was broken and he wouldn’t live in my house breathing the air in my house, “but if I didn’t care about what we breath, then that’s up to me”.

In the end, I was ready to throw him out, and throw this young man out too, as he proceeded to tell me that this 2-bit salesmen obviously new more than I did about the quality of my home and air, and knew more about the health and safety of my family then I did, and he proceeded to tell me that he felt so sure that it was all true because someone else had already bought one (great for someone else!) [here is where I roll my eyes]. 

Incidentally, my wife ran a few tests in between the regurgitation of made up and slanted statistics, and our system made a 200 point difference on my entire house in about 10 minutes, and his system made a 500 point difference in a small 9×12 room in about a half an hour – clearly, my system is designed well for my entire home.  Additionally, he pointed out that he has seen houses that are 200 times ‘worse’ than mine, and my house was only a couple hundred points higher than outside, and yet he continued to proclaim that we were breathing in poisons that were going to KILL US – but that’s not the point; obviously these door-to-door salesmen hoc products that are cheap to make, and appear like great deals, but the audacity and priggish stupidity just amazes me.

And of course, the whole time he was running his mouth about how dangerous house hold air is; alls I kept thinking was that I wanted to send this guy to Haiti for just a few minutes.  How vain and stuck on himself, as he is running around and trying to get people to spend 500$-1500$ on these air purifiers because there is tons of ‘dust mites’ in the air in people’s homes, when there are places in the world where breathing the air is like smoking 4 packs of cigarettes a day.

I will not, ever, allow one of these people into my house again.