Kari Gibson: My "Crazy" Friend

Kari Gibson is crazy.

She and her family have turned their home into the Shirts for Shoes campaign headquarters. In two weeks we've sold over 584 HopeChest T-Shirts. (And time is running out to get your shirt, get over to her blog today to get a Valentines Day gift that will help provide shoes for a child in need.) (NOTE: If you've ordered a shirt and have questions about when you'll get your shirt, click here.)

PURCHASE YOUR HOPECHEST VALENTINES DAY SHIRT TODAY!

Place your order before February 1, 2010.

Right now, Kari and Co. are hand rolling and packing your Valentines Day gifts and getting them ready to ship out to in time for February 14. Kari is a hero for the 600 children in Ethiopia who will receive new shoes and clothing because she decided to act a little crazy this month. And in the midst of Shirts for Shoes, she decided to also start a local fundraiser for the victims of the Haiti earthquake.

Kari is a Missouri mom with a mission. Check our her blog to learn more about her family and her ministry to orphans all over the world.

Thank you Kari and the whole crazy Gibson clan for simply loving orphans where you are with what you have!

Shirts for Shoes: 2 Days Left to Get Your T-Shirt

Shirts for Shoes has passed our goal of helping 400 orphans...in fact we're now up to around 500 and we're still going strong. These are exclusive HopeChest t-shirts for this year's Shirts for Shoes promotion. The sale ends February 1. Don't miss your chance to give these limited edition t-shirts as your 2010 Valentines Day gift.

Because we've sold so many shirts this year, we can help many of the older children in our program, particularly those at the Kolfe Youth Orphanage. Many of the boys at this orphanage are older and so their shoes are a little more expensive.

We've got just two more days of this special promortion. We're all going to buy something for Valentines Day. Why not buy a gift that gives a gift to an orphan? What could be better?

If you want to take the next step, check out the boys available for sponsorship at Kolfe on David Held's blog. Or e-mail him at [email protected]

Pictures from South Africa and Swaziland

 

So excited to see what Children's HopeChest is accomplishing across Africa. New Pictures up from this trip on my Facebook Account. Click here to see. This is Riaan Heynes and Barry Huggins. Riaan is the Missions pastor at New Life Church in Colorado Springs. They just cancelled our flight here in Swaziland back to Johannesburg. No phone call, no warning! Hoping to get on the next one so we can catch our flight to Washington DC this evening. It's the middle of summer here and burning hot. I need to get back to my family and winter in Colorado!

First Available Orphanage Sponsorship in South Africa

First Available Orphanage Sponsorship in South Africa from Tom Davis on Vimeo.

Meet the President of Focus on the Family Africa

Introduction to the President of Focus on the Family South Africa from Tom Davis on Vimeo.

Haiti's Orphan Aftershock

Children's HopeChest is sending this to our ministry partners this morning and I wanted to share this with you as well. Thank you for your continued prayers for Haiti.

Dear Ministry Partners,

Haiti's devastating earthquake may triple the number of orphans living on this small impoverished island. Already one of the poorest nations in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti's new orphan crisis will bring incredible strain upon the country's resources to care for children.

Our ministry team has developed a two-stage plan to assist organizations in caring for an expected 300% increase in orphaned children in Haiti.

EMERGENCY FOOD RELIEF
Through our "5 for 50" program, we have already contributed $3,000 to Kids Against Hunger. In 2009, they shipped over 500,000 meals to our carepoints in Africa. From Jan 1 - Feb 28, HopeChest will donate 100% of all 5 for 50 contributions to Kids Against Hunger to feed Haiti's orphans. To join us, please go to http://www.5for50.org to make a gift. 100% of all contributions made before Feb 28 will support emergency food relief for orphans in Haiti.

LONG-TERM CARE
Organizations are rushing into Haiti--just as we watched them pour into the former Soviet Union in the early 1990s. Today, less than 10 percent are still ministering in Russia. Right now, HopeChest is conducting extensive due diligence on several orphan ministry partners in Haiti. Our COO, Bob Mudd, has been on the phone every day with new potential long-term partners. 

 

We are looking for ministries with a pre-earthquake track record of caring for orphans, and who will experience a substantial increase in the number of children they are serving. Through a ministry partnership with Children's HopeChest, we will explore providing long-term care through our CONNECT COMMUNITIES outreach, as well as our TRANSFORM church sponsorship programs.

Above all, please pray for everyone affected by the earthquake, especially David Hames and his family. David attends Vanguard Church, one of our Swaziland carepoint sponsors. David was in Haiti to film stories of children for Compassion International and was in the Hotel Montana when it collapsed during the earthquake. Search and rescue teams are working to locate David, and we ask you to join us in asking for God's miraculous hand to work in Haiti today.

Thank you for your support and prayers.

Sincerely,

The HopeChest Ministry Team


P.S. If you haven't contributed to disaster relief in Haiti, we would encourage you make a financial contribution to one of the following organizations:

- The Red Cross
- Compassion International
- Samaritan's Purse
- Adventures in Missions

Durban, South Africa - Partnership with Children's HopeChest and Focus on the Family

Children's Hopechest & Focus on the Family South Africa from Tom Davis on Vimeo.

Shirts for Shoes: Be an Orphan's Valentine

Before I get on the plane to South Africa, I wanted to announce the launch of "Shirts for Shoes," our Valentines Day campaign. In partnership with Kari Gibson's Simply Love project, we have created exclusive and limited edition T-shirts for you to buy as a Valentines Day gift for your loved ones. 100% of proceeds will provide a new shirt and new shoes to 400 children in Ethiopia in our programs.

PURCHASE YOUR HOPECHEST VALENTINES DAY SHIRT TODAY!

Place your order before February 1, 2010.

Why buy a T-Shirt? Your purchase of a shirt not only makes a great Valentines Day gift, but it gives the best gift of all to an orphan: love.  Make this a Valentine’s Day you will never forget.  Wrap your hearts around each face and pray for them every time you wear your shirts. Click the shirts below to go straight to the ordering page.

Why do the orphans need shoes? Many of the kids in Ethiopia are coming to us with clothing that is either worn out, too small, or even too big. Children who have lost their parents to AIDS are wearing the clothes left behind by mom and dad. 

These recent photos show you the need and demonstrate how much a pair of shoes will make a huge difference.

PURCHASE YOUR HOPECHEST VALENTINES DAY SHIRT TODAY!

Place your order before February 1, 2010.

Want to promote Shirts for Shoes on your blog? Grab the button below! Thanks and I'll be in touch from South Africa soon.

Help the Orphans in Ethiopia with Shirts for Shoes! Just copy the code below for your own sidebar.

<div style="height: 125px; width: 125px;"><a href="http://mycrazyadoption.org/one-stop-shop/shirts-for-shoes-hopechest-project" target="_blank"><img alt="Be My Valentine" src="http://i344.photobucket.com/albums/p334/fsteiger/Valentinebutton30.jpg"/></a>

Exciting News - Opening a New Country in Africa

On Saturday morning I'm leaving for South Africa. This country is #1 in the number of AIDS orphans in the world with over 1.4 million. The total number of orphans is 3.4 million, a massive amount of children trying to survive without one or both parents.

This is a partnership formed between Children's Hopechest and Focus on the Family that's been in the works for a number of years now. Focus will help us recruit churches and sponsors for the many orphans will be ministering to through media, print and radio. I'll meet with Amon, the President of Focus on the Family Africa, to assess ministry sites and see the needs. 

Then, we'll be off to Swaziland for a few days to visit our staff and see the carepoints. Riaan Heyns, the missions pastor at New Life Church in Colorado Springs will also be in Swaziland with me. They will be sponsoring a carepoint as a church, but he's also there to see the sites Desperation and Heartwork are building. They are doing some amazing work in Swaziland! Building kitchens and schools, feeding a thousand orphans, drilling well, it's going to be incredible. 

Please pray for us! This is a fast moving trip with lots to do. I'll be posting updates, pictures and video on my blog so keep checking back or sign up to receive the email updates. 

Watch this music video of my buddy, Jon Egan of the Desperation band who will be in Swaziland in May. It's inspiring! 

OFFICIAL-Light Up the World Music Video from Desperation Band on Vimeo.

Breaking News - New Study Says Christians Give Poor People the Shaft

Please take a look at this new study. I know this can induce controversy, but it is reality and something we need to wrestle with. The post is from my friend Anne Jackson. Anne and I will be going to Moldova and Russia to help several projects that are involved with girls/orphans who have been rescued form the sex-trade industry. More to come.

The Bliss Institute recently commissioned a study on what “Conservative Religious Activists” deem important and what “Progressive Activists” deem important. You can download the study here.  but for definition’s sake:

“Conservative and progressive religious activists have distinct profiles in terms of affiliation, practice, and belief”

“Conservative religious activists are almost exclusively Christian.”

“Progressive activists are markedly more diverse in terms of religious affiliation. No single faith tradition makes up a majority of progressive religious activists.”

I’ll let the chart do it’s work, but let’s just say that only 23% of us “Christians” (the survey defined it even further as a majority of Christians being mainline protestant, um, people like you and me) think that poverty is an issue we should stand behind and fight.

The red in the survey represents a majority of “Christian” folk.

The blue is just your average, ordinary Joe.

Jesus himself said something about how people will know we are followers of Christ. (John 13:35)

According to this survey people will know we follow Christ by how much we fight gay marriage and not poverty and disease.

We care so much about abortion, about children before they are born. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.

However, I’m wondering if the phrase “Sanctity of Life” in our political language should be changed to “Sanctity of the American Unborn” because according to these statistics, there are quite a few people who don’t care what happens to the child (or the parents or the siblings) once that baby is actually born.

If they these people really did care, well, actions speak louder than words…

…What about the 30,000 children who starve to death every day because of hunger?

Or the millions who die from malaria each year?

Or the millions who die from diarrhea because they have no clean water.

This is horrific.

This must change.

We must begin to engage this “Christian” world view that poverty is not an issue and help them see that caring for the poor is at the very heart of Christ.