We are so excited that you are all safely home...

Dear Lifesong,

My wife and I would like to express our heartfelt thanks for your concern and support of our recent adoption of two children from Ethiopia. When we originally applied for a matching grant from Lifesong, we had no idea that we would incur many unforeseen expenses. Your generous grant was an enormous blessing and help to us.

Thank you for your continued love and care for God's orphans in the world. We praise and thank God for your willingness to stand behind and aid families in their journey to provide homes to these precious children.

Sincerely,

The Coffman Family

Help William Walk...

Meet William.

William was born with club feet, a condition easily fixed at birth in the states, but often left untreated in parts of the world that do not have the financial or medical capabilities to perform surgery.  He is one of our little guys who attends the Lifesong school in Zambia. 

A team from central Illinois visited this past January and their hearts were touched by the sadness in William's eyes as he stood on the sidelines watching the other children run and play.  Touched as they saw him carried over a mile by his older brother to school.  Touched as he walked completely on the sides of his feet.  So touched that they, along with others, have been moved to action in seeking medical help for William.

They are in the process of contacting doctors both in the US and Zambia figuring out the legal, medical and financial issues of this situation.

Please pray that our Father will bless this effort and that there could be a healing for William's body and that through this effort Christ will ultimately be glorified.

If you would like to help financially, please make checks payable to Lifesong for Orphans or donate online.  Please include memo "Help William Walk".

What to stay updated on William?  Join the Help William Walk Facebook fan page for more pictures.

The Big Build

The Big Build Project on 3/20/10 is the first annual fundraiser by Both Hands Foundation. Our goal is to raise $100,000.  That money will be used in three ways –

1. Adoption funding (grants and loans)
2. Orphan Care projects
3. We have a generous philanthropist who has agreed to match whatever we raise, dollar for dollar. In other words, all the money raised will go towards adoptions and orphan care and the operating expenses of Both Hands will be covered by the matching funds.

What a great way to leverage your charitable donations and get a great return on your investment. In 2010, Both Hands will help 50 widows with home repairs, help more than 50 orphans get to their forever families by raising between $250,000- 500,000, and give approximately  1500 people the chance to give their lives away by dedicating a day of service to a widow in need.
 
We invite you to be a part of this awesome opportunity. You get two for the price of one!!  Think big!!

  

Running with Purpose...

David and Adam are bringing a whole new meaning to the term, "hard core".

This year, they are training to participate in the Beast Series which consists of seven ultramarathons which range from 31 to 100 miles in length. 

Why?!, you may ask. 

They obviously have a passion for the sport...but that's not all.  They have a deep passion for the fatherless and have committed to help raise money through their races to help adoptive families, who share that passion.

Partnering with Lifesong for Orphans, Run for Orphans' goal is to raise $100,000.00 in 2010 which will be used as matching grants to faciliate the adoption of 20 children.

Check out this video...

To learn more about Run for Orphans and how you can help, visit their website.

Lifesong Honduras

Please enjoy these updates from Guy, director for Lifesong Honduras orphan care -

Over the last month, the staff has been adapting to the many new changes caused by the new class hours.  Yes, we are all being stretched, but change is always a good thing when it is for the better.

The weekend of February 6^th all of the students arrived for the school year 2010, we registered around 450 students.   This number is up from past years, but we also have more new enrollees than in previous years. We literally have had to clear out storage rooms to create more space to house all of them. It is obvious which direction we will need to take with the next building project, adding on to the existing boys’ dorms to accommodate for the increase in enrollments. 

It  was brought to my attention this week that 40 of our 150 new students, primarily our 7^th graders, are way below the normal weight and height of someone their age, they clearly have not received the nutrition that they have needed to start the adolescent growth process. It is our desire to provide each of them with vitamins and minerals to help compensate for where they have been lacking in the past, their diets will obviously improve with the food they will receive from the cafeteria. We are used to that here, to some extent, but not to the extreme that we are seeing this year.  However, after consulting with the ministry medical clinic to see what we had available, I discovered that we have only two bottles of adult vitamins available. We would appreciate any help that could be given to help us offer this to them regularly, it would benefit many, to say the least.

We started classes this Wednesday on schedule, only to discover that we are lacking in providing 75 students with desks.  Currently, these students are sitting on the floor or standing, until this problem can be remedied.  We will need $2000 to construct the amount of school desks we are lacking. The beauty is we can do that right here on campus in our own welding shop.   

Until next time, God Bless!”