What will it take?

As we end the near of our furlough for 2009 and prepare to head back to the home in just 15 days. We are mindful of the reality that GSCH has been struggling with getting the needed donations to sustain this enormous work of running the home.

Ruth and Astrid, sweet girls once afflicted and abandoned, they need your support.

One would want to think that due to the U.S. being in tough economic times. We should accept that mission work and ministries like this are going to suffer due to people having hard financial times. We can't accept this! This would seem logical but we must remind ourselves that God is BIG and He loves his children.

Especially the children of this world who have been abandoned or neglected. We must not forget what James says "Religion that our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress" Let us not forget our calling as God's children which is to care for, love and provide for these precious children.

These 32 children accepted Christ as their Savior in 2009, and are being discipled, growing in Him.

The beginning of the second chapter in James tell us how we are to follow up our faith in Christ by deeds or action. In other words "putting your money where your mouth is" or "walking the walk" instead of talking the walk let's "be the good samaritan". James 2:17 says "faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead."

Let's put our faith in action! Help meet the financial needs of the home so that we can bring in new children into the home once again! It has been over 2 years that a new child or youth has come in off the streets to be placed at the home. Cuts have been made in so many ways to the nearly $40,000 monthly budget.

It costs $5.83 a day to fully support a child of all his physical needs such as food, housing, education, health care, and clothing.

How fast can we spend $6.00 a day on things we could do without? Pretty easy. I know we can all do without a lot of things we spend our money on. Do you agree?

What can you do? What will you do? Go to the home's website http://www.gsch.org/ and help sponsor a child today. Give generously to The Good Shepherd Children's Home. Bring hope to these 200 children who were once despaired. To donate financially to the home here is how: http://www.bmdmi.org/help/donations.html

Thank you so much for doing the will of our Lord in the lives of these needy children of Honduras. Know that your financial gift is an eternal investment in the lives of these kids!

Seeking the lost peacekeepers

In 2010 a new ministry is starting. Besides ministering to the many needs of the 200 children at the home and managing the many responsibilities within the home, Kevin has his sights on evangelizing the many officers of the Honduran National police force.Some of the officers who will be attending a monthly bible study and training.

Since July of 2009, God has opened the door to this opportunity of building relationships with about 28 officers who work out of a police post about 20 minutes away from the home. Kevin has been going by thier place of work and visiting them sharing with them his past experiences as a law enforcement officer for 16 years in the U.S. and how God has been working in his life.

Kevin with Commander Pablo Garcia.

Over the last few months before leaving the home for fundraising in the states. Several of these officers would come by the home to say hello to Kevin and find out more about what he has offered to do for them.

Coming in February 2010, plans are to meet with these officers for 1-2 days per month in which Kevin will conduct a bible study for them and then provide specialized police training such as defensive tactics, firearms training, search procedures, and much more.

These men and women are very excited about receiving the training. They don't recieve the needed training they should have like officers receive in the U.S.

Please pray for this new ministry in preparation. Kevin is currently working on translating and preparing many needed written documents for this.

We look forward in sharing with you more on how God will be working through this ministry.

Gone fishing at last!

At last it was time to have a field trip with some of the boys at the home. 10 boys went with Kevin on a much anticipated fishing trip. These boys were so excited to go! After piling into the back of a pick up truck Monday morning (Oct. 12), we headed down a rough rocky washed out road that led us to a nice size pond stocked with Telapia and other kinds of fish.

Thanks to a generous man named Saul and his family for allowing us to enjoy his beautiful property about 4 miles from the children's home. The boys were so thrilled to be there and they proudly showed each fish they caught whether small or big.

Brian and Elias show off the first catches of the day!

It was a bit trying to keep the boys lines going and help them use the poles we had. Many of them had never used a fishing rod. The Honduran way of fishing is using a small stick with the line wrapped around it, and the hook with bait is thrown out into the water using a swinging round and round method. Many reverted to that method after trying the poles, but some liked the rod and reel better.

Proud fisherman showing off their reward!

At the end of the day it was time for a group photo to show off what had been caught. Everybody was glad to grab a fish and hold one for the photo. On the way back to the home Kevin stopped at a nearby river to let the boyscool off in the water. It was a lot of fun to see them enjoying them selves being boys.

You may be wondering if the other 190 kids and teenagers will go on a trip like this. It is only possible to take small groups on something like this, and older children. Many were disapointed they couldn't go but Lord willing we hope to take all who are eligible at least once.

A special thanks to Mr. C.L. Howell from Lifepoint Church who recently brought down some much needed fishing poles and tackle. By the way if you happen to have or know somebody that would be interested in donating camping tents. We could use them here at the home. Kevin is planning to have a short, two-day nearby camping trip for the youth in the coming year.

Sunday School at GSCH

You may wonder how do we worship our Lord on Sunday mornings here at the home. With so many children its not quite possible for us to fit into one of the church buildings that we have. So for the kids we have a Sunday School worship hour outside under the covered porches of the casitas. Tia Terri doing a great job of presenting the story of Samuel as a boy.

There are some of the older teenagers of the home that take turns teaching Sunday School class and leading the kids in songs of worship Francisco a mature older teenager who has grown up in the home gives back by serving as a Sunday School teacher to 4th - 5th graders.

After Sunday School the kids enjoy playing together while they wait for the worship service to end at the temple for the teenagers and adults.

No more suffering for Daisy...

Last month we wrote to you about the family we had been visiting up the mountains from the home. We have been spending time with this family who has a sick relative the youngest sister of seven children, Daisy, 38 years old has been terminally sick with cancer for almost a year.

Recently we made the 45 minute rough and rugged drive again up the mountains to bring her a new foam mattress. We heard that she was in need since she has been bed ridden and feeling more weak. I should of known to bring her something like that since when we visit her we sit on another handmade bed across from her which is made of hand split wood planks with a thin layer of straw covered with a sheet. Just sitting on in for a little while was enough to know that it was uncomfortable. Her bed was of the same.

Tonio, Anyi, Miguel, and Norbin help carry the mattress to the house.

This time I brought four different kids from the home who hadn't gone before. When we arrived at the home we all took turns reading passages from the Bible to Daisy who requested we read from the Bible to her. Her sister Aleli and brother-n-law Efrain quitely listened as well. It was obvious that Daisy was even more weak than our last visit and very thin. We shared with her Matthew 11:28 where Christ calls us to rest in Him "all you who are weary and burdened".

Seven days later (August 8th) I received news that she passed away. She was now with the Lord and not suffering anymore. The kids that had gone with us to visit Daisy and her family in the months past were sad knowing that this person they had come to know was not with us anymore.

The next day (Sunday 9th) we went up the mountain to see Daisy's family bringing them food and encouragement from God's word.

This little boy Albin enjoyed being pushed around in this hand made wooden wheel barrel while we were there visiting Daisy's family.

Once we arrived at the house it was a bit awkward to see a hand made wooden table like structure in the small dirt floor main room of the house which had candles lit. This is where her body was laid in a handmade casket. There was pine needles laid out all over the floor and benches placed around this platform. This was their form of having a viewing of the body. I found out that her body had to be carried by hand for a 2 hour trip on foot to the nearest cemetery. The way to this cemetry could only be traveled on foot.

Unfortunately we were not able to participate in helping the family take this voyage. We shared the gospel with several members of Daisy's family who we had not yet met. We told them that Daisy had accepted Christ as her Savior just three months ago, and because of God's promises we knew she was in Heaven in the presence of her Lord, no more suffering for Daisy.

Thank you for this dear Lord.

Kevin with Kevin, a 10 year old boy who is quite timid, he was sitting on his swing that he told me he made himself. He is Daisy's nephew.

Time with Grammy and Jan

Julie's Mama & Ms. Jan (family friend) just left from spending 10 days with us! We absolutely loved our time with them,and the children here captured their hearts, as well as vice-versa. This was their first time to Honduras (although Julie's mom visited us twice in Costa Rica during our language school) Despite some aversions to the food and living with 15 children, they did well! :) Our kids loved having their Grammy around, though the time for us passed too quickly.

Jan painting on of the many murals on the walls of our house.

Their last day here, Sophie got all packed up to go to Missississippi to see her Papa, it was hard for all of us to say good-bye......but thank you Lord for the time we had!

Teaching a trade

One of the jobs Kevin enjoys doing at the home is spending time with different teenage boys, teaching them how to do certain trades when there are projects to do.

Lately wood shelves have been built for inside our "bodega" storage room. Elvin "Chino" who was our last addition to our house has been enjoying working with wood; learning to cut, measure and fit to finish the project. "Chino" doing a great job using our new Skilsaw, recently donated to us by friends at First Baptist Church Olive Branch.

It was really rewarding to see him glow with a big smile when I allowed him to use the different power tools. After we completed the job, he along with me, felt good about seeing the finished project.
I look forward to spending time teaching many other teenage boys what has been taught to me when I was their age. I can see how Jesus took pleasure in his work as a carpenter and how He knew the importance of discipling others about Himself and His love for us.

To the ends of the earth...

This past Sunday Kevin had the opportunity to go with some men and boys from the home further up the mountain and visit some people who were known to have a bed ridden relative. After spending an hour driving up steep rocky washed out roads we arrived at a homestead very far of the beaten path.

On our way back from our fruitful visit.

We came bringing some food and our Bibles in hand ready to share God's word with this family. Father- Rogelio, daughters Eleylia, Daisy, and nephew and niece. Daisy, the lady in the bed is terminally ill with cancer. We shared with her how God loved her and that he desires a personal relationship with her.

After we all shared scriptures and testimony to this family the father and his two grown daughters received the Lord as their Savior!!

It was really awesome to feel the Holy Spirit move amongst us as we shared the Word. The two children you see in the above picture did not make the decision to know Christ.

Their names are Kevin and Isis Sarahi. Please pray for them as we plan to go back soon to visit them and some of their many relatives. We were informed that beyond this area we went to, which is a vast mountain area, there are many hundred or so families, and there is not an established church in the area for them.

It's clear that when maybe we think that people around us have heard of the gospel we are surprised to see that they really just needed us to share with them again. In this case this family shared with us that they had not heard what all God's word says about knowing Christ as your personal Savior and had never been told.

This reminds us of 1 John 5:13 "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life."

Needed help has arrived.

This past week, June 6th - 13th we were so blessed to have a team of caring supporters from Lifepoint Church in Senatobia, Mississippi come to the home to minister to the children. We also had some other caring friends from First Baptist in Millington, Tennessee join in for that week as well.

Children from the home and kids from the community come together to here about Jesus during the morning Bible school programs.

No doubt about it, all the 25 members of the team commented on how much they had been moved and touched during the week in so many ways! At the end of the week there were many sad children who hated that their new friends had to leave and so many on the team were looking forward to coming back again. We look forward in having them here again in September!

Some of the ladies from Lifepoint with new friends for life.

Not only were the 200 children and youth at the home ministered to but also the 18 tias (house mothers) and other women workers were challenged and encouraged by several of the ladies on this team who conducted bible studies for them every afternoon. Debra one of the ladies commented that many of the tias opened up and shared their struggles and worries. "Many ladies told me that they have never shared their testimonies until now, many shared how their were desolate and in great need when they were given the chance to work at the home and have their own children be part of the home."

To top off the very busy and eventful week, God had shown his presence in a mighty way when on Friday we had 30 children accept Christ as their Savior. Only two of these children were from the home. The other 28 were children from outside the home in the surrounding community who had been coming during the week. This was one of our goals for this week that we would be reaching out to so many who live in the mountains and surrounding areas outside of the home. God has revealing to us more and more that there are many lost people around us here in the communities surrounding the children's home.

These 30 children had prayed to receive Christ as their Savior. After speaking to them and questioning about their decision to know Christ. They were sure and sincere about being saved.

Thank you Lord for these souls! Please pray for them as they will be discipled on Sundays through a Sunday School program just for them and other children living outside of the home.

Please check out these three different dynamic video clips from events during this week at the home.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql3oMSN-0VQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpTpeNfk0tI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1echhMvWl4w

Still growing....

In the last two weeks we have had some additions to our family. We now have four more children from the home living with our family. With a total of 9 children, the new additions are three beautiful girls, Dilcia Michell age 7, her sister Danielita age 5, and Lilli age 3. We also have a new boy Luicito age 10. You may remember Lilli from past photos of her with Sophie. There is only one month difference in age with Sophie and Lilli.

Family of 14 including our three children Garrett, Molly, and Sophie.... and still growing.

Plans are to have three boys to come into our home soon which will give us a total of 12 kids. We have held off on having anymore due to us being a bit overwhelmed with having more responsibilities with caring for the 9 we have know. All of them have specific chores to do daily, with the two older teenage girls Eleana and Yadira having the responsibility of helping care for the three new little ones; they all pitch in to help with running this household.

Everyday we try to spend quality time with them, trying to help them with their homework, coloring, drawing, playing games, and just being another source of guidance for them. We have found it is not easy at all. Many nights we are exhausted and look forward to going to bed, only to do it all over again the next day! Three happy girls, Dilcia Michell, Danielita, and Lili, once victims of extreme poverty and neglect.

With the other many responsibilites we have with this ministry as sub-directors we find that we continually have to seek the Lord's guidance and wisdom in helping raise these children. Please continue to pray for us as we deal with this rewarding but very overwhelming new change in our lives.

Following Christ in baptism

Today was a special day for us as we were able to see seven of the children from the home be baptized along with our son Garrett. Kevin had the great privilege of baptizing him and being able to baptize Yadira who is one of the kids who lives with us in our house.

Many gathered around the pool at Greg and Eva's house (the casona). What a blessing to have that! It was great to see the enthusiasm of those who were being baptized and all who witnessed this step of faith taken by those being baptized.

It's always a joy to see new believers showing their love to the Lord by following him in this important symbol of dedication to Him. We look forward in seeing more of the children at the home grow closer to Christ in their relationship with him.

Disciplining the children

One of the important tasks we have here at the home is spending time punishing the children who have done wrong. Lately we have had many teens and children misbehaving which has been quite trying on Kevin who has been helping Greg in this challenging task. We are reminded of God's word in Proverbs 22:6 "Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it." Each child is different and unique which requires us to make wise decisions on how they should be punished. Please pray for us as we deal with this issue almost daily. From kids fighting with each other, stealing, lying, or disrespecting their Tias or in some cases us and Greg and Eva.

This 11 year old boy is being punished for fighting at school.

We have the kids do extra physical work besides their normal chores as a form of punishment for their bad behavior. Lately our house has been a great place to put many of these kids to work doing things like picking up the rocks out of the yard helping cleaning out the ditches and recently mixing up cement for our driveway entry.

In most cases for the older kids we make them write Bible verses or passages that pertain to what they did wrong. They have to write them up to 25 or 50 times each and are asked to explain what the verses teach them.

You can probably agree with approx. 200 kids at the home this can be quite demanding keeping up with all that goes on when the children misbehave. Thank you for lifting us up in this area of our ministry as we attempt to redirect them on the right path.

New additions to our family.

In the last two weeks we have had some additions to our family. We currently have five children from the home that are living with us in our house. We feel certain that God has selected these kids for a purpose. They are all unique and special in there own ways. On May 9th (from left to right below photo) Eleana -17, Yadira -16, Norbin -17, Oscar -13, and Anyi -11 are now a part of our family!

All of them have only been at the home for approx. 2 years. Eleana was a rebellious teenager who was heading down a disastrous road spending her time with gang member friends. Her mother turned to GSCH for help in placing her uncontrolable teen at the home. She continues to blossom in her new life with Christ and is now one of the more spiritually motivated mature youth at the home. Yadira, a timid girl whose mother died three years ago was placed in another home temporarily while her younger brothers were adopted out, she was left out, and there have been no known relatives to come forward to claim her. She like many children at the home does not know who her father is. She is a sweet girl who seeks to know Christ more.

Norbin was discovered to be living in one of the large garbage dumps in the nearby capital city Tegucigalpa. He would rummage through the garbage for food and had set up a temporary shelter there. He deals with a form of muscular dystrophe which has limited the use of his right arm and leg. He is a strong willed boy who doesn't let this limitation keep him from enjoying life.

Oscar is here with 6 of his siblings who come from extremely poor and mentally challenged parents. His mother and dad could not provide for his physical needs in which they turned to GSCH for help.

Anyi is here with her older 13 year old sister whose mother left for the U.S. to seek work leaving Anyi in the care with some of her older teenage sisters who of course were not capable of caring for her. She has become a good playmate and friend to our daughter Molly Ruth.

We enjoy caring for these kids and look forward in having a special part in their lives. At the end of this month (May) we will have 5 more children to live with us from the home. We look forward in sharing with you more about the above five and the new children as well. Please pray for them and for us as we seek the Lord for wisdom in helping raise them for His glory.

Helping the Good Shepherd! from the field....

Our first two weeks here at the children's home have been great! With much anticipation and excitement we arrived here from Costa Rica on April 9. When we drove up to the main gate of the home in the afternoon, we saw a welcome sign that was made by some of the children. It said Welcome McKenzie Family and had little sheep drawn all over it and decorated. We soon noticed as we entered onto the property that there several balloons attached to the rows of orange trees alligned the roadway.

We later arrived at our house and were greeted by many of the kids waiting to see us and after unloading our 10 pieces of luggage and some groceries we headed on over to the casitas to greet the rest of the kids.

Sophie capturing the attention of many of the kids.

It was a day that we will not forget and we later reflected on how God has provided for us to be here.

The next several days we spent attempting to get somewhat settled in our house and spending time with many of the kids. We soon starting getting help from many of the older and younger kids who wanted to help us do some of the many jobs at our house, like staining the kitchen cupboards, painting in our kids rooms, cleaning and doing other tasks to get settled.

Alex and Reiniari helping stain and varnish kitchen drawers at our house.

Easter Sunday was full of excitement at the home, in the afternoon there was an Easter egg hunt for all the 200 kids. Julie helped hide some of the 800 or so plastic eggs. It was really crazy to see all the kids grouped together to get the final GO to run and find as many eggs as possible. Our kids Garrett, Molly, and Sophie joined in on all the fun, later in the evening we set up some blow up jumper structures that had been donated to the home by some supporters.

The most frequently asked question of us recently by so many kids is "when are some kids going to live in your house and can I be one of them". We await to see what children will soon be living with us in our house which will be a home for them to continue to grow and be nurtured in the love of the Lord our Good Shepherd.

Julie taking Sophie to Sunday School class on Easter Sunday.

Please pray for us as we will soon have the first three kids to move into our house in the next few weeks. It will be hard on many of the children who will not be able to come and live with us.

Since we have been here we have reflected more on how different it is to live in a third world country, no air conditioning, power stays out more than it is on, getting acostumed to the very primative rocky ruff roads and not having many things on hand like we take for granted in the states are just a few to mention.

Julie and I realize that these things are just mere small incoveniences that we gladly over look knowing that we are so blessed to be able to live here knowing we are in God's will working along with Him loving and caring for this large flock of 200+ precious children. Thank you Lord for you calling us and preparing us along the way. We see that this ministry is truly overwhelming to us but to Him he is never overwhelmed!

A better look at helping Mauricio and Ruth. (from April 1)

On the way down...a daily routine for many.

Through our eyes...seeing the need. (April 3)

You may remember from our last posting when we talked about our recent family visit to "El Hueco" we had spent some time with a particular family that lives there Ruth, her three children and her long time live-in boyfriend Mauricio. I had felt that God was opening a door for me to spend time with Mauricio who is not saved when I could see this family's need of improving their house.

I ended up spending the day with him on Tuesday (March 31) helping him get started on adding onto his house. I now see why that day Mauricio was more open to talking and sharing with me, more than I expected as we worked together in the hot sun at the back of his house.

Back of their house where we are about to add on two bedrooms to their 400 sq. foot tin metal wall and roof house.

God knew that I was not going to have the amount of time I was hoping to have to spend with him, because the next day Mauricio found some temporary work for the next few days. I was a little sad that I couldn't help him more. But that first day working with him God had allowed me to share about my past and what God was doing in my life more than I thought I would be able to. He asked a lot of questions and we enjoyed getting to know each other. At the end of the day he thanked me for helping him, which included digging about 20 holes in the hard rocky dirt for the wood posts to eventually support used wood pallets for his floor.

Today (April 4th) I went down to the hole again to invite children to come to a special kids program for tomorrow Saturday morning and visited with Ruth a little bit in which she told me that Mauricio would be off on Wednesday all day which will be our last day here before we leave for Honduras. I was glad to hear that I will have one more time to share with him about Christ.

Please pray for him, and that he will be open to hearing the gospel. After spending almost 7 months serving here in this community I have been burdened with the obvious lack of men who are spiritually lost which is very evident in the quality of life you see in the homes of these people.

As I left Ruth I noticed that two men were sitting just outside of her house on the other side of a make shift fence. I felt the Holy Spirit leading me to go and introduce myself and talk to them. I found out that they were next door neighbors of Mauricio and Ruth.

The older man was the father named Jose and his younger son Ricardo. I had a good visit with them for about an hour telling them about why we were in Costa Rica and how God had called us to be at a children's home in Honduras. They were interested in knowing about life in the U.S. and why we were going to live in Honduras.
Jose, his wife Francisca, their son Ricardo and his daughter Brenda.

Toward the end of our conversation Jose's wife came along and Ricardo's daughter Brenda who I met briefly the other day when I was working at Mauricio and Ruth's house.

Before I left I asked them to come to the church that we had a part of and told them I would like to visit with them again this coming Wednesday. Pray that this family will come to know Christ and that Wednesday I will have the opportunity to witness to them more.

Putting hands together to serve at GSCH

A new ministry has started at the home amongst the many teenagers and grade school kids. They have been making handmade crafts such as bracelets, pottery, jewelery, and many other things to sell. All of these handmade items are then presented to the teams that come to the home to visit before going back to the states. All of the proceeds go to a special fund set up at the home to allow the children to go on organized field trips outside of the home. This also gives a visiting team member the opportunity to bring back something that was made by one of the children at GSCH.

Proudly displaying their talents.

It was great to see the excitement of those who made different items as they eagerily waited for the bus to arrive at the casitas after hearing word that the "abrigada" (team) was about to pull up. Many shouted loud "the abrigada is here" over and over until they were able to grasp the hand of a new or maybe returning visitor or receive a big hug from them as they exited the bus.

It was easy to feel and see the closer unity between the kids as during the week often I would see many of them huddled together working diligently on making more crafts to add to the surplus.

During my visit to GSCH at the end of Januay 2009 I learned that their first field trip with everybody (tias included) going was at the beggining of the year in which they all had a great time having a picnic at a nearby piece of property (about 3 miles away) that had a pretty view and a nice place to play.

So for those of you that will have the opportunity to visit GSCH in the near future, you might want to reserve a little extra dinero to buy one of these crafts that a child put a lot of effort and pride into.

Ministering to devoted peacekeepers of Costa Rica

As you have seen in some of our recent newsletters, I have been given the priviledge to have the opportunity to share my faith in Christ and my experiences with many men and women in blue of the Costa Rican national police force.

Four of these officers in this group recently
accepted Christ as their Savior!

Besides helping provide weekly police training accompanied with bible studies to many officers in need of knowing Christ, I was able to participate in sharing some of my knowledge and experience from my 16 year career in law enforcement to approximately 80 officers who attended a week long seminar last week. This program was put on by Tactica Ministries with Ryan Rought, sole missionary to the police of Costa Rica.

During this week there were 10 police officers from various departments from by home state, Michigan who served relentlously with their talents and abilities God has equipped them with. Most importantly they all had the opportunity to share their personal testimonies at the end of each day. It was awesome to see how God used these humble men to be used as a vessel for his glory!

One testimony in particular left a lasting impression on so many of these officers. Rod Rought an active deputy sheriff, shared how one day while working a special operation God had spared his life. Rod was shot four times with a high powered rifle while attempting to assist in serving a high-risk warrant. "I should of been dead that day" said Rod, " but I soon realized after lying in the hospital recuperating that God revealed to me that he loved me and wanted me to have a personal relationship with Him".


Rod Rought sharing his testimony.

At the end of the week the gospel was presented to all in attendance and 14 officers surrendered their lives to Christ asking Him to save them and forgive them of their sins. Praise God for these decisions. One of these fourteen men is a S.W.A.T. division commander who boldy stood in front of his officers declaring his decision to follow Christ.

Please join us in prayer for these men and for this ministry as God continues to use faithful men to serve. Also pray that this type of ministry will expand and that God will call more workers to serve in other Latin American countries and beyond. In most cases there are very little if not any type of works being done to police officers throughout many parts of the world.

**Check out this really dynamic video presentation that was done on this recent training seminar, click on this site to view:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hEl24mC9Qg

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The Good Shepherd Children's Home (GSCH)

The Good Shepherd Children's home has been in existence since 1998 in which it has been a loving home for many abused, abandoned, and neglected children. This home is where God has called us to serve in many different capacities! Our position at the home is sub-directors, but don't let that title make you think we are serving as administrators. At GSCH we will be wearing many hats, each day requires us to serve differently from counseling children, running errands, doing maintenance and construction projects to teaching youth certain trades and skills.
Most of all, daily we have opportunities to help nurture, encourage, and build up these 200+ children and youth. You may think how is it possible to spend the needed time with all these children. Well as you can imagine it is hard, but the Lord gives us the right amount of time to reach a certain child everyday.


Children singing in GSCH on-site church building at recent V.B.S. program conducted July 2008

Thank you so much Lifepoint Baptist! Senatobia, Mississippi

On January 23rd 2009, ten volunteers came to GSCH for their first time to serve and minister to the roughly 200 children at the home. They helped in so many ways by doing a V.B.S. program every morning for the grade school children, a women's bible study in the afternoon for the 18 tias (house mothers, see side photo, right of this blog) ; and motivational and inspiring devotionals for the teenagers in the evenings. Also they were able to get some much needed work done at our house such as putting in shelves in all of our 8 closets in the house and putting up much needed metal awnings over some of the windows at the house to keep the rain from entering through the windows.

Craig leading children in

songs of praise!

Most of all this team was touched so much by how God has been working through the lives of these children and youth. All of these team members were very heart broken at the end of their week due to reality setting in that it was time for them to say good-byes to so many new friends. The children were sad to see them leave but they are anxiously awaiting there return. Praise God this church is planning on sending other teams later in this year! For the weeks of June 6th - 13th and Sept. 12th -19th 2009.

Kevin Freeland with Raquel and Carolin

For myself it was sad to leave them after spending almost nine days there at the home. Julie and our children were not able to come due to them being in school at the Spanish Language Institute in Costa Rica. So many of the kids asked about Julie and Garrett, Molly, and Sophie. They all wanted to know when we would be at the home "for good". I felt better knowing that we would be there at the end of April to be able to spend much more time with them getting to know them better.

Thanks again to all of you at Lifepoint Baptist for sending this group of special people. God truly used them in so many different ways according to their given talents and abilities.

We encourage other churches or any of our supporters to consider coming to the home and spending some time seeing these precious children who have suffered in many horrible ways before coming into this loving home. You will be truly touched for life and blessed for making the commitment to come.