July updates and Prayer requests

     It is hard to believe another month has passed by.  We have been very busy this month with many activities both as a family and in the ministry.

     We have spent a lot of time this month preparing for our trip to the Midwest.  We have several stops to make on the way so we are working to coordinate all of the details. We will start the trip by dropping off several hundred dresses with a ministry in northern FL that is filling a container for Haiti.  And on another part of the trip, we will be sending diapers to West Virginia to be loaded in a container for another ministry.  The best part of these partnerships is that they take the items and ship them for free for us.  These are amazing partnerships from God and we are blessed to be in a relationship with these organizations.

      We are very excited that we will be picking up close to 2000 items for the mission during the trip.  Sewing groups in Iowa and Illinois have been waiting for us to come and receive these items.  We are really looking forward to meeting these hard working groups and thanking them in person.

    We also look forward to meeting with our support team.  We have many pictures and stories from Haiti to share with all of you.  We hope you will make the effort to come see us in Iowa City for an open house or call us so we can get together in either Green Bay or Clear Lake.

     Between packing and planning, we have been busy preparing a dress sizing guide.  During our trip in April, we realized that we had a very inadequate method of sizing the dresses.  When we were in the field trying to distribute the dresses, it was hard to organize the dresses and distribute them efficiently, so we have developed a much simpler method of sizing.  We hope this will make the distribution easier for the missionaries and for ourselves when we are back in Haiti. 

     As a family, we have been busy as well.  We  all took part in Vacation Bible School at our church.  Grace and Hope did an amazing job as worship leaders.  They had a blast singing and dancing.  It is a joy to see them in their “zone” praising God.  Lance served as our “back up” man who was there to fill in the gaps.  I (Lynn) helped in the leadership of the week.  As a way to motivate the kids to learn their Bible verses, I allowed the kids who memorized all 5 verses to throw water balloons at me on the last day. They took it very seriously and I got soaked.  It was a very fun and eventful week. Praise God!  

     We have also been busy enjoying summer vacation from school.   It is quite an adjustment having the whole family here in our office/home.  We are very grateful that our girls understand the mission and embrace it.  We enjoy having them work by our sides.

Prayer request and Praises

Praise God for the response to the need for backpacks.  We have 2 groups already started on the project.

Praise the Lord for His provision. He is always providing for us. We are constantly amazed at His ways.

Please pray for us as we travel this month.  We will be working on raising funds and developing new sewing groups. Pray for open doors and hearts to respond to God’s call.

Please pray for our sewing groups. Join us as we pray for the blessings of the Lord to be poured out in their lives for all the work they do for the children.

We are grateful for all those who faithfully pray for our ministry.  We hope to many of you soon in the Midwest.  Thank you for partnering with us.

Living victoriously in Christ, The Andersons

I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. 

Romans 15:13 NLT

June updates

     This month we have been working hard to process all the new information we received during our trip to Haiti.  We learned so much and we are spending time finding the best way to meet some of the new needs that were shared with us.

     One of the new needs is that of shorts for boys.  While it was wonderful to give dresses to the little girls and share with them,  it was very hard to see the boys and not have much to give them.  We did share some candy and stuffed animals with them so no one went home empty handed but it was made evident to us that there are needs for boys shorts as well as dresses for the girls.

    We took down a few pairs of homemade shorts for the boys to check for proper sizes and styles.  In the future we want to be able to bring something significant for every child, so we are now starting to open up the sewing groups to start making boys shorts.  The boys shorts will mainly be for play since they wear pants to school and church, so the style needs to be relaxed and comfortable.  Anything that resembles a type of athletic short will work well.  If you are interested in making boys shorts let us know so we can have an idea of how many are being made.

     We also found that we have a need for dresses in larger sizes.  The pillowcase dresses are a good fit for most school children, but, in Haiti, some children start school later than 5 years old.  Therefore, when they reach 6th grade they can be as old as 15 years old.  We need dresses that will fit young women, not just the school girls.  The girls in the schools and churches we visited were very happy to receive the new dresses we had for them but some will be wearing them as long-style shirts instead of dresses.  They were happy to receive the items but next time we want to be able to give them something they will be able to feel comfortable wearing.

     The third need that was revealed to us was a need for drawstring backpacks.  With school starting in the fall, we received a request from one missionary for 600 backpacks.  We really hope we can find some sewing groups that would take on this project.  The children need something very simple to take their things back and forth to school.  They do not carry much to school but it would be great to share the love of Jesus with them in a very practical and tangible item.   If you would like to take on this project, please give us a call.  We would really love to see each child at this school receive a backpack to start their school year.

   With the growth of Haiti Care Mission, we expect to see changes in the needs on a regular basis.  It is our desire to meet the needs in whatever way we can.  If you are interested in helping make these new items, please give us a call so we can give you more specifics.

June Praise and Prayer request....

Praise God for His hand on this ministry.  He is leading the way for us to serve more children.

Praise the Lord for new sewing groups.  We added 3 more sewing groups to the ministry this month.

Please pray for us as we prepare to travel this summer to promote Haiti Care Mission and raise funds. Pray for doors to open and hearts to be willing to respond to the needs.

Please pray for the people of Haiti. Pray that they will hear and receive the message of Jesus.

Thank you for your faithful prayers. Please let us know how we can be praying for you.

 More pictures from the trip.

 

 

Blessings and happy summer, Lynn for the Anderson Ministry team