Life Circle – April 10 2015 – Celebrating Easter by Serving

Across Lifeline’s ministry communities in Haiti, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Cuba, Canada, Panama, and Navajo Nation, Easter weekend activities and services were filled with thousands of people worshiping our Lord together!  In Ohio, youth came together to serve with Lifeline at Ohio Teens for Christ.  Dana, Lifeline’s Volunteer Director, shares what these youth accomplished:

WOW! What a wonderful, God-filled weekend! 159 volunteers from 10 different churches choose to spend it serving with us. These groups were the hands and feet of Jesus and accomplished so much!   Together these servants… 

• sorted and boxed 2½ skids of peanut butter and 8 skids of clothing and shoes
• stacked over 8 pallets of ABC food
• cleaned and put away dishes
• bagged and boxed 188 mothers’ layettes
• moved a bunch of skids around
• counted a ¼ truck load of peanut butter 

These youth and their leaders had a great time serving hundreds of people in Haiti and Honduras; altogether, they served 216 hours! That’s how it gets done! We alone cannot do this, but with amazing volunteers and God’s plan it can happen in just one weekend. We are so blessed to serve a God with so much love for us. Thank you for your heart and hands. 

• Completed our winter work teams to Haiti and Honduras and they were amazing!  It was a great start to the work team season!  Much ministry and tasks were accomplished by 348 work team participants.  Teams resume in May.   

• Praising God for how He ordains paths to cross, that allow connections to be made and relationships to be built.  We, at Lifeline, love when that happens!  There are no coincidences!

• Northern Hills church’s second annual Community Easter Carnival was held the day before Easter and was a great event! Despite the cold, approximately 1200 people joined the fun. Pray for more doors to open, as the church continues to reach out to their community.

• Lifeline’s first Vision Team to Cuba will be taking place in October and will include about 12 participants.  We are praying this experience we be a stepping stone to scheduling work teams to Cuba in 2016.

• At the Santa Tecla Christian Church Easter service, they had a drama, music, and 3 worship services with powerful preaching from the word of God.  At the Santa Cena Christian Church, they held communion under the trees.

• Children at the new Grand Goave Children’s Home received lots of needed items from work teams, including shoes and clothing.  They also were blessed by this last team from Loveland, Ohio as they brought materials and taught the children scrapbooking; they brought a camera and now the children will be able to have photos of themselves and of their “sisters and brothers” at the Home. Thanks to all the teams that brought so many goodies.  

• In late January, customs officials took 5 duffel bags full of medicines that the Health Team had brought with them; the officials wanted to scrutinize the medicines. They finally cleared customs last week and made it to Grand Goave without any duty on them. Praise God!  Also the hypertension and diabetic medicines cleared customs.

• The Summer Reading Program will start for 3rd graders, to help them pass their 4th grade formal exams.

• Praises that Okolona Christian Church in Kentucky completed the water purification system at Ocotillo.  This water is being piped to all areas of the campus that need water, including the school kitchen and clinic.

• The English Lab at Ocotillo is functioning and students are now learning English!

• 2 boys were baptized at the youth camp over Easter weekend! The camp was sponsored by the Ocotillo Christian Church and all the kids attending the 3-day retreat had a great time.  8 girls from our Omoa Children’s Home also joined the camp.  Thank you for providing opportunities like this, where we can invest in these young lives!

• There’s a new outreach into the Caboy area, another indigenous people group in Panama. Chris Rodriguez (Chris is Jose’s son, who is our Administrator in El Salvador) is helping with some coordinating and reporting, since he is in medical school in Panama.

• Rob DeVoe, Lifeline’s Database Manager, recently had a tough week with his chemo but then had 1 day with absolutely no pain, which was his first pain free day in over 1 year. We praise God that he has been able to spend some quality time at his parents’/Bob & Gretchen’s home.  We covet your continued prayers for him.

• We’ve had an amazing number of food packing events!  Thank you to everyone who serves the hungry people in Haiti by participating at our food packing events!

• Tonya joined the Lifeline Team; she’s our Communications Specialist with the Lovelink Child Sponsorship Program, assists Dana Krahel (who happens to be her sister-in-law) with volunteers, works with ABC food events, and more.  Tonya writes: 

  Hello! My name is Tonya Ritter. I am the mother of a wonderful son named Stephen and I’m also in the United States Army Reserves. I was introduced to Lifeline way back in 1999 when I had the privilege of going on a mission trip to Haiti.  I was hooked and would have loved to get more involved but my son was only 3 years old and God had other plans for me. Now, I am so blessed to work at Lifeline with the child sponsorship program and spread His works and love to as many families as we can touch. I look forward to meeting and helping sponsors and families in the U.S and in other countries to come together in our Lord’s name to make a difference in many lives. 

• Pray for the staff working with the ABC food events; they have a rigorous schedule in the next 6 to 8 weeks with lots of travel. Pray for safety as they travel and that they won’t become too fatigued.

• Pray for more volunteers to serve as ABC food packing coordinators with Lifeline. If  you have packed food and have time to invest volunteering at these events, contact  Matt@Lifeline.org. 

• Lovelink Drive Coordinators are needed to hold sponsorship drives in their churches and communities; contact Audra if you can help.