Orphanage home directors, That Ci and his wife Li Ly, with many of their children at Rhema Childcare Center

Dear Friends,

The first thing we try to do when we adopt a new orphanage is to provide them with their own land and dorm building; an orphanage home where a landlord can’t kick them out, a cyclone won’t blow them over, and where the children know they are safe. We are able to do this with gifts given to the Dorms for Orphanages Fund and the Orphan’s Tear Special Gifts Fund. It is a blessing to visit the orphanages and see how happy the children are in their new orphange home! However, we haven’t been able to do this for every orphanage. Below is an excerpt from David Servant’s blog from his trip to Myanmar this past November:

Now back in the sweltering heat of Yangon, our team has continued our marathon orphanage-tour. Today we visited four more orphanages, two of which are enjoying a new home on land and buildings funded by Orphan’s Tear, and one of which will soon be enjoying that same blessing once their new orphanage home is completed. However, the first orphanage we visited today, Rhema Childcare Center, is still using the same old dilapidated houses they were using when I first visited them six years ago. Our team members, who have been visiting many orphanages in their “after” condition, got a little taste of a “before” condition once again. Eighty-nine children are crammed into three damp “houses” that defy description. It’s unbearable to think they call this “home.” I felt ashamed that so little has changed in six years as I walked onto their grounds again. As our team sat listening to angelic children sing, the very pungent smell of an over-used latrine periodically wafted into the room with the breeze. It was a strange incongruity, like a mixture of heaven and hell.

There is basically one reason why Rhema Childcare Center does not have better facilities. It is because the hearts of the director and his wife are so big that they have taken in almost 90 orphans and unwanted children. That means we’ve got to build them an orphanage home that is three times as large as the average ones that we’ve built, which means three times the money. For that reason, I’ve given preference to our smaller orphanage homes whose project costs are more affordable. But as I listened to those beautiful children offer up a heavenly aroma of singing to God—punctuated by the earthly stench of an overflowing septic tank—I made a renewed commitment to try harder to provide a better orphanage home on their behalf. We’ve already purchased land for their much needed new facility. May the Lord help us to finish what we’ve begun.

Last year we helped Rhema Childcare Center purchase the land they need for an orphanage home. And so we’re going to start their dorm project just like we’ve started every other one—by faith. Thanks for your gifts to the Dorms for Orphanages Fund that will help turn a dream into a reality.

Safe Water for Our Orphans

Orphanage home directors, from left to right: Henry from Faith Orphanage, Myo Lwin of El Shaddai Orphanage, Sonny from Beulah Orphanage, and Robert from Love in Action Orphanage

One of our staff members just returned from Myanmar, where he was able to deliver 40 Sawyer water filters. Just one of these filters can produce enough clean water in a day for 100 people! Here’s what one of our orphanage home directors has since reported:

And we are very happy to Brother Stephen because he brought us a very good and essential water filter which especially we, Beulah Children need and pray for a long time. It saves firewood and time since we boiled water for drinking. Now we need not to boil water for drinking. It help us a lot for our health. – Beulah Orphanage

This November, Chuck King, the director of the Safe Water Fund, will be traveling to Myanmar to distribute additional water filters.

A few of the children at El Shaddai Orphanage with their new water filter

Join Us in Visiting the Orphanage Homes in Myanmar this Fall!

This fall we’re taking two teams to Myanmar, where we’ll be spending time with precious children at the 30 Christian orphanages that are supported each month by Orphan’s Tear sponsors. It is always a very special experience to visit an orphanage home where one of your own sponsored children lives. The children and the directors really appreciate the annual visits from our teams.

The dates for this year’s two trips are November 5-19 and November 26-December 10. Experienced Heaven’s Family staff members will be leading each team.

For a taste of what this year’s trips will be like, take a look at David Servant’s 14 blog entries while he was in Myanmar last year, starting here: //blog.heavensfamily.org/2009/11/10/.

If you would like more information and a team member application, please email your request to Stephen [at] HeavensFamily.org. We hope you will be joining us for a trip of a lifetime!

Thanks so Much!

As always, thanks to every orphan sponsor, and to everyone who has given to the Orphan’s Tear Special Gifts Fund, the Dorms for Orphanages Fund, the Rice Fields for Orphanages Fund, or the Education Fund! Your support really is making a difference in the lives of children.

For the children,

Charity