Crisis with Christian ministry in India: Please pray for Pastor George, his family, his ministry in India

 "I am concerned. I know God is in control of everything. I still have hope that God would open the doors for us. Being deep-rooted Christian, I am unable to compromise Christ for the sake of donations in India."  

(Editor's Note to friends of  Big Family Mission and New Hope for Children Orphanages:  Pastor George recently wrote to us asking for prayer.  It is difficult for us to imagine the political and spiritual battles that he faces daily.  Will you please join with us in praying for Pastor George and his family and his ministry?  We share his letter below.  As Pastor expresses, he is in the middle of a financial crisis.  If you feel led to make a gift to help Pastor George shed the Light and Love of Christ in India, you will find a link to our online donation page at the bottom of this posting.  Thank you!)

Greetings to you in Christ name!

   I humbly thank you for everything that you are doing towards New Hope for Children Orphanages and Helping Hands India.

   I thank God for your partnership: your partnership lifted the condition and situation of Helping Hands India ministries. God heard our prayers and extended the grace and hope.

   We thank Big Family Mission which obeyed the call of the Lord and begun to cater the needs of HHI children, especially finding sponsors and helping us to build Rajoli Children’s Home.

Through BFM God sent the Scott family who brought blessings, smiles and happiness in the lives of HHI ministries.

   We are very much grateful and honored to have your care and concern towards HHI ministries.

Pastor George and his wife minister to children in tribal village

   HHI began in the year 2001.  Since then God has been faithful to us in taking care of the needs and concerns of HHI.  We witness He sends angels to lift us up in the time of needs and concerns. And He helped us to go to different people (Hindus, Muslims etc) to raise funds for the needs and concerns of HHI.  Later, as need arose and call of God was obeyed, we extended the mission to Bhadrachalam, Rajoli, Ambur, and to widows and pastors.

   Now, HHI being a Christian organization, it is getting difficult to raise funds locally.  (The Karnataka State is ruled by Fundamental Hindu Party.) 

   I am facing lots of problems and struggle.  Recently, I pledged my wife’s family jewelry and took a loan, but God blessed us during the recent visit of the Scott family and we were able to pay the loan.

  Because we have not been able to raise funds locally, this month has become a total crisis for us.

   I thank God for last month’s funds from BFM and Scott’s family. Somehow we could take care of the month but this month I only could receive  

   I could pay only rents, medicals, electrical, milk, water, vegetables, and for some of children’s education expenses.    

   But I still have to take care for almost $5,000 in expenses.  

   I am concerned. I know God is in control of everything. I still have hope that God would open the doors for us. Being deep-rooted Christian. I am unable to compromise Christ for the sake of donations in India.   

   I haven’t paid salaries to staff yet.  Of course they are too in need of funds to take care their personal needs.

   Pastors and widows depend only on our honorarium; I have no words for them.

   I have no one to share with but you. I thank God because apart from Him, He has given me grace to share with you. All these days I just kept these struggles within me and sometimes burnt out. I need your prayers. As I was praying, I am moved to share with you. 

   Thanks for standing along. We are grateful. 

   Please pray, care, and suggest.

   You are in our prayers.

Yours in His Mission,

Pastor George

Partner with our ministry teams in Russia to provide fruit, cake, and tea for orphanage visits

YOU CAN BE A YEAR-LONG VALENTINE FOR RUSSIAN ORPHANS like these girls! 

Donate as little as $5 per month to provide fruit, cake, and tea for the orphanage visits of our ministry teams: http://www.bigfamilyministry.org/sponsor_russian_orphanage.html.

The Joy of Celebrating Christmas with Orphans in Russia!

One picture is indeed worth 10,000 words!  Lena, from Help for Children, beams with excitement on the day of the big Christmas celebration at an orphanage north of St. Petersburg, Russia.  Learn more about Christmas celebrations with orphans in Russia in our most recent newsletter .

You can get involved and enjoy future visits to orphanages.  Learn how you can adopt an orphanage here.

The pure Joy of sharing Christmas in Russian orphanages!

Enjoy the pure joy of celebrating Christmas with orphans in Russia!In February's Big Family Mission newsletter, we provide a quick overview of scenes from Christmas celebrations held by volunteers and ministry teams in the St. Petersburg area of Russia.We rejoice that, again this year, we were able to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ in orphanages that are run by the Russian government.  Those who celebrated with the children were able to share the true meaning of Christmas.  For many years, under Communist regimes, Christmas was not a holiday, and New Year’s Day became the “big holiday”.Most Russians celebrate Christmas on 7 January (date of Christmas on the Orthodox calendar)… and now the entire first week of the year has become a week-long celebration of New Year’s Day and Christmas.Many of the children received Bibles along with other gifts this year.  Our ministry teams always tell about sponsors around the world who love and care for the children… and make the Christmas celebrations and gifts possible.
If you would like to get in on the joy and excitement in 2013, visit our website.
For the entire February newsletter, with many more photos, click here.
If you would like to read the newsletter in Russian language, click here.

Volunteers from this church conducted a Christmas pageant, played games, and distributed gifts at the orphanage.

CHILD SPONSORSHIP THAT IS DIFFERENT!

What is different about sponsoring an orphan at the New Hope for Children orphanages in India?

• 100% of your monthly donation goes to India to provide food, clothing, housing, education, and loving environment for your sponsored child;
• You receive letters directly from your sponsored child (mailed from India);
• You can send letters, cards, packages to your sponsored child in India;
• You can visit your sponsored child in India;
• All the children are orphans (have no mother or father or have no parent who is able to care for them).

Complete the form below to receive photos and brief bios of children at the New Hope for Children orphanages.  Thank you and God bless you for your interest!

Volunteers Needed! Click for a Cause!

CLICK FOR A CAUSE!

If you would like to help with orphan ministry... and are not able to donate $$$ at this time... here's a great way you can get involved by just giving five minutes of your time each day.

Join our Click for a Cause Corps, and volunteer to give us five minutes of your clicks per day.  Your clicking can help more people find out about our work with orphans around the world!

Google and other search engines like websites that have a lot of traffic.  Your clicks on a regular basis can help us build that traffic, and help others find our mission to orphans.

You can also help us by giving us feedback on our website and blog.  Did you find pages that do not work properly?  Maybe you found a page that doesn't make sense to you.  Your feedback will be gratefully received.

Volunteers of all ages are welcome!  No one is too old or too young to help!

As a volunteer, you will visit our website and blog,  and click through the pages and photos on our website about our ministry to orphans around the world.

We will give you periodic updates about the number of clicks we are generating.

In the future, we hope to organize some "clicking competitions" and award small gifts for special accomplishments by volunteers.

So PLEASE JOIN NOW and GET CLICKING to help orphans around the world!  Just complete the form below to volunteer for the Click for a Cause Corps!  We will email you information about you can get started!

10 Ways You Can Help Orphans and Children at Risk in 2013

Ten ways you can help orphans and children at risk in 2013:

• Pray for them.  (If you would like to pray for an individual orphan in Russia or India and don't have the financial resources to sponsor a child, contact us, and we will send you information about a child you can pray for.)
• Adopt a child.  There are thousands of children in the United States who need forever families, and the cost of adopting an older child in the U.S. is usually negligible.
• Help a family who is adopting a child:  prayer, finances, baby-sitting, etc.
• Sponsor a child in Russia who lives in a government-run orphanage and has no prospects for ever being adopted;
• Sponsor an orphan in a Christian orphanage in India;
• Start an orphan ministry in your church (information on resources);
• Host an orphan from Eastern Europe for a 4-week vacation in the USA at Christmas or during the summer.
• Partner with a ministry that is helping orphans and/or supporting adoptions.
• Visit orphans where they are.  (Information about mission trips to Russia.)
• Volunteer to work in an orphanage in India.

You will be greatly blessed for getting involved!

Orphan children in Russia, enjoying summer church camp

"Russia with No Orphans" conference will be held in Moscow on March 22-23, 2013

"Russia Without Orphans" will hold a working conference in Moscow on March 22-23, 2013. 

There will be two plenary sessions, but the majority of the conference will be working groups and roundtables with participants divided by area of interest. 

Participants can choose from the following tracks: 

• Strengthening the family 
• Preventing child abandonment 
• Motivating believers towards adoption and foster care 
• Pre and post-adoption training and support 
• Working with children in group homes and orphanages 
• Working with children with special needs Mobilizing the non-profit sector in Russia to care for orphans 
• Mobilizing the business sector to care for orphans through finance and philanthropy 
• Encouraging best practices and improved relationships in working alongside the government system.

 Get more information about this important event in Russian language on the website of Russia With No Orphans.

Get involved: help build a Russia with No Orphans!

Christian families: host an orphan from Latvia or Ukraine summer 2013

 Many of the children from Latvia and Ukraine have now been selected for the summer 2013 hosting programs

   What is Big Family Mission’s reason for being?  In simple terms: To bring orphans into families:  on earth or in heaven… but ideally on earth and in heaven. 

   One very effective way to bring orphans into families:  hosting programs.

   Christian hosting programs are helping hundreds of orphans and children at risk find their forever families in the USA.  The typical hosting program brings orphans from Eastern Europe (and other countries) to the U.S. to live with Christian families for 4 to 5 weeks.  The programs we partner with have two hosting adventures each year: one in the summer and one at Christmas.

   The hosting programs are not adoption programs, but many of the children who come to the U.S. are eventually adopted, sometimes by the family who hosted them, but often by other families they have met during their visit.

   Big Family Mission started the “northeastern branch” of the New Horizons for Children orphan hosting program in the summer of 2007.  We (Dianne and Ken) will never forget the conversation we had with LeAnn Dakake (director of NHFC) about the feasibility of the northeastern U.S. program.  LeAnn told us that we would need to find families to host at least 6 children to proceed with the program.  At first, it seemed impossible, but God blessed us with 22 children from Russia and Latvia hosted that first summer.

   We were also blessed that first summer when God introduced us to John and Ann Devine who were much more experienced with hosting and adoption than we were.  The Devine family accepted the leadership role for the 2007 Christmas program in the northeast, and under their faithful service, the program has resulted in hundreds of orphans being brought into families.  The Devine family and other families in the northeast established a new hosting program for the summer of 2011: Open Hearts and Homes for Children.

   Big Family Mission continues to partner with New Horizons and Open Hearts and Homes to help find families who are interested in hosting children.  NHFC now offers hosting programs in most areas of the U.S., and OHHC focuses on hosting in the northeast and Atlantic coast states.

   Children from Latvia and Ukraine are now available for the summer 2013 programs!   If you know of anyone who might be interested in adopting an older orphan or hosting a child for summer 2013, you can let your interest be known by registering on the websites of Open Hearts and Homes and New Horizons for children.

   If you are not able to host, there are other ways you can help:

• Provide a scholarship to help another family with the expense of hosting a child; or
• Spread the word about hosting in your church; or
• Consider starting a hosting program in your area.

   Learn more about hosting programs here:

Open Hearts and Homes for Children:  www.OpenHeartsAndHomes.org .

New Horizons for Children: www.NewHorizonsforChildren.org .

Visit Big Family Mission's website to learn more about how you can help Russian orphans who have little chance of being adopted.