Orchids sponsored School in Jaipur was another miracle

The ask was made in 2012 and Orchid supporters answered the call. Once just a flat plain of sand it is now a beautiful school making a world of difference. Orchids of Light sponsors like you helped drill the well, build the security wall and furnish the building. This construction of the Stars of India building was completed in May 2016, and the facility is currently used to run a Christian youth camp for the Bhatt children; desperately poor kids once trapped in a dead end caste system hidden from view in a slum behind a giant pink wall.  The youth camp is a thriving success and the children are now know they were born as equals with a purpose for their lives.

  

Thank You….. and remember; with God, all things are possible!

Giving Tuesday Campaigns

2017 Starts with Giving Tuesday on November 29th. On that day all donations will be shared among three ongoing campaigns. They are:

* Funding for Path of the Heart Children’s school hot lunch program

* “Goats to School” program at Shepherd Hood Ministries in Kenya

* Blankets and Supplies for flood victims at our mission Experiment Albania

Any amount helps and 100% of your donation will be sent to these three missions

Thank You and God Bless

 

Hoping for a flood of love for Mahanaim

It’s easy to see why our dear friend Milton Torres and Mahanaim Barranquilla has reached out to Orchid this month for help. The mission is literally underwater. It happens every time the rainy season arrives here on the north west coast of Colombia in Barranquilla. When it floods here the buildings become virtually useless as most have earthen floors and even the ones that don’t are impossible to work in. I witnessed this first hand in 2011 and now Milton has reached out and asked for our help to complete the work we began in 2016. Milton writes:

Dearly beloved brothers, Rich, family and Orchids of Light Foundation.
May the Lord continue working His favor with much grace, love and mercy upon each of you, your family and activities.
Dear brother, thank you very much for your attention to our reports and requests, thanks for letting us touch your open door. That is a very big blessing for us. The Lord listens to you as you listen to us. Thank you!!! God allows us to honor each person in some way through the support of his right hand. Thank you!!!
We know that the budget is high, but it is what it takes to finish raising the infrastructure of the institution in the area that is affected by the entry of rain water during each rainy season.Our request is now urgent and we hope Orchids can help.
Brothers and Sisters of Orchid, your help and support and your desire for us is a miracle that we know comes from the hand of God through you.
I thank God, for your generosity towards us and I know that no contribution is small and that all add up to a total of great importance and each comes from prayer to material assistance.

The love that we have already professed feeds us. Thank you!!!

We love you very much!

Milton

The total cost that remains to raise all the buildings above flood level is only $5000.00. Here in the U.S. it would cost ten times that amount. Orchid needs your help to end  the flooding at this most amazing mission. Will you join with us and help send a flood of love and relief to Mahanaim and be the answer to their prayers for assistance? 

Thank You and God Bless

Rich and The Orchids of Light

 

 

The Katungu Village Campaign 2012-2023

The Katungu Village Project is a story about ones roots and how you never leave home. The missions director; Matt Biryomumeisho, was born and grew up in this village of a few hundred that exists on a rock and scrub brush hillside overlooking the town of Kabale Uganda. He was lucky and was selected at the age of seven by a missionary who set him up with an education in tourism and after his graduation he landed a job at nearby Lake Bunyoni. When Orchid met him in 2011 (pictured) he was hard at work trying to find sponsors to help his village turn the corner of self-sufficiency by financing micro-businesses, sustainable animal husbandry and agricultural programs and providing an education, like he had, for every child in the village.

Matt’s dream started with a $300.00 grant from a Canadian Tourist that befriended him and from that moment on he never looked back. He constructed a rudimentary school for 40 students on his fathers land and now it grows by about 20 children each year.Originally a Pre-school (called ‘baby level’ in Uganda) it now educates children through primary level four. Matt’s ultimate goal is to add classes through primary level seven (the top of Uganda basic education level).  This would allow the students to go on to secondary and vocational school.

Matt has led the team since 2011 and in 12 years they have built a school for 250 students, a piggery, a sustainable farm, an orphan sponsor program, rain water collection system, community sanitary waste disposal and vocational training programs for young people to become tailors, carpenters, brick layers and masons.

Matt loves to share that the community members love what they are doing, and they support the school by performing chores 6 hours each week. helping to clean the compound, carry fire wood, leveling the land, working in the garden and wherever necessary.

After All, it’s not about a handout it’s all about a helping hand. 

Orchid sets it sights on a New School

 

In 2015 Orchid is focusing a big part of our effort on helping our mission in India achieve it’s dream; to build a school for the Bhatt children of Jaipur and free them from the caste system that defines their lives. By definition a caste system is a class structure that is determined by birth. Loosely, it means that in some societies, if your parents are poor, you’re going to be poor, too. In India that translates to “there is no hope for you.”

Orchid believes that all human beings are created equal and that the purpose of life is to help those who can’t change their situation on their own. In places like the slums of Jaipur that starts with an education so a child can redefine who and why you are.

Why not place your stamp on the future of our world by being an important part of this campaign and reminding these children that they deserve a place at the opportunity table no matter where they started.

You are an Orchid of Light.