No “PIT”Y Project

It may come as a surprise but sometimes we need pits in our lives. 

If you live in a country and/or a village where there isn’t a western style sanitation capability you need to dig your own solution. In this case, every school certified by the government of Uganda needs to provide a pit toilet that meets all the best government and sanitation requirements of the country. That’s no small task, even without plumbing. And you need to provide one lavatory for the girls and one lavatory for the boys.

And after you dig the capacity necessary to support the children, with an evacuation option to empty it when required, you need to build the rooms that offer privacy, dignity, and sanitary standards children deserve. All this comes at a cost. $6500.00 to be exact. And that’s x 2. Total: $13000.00 for the school.

The great news is, that thanks to dedicated Orchid sponsors in Australia; who happen to be high school students who raise he money to help their adopted school and friends in Uganda, the funding for the girls lavatory is secured. And thanks to a donor in the United States we have already raised another $3000.00 towards the second unit needed for the boys.

Do you want to do something “PIT”ifully important this year and help put a roof on this second lavatory?

Will you dig in with us and make a difference?

Here at Orchid we’re still at work changing peoples lives for the better. One project at a time. We’ve been doing this since 2012.

Thanks to Orchids like you.

Thank You

The Impossible made Possible

An impossible dream when it started but with God’s grace and the gifts of Orchid sponsors, another miracle occurred. I had all but given up on helping this upgrade project succeed. I was certain it was too ambitious and too expensive. But we scaled back our goal just a little and raised half the money requested and built 8 of the 16 classrooms originally planned.

No mission requests have been challenged more often by Orchid, than Katungu. The dream of a very young man, Mathew Biryomumeisho, who saw his own life start on this rock plateau in the district of Rubanda Uganda, has never faltered. He has accepted our slow steps in providing support as we observed for seven years his ability to leverage community assets and work on sustainable deliverables. He has faced flooding, family tragedy, drought and the typical odds associated with improving the lives of children who once had no hope for a brighter future. Together Orchid and Matthew have dug latrines, built rain water wells, provided electricity and erected permanent infrastructures to educate the children of Katungu. All of these efforts and more, are today, paying dividends.

Katungu currently educates over 600 children through grade seven. Half are girls and half are orphans.

Raised: $27,000.00

The Timeline: 6 months

Build Time: 6 months

End Result: Nothing short of spectacular

Congratulations and thank you to everyone who helped make this impossible dream a “Dream come True”

Rich

Jeremiah House forges ahead in spite of political unrest

The Jeremiah House is open for miracles and their 8 boys are thriving even with the challenging situation in Haiti. Berdy JeanMary; the centers director sent a sponsor update to assure everyone that the orphanage is functioning as usual thanks to the dedicated volunteers and staff in Haiti.

Berdy writes: “….our boys are safe and are being well taken care.  They have full bellies, a place where they are loved, they receive medical care when necessary, and they are learning about the love of Jesus Christ. All eight of the boys attended school last year and made wonderful improvements.  As you may remember, some of the boys had never been in school and did not know how to even write their name. By the end of the year all of the boys had made tremendous gains.  This was made possible not only by the teachers at their school, but also by the help given to them by their tutors who they met with after school. ….Although traditional schools are closed in Haiti due to the unrest here, we are still employing teachers at JHouse so that our boys can learn English, computer skills, and even musical instruments.  We want to provide a future for our boys, even when the current state of our country makes that difficult.”

Thanks to the amazing and growing list of Jeremiah Supporters this project is a testament to how God works through His people to make change and deliver His love. We at Orchid are happy we can play a small role in their success.

 

PUSHING UP the KINGDOM

When it comes to sheer will, and confidence on achieving goals, no one can argue that Miranda Stacy Burcham has what it takes. Miranda was accomplishing miracles long before her connection to Orchid, but adding our vision to her heart was a match made in heaven. Miranda has been serving the forgotten for a long time and her many year association with the people of Haiti has been changing as many lives there for the better that she can.

When Miranda heard the story of the launch of the Jeremiah’s House from it’s founder; Berdy St. Mary, she reached out to her fitness fans and issued the challenge. In less than a week she and her devotees have raised well over $30,000.00 for the launch and donations are still pouring in. Over 600 new Orchids of Light have lined up and delivered!

They literally Pushed Up the foundation of this new mission from their hands and knees!!

Miranda and her disciples have accomplished what no other Orchid campaign has in it’s history and we raise up our hands in gratitude to them and to the Lord for this incredible start. When you partner with The Kingdom anything is possible and when Miranda makes the call, the Lord and His people respond.

 

Orchid Donors brew up a storm of support

Orchids of Light sponsors stepped up an bloomed big for the August Micro Brew tour campaign and raised over $14,000.00 as a down payment for the land to build a new youth center in Mwingi, Kenya.

This Center is the dream of Pastor Simon Muvengei and his Shepherd Hood Ministry.  Orchids of Light was formed in part as a result of that meeting and officially adopted Shepherd Hood into our portfolio in 2012. Since then Orchid sponsors have helped shepherd over 500 young people back into school and connect with their own spiritual power. Orchid angels have provided the funding necessary to keep the operation on solid footing and have purchased over 200 goats tact as entrepreneurial tool sets children raise and make a small profit from. These primary school students sell the milk and make more goats to sell for food to raise enough money to pay their way through school. All goats are recycled back into an upcoming generation of youngsters once the original owners no longer need them for their education costs. Orchid has also distributed over 5000 adolescent girl’s hygiene products to eliminate the stigma associated with their monthly cycle. In Africa girls will drop out of school during this time of month if they aren’t protected.

Now Shepherd Hood and Orchid are focusing their combined energies on a projected $200,000.00 youth center that will be a self-sufficient beacon of hope to this region that serves over 7 million people. The center will provide Christian stewardship, youth leadership training, an internet portal to free software coding skill education, and volunteer housing to establish mentoring experiences from the west.

The fundraiser held Saturday, August 26^Th, introduced fifty philanthropists to the Lancaster Micro-Brew business landscape and generated over $12,000.00 in donations.

It was a win-win for everyone involved including local businesses. The tour made stops at Lancaster, Wacker, Spring House, Mad Chef and Saint Boniface breweries and culminated the afternoon at The Bulls Head tavern in Lititz. Pastor Simon Muvengei was on hand from Kenya to meet the sponsors and the Orchid team. Special thanks go out to all the people who made this initial campaign such a fantastic success.

There is much more to accomplish but thanks to orchid’s of light like you we have broken ground on this life changing campaign.