Saturday, July 26, 2014

WHEN CARING MEANS SACRIFICE AND SACRIFICE MEANS LOVE

Sacrificial Giving
of
Oneself

Almost three years ago we approached Costa and Olga from Ukraine with a life changing question: 

 "Will you move to Kyrgyzstan as missionaries for LAMb, and grow a family of children who will not see the doors of an orphanage? We ask you to become their parents and our leaders in all the work of LAMb in Kyrgyzstan." 

And they said, YES.

Just a few years before, they had purchased their first house, had good jobs in Ukraine and a life of calm and promise.  But what is promise when you are being stirred to serve God in a most sacrificial way.  And they did not know what that meant.  So the question asked was their moment of truth.

In Kyrgyzstan, Costa and Olga have been faithful to the call along with their two children for over two years now.  They are parents to our family of little girls - all rescued from lives of abuse, neglect and abandonment.  They are mentors and guides to our older youth who have faced the realities of leaving an orphanage with no one or no where to go.  They have shared knowledge with others struggling to work with children from a hard place.  And they have made the land of mountains, yurts, and poverty their home.

God has blessed Kyrgyzstan, Dayspring, Jeremiah House and us by raising up Costa and Olga as a family who is ready, willing and eager to serve Him....no matter the cost.  

YOU, our supporters have invested into their lives - but more importantly you have been the catalyst for them to invest into the lives of 
  • a little girl that was rescued from the cement floor of an abandoned building, 
  • a child who was sold to work in a field, 
  • a young man who had been tossed to and fro from person to person never knowing where he would live, 
  • a young woman who lost everything and every family member to death, 
  • a child who had been sexually abused and neglected, 
  • a little girl who was not allowed to attend school and was dragged from pillar to post by an alcoholic mother, 
  • a child that had been charged wrongfully by police and taken to jail and beaten, 
  • a young woman who was discharged from an orphanage because they were too full
  • a little girl whose mother abandoned her to go to another country
  • a little girl who was found in squalor and filth and never knowing when the next meal would come
  • a young girl that was promised many things - led astray by others - and left alone
  • an orphanage graduate who had dreams and yet no one to encourage her and no where to go for help
  • an orphanage child that no one took the time to see she had family she could live with
  • a family that wanted desperately to have their three children out of the orphanage and home with them where just a little help could make this happen
  • an orphanage where children are deemed disabled and without hope - heading to the adult disabled home 
  • senior women and men who are sheltered in a safe place, yet have few persons who spend time with them - and build relationships with them
AND so many and much more.  We cannot do the work God has called us to do without your support.  We know the fields are ready for the harvest - and the labourers are few.  Yet, our team has heard the call and they have said, SEND ME, SEND ME.

Marching forward - carrying the passion to serve - thanking you for your much needed support and not forgetting!

The LAMb Team
Video by Costa..

Sunday, July 20, 2014

OPPORTUNITY FOR KYRGYZSTAN - WITH SAMARITANS FEET AND LAMb

Opportunity for YOU!
JOIN US IN KYRGYZSTAN
September 2014
We have been given the wonderful opportunity once again to host Samaritans Feet in Kyrgyzstan - a great way to bless many orphans, disabled and crisis families.  We delivered over 500 pairs of new shoes in the  spring of 2014 - and now we will have a second team coming and 

YOU CAN JOIN THEM!  
WE ARE HOPING TO DISTRIBUTE OVER 800 PAIRS OF SHOES!
  • STATE RUN ORPHANAGE - ORPHANS, STAFF AND THEIR CHILDREN
  • DISABLED HOME FOR MEN - MEN, STAFF AND THEIR CHILDREN
  • CRISIS FAMILIES - MOMS, DADS, AND ALL THE CHILDREN IN THE FAMILY
  • VULNERABLE YOUTH - AND A FRIEND

This team will come September 19 - 28, 2014.  You will join up with others from North America to bring new shoes to those in need of support, encouragement and the connection you can make with them as a servant leader, showing and demonstrating the love of Jesus.

HOWEVER - YOU MUST ACT FAST.  
Everything in the information below to get you registered!

HERE ARE THE INSTRUCTIONS TO JOIN OUR TEAM - YOU STILL HAVE TIME TO REGISTER








































Friday, July 4, 2014

WHEN TRAUMA IS THEIR STORY

LAUNCHING
A NEW 
TRAUMA 
SERIES
OF 
TRAINING


So often we receive calls from parents - adoptive and foster parents - asking for help in working with their children whom have experienced difficult life situations and have come from a hard place.  You might ask, "What is a HARD PLACE?"  

All children who have been adopted or come to us as a foster child, come from loss - separation from their birth families.  Many come out of abuse, neglect and abandonment.  Some have experienced years of disappointments, rejection and even total humiliation.  We cannot know or even fully understand what a "hard place" might have been like for our child.  Yet, when we become the parent, the lover of their hearts, we have a responsibility to a journey of helping our child heal.

Becoming a healing, helping parent is not an easy journey.  No one taught us how to do this, no one is walking beside us in the darkness of confusion, sadness and grieving for the depth of hurt inside our little one.  Our hope is sometimes so weak we don't even know if we can go on.  

Yet there is hope.  Our first hope is in Him - the comforter and healer of all hurts.  And He has given us words of healing, along with knowledge that can make a difference.  

We at LAMb are committed to carrying forth the message of healing.   We offer you solid training and support through teaching and coaching.  Trauma training is a critical foundation to helping a child.  We as caregivers and parents must know and understand trauma, the impact it has on brain development and the impact on the whole child.  We need to know what strategies help and which strategies hurt.  

In our role as a ministry to share and help, we have a series of modules for helping.  We want to keep you informed and open the doors to you for these modules.  God has a plan for your family - and just as Jeremiah 29:11  "For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." NIV,
as this speaks to you as a parent and as a family.  God's plan is one of a hope and a future - not to harm you or your family.  

Contact us if this series is one that might be used as a tool in moving forward your ministry, families or even you as an individual.  LAMb is committed to equipping and activating those persons for the purpose of ministry...Ephesians 4:12-17.

THE SERIES... (Soon to be offered in Ontario, Canada - Bangladesh, Tajikistan, Mongolia, India, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan and Africa)

BECOMING TRAUMA AND LOSS INFORMED

  • Module 1:  Becoming a Trauma Informed Caregiver/Worker/Parent – 3 days
  • Module 2:  Adolescents and Psychological Trauma - 3 days
  • Module 3:  Sensory Integration for Children Who Have Suffered Psychological Trauma – 2 days
  • Module 4:  Compassion Fatigue/Secondary Trauma of the Caregiver/Worker – 2 days
  • Module 5:  Building a Trauma Informed Program for Foster and/or Adoptive Parents and Professionals (2 days)
  • Module 6: Helping A Psychologically Traumatized Child Learn to Regulate their Emotions – 1 day
  • Module 7:  Creating Nurture Groups for Traumatized Children – 1 day

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