Dear Friends and Partners,

To love your neighbor as yourself…what does this mean?  While I do not think many Christians will argue with me that this is one of the main themes found in Scripture, the differing understandings and methods and degrees of putting this in practice would fill a book.  In the Gospel according to Matthew and Mark, Jesus is asked what is the greatest commandment.  He replies that it is to love the Lord God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, but He doesn’t stop there.  He goes on to say there is a second, like the first, which is to love your neighbor as yourself.  He says all the law and the prophets hang on these and there are no greater commandments.  In the Gospel according to Luke, Jesus is asked what a person must do to have eternal life.  He asks the individual what it says in the Law.  The person replies by saying the above two commandments and Jesus says “You have answered correctly, do this and you will live.”  O.k., as followers of Jesus we know it is important, but how do we put this into practice daily?  To me, to love your neighbor as yourself means I must first look outside myself and see who the Lord has placed in my path (no matter where they are this is my neighbor).  Then, if my neighbor is in a situation which if I was in I would want to be helped, and if I have the ability to help, I must act.  Now I know one might say that you must look after yourself and your family first and I would not disagree with that (you can’t do much good if you are personally not healthy and we must remember our immediate family members are our closest neighbors).  However, I would challenge them to consider at what point our needs (versus “wants”) are met and at what point we must then turn to our neighbor to assist them in meeting their needs.  I would argue that when my needs are met, I must reach out to assist my neighbor in meeting their needs before I look to material wants and comforts for myself.  Since I would want my neighbor to love me in this manner, I must do the same.  It would take hours to cover this topic and a life time to implement it fully, but I wanted to put it out there for thought purposes since Jesus made loving our neighbor as ourselves second only to loving God with our whole heart, soul, mind and strength and He equated it with “life.”  I also wanted to show how it can be lived out through your partnership with us.

How can you live out this command with Saved By God’s Grace?  Tammy and I have been called to be your hands and feet to the children of Kenya…the “neighbors” which God has brought to us to “love as ourselves.”  By partnering with us we believe you are carrying out the command to love your neighbors as yourselves.  These children’s needs never seem to be met and this is through no fault of their own.  They were simply born on a different longitude and latitude.  We will continue to do whatever we can with the funding you provide to meet these children’s needs.  When funding permits, we will be in Kenya on as permanent a basis as possible to continue to show His love to them and the villages we serve.  We have brought these children, our neighbors, to you since the Lord has brought them to us.  We know that through service to these children we are coming closer to bringing the Kingdom of Heaven to earth and our relationship with our Father is becoming more intimate.  Pray to see if you are led to become more involved with this ministry and, if so, contact us.  We are not called to save the world, nor even save our children we serve.  We are simply called to love the Lord God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and love our neighbors as ourselves…the Holy Spirit does the rest.

Look for “The Change Campaign” soon.  We understand when we talk to people about helping improve the lives of orphans in Kenya it can sound overwhelming.  We also know for many people the thought of committing funds to a project for the long haul can be intimidating and they believe the “little” they could give does not amount to much; we disagree and want to encourage you to do just that – use your spare change.  The Change Campaign is letting people know with only their spare change they can “change” these children’s lives.  We are taking this campaign across the United States to find individuals who want to join us by contributing $12/month (40¢/day) to become involved with our Kenyan kids.  We know we can find 1,000 people who will join this campaign to not only continue to meet the physical needs, but also help us get back on-site in a permanent manner so we can continue to assist the caregivers in taking care of the children and showing them the love of God in action.  With only the change laying around the house you can be part of transforming children’s lives in Kenya, Africa.  Once you join, we would like you to tell your friends how easy and inexpensive it is to get involved and watch God multiply our sacrificial giving.  We know it won’t be long before we will confidently be able to tell the children, “God has brought providence so you no longer should worry about what you are to eat, drink, or wear or where you are to sleep or how you are to be educated.  Simply be a child of His and praise Him for His graciousness”…Exciting!  We will let you know when the website is in operation and you can become a part of the movement.

Thank you for your continued partnership and prayers!  This summer we are taking the plight of the children across the country and serving the homeless of the US at the same time.  We leave for “skid row” in LA the last week of June and will be serving the men and women there while telling others about the children.  We then leave to present the Gospel in NY City with our brother in Christ Pastor Ralph Ramos.  We will also be stopping along the way to make presentations on behalf of the children.  As always, we are open to any venue to speak about the kids.  If you know of anyone who would like to have us come and speak, please contact us.

May God continue to bless you and bring you closer to Him through the Holy Spirit.

Serving the children of Kenya with you only through His grace and His grace alone,

Chuck McDonald