Opportunites for blessings in India

Below is an email that Evelyn received from Pastor Jose in India. It outlines areas of need for this work and the orphanage there. If you can help out and bless this ministry please send your donation to:

International Humanitarian Hope Society
223 Sagewood Dr.
Kamloops, British Columbia
Canada
V2H 1R1

Be sure to let us know what you would like your donation to go to!
Thank you for your continued support!


Hi Sis. Evelynn

Grace & Peace

Hope you are fine in the Lord.

We are praying for you and family and ministry and all.

Now as you asked for me of our monthly expenses I send you the same.

1) Pastors monthly support - 24000 IND - 665 $ CAN

2) Orphanage - 14000 IND - 400 $ CAN

3) Bible School - 12000 IND - 335 $ CAN

4) Widows- 4800 IND - 133 $ CAN

Its our ministries monthly expenses.



ONE TIME REQUESTS

1) Motor Bikes - 5 / 6 - 900 $ CAN for each

2) Bicycles - 5 / 6 - 65 $ CAN for each

3) Bible - 3 $ CAN for each



Thank you so much for your love and concern.

In His ministry

Pastor. Jose

A note from Evelyn

I just got this stirring story from an orphanage in Romania - what a story about the children that they are reaching--doesn't this just stir your heart.
I will be going to Romania in the future - I have felt that for quite some time - and today I got an e-mail from this orphanage directory - quite interesting that this e-mail came to me today
Blessings

Evelyn

Here is the story from the Orphanage - under the direction of Rebecca:

In a remote region, a five-year-old girl and her two-and-a-half-year-old brother were sleeping among sheep on the open ground of a hillside. Food was scarce, and all the children had for shelter was a tiny, rickety shack nearby where their elderly, diseased grandfather lived. Sadly, the director explained, “We’re unable to help, as I have only one empty bed. We cannot separate the children, as the girl is like a mother to the boy.”

Even though Casa Shalom was filled to capacity, Rebecca was stirred to help. Although she had heard similar heartrending stories before, nothing could have prepared her for her encounter with the “sheep children.” Using a crude map the director had drawn for them, Rebecca and an assistant drove to the region where the children lived. There, a local pastor helped them find the little road that led to where the children were said to be. Eventually they had to park and walk the last few kilometers.

Sorin scared and alone
living among sheep

As the group made their way down a steep hillside, Rebecca saw a herd of about one hundred sheep next to a little shack. The scene was exactly as the ministry director had described it. On the ground outside the shack lay a thin layer of rags where the children slept — no mattresses, no sheets, just dirty rags.

An elderly man greeted them, his body covered with sores. Peeking inside the grandfather’s shack, Rebecca saw no sign of any food. Finally, two small children appeared — five-year-old Mirela and her little brother, Sorin. Both were filthy, their faces badly burned from the sun. Little Sorin was naked, his hair and body caked with sheep manure.

As Rebecca approached them, the boy was cautious. But little Mirela had a bit more courage. When Rebecca asked her if she would like to attend school, the girl smiled and answered yes. Rebecca then carefully explained to Mirela that she was going away to find a home for her and her brother in Bucharest, and that she would return to get them.

For the next three weeks, Rebecca and her staff searched to find a home for the children, and in the meantime obtained a release from their mother, who couldn’t care for them. During that time, two beds became open at Casa Shalom. Now the “sheep children” could have a home!

When Rebecca returned to the little shack on the remote hillside, the grandfather greeted her with teary eyes. He said, “Every day since you were here, my granddaughter has come to me excited, saying, ‘Grandpa, maybe this is the day the lady will come and take us to a nice house.’ I didn’t think you would come back, but I see you kept your promise. We don’t meet people like you everyday.”

Mirela and Sorin were eagerly welcomed by the other children at Casa Shalom, and they grew to love their new home. But the adjustment was difficult, especially for little Sorin. One afternoon as Rebecca was working, she heard a strange sound coming from outside the orphanage: it was the sound of a lamb’s cry. She knew there were no sheep around, so she and the staff walked outside to see what the sound was. They found an upset Sorin, crying as he only knew how: by bleating like the sheep he’d grown up with. It was the only way he knew to express himself.

Sorin happy and healthy
at Casa Shalom

In fact, when he and his sister first arrived, Sorin still hadn’t learned to talk. Rebecca slowly began to teach him a few words, including “Hallelujah.” Their first Sunday at church, little Sorin was bewildered, hiding underneath Rebecca’s dress the whole time. But the next Sunday he recognized the word “Hallelujah” being spoken in the service. Suddenly, the little boy began shouting, “Hallelujah! Hallelujah!” with a great smile.

Sorin and Mirela are older now, and have been thriving at Casa Shalom. Both love going to church, where they look forward to a special hug from their pastor. From the pitiful bleat of a lamb to loud shouts of “Hallelujah!”, God’s praises are sung from the mouths of babes in his house. It is a joyful sound heard regularly at Casa Shalom. ■

Report on India-September 2007

Our team flew out Sept 1st, and only one of our team had been to India – so we were anticipating a new experience in a foreign land.
We spent one night in Singapore and enjoyed a day of seeing some of Singapore before carrying on to Cochin, India that evening.
Cochin is in southern India – in the province of Kerala. This is generally a high tourist area due to the beaches and favourable weather.
The population is several million. With a total population of over 1 billion people in India, each small community even into the hills, are filled with inhabitants. Life is very simple and poverty is so evident.
Upon arriving in India – we were met with hot, humid weather – which was the end of their monsoon weather, this was quite a contrast from our hot, dry weather here in Kamloops.

Our host met us at the airport and we were taken to our hotel which was just adjacent to the airport, where we would stay for the duration of our stay in India. Thank God for air conditioning and a good clean hotel.

We had many days filled with memorable experiences – visiting a new house church in the mountains – nearly a 2 hour journey each way by taxi, plus we were privileged to be part of a graduation ceremony of the Bible School graduates.
We had a ladies meeting and at the end of the service – the ladies sat around(on the floor) as we served them lunch – on a banana leaf – after we had served them lunch – then we also ate. The food was great – and we were blessed to have great health the entire trip.
There are a lot of details that I will not mention but I would like to tell you about our
Orphanage work in India.

The orphanage which we were blessed to go to, has about 20 children – mostly boys – children aging from 6 to 14 years old. We had a great day with the children. As we landed out the gifts, it was a delight to see the the children’s faces as they received their school supplies and small toys. They bowed each time someone would give them a gift, and at the end, they sang us a song in their language. We were all moved to tears. Under such primitive living conditions, their smiles shone through. We toured the home and since the government has not allowed the children to stay in this home, due to regulations, the children have been sleeping in private homes and on the floor of the church which is about 1 hour away.
The children come together during the day to this orphanage home and do their studies and eat together and then go home for the night. The beds that they had been sleeping on in the orphanage, stood empty. As I walked into the bedrooms – I was so taken back. On the head board of each bed was an inscription “In memory of Mrs Elsie Dilk” – each bed was bought by the funds that were raised at my mother’s memorial service 2 years ago. That was an emotional moment for me. I am sure that mom’s heart would be overwhelmed by the thought that her life was living on in the hearts of these children.
These children need a home and we were stirred at the small amount that it would cost to purchase land to build an orphanage so IHHS has donated money for the purchase of land and upon our next trip to India, the Pastor said, that we would be dedicating this new
Orphanage building.
This orphanage has never had a foreigner visit, or assist in any way. They also care for the widows and are planning to start up a sewing class to teach the widows how to sew so they can earn a livelihood for their families.
I was very impressed and moved by the warm hearts and kindness shown to us. It was even more rewarding to touch people who had never been touched by anyone in the world – Without the assistance of outside help, they have worked so diligently to scrape together money to help and needy, care for the orphans, and we consistently heard many reports of lives that were changed and a difference was made by this work in India. They have opened 48 such works all throughout southern India. Many of the workers have gone without food as they wanted to make sure the children were fed.

Will I go back to India? without a doubt – my heart has been touched so immensely by the work that is happening there and we have already booked for November 2008 to return.
We can assist with many projects there and as this work continues to grow and develop, we will keep you informed so that you too can be a part of touching lives in India.
We will keep you posted as to what can be purchased there, so taking money and purchasing items that are needed, would be a great asset. School supplies are costly there so we were able to bless the orphans with a lot of supplies. My sister Grace, has been
gracious to do a lot of the preparation for this trip and through her contact with this work, we have made a lot of new friends in India.
If you are interested in helping us with India – please make checks payable to IHHS
And all the funds will be directed to this mission.
Thank you for standing with us in the vision for India
Evelyn Picklyk
President

China update

In Evelyn's post of March 8, she mentioned the need she saw in the Brain-injury orphanage in Sanya for beds for the children. She just sent me this email with the following good news!

Dear Friends -
I just got an e-mail from the Brain-injury orphanage in Sanya, China and with the $1000USD that we raised and sent to them - they were able to purchase good beds for the children and some of the workers - plus money left over to buy better linens for the beds - the Orphanage Director, Maggie Davis was overwhelmed and so thankful for the generous gift given by the people of Canada for making life "a little easier" for the orphans in China!
Many thanks to all those who supported the fund-raiser auction in March and any ongoing support - you are making a difference in this world!
I will be returning to this orphanage in November.
Evelyn Picklyk

The children in this picture live in an orphanage in the mountains of China, near the Vietanmese border. Humanitarian Hope helped start this orphanage and Evelyn and her team will be visiting them in November.

The team will also be visiting a baby orphanage during their November trip. We are currently collecting clean, good condition baby clothes. We have a few wonderful ladies knitting sweaters and baby blankets to send along. If you would like to help out with a donation of clothing or wool for the knitting projects, see the link at the side for the Humanitarian Hope website and contact information.

Thank you Kamloops Rotary!

In our last post we mentioned that we would like to send money to Russia to buy potties for the children in the orphanage to use instead of the cans they were sitting on.

The members of Kamloops Rotary have stepped up to the plate and the money for the potties is on the way to Russia!

Here are a few more pictures from the Russia trip.

Russia - April 2007

Our trip to Russia, was a very interesting trip. We flew into Perm, Russia – which is actually Siberia. With the new luggage allowances – we were only allowed 2 pieces of checked luggage – each piece not to exceed 50 lbs plus one carry on. That is very restricting when you are packing for the orphanages but we were able to take 400 t-shirts, hundreds of toothbrushes and toothpaste plus wooden toys, which were made here in Kamloops by Judge Terry Shupe. In our personal luggage, we had extra gifts.

As we headed out on this venture to a land where we had never been – we had great excitement and anticipation as to how the logistics of our trip would unfold. We took 350 lbs of goods for the orphanages in Siberia, and at customs in Perm, the bags were taken and all the goods were not returned to us. It was quite an abrupt beginning to a trip that we had prepared and planned for, for a number of months. When we talked to other foreigners there, they had heard of other occasions that this had happened. We worked on retrieving the goods for 4 days but only got our hockey bags returned. We had some things in our personal luggage for the orphans so we did not go to the orphanages empty handed.
Our 1st orphanage was the baby orphanage. Here we observed a great need for commodes for the small children. They were sitting on small cans, and to see a 1 year old enduring this hardship, it moved my heart to see what I could do for these children. When we returned I started working on providing this orphanage with 25 commodes for the children. We have a contact person who is in Russia, and they will purchase the items and take them to the orphanage. Orphanages are so extremely thankful and appreciative for everything that is brought to them. We took 50 pairs of baby booties, candies, and some toys. This orphanage also handled brain-injury children.

An interesting thing is that the orphanages in Russia, only keep the children until they turn 14 and then if they don’t have any family, they become “street children” and they have to steal to eat or exist, thus they end up in jail. We drove past a very large prison and noticed many young girls, and I asked our translator, why they were there and he told us the story. He himself was an orphan, and then became a street child and had gone through prison and was subjected to much cruelty but eventually someone took him in and nurtured him. He is now a good citizen and has changed his lifestyle, from his upbringing. Sad to say, not all children end up with a happy ending to their lives.

The 2nd orphanage we went to, had children ages 5-13 and they had a 1-hour program for the children, which we sat in and watched. The children enjoyed stories and songs and at the end of the program, we gave them toys and items we had brought in our personal luggage. The children were over-joyed to receive a gift from Canada. The workers at this orphanage all thanked us, over and over again and asked if we would return again, and visit them.
After you leave one of these orphanages, your heart is moved and the feeling of what we can do to make a difference, keeps running through your mind. We will certainly return to Siberia and we do have information on how to get our goods to their destination the next time.
If you wish to give towards the “potty’s” or commodes that we will be purchasing for the small children in Perm, please contact me and make your check payable to
I.H.H.S. We are budgeting approx $ 250usd for this project. Thank you for considering this need!
Evelyn Picklyk,President
I.H.H.S

March 5, 2007
Fund-Raising - March 23 - we will have a silent/public Auction - We will be raising funds for the orphanages that we will be visiting this year. We see so many needs when we arrive at these orphanages and with some assistance in purchasing things at destination - we can make a big difference. The needs vary from country to country - some in tremendous need of food - this is the situation in India - the orphanage cannot house all the children - therefore many children"Tribal children" live in the woods and eat at the orphanage - this puts a tremendous load on the orphanage to feed that many children. We will be able to supply food with the money that is raised through our fund-raising endeavours here.
THe need at the Briain - injury orphanage in CHina was most overwhelming - we saw an opportunity for a small amount of money, we could have bought the children all reasonably comfortable beds - and this has inspired us to do something for these dear children. Even at this time - I am working on getting vitamins to this orphanage through connections I have made in the USA. In the past, we have taken thousands of dollars of vitamins into mainland CHina - all donated by a major company in the USA.
We have just received a large donation of 250 lbs of soup-mix , from a BC Company. This will be a tremendous help and will feed many. (Thank you Jan, for your help in getting this donation)
Sometimes, I feel like the needs are so overwhelming, and "can I really make a difference?" Then I reflect on the hardships many less fortunate people endure - and this motivates and drives me to keep going. When we saw the faces of the women in Albania when we brought winter coats to them and the faces of the children as they received the gifts, it just inspires me to do more and forget about my own comforts and see what I can do to help others have a little better way of life.
I always ask myself "What if that was my grand-child who was hungry?" , "What would I do?"and each child in need, does have or had a grandparent, that wanted to help their grandchild, and perhaps died so that they could offer their food to their grand-child. This is putting things into perspective so we can feel the needs as they happen all around the world, on a daily basis! 18,000 children died each day due to starvation. Its alarming, isn't it!

We will have pictures posted on the blog as soon as we return from each trip and you will see how you have touched the lives of many people around the world - whom you will most likely never see or meet, in person.
What legacy would you like to leave? Lets make a difference, together!
If you would like to join me, on a team, please do feel free to e-mail me at evelynp@humanitarianhope.com This memorable trip would inspire you like none other. I have travelled the world, and seen many beautiful resorts and vacation places, but when I go to orphanages, and I know I am making a difference in a life of a child!

April 12-23/07 - we leave for Perm, Russia - this in Siberia and our trip will be visiting orphanages in the mountains of Siberia. Some of these orphanages have never been touched by foreigners. We have prepared 400 brand new T-Shirts for these orphans, as a gift from our partners who have heard of the need and have supplied the funds to purchase the t-shirts.
We are also taking tooth paste and tooth brushes. We understand that many of the orphans have been using sand to brush their teeth, and we want to take along products that are available from here. Many dentist offices here in Kamloops have been so generous to give us abundant supplies of tooth brushes and tooth paste.
Judge Terry Shupe has been working, tirelessly on building wooden toys for the children. When you see the look on the face of a child, when they receive their own toy, from Canada, is such a unforgetable scene. Many tears are shed. I know that these toys will have a lasting effect on the lives of the children. We took these toys to China in December and these toys would be the only Christmas gifts that these children would have received so you can imagine the joy on the face of the children

Aug 24-Sept 8 - we are going to Cochin, India - again, vitamins, dried foods and other supplies, but the greatest need there is for food - rice and just the bare necessities of existence. We are grateful for the opportunity to go and help in the orphanage there and support the
workers in their daily work with the children. We will also do crafts and other activities with the children - interacting with the children on
a daily basis.

Nov 19- Dec 9 - I will be going to THailand and China - again - working with orphanages and seeing needs and helping the desperate situations.

Next year is already beginning to be another busy year. The needs are many and we will continue to do what we can - wherever we can!

If you can help us, every penny raised will go directly to the orphans. We do not take
administration fees off of any donations through funds raised.Everyone who travels to these countries with me, will pay their own way and expenses. I am so grateful for each one who goes and sacrifices to help me to get the goods to the countries and supports the vision of orphans around the world.
Many thanks to all who have been so generous to give of their time to help raise items for the fund-raiser.....How could I do this without your help?

Evelyn Picklyk,
President
International Humanitarian Hope Society.