Hi Everyone,
Well, we’ve sent out all of our tax-receipts for 2010, received most of our Country Reports for 2010, been to England and back, and we have much to thank the Lord for!
Irene’s service near Liverpool was lovely. Very British of course (stoic) but a real opportunity to share Jesus with 150 people, many who do not know Him.
When the family (about 40 of them) got to the church and saw minister Colin and me waiting, you could feel a sense of peace come in the room and we went into the sanctuary all of us together. Colin really did a great job and said many wonderful and true things about Irene. He even read a poem she had written 30+ years ago right after her two year old boy died. That experience drew her closer to the Lord and the poem was beautiful and spoke of the day when she would see her Jason again. Her oldest son, Andrew, who had become a heroine addict in the mid 1990’s and who was estranged from the family for the last 12-15 years came with his wife and 2 children. With great dignity but in real humility, he apologized to the Church and his family for causing so much pain and promised to never let anything divide them again. I had 10 minutes in the main service where I read all of the kind words that you sent for me to read and people were truly amazed at how far reaching Irene’s ministry was. I then went on a five minute walk to do the graveside and the Lord was honored.
Back in London, Asher and I met with our Faith Clinic, a teaching time to those with HIV/AIDS at our office in London. It was a blessing to be there.
We got all of our donation tax-receipts out. Thank you Sharon!! Altogether, since Doug Shaw & Associates have partnered with us in 2005, our donor base has gone from 125 to almost 600!! What that means is that as foundations have stopped giving to us, our smaller donations, the $10 to $50 ones, have grown a lot!! Thank you Doug, Michael and team! We couldn’t do it without you.
And our reports are in. We heard from 17 countries- Belize, Bulgaria, Cameroon, DR Congo, Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Malawi, Malaysia, Nepal, Paraguay, Tanzania, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States, Venezuela, Zimbabwe. We did not get a report from Vietnam because we do not have a Director there right now but we do have $1,020 there to hire a new director. We did NOT hear from Ecuador, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Swaziland and I have notified those Directors that although we appreciate all that they have done previously, since we have not heard from them for 2010 we will see that as a resignation of their position. But the data from those reporting is really amazing!!
- HIV Support Groups: 104 in 2009; 126 in 2010
- Support group members: 2,256 in 2009; 4,113 in 2010
- Support group deaths: 130 in 2010
- Volunteers: 422 in 2009; 257 in 2010
- Volunteer hours: 47,301 in 2009; 42,502 in 2010
- Paid staff: 23 in 2009; 29 in 2010
- Teaching/Training sessions: 419 in 2009; 702 in 2010
- Total attendance: 16,466 in 2009; 69,541 in 2010
- Radio/TV interviews: 55 in 2009; 118 in 2010
- Direct Care served: 32,339 in 2009; 48,322 in 2010
- Salvation’s: 1,361 in 2009; 1,806 in 2010
These results are phenomenal. And when I think that over 1800 people are now going to or in heaven because all of us heard the call to share the Good News of Jesus, it is humbling. God bless everyone of you.
To date also, Board members have raise $6,100 toward our debt reduction. Thank you.
Well that’s it for now. Be blessed. God is using us for His glory.
Bruce