Orphans First Prayer Requests December 8th 2004 Dear Prayer Partners, Countdowns can be exciting---or scary! Right now the countdown to Christmas is both. It’s exciting because we are bringing Christmas gifts & celebrations to thousands of poor children all over the world. It’s scary because we’ ve sent out way more money than we have yet received for Christmas and we are still receiving precious propositions from churches in poor countries who could bring gifts to thousands more children if the money comes in. We have BIG DREAMS for LITTLE PEOPLE. And we’re spending BIG sums (yet we’re just a TINY non-profit organization). Please pray for God to provide abundantly so that EVERY CHILD He has enabled us to reach would receive a beautiful Christmas gift. MEXICO Last night I spoke to Janice in Mexico who hopes to buy sneakers and another small gift for some 260 poor children in Matuala, and to perform a beautiful Christmas play. Her projected budget is for $ 4000. They need Orphans First ’s help. RUSSIA I also received the following e-mail from our church in St.Pete, Russia. They have been able to contact Nikita (a 13-yr-old orphan who still desperately needs a family). And they’d like to help an orphanage getting gifts for the children and providing for them to go to camp. The financial need is overwhelming---especially as we are fast depleting our funds. But I believe that God wants us to reach these children. Please, again, pray for the needs to be met abundantly. From Vadim in St.Pete, Russia - “Janey, we've visited Nikita. The orphanage is a hard place to get into, and of course I went the official way. The orphanage administration is VERY suspicious of everyone……This was just a first meeting with a vice-director of the orphanage……We introduced ourselves and talked about... you know official nothingness. Yhey were not open, but they were not rude. I gave them the books that I brought for Nikita and got a promise that a 'hello from the friends in America" and the gift will be given to him. So, the first step is taken, and I’m not sure of the next step as they make it so hard to visit children in the orphanage. Christmas in St.Pete orphanage - Our orphanage is in a financial problem this year - they have no money to send kids to the camp for the winter holidays. The need there is huge and they didn't ask for a penny, but I know that if we are able to come up with ANY serious amount to help with this - great! Also, we're doing a small Christmas project in the orphanage and need about $2,5 per kid for the gifts (to make them usable and not just one toy, or something. There are 180 kids this year. So, we $2,5 per child for 180 kids and/or their total need for the camp = $10, 000. ANYTHING will be treated like a gift from heaven.” From Janey again: Whenever I see “and/or” my compassion button hits “and” . I don’t know if you’re following or not, but if we have a choice to help a little or help a lot, I’d rather we help a lot. I’m sure you would too. Please, pray for these projects. So far this Christmas season, we have provided gifts for thousands of children (see below): Places & Countries helped thus far Kyrgyztan Almaty, Kazakhstan Baku, Azerbaijan Uzbekistan Kalingrad, Russia Parres, Mexico Peru Guntur, India Haiti Albania (money sent from France) Some African countries ( “ “ “ “ “ “ “). Still needing our help (thus far) for the Christmas Project Matuela, Mexico St. Pete & Moscow, Russia Juvenile Hall, California, USA Poland Ukraine Other parts of India NB - These projects are ABOVE & BEYOND the regular sponsorship program which reaches children in all these places and also some other countries. Please pray for a MIRACLE so that every child will be blessed this Christmas. Janey L. DeMeo President/founder of ORPHANS FIRST ; freelance writer. Website: _http://www.orphansfirst.org/_ (http://www.orphansfirst.org/) E mail: _Janey@..._ (mailto:Janey@...) Subscribe to the weekly prayer chain: _http://associate.com/groups/orphansfirst/_ (http://associate.com/groups/orphansfirst/) -- Browse years of Orphans First Prayer Requests: http://welovegod.org/groups/orphansfirst/ To unsubscribe, send ANY message to: orphansfirst-unsubscribe@...