Renewing Minds and Changing Lives Around the World.
Close your eyes and picture a little girl, her name is Haiti. She is four years old, hungry, dirty, and has maybe five sets of clothes total. She has over a 40% chance of dying from malnutrition and her family only has about a 30% chance to access clean and safe drinking water. She will probably only go to school for an average of five years because she has to help raise money for her family to survive. She could be one of the 22,500 children that die of preventable causes today (that is roughly the size of Kerrville, Tx). Keep your eyes closed. Now imagine it is your daughter, niece, or granddaughter. Imagine she lives in America, in your state, in your city, and goes to your church. Now imagine that you have the power to help change all of that.
All of us here at Relationships for Christ Ministries are excited to say Project Samuel Latin America officially has ground to stand on and to bring hope to children at its very first project site in Guanacastillo, Nicaragua. On May 22, 2013 Missionaries Chris and Amanda Poole, President of Relationships for Christ Ministries, Inc. Timothy J. Vowell and Board Member Joseph Glazner paid in full for the 18.78 acres that RFCM had placed a down payment on just a mere five months before!
Guanacastillo is a rural impoverished community roughly thirty-five miles east of the capital city, Managua. In our immediate area there are anywhere from 150 to 200 children ten years old and under. The project site is also right across the highway where hundreds of children attend school that we can minister to as well. On the trips back and forth to Nicaragua, the RFC team has been building relationships with the school administrators and assessing how Project Samuel can meet their needs. The location of the project site truly was ordained by God! The RFC team had looked at several different plots of land, had very specific terms, and an even more specific budget. God placed Project Samuel exactly where it can be most effective in the country of Nicaragua. This project is also a providential location because it is right in the middle of Latin America, which will enable missionaries to reach out and minister to other countries, as well as build relationships as we plan for the future.
After placing the down payment on the land in December of last year, RFCM had only six months to raise the remaining $90,000 for the land in addition to the costs of traveling to Nicaragua, and necessary legal and attorney fees which all came to the grand total of $110,000. When the team returned that December, they wasted no time in creating a communications plan, meeting with people to convey their passion for Project Samuel, and explaining the difference it would make in the lives of hundreds of children. Relationships for Christ Ministries had an overwhelmingly supportive response, making the land purchase fundraising efforts the most successful appeal to date. By partnering with various donors all across the south, the money came in an entire month ahead of schedule!
God has been glorified through this entire process by providing more than what we needed before we even needed it, and we believe He will continue to do so as we enter into the next phase of building Project Samuel. Our immediate next step is to have a well drilled. This well will be the one that runs the entire project, with a second well to come in the future to irrigate crops as well as sustain poultry and tilapia projects. Drilling a well will also allow us to start on our second goal, construction. We hope to start on the mission house by the end of the year, and we are excited to have two trips already planned for this year, one in August and one in September.
The Relationships for Christ Ministries team wants to say thank you to each and every person who prayed or gave towards the purchase of the land for our first project in Latin America. We truly could not have done it without you! Thank you for believing in what we do and partnering with us to bring hope to children around the world. We look forward to traveling this journey with all of you.