Children's Home Project Update

July 4, 2008 We recently had a chance to visit with Ranjana Immanuel, our children's home mom who was in the United States for a visit. We are excited to report that all is going well with construction, and we are now focused on continuing the building of our wall around the facility, as well as raising funds for furnishings and septic tank renovations. We are also glad to report that, thanks to your partnership, we will be assisting their local church, "Joshua Generation Church," by paying the church's rent for an entire year! Woo Hoo! We hope you have had the opportunity to view the new video of the Sons of Thunder Children’s Home on this page. Last December, we visited and launched the ground floor of the home near Mumbai, India. We are so excited to share in the Father’s heart for the fatherless, and we cannot help but be overwhelmed by the abandonment of His love for all of us when we consider the poor and broken of the world. We want to update you on the most recent progress of the facility construction, as well as a few changes we are making to upgrade our child sponsorship program. More Building More Kids For those who have been a part of this project to date, you will be excited to learn that our children’s home is much larger than we originally planned. Although we began with initial blueprints for a 30-child capacity building, an architectural “accident” caused our floor plan to turn out much larger. Apparently, the Lord wanted us to rescue 20 more kids from the streets, because we will now be able to house 50 children in the home! We do not want a large, warehouse-type orphanage that clinically runs these children through. Instead, we are trying to foster a “home” type environment. So although we will have more space to save the lives of more children, our focus will still remain intimate and caring. We will have room for house parents to live on each floor of the new building, and the added square-footage will even allow for a guest room and office space. Building the Upper Room Currently, the ground floor of our facility is virtually complete, although we are now in the process of plumbing and wiring it, so that children can begin to move in.  Our hope is to have funds raised within the next few months to complete construction of the second story. Our international missions team visited the site a few months ago. At that time, building crews had already plastered the interior and tiled the floors of the first level, but the upper floor construction has been on hold for the past few months. Construction is now underway again, and we have another big project ahead of us: a boundary wall! Help us Build the Wall! Our children’s home director Joshua Immanuel feels it is very important that we construct a boundary wall around the perimeter of our property for a number of reasons. For one, it ensures the children’s safety from intruders, but it also keeps them from wandering off or getting into danger. In addition, there are wetlands around the area, and Joshua says there are many poisonous snakes! In addition to the wall, we will also be funding further needs for the facility, including furniture, bedding and other interior supplies. The Lord is releasing provision every step of the way! We began the project by faith with hardly any of the needed budget. When the Lord gives you a vision, don’t wait for all the resources to be lined up in front of you. Step out by faith! You will watch and see the Lord do tremendous things and you will impact many lives when you take the risk to do the thing He’s called you to complete. Changes to Child Sponsorship One of the things we have felt is imperative to do is upgrade our child sponsorship program to $50 per month per child. While we had set an earlier estimate of $33 per month, we have since realized this would not be adequate for the level of care we choose to give our children. Besides the fluctuation of U.S. currency abroad, along with standard inflation and cost of living, there are more reasons for this: we want to ensure that the children are properly educated, given necessary medical treatment, properly clothed and well fed.  While we originally underestimated what it would cost to cover each child’s needs, be assured that this is still an incredibly low cost to save the life of a child. Furthermore, you can rest assured that Sons of Thunder keeps no administrative fees whatsoever from funds marked for child sponsorship or gifts marked specifically for the children’s home. In fact, we have unloaded quite a bit from our own general fund to get this project moving! So we appreciate you working with us to make a practical Kingdom impact on real lives. Pacing the Project Because this home will be making a major impact on the local hindu village (this region is almost entirely unreached by evangelization, unlike Mumbai proper), we are trying not to make a huge splash that will bring unneccesary conflict or persecution. Many are already wary of the project within the village, because of its Christian base, so we will not immediately try to fill the home with kids in one big swoop. This is based on Ranjana's recommendation. We plan on gradually bringing in  new children a little at a time. There are already six children that are currently being sponsored in the Love God Home, and we plan to bring in an additional six this year. Please continue to pray for favor with locals, as we see a positive, long-term impact on the local area. We Want a Million Kids After completion of this project, our vision is to begin construction on another children's home on the continent of Africa. Please be in prayer with us about this work, as many children are without the most basic necessities of life. Every day, there are more than 16,000 children who die of hunger-related causes. That is one child every five seconds. And more than 800 million go hungry each day. Around the world, more than 11 million children under the age of 5 die from preventable causes, simply because they are too poor to stay alive.

I want to make a one-time donation to the children's home project:     Sons of Thunder is a registered 501(c)3 charitable non-profit ministry. All donations are tax deductible. Brick Work Underway Plaster Work on Interior Walls  New Blueprints Here are the most recent blueprints for the project, which show our floor plan and lot acreage for the facility. Going the Distance Here is an inspiring newspaper article about how one of our fund-raisers from Maine, Ms. Lillian Messier, was able to creatively raise more than the $500 she pledged for this orphanage project, despite her fixed income!   Initial Groundwork is Started Kids' Clean Water Well is Drilled Workers Dig Foundation Posts Rainy season begins!! Here at Sons of Thunder, caring for the orphan and the widow will never be a fleeting project or a one-time event. We will continually spend ourselves on the helpless. We will remember the poor. We will never cease to snatch victims from the fangs of the wicked. We do not care one iota about building our own kingdoms or pumping our own little ministry as an end in itself. Such things will be here today and gone tomorrow. We have a higher mandate in mind. Our purpose is to rally the troops to destroy the works of the devil. This is war. All-out war against poverty, sin, sickness and death. We want to rally that remnant of the church that really wants to impact society in our generation so we can work together and corporately make a lasting difference! Thank you for your continued prayer and financial support of our kids, and we know beyond measure that the Lord will pour tremendous favor and blessing upon you all as you give to these little ones! John Crowder

The call to the Poor: None of us can save the world alone. But it is truly a sin not to reach out and at least save the life of one child in the Third World. Focus on the one. Apathy is lethal. When the Apostle Paul was launched out from Jerusalem to change the world with the most revolutionary theological advancement (The Gentiles can be saved too!!) the council of elders added one small, but profound assignment to his mission that we can never overlook ... "don't forget the poor." James 1:27 says "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: To look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." Not only is it an ethical human responsibility to forfeit one latte a day for the life of a child. It is also a key to unlocking provision and favor in our own lives. In the Book of Job, chapter 29, Job makes it clear that the Lord's provision and favor on the early days of his life were intrinsically connected to rescuing the poor, the fatherless and the widow. As a family of believers, supporting the poor is also a question of fair balance. In 2 Cor. 8:13-14, Paul states, "I do not mean that there should be relief for others and pressure on you, but it is a question of fair balance between your present abundance and their need, so that their abundance may be for your need, in order that there may be a fair balance." Paul himself collected alms for the poor in Jerusalem, and every major revivalist throughout history has done the same. We consider this an essential part of our mandate as a ministry -- not to forget the poor. Currently, we are focusing on the Far East and Southeast Asia, because of the devastating effects of the child sex slave trade in that region. Many are forced to work unpaid overtime in sweatshop prison camps, for as little as eight cents an hour, to make the clothes that we purchase in most major retail stores like Wal-Mart. To refuse this overtime (often as much as 16 hours a day or more), often means to lose a job. More than 1 billion people in the world currently live on less than $1 a day. The cumulative effects mean than children as young as three years of age are prostituted to local clients and Western businessmen -- maybe even someone you know. In Thailand, for instance, the child sex racket is a $124 million (U.S.) a year business. It represents the equivalent of 60 percent of that nation's annual budget. In 1987, Thailand's official tourist industry even promoted "sex tourism," stating that "The one fruit of Thailand more delicious than durian (a local fruit), its young women." Child prostitution exploits more than 400,000 children in India, between 200,000-300,000 in Thailand, and many more around the world. It is our responsibility to assert justice, rescue the poor and "break the fangs of the wicked" (Job 29).

Nisar Immanuel ministers to a group of local believers in India.   Who will run the facility? We are working closely with Nisar and Ranjana Immanuel, who will serve as "home parents" at the facility. Our desire is to make this home as much of a "home" as possible -- not a dormitory style facility devoid of family relationship. Nisar and Ranjana live onsite with their own children, as well as with another caretaker. How can I help? There are two options for donating to our India Orphanage Project. You can make a one-time donation for general orphanage construction, maintenance and capital needs by clicking on the PayPal button below.                          Local baptisms (Pastor Nisar Immanuel, right).  Where does the money go? We have a detailed cost accounting pamphlet available for download by clicking the links above. Sons of Thunder is committed to administrating this project at our own expense, so that all donations for the orphanage go directly to the project. We will send nonprofit receipts for tax purposes to all donors, and we give regular updates on this site as the project moves forward. For those donating by mail, please make checks payable to "Sons of Thunder" with "Orphanage" listed on the memo line of your check.  Thank you for answering the call!  I want to make a one-time donation to the children's home project:     Sons of Thunder is a registered 501(c)3 charitable non-profit ministry. All donations are tax deductible.

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