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Dearest Friends and Partners,
I pray that you and your family are daily abiding in the wonder of His Perfect Love. He adores you! My heart is full as I sit to reflect and share of Father's faithfulness over the past few months. Living in Mexico certainly presents unique challenges for a mere learner of Spanish. However, learning a second language is long overdue for one who has been in missions for over 20 years. I deserve the exercise (and the occasional frustrations). Thank you for praying for me through this "old dog, new language" journey.
I seem to be a late bloomer in other areas as well. After two decades of full-time Christian service, I was finally ordained as a minister this past May. Several of you were in attendance. Thank you. Do please pray that He will use this somewhat "official" standing creatively for His own Glory. Our titles mean so terribly little. Truly, He alone is Good!
The Hymns album project is in full swing. My deepest thanks to so many of you for making this possible. I will continue to travel to the States for work on the album every month. We are on schedule for recording sessions in early Fall. The Hymns chosen are amazingly beautiful and profoundly meaningful. Please pray that my interpretations will not distract from their power. His truth received, sets free!
Production of the www.churchaids.net website will share the "front seat" during these hot summer months. We should have the majority of content and design completed in time for my visit to South Africa this September. Please pray for Ritchie and I as we work toward this fruitful end. This very model will be adapted for similar program work here in Latin America. May we all think His thoughts, after Him.
Work on a little farm, just outside of Mexico City, is proving to be a school of deep learning for me. Though practicing Spanish is an important part of sharing in this hard work, there is significantly more for me to learn. In this quiet place, reflection and submission, within His rest, has been wholly renewing. To "come away" with Him to listening place has always been a challenge, within my world of over-populated, siren-filled cities. Mother Theresa spoke of these listening prayer times as "desert times". I think of them now as His perfect feasting/healing design. May we all find a listening that leads to hearing, then a hearing that demands and energizes our doing... He is writing His Compassion on our Hearts!
Bless each of you for responding prayerfully and generously to Father's intentions for the ministry of Laughing Child International. In the end, only His Kingdom of Eternal Love and Life remain. May we all so belong to Lord Jesus, that He finds ever-increasing freedom to be His Loving, Redeeming Self... through us... within our world, and throughout the most forgotten parts of His.
In Love and Gratitude,
shane
Dear Friends,
Bless you in His Beautiful Name, which Father NEVER refuses!
I write you in deepest gratitude for your kind friendship and partnership in Father's ministry of healing love for hurting children. I plead for your prayers during this challenging year of expansion for Laughing Child International. Shifting international operations to Mexico is happening a year earlier than I had originally anticipated. This enlargement of territory feels overwhelming at times. I so deeply appreciate your loving and prayerful support.
As you likely already know, I am currently working on the production of a hymns album with Charlie Daniels. I have selected all of the hymns and will be working on the arrangements over the next few months. Musicians in Kentucky and Tennessee are kindly volunteering their time and talents to help complete this creative project. Recording will begin in the summer and the finished product should be available by Thanksgiving. It certainly is an involved process! I appreciate your prayers as the project progresses. Wonderfully, Father has provided $12,000 of the $20,000 needed for the album production. Please prayerfully believe with me for the provision of the remaining $8,000. This album will be an invaluable tool of advocacy, awareness, and support-raising for Laughing Child. The album project will require frequent visits to the United States. To be based in South Africa would have made it impossible to commute as often as needed. Therefore, timing is perfect for an early move to Mexico.
Time in Mexico this year will be spent exclusively on language study and foundational networking with key individuals, churches and organizations. I have committed myself to a 10-year term of service in Latin America. Proficiency in the Spanish language will be necessary. In Latin America, as in Africa, Laughing Child focuses on working for and among children living with HIV/AIDS. Ministry FOR children is expressed through the preaching, teaching, and singing of God's Word within the Church. Ministry AMONG children is expressed through the development of effective and sustainable programs that directly impact suffering children. My time is divided equally between these two vital functions.
I will be back in Cape Town in April and October of this year. In addition to spending those two months there, I will be designing an online church toolkit with Ritchie White in Columbus, Georgia. This new website, www.churchaids.net should be online before my first visit to South Africa in April. Please pray for us as we work toward this challenging deadline. This web-based resource center will link Childline South Africa with Christians, churches, and faith-based organizations. Childline South Africa is the largest and most effective childcare organization in the country. Through them, various training and direct care program opportunities will be made available. This site has awesome potential for outreach, as comprehensive materials can now be printed and distributed to the most remote and impoverished areas. Access to life-saving medications and holistic treatment options will be made directly available through the website. Scholarships for 9-week personal growth and lay-counseling courses will be offered to HIV positive women. These women will serve as liaisons between churches and suffering children within communities of need. Once the site is up and running, my work will be promoting these specific program opportunities among churches throughout South Africa and beyond. Please pray as this exciting stage of development nears completion. This is the first and only resource of its kind.
Finally, I have one more note of good news. A wonderful ministry in Columbus, Georgia has agreed to partner with Laughing Child International and will be processing all donations effective immediately. The new address is: Laughing Child International, P.O. Box 1111, Columbus, Georgia 31902, USA. All correspondence and contributions should be sent to this new address. Your donations are tax-deductible and you will now be receipted just once- at the end of each year. Thank you for lovingly participating in His compassionate heart for hurting children. I truly believe that if His Church will learn to cry, the children will learn to laugh again. You are my affirmation that this is indeed true! Bless you for loving them into life!
Love,
shane
Dear Friend and Partner,
Richest blessings from Cape Town! I trust that you
and your families are fully alive in His loving
presence. Isn't He wonderful?!
I simply cannot imagine how this quarter could have
been blessed any more abundantly than experienced. I
am so deeply grateful for your prayers, which have
yielded a harvest much greater than I had vision or
faith to expect. Bless you!
My deepest thanks to Ritchie White, Phyllis Chappell
and Samuel Raj for their fantastic work in creating a
"rebirth" of our website. Do please spend time
reviewing www.laughingchild.org. We would love to
hear your feedback on the new website.
Laughing Child International is thrilled to announce a
brand new partnership with the organizations
Child-line/Life-line, South Africa. Complete details
of this exciting partnership will be found on a new
website, currently in development. Thrillingly,
www.ChurchAIDS.net will serve as a toolkit for
Christian individuals, churches and organizations
which are looking for inspiration, information and
opportunities for involvement in community-based care
solutions for suffering children within their
communities. Child-line/Life-line will provide a huge
range of resources for this critical Christian
ministry outreach. We celebrate the awesome potential
of this partnership. Please be in prayer for us as we
create this crucial resourcing network.
Many of you know that I will begin the process of
recording an album with Charlie Daniels this year.
Just this week, I have received a $10,000 match-gift
grant from a faithful donor in Florida. This means
that every dollar given toward the production of the
album will be matched, dollar for dollar, up to
$10,000. Charlie Daniels has assured me that he will
work closely with me to complete the album with
$20,000. Without his help and yours, the hymns album
would be well out of reach. Bless you, in advance,
for responding generously to this uniquely significant
opportunity to raise awareness and funds for the
on-going work of Laughing Child International.
I must mention my heartfelt thanks to Norman Dunlap
and L.E.A.D. ministries for the recent gift of a
vehicle. I will use this car for travel to and from
Nashville during the production of the album. Bless
each of you for supporting this growing ministry with
your faithful prayers and financial gifts. The beauty
of your compassionate partnership is heard by Heaven
in the healing laughter of hurting children. Thank
you for loving them enough to pray and give
sacrificially. Father delights in you!
You truly keep my heart encouraged and my hand to the
plow.
Love,
shane
Dear Friend and Partner,
Warmest greetings from the middle of winter here in Cape Town! Yes, while you are trying to escape the heat of summer, here in South Africa, people are burning fires to keep warm. Isn't it incredible how very different our realities can be?
After three years of living here in Cape Town, I am still amazed by the challenges facing this beautiful country. Recently, the former Vice-President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, faced a Judge on charges of rape. Though Zuma was cleared of the rape charges, shameful and unbelievable admissions were made during the trial. Zuma admitted to committing adultery with this young woman while being fully aware of her HIV positive status when he chose to have unprotected sex with her. When questioned about this incredibly irresponsible act, Zuma's reply was that he "took a hot shower afterward". He sincerely believed that taking a hot shower after having sexual intercourse with an HIV positive person would protect him from contracting the disease. This man was the Vice-President of this country just one year ago! Ignorance flows like a river of blood from top to bottom here in the HIV/AIDS capitol of the world.
We believe that Father’s Truth sets us free. Please pray that His freedom will ring like an emergency siren through His Church across southern Africa! I am working feverishly to complete an HIV/AIDS "Toolkit" for African churches. This program is designed to build the capacity of the vastly present church in southern Africa for loving, effective and sustainable responses to those suffering within their communities. Detailed program information and available partnering opportunities will offer them practical outreach and care solutions, particularly for children, our most vulnerable. As the African Church rises with compassion and competence, thousands, if not millions of lives will be saved. Pray that this toolkit will be instrumental in helping Her become Hope and Healing in this dying land.
Bless you for sharing so generously in the struggles of this "African Winter", even while the sun is brightly shining in your world. I cannot thank you enough for caring so lovingly and consistently for this distant servant and the children I seek to serve. Bless you for affirming Father's perfect intentions for my life and for Laughing Child. Your faithful prayers and kind gifts are crucial to the continuation of this humble work. Please help me complete it. May all our realities be swallowed up by the "right-now" presence of Father. His healing is greater than all of our hurts. Hallelujah!
Love,
shane
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