july 2014 victory magazine

Jessica’s Story:A New Treasure is

Is Welcomed to TOA Page 7-8

July/August 2014 Hidden With Christ Ministries

Victory Magazine

Please put this date on your calendar! A Charity Gala for Treasures of Africa Children’s Home will be held at the Promenade and Gardens in Costa Mesa, California on Saturday evening, November 15th. If you have ever been to an event catered by the Turnip Rose Elite Catering Company - (the owner of this venue) you will agree that the food is magnificent both in its presentation as well as its taste.

The venue is a beautiful one - set in a luscious garden that was the former home of the Robert Mondavi Wine

and Food Center on Scenic Avenue in Costa Mesa. It will be a great location for our Gala to raise funds to support the great work with orphans going on at Treasures of Africa Children’s Home in Tanzania.

This will be a night to remember! We will have an exciting and highly entertaining “Live Auction” featuring some beautiful African Artifacts as well as some other amazing items donated by Orange County businesses. You can do some serious Christmas shopping while supporting a great cause! This is the perfect event for you to dress up in your holiday finest and bring someone special for an outstanding gourmet dinner. Consider organizing a group of friends or coworkers to share a table of 8, 10 or 12. Please plan on joining us for this elegant event!

_________________________________

We are seeking assistance in recruiting donations of major items for the Charity Auction and Raffle - if you would like to help or if you own a business and would like to donate an item for the auction - please call the office and speak to Rita Langeland. (714) 665-0407

TeachingCorner

Save The Date!Saturday November 15 2014

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TOA Orphanage Needsa Small 4 Wheel Drive Vehicle

For a long time - we have dreamed of buying a small vehicle that could be used for in-town errands for the orphanage (like taking a child to the doctor) without having to drive one of our 16 passenger vans, which burn a lot of gas. With fuel prices continuing to rise above $5 per gallon in Tanzania, this need is becoming more urgent. So we are starting a fundraising drive to raise $10,000 to buy a used Toyota Rav4 (like the 1998 model pictured above) that can be used by our missionaries for those daily errands. The 4-wheel drive component is important due to some of the roads that must be driven, which would destroy a small car without a raised chassis and 4-wheel drive capacity.

If you would like to help - you can donate online atwww.treasuresofafrica.org

Or you can mail a tax deductible donation to:

TREASURES OF AFRICA CHILDREN’S HOMEPO BOX 3267

TUSTIN, CALIFORNIA 92781

1998 model Toyota RAV4

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By Christina OberstChaplain

Treasures of AfricaChildren’s Home

It is such a joy to watch God at work in the

hearts and lives of the children here at TOA. Though I could write about every one of our children, there are three that have especially stood out to me over the past several months. They are some of our eldest teens, Benny, Innocent and Irene.

I look at Benny and I am amazed at how he has overcome so many things stacked against him by clinging to the Lord and to His promises for his life. Even through very painful circumstances and deep loss, he has never stopped running towards God. Instead, he has grown even more passionate and hungry for the Lord. Benny’s life is a testimony of abiding in God’s love. When he is at home, his worship and songs fill the house. The Lord truly is Benny’s strength. Even when things have not made sense, it has been amazing to watch Benny call upon the One who has the answers to his heart’s desires. It is a joy to pray

Raising

Benny leads children in singing ata neighboring orphanage in Moshi

Innocent with Mama Christina after hoeing the barren soccer field in preparation for planting

new grass

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with him and to watch the Lord guiding his every step.

When I think of Innocent, I think of God’s character. When struggles have come, I have watched Innocent choose God again and again. I have watched him wrestling through temptations and allowing God to bring forth His character in his heart and life, even when it has not been easy. I have watched him yield to God when everything in him desired something different. And I have watched Innocent, fighting, the “good fight” of faith. He is growing in God’s character and in the things of God. He is discovering the freedom of being who God has created him to be. He is discovering the power of God within, and drawing from that inner strength to make right choices and walk God’s path for his life.

As I watch Irene maturing, I see that she is so full of God’s strength and His beauty. She is courageous and steadfast. I have watched her search out God and His voice. And, it has been a treasure to watch the Lord speak to her and to see her respond to His voice. She has stepped out into new depths of faith and trust in God. Instead of closing up, I have watched her push through pain and fear, opening her heart to His healing love. She is growing in the knowledge of God’s great love for her and expressing His love to those around her. Her smile lights up a room and her joy is contagious.

Thank you so much for investing in the lives of the children here at Treasures of Africa…God is truly raising up world changers in this place!

World Changers

Irene volunteering at a local orphanage - the Kilimanjaro Orphanage Center

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by Rita LangelandFounder/Executive Director

Treasures of Africa Children’s Home

With the goal of developing leaders from among the orphaned and abandoned children being cared for at Treasures of Africa, comes the responsibility to impart a foundation upon which such leadership can be built. For this reason we have developed the “Seven Pillars” tenets which we have been teaching to the children (and staff) at the orphanage. They are based on Biblical principles and we have been challenging the children to commit them to memory and seek ways to apply them in their everyday lives. I wanted to share these “Seven Pillars” with you so you could have a sense of the atmosphere and focus that is being developed at Treasures of Africa.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1) Have Integrity of character - be honest and trustworthy in all relationships and activities and keep yourself free from the spirit of greed and corruption. (Proverbs 10:9)2) Show honor and respect toward all persons - regardless of tribe, nationality, race or status in life. (1 Peter 2:17a)3) Develop the character traits of diligence, self-discipline and responsibility - in every area of life in order to prepare for a successful future. (Proverbs 12:24, 27 and Proverbs 10:4)4) Walk in a spirit of love at all times - demonstrated in words spoken and actions taken in all relationships, and through compassion expressed toward the poor, needy and vulnerable members of society. (Ephesians 5:1-2; John 13:34-35; Psalm 82:3)5) Have a vision for a successful future - for self, others and the nation - believing that with God’s help all things are possible. (Proverbs 29:18; Mark 10:27)6) Pursue a spirit of excellence - in all areas of life including work and study habits, personal grooming, manners, and in care of home environment and material possessions.7) Walk by faith - able to look to God alone and trust Him for all needs including wisdom, guidance and material provision. (Jeremiah 17:7-8; Hebrews 10:38)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~It is my desire to reward the children and the staff with a “prize” for memorizing the Seven Pillars. I designed a T-shirt with the image that you can see on Page 5 on the front and back of the shirt. One side is in English and one side is in Swahili. If you would like to make a donation to help us purchase these T-shirts for all the children and staff, we would be so grateful. We are determined to impart a desire for excellence and integrity to all who are a part of Treasures of Africa Children’s Home! You can donate online at www.treasuresofafrica.org or send a check. Please specify “T-shirt Fund” in the memo line of your check or in the comment box online.

Developing Leadersfor the nation of Tanzania and beyond…

7 Pillars T-shirt

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By Rita Langeland Founder/Executive Director


It is a joy to our hearts to welcome another one of God’s little “treasures” to Treasures of Africa Children’s Home in Moshi Tanzania. Our newest addition to the family is a five year old girl named Jessica. She arrived on June 18, 2014.

Like all of the children who live here, her background story is a tragic one, as she is essentially the “orphan of an orphan.” But her story is about to change... with the love and hope for a promising future that she will receive by living at Treasures of Africa.

Jessica’s mother was a very young teenage girl who became pregnant while living in a local shelter for “street kids”. Nothing is known of the father. When Jessica was born, she was immediately placed in a “baby home” – an orphanage that specializes in caring for infants and young children. When Jessica turned five, she officially “aged out” of that orphanage. With Jessica’s young mother still unable to care for her, the Welfare authorities were desperate to place her in an orphanage that cared

for older children.

Treasures of Africa was asked to take her in and we could not turn her away. It is our deepest desire to make sure that little Jessica doesn’t feel like she is being shifted from one institution to another – but instead that she has become part of a big family. Our older children have done an incredible job of welcoming Jessica into the family and treating her like a new little sister. Jessica is responding beautifully to the love that has been showered upon her as you can tell from the smile on her face in our Cover Photo!

Last year, we had an in-house Pre-school program operating at TOA. But since all of our younger children (except the infants) started school this year, we disbanded that program and no longer have the staff to run it. With Jessica’s arrival we have been faced with a decision to either hire staff to work with Jessica to prepare her for starting school next year or place her in an English medium Pre-school program run by the same Private School our Primary School Students attend.

Either option costs money but it appears that paying for the private Pre-school option will actually be less expensive than hiring another staff member at this time. But either way – it is vital to get her ready for school especially if we are able to send her to an English Medium school. There is A LOT of tutoring that will need to be done with little Jessica as she does not speak a word of English! So if anyone would consider becoming a monthly sponsor for Jessica – it would be a tremendous help. Thanks!

You can make an online donation or choose to sponsor Jessica at:www.treasuresofafrica.org

Click on the “Meet the Children” link at the top of the homepage then scroll down the page until you find Jessica. Then click on the “Sponsor

this Child“ link on her BIO page.

Jessica with Mama Christina at the Welfare Office on the day she was being

transferred to TOA

TOA Welcomes a New Treasure

Jessica’s Story

Welcomed into the family -Samweli, Awadhi and Zoe (with arms around Jessica)

welcome our newest Treasure

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DDED

By Warren OberstAdministrative Director


It has been non-stop since landing in Tanzania last October. As soon as we think

we’re making headway in one area, something else pops up out of nowhere and we forget about the last thing and move on to the new one. That’s how it goes when you’re responsible for taking care of 29 kids from 3 months to 19 years in East Africa. It’s always “just one more thing” and “OH!! There is this big problem over here” and “this is not as easy as you think” because “you can’t get that in Moshi.”

Sometimes it feels like we’re just treading water but looking back and seeing where we began and watching all of the projects we’re currently juggling slowly come to fruition, I think I can see some light at the end of the tunnel.

The older children are currently on a holiday break from school. Keeping them busy can be a challenge but helping them get better grades is at the top of our “To Do” List. The girls are continuing their tutoring during their time off in Book Keeping and Commerce. We’ve seen their grades in these subjects improve dramatically since they started. They didn’t take those classes before transferring to their current secondary school and they were behind in the second year of each subject. After they’re finished their tutoring class at 10:00 AM, we pick them up and get them back to TOA to join the boys and their math tutor. Physics, Calculus and Chemistry are difficult subjects at Livingstone Boys Seminary. When I had asked the boys if they wanted a math tutor to come for three days a week while they were home on break, they said, “NO – EVERY DAY!!!” It’s great to see them all studying so hard. The tutor is doing a great job and all of the kids are gaining ground in their understanding of Mathematics.

I can’t wait until this school year is over and we can relax and have some fun with them on our newly planted Soccer field. As you can see from the “BEFORE” photo above, we had nothing but barrenness due to a combination of a long drought and termites eating the roots of our grass. But thanks to generous donors who helped us purchase grass plugs, we were able to re-plant the field and our hybrid grass is growing great as the “AFTER” photo (on page 10 ) reveals. God has blessed us with

There is Always...

BEFORE - The dry and barren soccer field at TOA

One More

TOA’s Math tutor has been hard at work on our classroom’s white board

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perfect weather and we have not had to water the grass too much because of the God-send of rain! As soon as the grass grows completely together it should hold the moisture. We’ll need to fix the broken lawn mower next!

Some missionary friends just donated an electric milk pasteurizer to TOA so we won’t have to boil our fresh milk every day after it’s delivered. There are no instructions so I’ll have to go online and figure out how to use it. We’ve always had fresh milk deliveries but purchasing other food and supplies had always been time consuming and costly from a fuel, labor and price standpoint. With a background in foodservice distribution this was one of my first projects. We now have over 50% of our food and supplies delivered from a wholesaler at considerable savings. We also have separate vendors delivering fresh meat, fresh bread and even fresh chicken for our every other Sunday Chicken and Chips (French fries) dinner for the kids. The rest is pretty much fresh vegetables and odds and ends. It’s taken a while to get our staff comfortable with keeping track of inventory and ordering but the new system is working and enabling us to spend our time and resources more effectively.

After putting on my Human Resources hat and moving a few pieces on the board, we hired two new night guards for the Children’s Home. When we hired them we knew they were both skilled at carpentry, so we immediately put them to work on some of our projects. They have since repaired all of the glass windows upstairs, all of the window screens (important in Malaria country), made some large bulletin boards for employee policies and job expectations and fixed the old set of bunk beds we had in storage. The bunk beds were important as they enabled us to open up a new room downstairs to accommodate the boys returning from boarding school. This allowed us to move two of our boys (6 year olds) over to the older boy’s side of the building and open up the baby room for our new additions Gabriella and David. One of the bunk beds was recently traded to the girls side to make room for our newest addition, little Jessica. She’s five years old and absolutely precious.

My desk is still full of “A” “B” and “C” priority lists, sticky notes and schedules. I could write a few more pages like the one above but I’ll leave some for next time. We all have so much to do and so much on our minds for tomorrow, that if we’re not careful, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. A friend recently told me that no matter how much is going on and no matter how great the need is - just purpose to accomplish one thing per day. It gave me perspective and

allowed me to look back and see what has been accomplished – one day at a time - slowly but surely. There’s still a lot to do but we’ve seen a lot accomplished. I know that tomorrow there will be that “One More Thing” to do now or to add to my list, but if I take it one day at a time and rely on my precious Savior at my side, everything will be OK. And He will build His House one step at a time, one task at a time, one accomplishment at a time, one day at a time.

I’d like to thank all of you for supporting this ministry. None of this would be possible without you. You are touching lives and making a difference. It’s all about the children.

Blessings from East Africa,Warren OberstAFTER - TOA Soccer Field is Re-Born!

Thing

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By Andy Langeland

As you may have seen in the news, the nation of Liberia in West Africa is currently battling an outbreak of the Ebola virus. My dad (who was born there) and I had been planning a trip to Liberia as the summer project for Media for Missions. Unfortunately, we have been delayed several times due to fresh outbreaks of the virus. We encourage you to pray for Liberia and specifically for our

missionary friend Andy Glover and his team who we will be working with in that nation. The villages in northern Liberia where we planned to travel to are right in the heart of the Ebola crisis. Below is an update on the situation from Andy Glover:

In the last few days we have received further reports from Liberia and neighboring nations about the outbreak of Ebola in the region. Just yesterday I spoke with our ministry leader in Liberia and he confirms that the situation in the region is very bad. There have been more deaths than any previous outbreak of the virus. We would like to encourage you to stand with us in prayer and believe God to break the backbone of this deadly disease.

Pray for:1. The 550 children and their families at our school in the north of Liberia.2. Protection for the school staff and the ministry leaders in the nation.3. For the government officials as they organize relief for the situation.

Map of Ebola Outbreak in West Africa

Pray forMedia For Missions Project Update

Health Care Workers carry the body of an Ebola victim - (courtesy of cnn.com)

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4. For God to heal and completely cleanse the land from this virus.

Thank you so much for your prayers at this time for the people of Liberia.Please feel free to pass this request out to pray groups and churches.Thank you and God bless,

Andy Glover and Jallah KormahRevival to the Nations

Ebola is an infectious and generally fatal disease marked by fever and severe internal bleeding, spread through contact with infected body fluids. There is no vaccine against Ebola but it can be stopped by quarantines and certain rather basic sanitary precautions.

Due to this delay, I will be traveling back to Tanzania for a second time this year in August in order to capitalize on the opportunity to further help the Treasures of Africa Orphanage with their media needs. The videos we put together from our March trip to Tanzania were shown at a large fundraiser in Florida for TOA and in turn they had the best response for monthly child sponsors over any previous fundraiser. Eight different photographs I captured on that trip were also printed on large canvases and auctioned off to bring in funds for TOA.

I am pleased with the ongoing benefits TOA is reaping from that first trip and I look forward to this next opportunity. Please pray for me to once again capture high quality photos and videos that we will need to best promote Treasures of Africa Children’s Home. Also, please pray for the Lord’s perfect timing to travel to Liberia.

Thank you!

Liberia!

Auction Table at TOA Charity Gala in Florida featured multiple canvases of Photo Art from Africa taken by Media for Missions Project Director Andy Langeland

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ü The “My Everyday Bible” APP has been downloaded to over 11,000 smart phones in a multitude of nations? (it is still available FREE in the Apple, Android and Windows APP stores!)

ü When you shop on AMAZON.COM you can help support our work with orphans simply by going to AMAZON’S charity website www.amazon .smile .com and designating “Hidden With Christ Ministries” as your Charity of Choice and AMAZON will donate .5% of your purchases to HWCM each time you shop? (Always go through the amazon .smile .com portal to make sure your shopping counts)

ü Treasures of Africa Children’s Home has a WISHLIST posted on Amazon .com so you can see what the orphanage needs, order it and Amazon will ship it directly to the ministry office in California? (To find it - just type in TREASURES OF AFRICA WISHLIST in the search box on amazon .smile .com website . It is many pages long so keep clicking to see all the items!)

ü My Everyday Bible, Hidden With Christ Ministries and Treasures of Africa Children’s Home ALL have individual Facebook pages? (You can help the ministry by going to each of those pages and clicking “LIKE” on the page itself as well as on individual posts on that page . However - If you have already “LIKED” one of our pages - don’t do it a second time - because it will actually “unlike” the page!)

Did You Know...

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RAIN Magazine is an online publication which was created for the very purpose of raising funds for three specific organizations that pour hope into their communities: local, national, and global. Articles feature stories of God’s work being done around the world. Editor and Founder, Daisy Rain Martin and the Rainy Dais family donate $1 per issue to these remarkable organizations dedicated to pouring out hope: The City Impact Center of Las Vegas, Nevada; Speak Your Silence; and Treasures of Africa Children’s Home.

The Fall issue recipient will be Treasures of Africa Children’s Home, which provides a home and safety for orphaned and abandoned children in Moshi, Tanzania.

To buy a copy of RAIN Magazine or to pre-order the Fall issue which features and supports Treasures of Africa, go to: www.daisyrainmartin.com and click on RAIN Magazine. An automated email will be sent to you with a pass code, and you will be able to download the magazine on every device you have.

We encourage you to support this wonderful marketplace ministry which has as its sole purpose to support God’s work around the world. We are honored that Treasures of Africa has been chosen as the “GLOBAL” entity that RAIN MAGAZINE supports – and we want to applaud their vision!

Thank you RAIN MAGAZINE for being a Hope Giver!

Treasures of Africa to be Featuredin Fall Edition of RAIN Magazine

Fall 2014

Plus: For Aspiring Scribes – A Review of Steven King’s “On Writing”,

Guest Writers, and the 5-5-5


Rita Langeland shares

Living in Concurrent Abundance & Surrender

Perspectives from Different Walks of Life

RAIN Magazine Cover - Fall Issue

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Hidden With Christ MinistriesP.O. Box 3267 Tustin, CA 92781

A Generous Memorial Gift was received by Hidden With Christ Ministries

In Loving MemoryOf

Ethel Ovarlet1926 – 2014

Tampa, Florida

Beloved Mother and Grandmother

www.hiddenwithchrist.com - www.treasuresofafrica.org - www.myeverydaybible.com

july 2014 victory magazine

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