Orphan Christmas Party

I know this is REALLY late, but as mentioned two posts ago, the last few months have been a bit of a whirlwind runaround and unfortunately the blog is one of the projects that got put aside for a while. Thankfully we are starting to get back on track!

In December we held our annual Christmas Party for the Amigo Orphan Program kids, and their caregivers. We loaded everyone up in the mission van, and all our bakkies (pick up trucks) and headed to a restaurant about 30 minutes from here that is owned by some friends of ours. 

The Amigo Orphan Christmas party always involves a lot of dancing, games, singing, and of course good food. This year we were able to go in the pool and the kids had tons of fun! We also brought along the speakers and our projector and hooked a wii up to them- the kids played wii boxing with each other and had so much fun figuring out how the controllers moved the onscreen characters.

Each year we also share the Christmas story, and the real reason for our celebration, before sharing gifts with each of the kids and caregivers.

Here are some pictures of the day- we had so much fun- thanks to all those who sponsor the children and the staff, not only does your sponsorship help provide monthly provisions, but many of you give extra at the holidays which allows us to have a fabulous time every year at our Christmas party!

Organizing the presents into family groupings ready to be packed into large "shopping bags" rather than more wrapping paper. It took me nearly all day to get everything sorted correctly! We wrap some of the presents so they get to experience the "tearing off the paper" that every kid likes, but mostly we put things in large woven plastic zippered bags which can be reused for storing clothes, dishes, food etc.

as you can see... everyone had fun, smiles were everywhere and everyone left with fully tummies and happy hearts! If you are interested in sponsoring one of the Amigo orphan children, or sponsoring one of the staff by donating towards the program costs, please contact me at the email address on the right hand side. We have several children who are not yet sponsored, and we also have several older children who are attending boarding school and because of the added costs of that we need to find sponsors who will sponsor their "schooling fees". Sponsorship, in either case, is 45$ (CAD/ USD) per month. I try to make sure that every sponsor receives an updated profile and picture of their sponsored child yearly, along with a personalized update letter and several photos of the child. I also try to have each orphan make a craft or coloring sheet/letter/ etc that we can send home with another update letter later in the year. 

Thanks again to all those who make not only the Christmas Party, but the entire program a possibility!

God Bless, Rick, Heather, Tendai & Ryan