James 1:27 "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."

"Muchas Gracias", or a big Thank you for your support for International Gospel Initiative, Thanks to your faithful gifts and prayers, we were able to go on your behalf and visit some of our favorite kids. While in Nicaragua for leadership training with local pastors and Christian leaders, we had the privilege of going back to the Hogar de Fe. We have been visiting the kids for 5 years now and we have been keeping track of them throughout the years. We were so pleased to find them, on Saturday morning, practicing their violins and recorders. A music teacher in town goes by each Saturday to give them lessons as his contribution to the needs of these abandoned kids..

The kids are amazingly talented and in spite of the fact that they have only been having lessons for a few months, they played us a beautiful concert! They are looking forward to using their talents in their church and Christian school, which I thought was such noble motivation.

When we called to schedule our visit, we asked what the children needed most, and the leader told us that the kids really needed sturdy, quality backpacks. I am afraid that we completely bought out the store, "Mi Favorita"and left them with no backpacks!

As you can see by their faces, the backpacks were received with joy and smiles, especially since school started the next Monday.

We love being with the kids, but every time we leave we are struck with how many other children in Nicaragua are hungry and neglected by their parents. We wish we could help so many more kids.

We are so impressed, though with Isaac, who is continuing the work that his father started almost 2 decades ago, establishing the orphanage. The family is so faithful to love and care for the 53 kids in the Home and to make sure that they are discipled and taught according to God's Word.

While we were there, our Nicaragua representative, Jerson, challenged his young married group at his church to take an active role in helping the kids who were starting school the next week. They talked about the fact that food sales go down in the months of January and February in order to purchase the expensive items needed for kids to go to school. They were able to gather 16 Paks and take them to the neediest children in their own neighborhoods.This was an encouraging first step, since it indicates that the people of Nicaragua, themselves, are seeing the need around them and are feeling burdened to help their own children hear God's word and get a chance to go to school.

Short-term missionaries, Greg and Courtney Scantlin write..."School is free in Nicaragua but the kids still need supplies and uniforms. Most families have multiple kids and a lot of them have single moms. These families can barely provide food, how could they possibly afford to send multiple children to school? School supplies and uniforms cost about $40, where the average family in these rural areas are making that amount in a week or two weeks’ time. Clearly this does not add up." "How would this poverty change if these kids did not get educations?"

Would you like to help a needy child today? $40 buys a year of school supplies, a backpack, a uniform and most importantly an illustrated New Testament. Thank you!