Below is a letter from Anthony - Sunflower Orphanage, Vietnam



Dear Danny,
 
Thank you very much for your email and I am glad to know that you got home safely.
 
I would like to answer the questions you have asked:
 
1. Yes, this license is good indefinitely. We don’t have to renew it every year because it is a long term permission (there is no time limit unless we do something that is wrong, illegal, or against government’s rules then they will take the license back and close the orphanage). However, the government requests us to up date or renew our program and purpose according to the information and guidance given by the Social and Children Department of the government.
 
2. There are some clear advantages of being officially recognized such as we now can start the process of applying for birth certificates for the kids. This means that without the license we have no legal way to register the birth certificates for them. Imagine that if our children have no birth certificates then they cannot go to school and we have to pay for the medical fee when we they need to go to the hospital. With their birth certificates, we don’t have to pay for the hospital fee until they get to the age of six years old.
 
Moreover, being officially recognized, we now can welcome any guests to visit without fear or worry about the government. Another word, this license seems like a drive license for me. I can drive a car without the drive - license but I have a lot of fear such as something happens to my car especially an accident. I will have a big trouble if I am stopped by a police for any reason and asked for the drive-license. It is the same thing to our orphanage if something wrong happens to one of our kids such death, we will have a big trouble. The first question we will be asked: “Who allow you to keep and raise these children?” Therefore, the license is the most important for us now and thank God and Elijah Foundation we have it.
 
Once again, thank you and have a good day.
 
Peace,
Dai - Anthony

We have spent many days to completely change our Elijah Foundation website and a working model has been uploaded and is live at our web address: www.elijahfoundation.org.

Although many tweeks and modifications will be necessary in coming days, all of the pages are working and can be managed in house by our staff. We are very happy to be more "modern" with "blogs" and "flickr" photos and other designs that are more up to date with today's standards of internet users. We also changed our donation system by using PayPal which is recognized and accepted all over the world. You don't have to be a member or subscriber of PayPal to use it. All you need is a credit card and it can be processed through PayPal without joining PayPal. Using PayPal, we are able to accept one time donations as well as monthly sponsorship.

EF

Announcing New Partnership With the Ratanak Foundation:

Elijah Foundation is pleased to announce a partnership with the Ratanak Foundation- a Canadian non-profit organization dedicated to bringing Christian hope to the Khmer people of Cambodia by rebuilding social and medical services. In previous attempts to build partnerships with like-minded organizations in Cambodia have led to disappointments and dead ends. In January of 2009 God provided an opportunity for EF to attend Ratanak Foundation's Third Seek Justice Conference in Toronto, Canada. There, God opened opportunities for EF and Ratanak Foundation to join in the spirit of unity and work together to accomplish His purpose for Cambodia. With this partnership, EF is able to tap into all the ministries that Ratanak Foundation is already supporting in Cambodia. In return, Ratanak Foundation will get a partner in USA who will act as a liason for Ratanak Foundation’s US-based donors and expand the organizations support and awareness in the US. We are looking forward to see what God can do through our partnership!

Information about Ratanak Foundation:

The Ratanak Foundation is named after a little girl named Ratanak who, in the late 1989, passed away in a hospital in northwest Cambodia. While her illness was curable, no medication or medical equipment was available at that time to save her. To prevent similar situations, Ratanak Foundation projects have focused primarily on rebuilding and improving health care services in Cambodia such as shipping medical supplies, building hospitals and clinics, developing immunization programs, and supplying ambulances. In crisis situations, the Ratanak Foundation has funded emergency food distribution efforts and a variety of community-based food-for-work programs. Also, the plight of orphans and abused and exploited children led to the development of schools, orphanages, and rehabilitation centers. Finally, social service programs, such as literacy and sanitation programs, were developed in local communities and prisons. All projects are designed to be self-sustainable. With years of experience, the Ratanak Foundation continues to support rural and urban projects in many provinces and is privileged to assist in changing thousands of lives in Cambodia. For more information, please visit http://www.ratanak.org.

Elijah Foundation is committed to supporting the following projects with Ratanak Foundation:

* Chab Dai
* Daughters
* Hagar International
* New Song Project
* Prison Fellowship International
* AIM 4 Asia - Rahab House
* TASK Ministries
* YEJJ
* IJM Cambodia

Dear Danny/EF,

I am unhappy to inform you that we lost another baby who died two days ago in Ho Chi Minh City (in the hospital) and was buried yesterday in Nha Trang..

Over a week ago, at the hospital in Nha Trang, the doctor told me that one of our two babies (who had been ill and stayed in the hospital from the day they were born) could go home. However, the heath of another was not improving. He suggested me to transfer this weak one to the hospital in Ho Chi Minh City where I could find a better specialist and they would pay for the transportation (they used the hospital’s ambulance). I agreed with the doctor’s suggestion and we left Nha Trang on the next day. I had always been with the baby in the hospital during those days. Two days ago, the baby passed away at 4:15 AM in the hospital. I took the body of the baby back home in Nha Trang at the same day and buried him yesterday.

I am quite tired today and decide to take 3 days off to stay away from work in order to recharge my battery and to refill my energy. The rest of our babies and staff at two places A and B are doing well including the one who left hospital a week ago. We now have 49 babies. Today is the last day of the year. I sit down and look back over the year. I would like to give God thanks for all blessings that our babies and I have received from God, and all support, love and care that we have received from you and EF whom we believe God has sent to us. I could not imagine how the lives of these abandoned babies would be like if I didn’t have the chance to meet you and the Foundation. I strongly believe that it is God’s providence. I am sure that you and all the members and benefactors of EF are remembered in my daily Mass and prayers.

Thank you very much my brother. May God continue to bless you and all those that you love and that work with you.

Truly Yours In the Baby Jesus,
Sunflower Orphanage, Vietnam.

Khaodee Orphanage is holding a revival meeting in Chiang Rai, at Chiang Rai stadium for approximately 1,000 people. The revival will take place on December 6 and 7 of 2008. For this revival meeting there will be a time of worship and prayer with words by Pastor Simoon.

Through this revival we hope to achieve a number of goals. First, we hope to minister to the Christians in the area who will be attending to remind them of God’s grace and love in the hopes that they will share their faith with non-Christians in their schools and villages. We also hope to reach the various tribal groups in the area by using this event to pray for and minister to the various hill tribes in the area. We also hope to use this opportunity to teach our children to share their faith and invite fellow students and friends to the event. Finally we hope to use this event to train our children to be spiritual leaders who will be able to lead others to know God.

In preparation for the event we have been working with the college and high school students on how to share their faith. We also have been working with the students who will be leading praise by teaching and practicing for the event. We have also been dividing up the responsibilities of the event amongst the students, hoping they will take ownership and leadership roles.

We are planning to have a raffle for the people who will be attending the revival meeting. As most of the children who will be coming will be from similar children’s homes and poorer families, we want to provide them with some necessities they may be able to use. We are proposing to raffle blankets, sweatshirts, socks, school supplies, Christian books and Bibles; all things that would be useful for the children attending the revival meeting. We are hoping to raffle off fifteen of each of the bigger items per night and about one hundred of the smaller items per night.



During the revival meeting we will also provide snacks for all those who will be attending. We will be providing hot chocolate, cookies and other various snacks.

Khaodee Staff.