Children of Faith Ministries

Following is a brief history of the founding of Children of Faith from their website (http://childrenoffaithmissions.org):

As the story goes, Anand and Rosie Thandu were members of the Walnut Creek Presbyterian Church in 2002 when they received a calling to establish an orphanage in India.
A year later, the Children of Faith Orphanage opened its doors to 30 children in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India.  In a matter of weeks, a much larger, local orphanage closed its doors, and soon Children of Faith was home to 100 children.
Today, the orphanage provides shelter, nourishment, healthcare, education, and clothing to more than 100 boys and girls.  The campus currently includes a three-story building providing housing for the children and staff and a separate building which houses the dining hall and kitchen.  A new school building and boy’s dormitory are soon to be complete.
To support the Indian orphanage, as well as other worthy ministries serving at-risk children around the globe, Children of Faith Missions was established as a California-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit in 2009.

When we visited they had 120 children, 70 boys and 50 girls. Anand and Rosie shared more of their personal story, the story behind the "call", and it was so touching.  The kids of Children of Faith absolutely stole our hearts (and I know I can speak for everyone of the EMI team of designers in saying this). These are the downtrodden in a society with a cultural caste system, where it is overwhelmingly believed that these kids are poor and abandoned because of past life actions, and that this is just their lot in this life.  In fact it is largely due to this that Rosie and Anand seek to build a school (Faith Academy) where they will be treated as equals, a school that will be paid for by 650 tuition paying students; students who will be exposed to the reality that these orphans are not unlike them, and will be exposed to the hope that only comes from our Lord.

Such joy and love expressed from what otherwise would be the outcast. The difference between this and other orphanages is clear; it is the Lord's presence in and throughout all that is done there. Following are some photos of the amazing kids of Children of Faith.

 

EMI, India, Faith Academy

I had the privilage of volunteering with a team of architects and engineers organized by Engineering Ministries International's (http://emiworld.org) India office.  The project manager, Andy, pulled together a combination of EMI staff, past EMI volunteers, and an old architect missionary from Washington state :). The design challenge was to develop site master plan, and building floor plan concepts for an 850 student K-10 English based school (Faith Academy) within one week; the school will be located near Children of Faith Ministries Orphanage, outside of Visakhatpatnam, India (Visag for short). I have writeen a separate post with photos on Children of Faith, and the incredible founders/hosts, Anand and Rosie Thandu. The design team consisted of two licensed architects; yours truly, and Tanisha, an architect from Bangalor who recently joined the EMI India office staff (like the day before our site visit to Visag); an EMI architect intern, Nou, from the USA; a second architect intern who is contemplating becoming an EMI intern, Julian Raxam, from Assam, India who connected with me through this blog last January; an EMI engineer intern, Shelby, from the USA; a civil engineer volunteer and former EMI intern Ryan Woodson from the USA; a civil engineer PE volunteer, water specialist and form EMI intern Alex Schmidt, also from the USA; and finally, Andy, civil engineer/structural emphasis, EMI India office director and project manager for this design. Following are some photos of the team in action (or just having fun).

 

Ray Williams - a life well lived

In February, 2013, Sally and I had the privilage to stay with a Ray and Carol Williams in Yuma, Arizona while heading south of the boarder to work on design drawings for the Community Center in San Luis Rio Colorado, Mexico. Ray and Carol were such amazing, God loving hosts. I remember that I was struggling to understand if I truly was being "called" into this missionary architecture thing; Ray's words of wisdom (a man with over 50 years of missionary service) have helped guide me since that day. I will never forget his wisdom and counsel which helped me rest and just trust in the Lord's leading, moving where He pointed, and trusting that He would provide if financial provisions were needed.  Although our time with Ray and Carol was brief, their impact on both of our lives has been life changing. The Lord called Ray home about a week ago.  Following is a brief summary of this amazning man of God, and well worth the read.

THE EXPANDING NJAGAMBA FAMILY

Our dear friend, evangelist Musa Njagamba and his family from Singida, Tanzania have expanded their family over the past year. This past December the Njagamba's added a son to their family of two daughters and a niece.  In the spring, they found a baby abandoned in a toilet, left to die. They have taken this little one in as well, and have since found the young, struggling mother and are looking after her as well.

new son Daniel and abandoned boy Isaka

Isaka with his mom

Musa is an evangelist teacher and musician, and is frequently traveling throughout the country being asked teach at crusades and at music conferences. He has no real income, and the store that his wife once ran had to be closed down because the rent was too high. Folks from South Hills who were touched by Musa, and particularly Neil Martin, have shared considerable funds to help the Njagamba's build a home.  The home is "nearly" complete, Please keep the Njagambas in your prayers, that their home would be completed, that God would miraculously continue to provide to meet their needs, and that Musa continue to be a powerful voice for our Lord within the country of Tanzania and wherever the Lord may lead him.

ALETHEIA & GRACE POINT PROGRESS

Back in January 2013, at the suggestion of my cousins Jeff and Lisa Crosby, I attended a day long study on the book of Romans in Spokane, WA. During a break in the study, I had a chance to visit with pastor/teacher Michael Turay who shared that they had a piece of steep, rocky land that they hoped someday to build a discipleship training center and church facility. In October 2013 I was able to visit and, well, he wasn't kidding about the land being steep:

or rocky

church members removing some of the surface rocks

The structural engineering required for this relatively small project was quite complex, and this past December I was asked to visit as they began excavating, to review the drawings with the contractor (Sahr), and in the hopes that by the end of our week's visit (my son Josiah, and a new friend Matthew Moeckel joined me) we had hoped to have the concrete foundation laid.  As it turns out...there were quite a few more rocks...and perhaps "boulders" would be a better term, so we did not quite get to the foundation part, but did get almost all of the land excavated...mind you, this was all done by hand:

most of the construction crew/ministry team members

Well - I am happy to report that after a few more months of rock and dirt excavation, foundations have been laid.  Please keep this awesome church and ministry in your prayers as they trust the Lord to provide the funding for the rest of the building to be built.  Aletheia shares the gospel at hospitals (remember, this country had a year long Ebola struggle in 2014), on buses, and they train military chaplains (the first time a native pastor and team have been asked to teach the chaplains), among many other awesome outreach efforts within this country.

CENTRO de la COMMUNIDAD - CHURCH MEXICO

Over the past half year much progress has been made in providing shelter for this church/community center for the most impoverished district within San Luis, Mexico (the Reforma district).  A community images follow:

Last year a new restroom and shower building was constructed for the community to use.

Up until recently, the church has been meeting under a tarp

Thanks to volunteers from Colorado, church attenders, and others within this community they have a "mostly" enclosed building to meet, celebrate with the community, and hold worship services in. Please keep this ministry in prayer as they seek to finish the Community Center building, and also to someday build the training and discipleship center also to be located on this small parcel. Praise God for what He has done, and is doing within the Reforma District through His children at the Church of San Luis, part of the Church Mexico church planting initiative.

Check out the recently held church & community celebration photos below:

TANZANIAN UPDATES

MTO WA MBO - Thanks to Dale Slusser from the Helps headquarters back in Asheville, NC the Mto Wa Mbo church drawings are complete. Pastor Robert Mailya was very grateful to Helps for providing these drawings. He will let me know when funds are available to begin building, and I may be asked to return to help.

existing church building to be added to

church choir greeting us after singing praises together

VILLAGE OF LIVING HOPE (VLH)- SHINYANGA, - Thanks to Bruce Watson from the Helps headquarters we were able to complete schematic drawings for nearly all of the buildings that Mike and Claire Fedele envision for the VLH project to help orphans, particularly those with albinism in this region of Tanzania where they are so brutally treated. Two significant events have put this project on a temporary hold: 1) The 9 acres they had a purchase agreement for fell through, so they are seeking a new piece of land closer to town; this will change the master plan that we had developed, but should have little impact on the variety of buildings they seek to be housed in this Village; 2) Claire Grubbs, founder of VLH, is now Claire Fedele! She and Mike married in May, and have only recently returned to Shinyanga to resume their ministry activity there. Please keep this newlywed couple and their amazing ministry in prayer, as well as the search for the best land for the VLH to be located.

the newlyweds

the children