Letter to Sponsors
May 27th, 2009
Dear Sponsor:
We at LHI want to thank you for the continued faithful support of your child in Ndola, Zambia. My heart warms when I hear you talk about being your child’s mother or father. I know firsthand the children feel the same about you.
We have been praying for direction for our sponsorship program. As you know, our economy isn’t doing well. The good thing is God isn’t in a recession. He hasn’t reduced his workforce. He owns it all! He is faithful to what He calls us to do and He can pay for it. It is a good thing because I know I could never do anything like take care of children in another part of the world on my own strength. Only God in me can do His work.
This year while in Zambia, we will be taking legal custody of nine more orphan children (six additional girls and three boys, ages 6, 7 & 8) to live at the LHI home. This will require one additional house mother.
When we started the sponsorship program, we had very little knowledge of the true cost of running an orphanage. Now, LHI has 15 months of expenses to look back on, and this has shown us budget information we want to share with you.
LHI has been blessed with people like you who have been financially faithful. Our budgetary information has shown us that the true cost for each child is $150 a month. The $150 covers housing rental, food, schooling (fees, books & uniforms), clothing, utilities, medical and a small portion is also being set aside to assist the child after high school with college, vocational training or transitional living expenses. The $150 does not cover any administrative cost. Those cost are being covered by special fund raisers, like our LHI golf outing.
We at LHI realize that this is a large increase over what some of you have been paying, so we are considering multiple sponsors per child. But before we assume that multiple sponsors are the way to proceed, we would like to hear from you as to whether you would like to maintain individual sponsorship of your child.
If you determine that the $150 is more than you can consider, then alternatives might be:
Maybe you would want to have your extended family, or friends help sponsor your child, or If you belong to a small group, maybe your group would want to do a group sponsorship for your child. Not everyone in the group has to participate. Each sponsor in your group would get 12 coupons in the mail to be mailed back each month with their payment. LHI also has direct deposit. Each person in your group would receive photos and general information about your child. Please pray about what the Lord is calling you to do. Please respond to me by email with your decision no later than June 8, 2009. After we hear from you, we will present this to our small groups at OPC. Your past support and your future considerations are truly appreciated.
Trina Davis