The Grinch That Stole the

Christmas GoatsPages 5-6

Victory MagazineNovember/December 2014 Hidden With Christ Ministries

TeachingCorner

by Andy LangelandDirector

Media for Missions Project

On my most recent trip to Tanzania I filmed video for a number of causes. Among these was the desperate need for clean drinking water in the village of Esilalei. The original well drilling and pump installation in this village was funded and spearheaded by HWCM about 8 years ago. Over time, the harsh conditions and constant use of the mechanical hand pump led to it breaking down. Since then, the local Maasai villagers have been forced back to their previous situation of gathering water from nearby dirty watering holes where the flocks of cows, goats and donkeys drink.

Using the footage I had taken while in Tanzania I put together a short video earlier this month presenting Esilalei's need for a new hand pump and asking for people to pitch in toward the $2,500 to replace the pump. Within a week of posting the video online the full amount needed had been raised! The pump is being replaced next week and the Maasai tribal people of Esilalei village will soon be drinking fresh, clean water once again. (Look for photos in the next issue of Victory Magazine!) After

witnessing firsthand the drought afflicted land, the broken well, dirty drinking water and the hopelessness of the situation, I am so thankful to see the generosity of HWCM supporters and grateful that my video project could play a part.

As a teenager, I took my very first mission trip to an orphanage on the edge of Tijuana, Mexico. The experience was life altering for me and I wound up taking countless trips for various ministries and outreaches to the Mexican state of Baja. Though only a 2 hour drive from where I am sitting typing this article right now, it had sadly been a very long time since

Esilalei villagers return from watering hole with polluted water

in their jug

Overlooking Tijuana Mexico

Media For Missions Project Update

Bringing HOPE Through

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I had ventured past that familiar border crossing. After taking water filters to Tanzania this past August, my eyes began to open to the pressing need for clean water solutions, not just in Africa, but also in our proverbial backyard.

My surfer buddy James McPhail (the man behind the water filters) and I got to talking and realized that there was no reason to sit idle waiting for the next big trip overseas when we could simply load up the truck and head south of the border on any given weekend. So this month we did just that! To make a long story short – we set up a water filter system at a Christian orphanage on the outskirts of Tijuana. The caretakers were the nicest couple and the 45 children living there were happy, smiling and clearly well cared for.

We tested both the tap water (notoriously unhealthy) and the bottled water they used for drinking (which is a huge part of their weekly budget and very high in Chlorine) and were happy to see that tap water running through our filter system provided the cleanest water of the three options! We also brought a large amount of personal hygiene products and other basic necessities, along with some toys and candy for the kids. Helping get the

clean water flowing and getting back to my “mission roots,” playing soccer and basketball with Mexican orphans is a day well spent in my book! We look forward to working with this orphanage again in the near future and are now planning monthly trips to bring water filters to other orphanages in Baja.

Andy Langeland playing basket ball with children at orphanage in Mexico

James McPhail preparing Water filter for Tijuana orphanage

The Gift of Clean Water

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By Rita Langeland

In Toronto, Canada, a bustling city of nearly 3 million people, there lives an eighth grader whose name

is Talia. Like many other 13 year olds in that cool climate, she enjoys playing ice hockey and competes on a league team. She rides horses in her spare time and participates in the leadership club and the youth voice choir at her school. But one of the unique things that sets Talia apart from her classmates is that she has an AFRICAN DREAM and the inner determination to see that dream come to pass.

It all started a few years ago, when her aunt and uncle, David and Ellen K e n d a l , r e t u r n e d from a trip

to Tanzania. Full of excitement, they shared the photos and stories from their amazing journey with their young niece. One of the things that had captured their hearts while in the country, was a “chance” meeting they had with Treasures of Africa staff in a restaurant in the town of Moshi. Two of the Treasures of Africa kids were with them, and it sparked a conversation about the orphanage’s work. They returned to Canada determined to help in some way. They gathered needed items for the orphanage and shipped a multitude of boxes to Tanzania to help the children at Treasures of Africa with clothing, shoes and other supplies. This generous act inspired Talia deeply and she began to dream of somehow helping the orphanage kids herself. But how could an 11 year old school girl in Canada do anything to help orphans in faraway Tanzania?

Talia was determined to find a way and began doing research on the computer. She eventually reached out by email to try to discover

A Canadian Girl

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13 Year old Talia Kendal - Founder of KIDZ BACKING KIDZ

With An

Talia's Logo for the organization she

founded

MEET THE GOAL, BEAT THE GOAL!

some of the needs at Treasures of Africa Children’s Home. Finally she settled on starting her own charitable organization called KIDZ BACKING KIDZ to raise money for specific needs at the orphanage. A new expanded playground for TOA was at the top of her list. When her aunt and uncle promised her a trip to Tanzania in March 2016 as a gift for her recent Bat Mitzvah, Talia knew in her heart that she would one day see that playground with her own eyes.

She set a big goal of raising $15,000 for Treasures of Africa Children’s Home to buy the playground and to contribute the rest to help pay for Education expenses and other needs. Then she started planning the activities she would undertake over the next two years to raise that money including starting a website. Her first fundraising event was a Bake Sale where she raised nearly $1,000!

Talia knows she has a long way to go to reach her goal but she is one persistent 13 year old. Though some people have expressed doubts that she would be able to succeed at her lofty ambition, Talia has a very supportive family who fully back her efforts. She hopes that her work will not only help orphaned and abandoned children, but that other young people will be inspired by it to dream big and do something to make a positive difference in the world. She fully believes in the vision of KIDZ BACKING KIDZ!

_________________________________

Check out Talia’s websitehttp://kidz-backing-kidz.wix.com/

charity

African Dream

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Talia's Heart is focused on Orphans in Tanzania

Talia running her bake sale table raising money for Treasures of Arica

By Rita LangelandFounder/ Executive Director

Treasures of Africa Children’s Home

In the classic children’s book “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” by Dr. Seuss, the main character is described as someone whose heart is two sizes too small. Aptly named “the Grinch,” this creature steals all the Christmas gifts and food from the village of Who-ville in a vain attempt to prevent Christmas from coming. Though he is successful in his theft, much to his surprise, Christmas comes anyway.

In a situation eerily reminiscent of the aforementioned book, someone stole the orphanage’s Christmas goats. We had a small flock of 17 goats and sheep being tended on the 5 acres of land outside of town where we plan to build the Treasures of Africa Children’s Village. We were scheduled to take the flock to market on Saturday, planning to hold back 2 goats from the sale, to use for Christmas Dinner at the orphanage. Nyama choma mbuzi – roasted goat meat – is a Tanzanian delicacy and we serve it only a few times per year for special events. The entire flock was stolen by the man we were paying to guard them, a few days before we were taking them to market.

To add insult to injury, 8 of the goats belonged to our 4 oldest boys at the orphanage. A donor had

bought each of the boys a single goat to help them start a small business. They had produced baby goats who had grown into maturity over the past year. We planned to sell them to enable the boys to start a bank account, since they were unable to care for them, because they are now in Boarding School.

Despite this great disappointment, we have forgiven the thief from our hearts, and we are confident that Christmas will come to Treasures of Africa Children’s Home anyway.

The GrinchThat Stole the Christmas Goats

Justice with one of our baby goats on the orphanage property last year

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A few simple ways to share some CHRISTMAS LOVE with Treasures of Africa Children’s Home this year…

Before you shop on amazon.com – PLEASE go to http://smile.amazon.com/ and sign up to have Amazon give a portion of their profit (.05%) from your purchases to Hidden With Christ Ministries. It costs you nothing but a few moments of your time and Amazon will remember your selection of our Charity and make a donation each time you shop! Then please spread the word to others!

Go to our Amazon Wish List – by typing in TREASURES OF AFRICA CHILDREN’S HOME WISH LIST in the Amazon search box. It will take you to our Wish List and you can buy something for the orphanage on that list (mainly clothes and shoes and few simple toys like kites) and Amazon will ship your gift directly to our office in Tustin, California. Then we will carry the items to Tanzania at the end of November to bless the kids at Christmas!

Purchase 30 identical medium sized CHRISTMAS STOCKINGS and ship them (or deliver them) to our office in Tustin, CA – 17662 Irvine Blvd. Suite 6 Tustin, CA 92780

Help us STUFF THE CHRISTMAS STOCKINGS by Purchasing 30 Yo-Yos, or 30 card games, 30 mini-flashlights, 30 lip balms or 30 small journals with pens. Purchase wrapped hard candy or caramels, small candy bars, individual sized bags of nuts or granola bars and ship to the above address.

Make a donation to our CHRISTMAS FUND - $800 will cover our CHRISTMAS FEAST for our kids and our STAFF and their families. $700 will enable us to have Christmas outfits tailor made for all the younger children and purchase ready-made clothes (so they can choose their own style) for the older children. $500 will enable us to take the children on an out of town outing for a special holiday treat. Material gifts are not the focus of Christmas in Tanzania. So these 3 traditions - the CHRISTMAS FEAST, the CHRISTMAS OUTFITS and the CHRISTMAS OUTING as a family - are special memories we like to make for the children at Treasures of Africa each year.

You can give securely online at:www.treasuresofafrica.org

May the Spirit of Christmas which is LOVE … be yours this holiday season!

Christmas my child, is love in action.Everytime we love, everytime we give,

it's Christmas!Dale Evans Rogers

DDED

No one ever wants to feel the pain of a toothache no matter where you

live, but it’s a little scarier when it happens here in Africa. At Treasures of Africa Children's Home we’re always seeking the best available medical treatment for our children and this was the first time in the last year that I had to take one of our kids to the dentist for a major dental procedure. We knew that Catherine was in pain, but couldn’t see anything abnormal with the tooth that was bothering her. So we started asking around for the best option in a local dentist.

Medical and dental care in Tanzania is very hit and miss.

Some facilities do well with the little things but with the bigger things, caution always needs to be at the forefront. When it came to a root canal for Catherine, I wanted to make sure she was in the best possible hands. I was very surprised that a 15 year old would need a root canal procedure in the first place, but prior trauma to the tooth was the suspected cause.

We started out at a recommended local facility that we’re familiar with and the Dentist was nice enough and seemed very confident of his diagnosis. But my comfort level fell off when he told me there was no need for an x-ray because he just knew what he was doing. The real reason was that he didn’t have an x-ray machine at his disposal. The lack of good medical equipment is a chronic problem in the clinics here. Even when they have a machine, it is often old and not in good repair. We’ve had to wait for weeks and sometimes even months for specific medical measuring devices to be repaired only to have them go down again after a week or so. When I insisted on an x-ray before moving forward with the root canal, the dentist said we’d have to go to a clinic about 20 minutes out of town. The clinic was almost impossible to find. We had to ask local directions twice before finally arriving. There had been no signs at all, not even on the building. After waiting for about half an hour we were ready to go in and see the x-ray technician when the power went out. It’s been happening a lot lately and at first I was frustrated with the situation. But after putting my waiting minutes in God's hands and resting in Him, the timing of the outage made me wonder if God was trying to tell me something. I was still uncomfortable with a Dentist wanting to do a root canal blindly without an x-ray. Then came the still small voice

Searching For A

Catherine Waiting in the Dentist's Chair

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to my heart – "There’s a better place."

Taking that cue, I got on the phone and was able to reach a Doctor friend who recommended we go to Kibosho Hospital on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro. I was unfamiliar with the facility but felt better about it than the ones we were using. With the power still out, we headed back to town feeling like God was in control and that Kibosho Hospital was the right place to go.

After checking the place out and meeting the Dentist with a friend who had gone through several procedures there, I knew we had found the best possible option for Catherine. It was a bit of a drive up a long winding dirt road but I realized that despite its remote location, I had never been in a more professional looking dental facility in Tanzania. Everything was clean and fairly new and Dr. Alex said he couldn’t imagine doing a root canal blindly without an x-ray. We were definitely in the right place. The projected cost was even 25% less than expected.

We arrived early the next day and Catherine was in the chair by 8:30. After seeing the long needle for the first time there was some initial fear but she did great and came through with flying colors. I was very proud of her. We were out by 9:30 and heading back down the dirt road ready for the next appointment to complete the procedure.

I’ve seen God take care of so many different needs at the orphanage over the past year - big and small. It never ceases to amaze me how He orchestrates our circumstances. Whether through power outages, traffic, a seemingly random meeting or just something grabbing our attention, God is able to guide if we trust in Him. It makes our outlook on everything so very different. It makes it much easier to clear out the noise and be able to hear that still small voice where we have fellowship with our Creator and we allow Him to direct our paths.

As I was writing this article, some old lyrics from a song by Audio Adrenaline came to mind.

It’s just a spirit thingIt’s just a holy nudge

It’s like a circuit judge in the brainIt’s just a spirit thing

It’s here to guide my heart, it’s just a little hard to explain.

Blessings from East Africa,

Warren OberstDirectorTreasures Of Africa Children's Home

Then He said to them, "Take heed what you hear. With the same measure you use, it will be measured to you; and to you who hear, more will be given." Mark 4:24 NKJV

Dentist In Africa

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By Christina OberstChaplain

Treasures of Africa Children’s Home

During the past year that I have been in Tanzania serving at Treasures of Africa Children's Home, my heart has felt so focused upon our teenagers and young adults, especially our girls in this age group. The teenage years can be a tender

and vulnerable time for kids, whether they are growing up in Africa, America, or anywhere else in the world. Many of our kids are becoming young adults or very soon will be. They are faced with making choices and decisions for themselves that will affect their lives and futures. As parents, it is a time to stand upon God’s promises for our children and pray they make wise choices.

This challenging season of the "teenage years" calls for a greater trust in God's ability to work in the hearts of His children and to influence them for good. As a Mom or Dad, it is not an easy time to walk through. But if we allow the Lord to work, it will thrust us into a greater personal dependency upon Him, and we will see wonders done in the hearts of our children.

Serving as "Mom" to the kids at TOA, I see their vulnerabilities and the many things vying to win their affections and attention. I want to help them stay strong in the Lord, continuing on the path that brings a fulfilling life. I have also seen their desire for acceptance as they are in various stages of discovering who they really are and what they want to do with their lives. It has been out of this place of observation that I have been praying for wisdom on how to speak into their lives and help them the most. I believe that this can be a beautiful and glorious time in their lives, full of discovery and wonders in Christ. I long to see our girls enjoying the Lord’s purposes for the season of life they are in and to glean what He has for them in the future.

And so it was, during this time of asking God for wisdom in handling our teen girls, that our dear missionary friends, Vince and Vicki Welch approached us. They told us about some special friends of theirs that were coming from the States to minister to the missionaries that live in our community in Moshi, Tanzania. They had put together a beautiful, all-expense paid event called, "Lavish Love." It is a ministry dedicated to blessing missionaries who are

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LAVISHING LOVE

TOA teen girls excitedly open gifts given to them at the LAVISH LOVE event

constantly pouring out their lives for others. It focuses on lavishing the Father’s love upon individuals and creating an atmosphere where each person who attends can receive more love from Him. It was an amazing experience that touched hearts and encouraged the weary!

After attending that event, it occurred to me that this was EXACTLY what our teenagers needed. They are looking for love, but quite often in all the wrong places! So I decided to ask Michelle Hilliard, founder of Lavish Love, if she would consider doing an event at our Mission House for our 10 oldest girls from Treasures of Africa. She graciously and enthusiastically said, “Yes.”

What occurred was far beyond anything our hearts could imagine. (and we thought we were expecting quite a lot!) None of us even had the words to express all that we saw the Lord do in the hearts of our girls. There was so much healing of past hurts. I knew in my spirit that this was God's answer to my prayer for wisdom in how to impact and help our teenagers. We are going to continue this ministry by springing off of what Michelle and her team brought here to Tanzania thru “Lavish Love”, and call it “His Daughters.”

As some of you may already know, the main focus of my personal journey with the Lord has been about being RESTORED AS HIS DAUGHTER. The restoration the Lord has brought to me as His daughter has been the crucial catalyst for my personal transformation. It has brought me into wholeness in so many areas of my life. I desire to see the same for all our teens at Treasures of Africa. We are planning our first “His Daughters Day” at the Mission House during November. My plan is to continue to meet in this group setting on a regular basis as well as pursuing quality one-on-one time with each girl. With the Lord’s help and guidance, I desire to create an atmosphere filled with God's attributes where our teens can tangibly encounter their Heavenly Father’s loving presence. I believe this is the beginning of something very beautiful and I look forward to our journey with the Lord together.

Thank you all so very much for your continued prayers and support. We are doing this important and life changing work - together!

ON GOD'S TEENAGE DAUGHTERS

TOA Chaplain Christina Oberst with 17 year old Sifa. Spending time with the individual teens at TOA is a high priority.

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Hidden With Christ MinistriesP.O. Box 3267 Tustin, CA 92781

Generous Memorial Gifts Were Receivedby Treasures of Africa Children’s Home

In Honor of the Life

of

Marilyn Mae Kimmel

1936 -2014Seattle, Washington

Beloved Wife, Mother and Grandmother Gifted Teacher and Friend of Children

A life well-lived touches the heartsof others and the heart of God…

www.hiddenwithchrist.com - www.treasuresofafrica.org - www.myeverydaybible.com