Spreadin' the Love

Hope and a future

By partnering with Children's Cup, our community has the opportunity to directly impact the lives of CarePoint kids. I am returning to Swaziland in September and hope to establish the beginning of a long, life-transforming relationship between the active, open-hearted families of our community and the needy, vulnerable children of Swaziland. Children's Cup lifts kids up out of desperation and utter poverty and gives them love, safety, hope and a future. By opening our hearts and lives to these children, we can be a part of building the safe havens, feeding the hungry, caring for the sick, and raising children who are wholly prepared for a better future. A little bit of love and support from each of us goes a long way when we all join together to make a difference.

Children's Cup International

Children's Cup's purpose is to take humanitarian and spiritual aid into the hard places where war, natural disasters and disease epidemics have devastated societies.
Children's Cup has its Africa offices in Swaziland, a beautiful country that is being ravaged by the terrors of having 43% of its population HIV-positive. This contributes to a sick and dying middle generation, leaving vulnerable children to care for themselves with no adults to keep them safe and healthy.
By building a network of CarePoints in densely populated urban areas, as well as in peri-urban and rural areas, Children’s Cup cares for thousands of Swazi children every day, giving them food, education, medical attention and spiritual training. The most vulnerable children are placed in safe homes with loving adult care-givers.
Children’s Cup has found a long-range development strategy that involves the community heavily. It is proving to be very successful in sparking genuine change in lives by empowering and enabling people to have the desire, skills and opportunity to rise out of poverty.
A CarePoint can be looked at as a school, a medical clinic, a cafeteria, and a meeting place. No matter what program is going on at a CarePoint, each is most definitely a safe haven for hundreds of orphans and vulnerable children that are in such desperate need of hope.

Saturday, July 12, 2008

You Are Invited

To a Dessert Open House

Wednesday July 16, 7-9:00 pm

at the home of Jill Markey, 1555 Drury Ct.

We will be enjoying desserts and coffee as we come together to make a direct impact on the lives of women and children in Swaziland, Africa. Please invite your friends and bring your daughters.

Sticker Drive, Scarf Collection and Financial Contributions

By Kids-For Kids Sticker Drive: Ask your children to purchase a pack of stickers that you will bring to the Open House. We will take the stickers to Swaziland in September and give them to children at the Children's Cup CarePoints. I'll post pictures of the Swazi kids with their stickers here on my blog, and our St John's kids will be able to see the very stickers that they purchased in the hands of happy Swazi kids. This is a great opportunity for our kids to see a vivid example of how they personally can make a difference.
We're also collecting hair scarves for the volunteer cooks who work all day feeding children at the CarePoints. Many of these women are widowed moms with babies on their backs or grandmas who have stepped into the gap to raise children left behind by the death of their parents. As part of their traditional dress, they wrap their hair with large scarves. We're collecting scarves (bandana size or larger) to take as gifts for these women who have so little. Bring the scarves to the Open House, and we'll put pictures up in late September of the women who receive your loving gift.
Finally, we will be accepting financial donations for Children's Cup's life-transforming ministries. Any funds raised will be a direct investment in the lives of Children's Cup kids: providing food, medical care, education, etc. A little money goes a long way in Swaziland. With a relatively small investment on our part, many children's lives will be transformed. And you will be able to see photos of the direct impact of your kindness and generosity posted here on my blog while I'm in Swaziland and receive updates after my return.

"A capable, intelligent and virtuous woman . . . She is far more precious than jewels and her value is far above rubies or pearls . . . She tastes and sees that her work is good . . . She opens her hands to the poor, yes, she reaches out her filled hands to the needy.” Proverbs 31