My Favorite Gift to PWM This Year

I want to share with you my favorite gift to PWM this year.  In early October, we received the following gift in our mailbox from a 10-year-old young man in Florida:

"Dear Mr. Darke,

I have enclosed $25.10 from my allowance for La Providencia.

Compliments of

[Name]"

I hope that this encourages you as much as it encouraged me.

Providence Prayer Trigger

Here's an easy way to remember to pray for Providence World Ministries. Whenever you see the Starbucks logo, whether it be on the store building, a commercial or an advertisement, stop and pray at that moment.

Pray for:

ENCOURAGEMENT as we strive to share the message of God's love to widows and orphans!

RELATIONSHIPS with both established and new ministry partners and workers to be strengthened.

VISION as we continue to seek out the best and most strategic way to love orphans, widows, and at-risk communities as God loves them. We need wisdom and guidance in this.

The Way Forward Project Research Summit

Last Tuesday, I had the privilege of attending a summit at the State Department in D.C. that focused on research conducted on family-based orphan care in 6 African countries.  More specifically, it focused on how to best care for orphans.  Not surprisingly, the unofficial theme for the event was "families, not institutions."  It was an intimate gathering of about 100 people, and it was full of information.  While taking about 7 pages of typewritten notes, I learned a ton in three short hours about how we can improve our care at La Providencia, and how what we're doing at La Providencia can help to inspire and equip others to practically and realistically love orphans well.  There is too much to share in this short blog, but here are a couple snippets from the conference:

“The heart of every society is revealed by how it treats its most vulnerable citizens. They don’t get more vulnerable than orphans.” - Rick Warren

Twenty-four months of age is critical to brain development - if you don’t get a child out of an institution and into a family by then, there is little chance that his or her brain will ever develop fully.

“The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.” - Mother Teresa

I hope that I can personally share with you other highlights from the conference.  It was quite a day.