Every Child Ministries
Summer 2017
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Next Step
A Journey of a Thousand Miles
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Samson Kimuli, from the Gayaza project in Kampala, Uganda. One of a growing number of young adults who need your help TODAY to continue their journey.
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Greetings!
Most of us have heard it said that “a journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.” While this is true, it should be noted that after the first step is taken, one is left with approximately 1,999,999 steps to complete the thousand-mile journey! So, while the first step may be very important, and is sometimes the most difficult, a considerable amount of energy, perseverance, and determination is needed to complete the journey!
Our children, through the help of ECM supporters like you, have taken that difficult first step! Thank you for your donations, prayers, and sponsorship, all of which have made that initial step possible. But what about the rest of the thousand-mile journey? What about that critically important next step? Would we abandon our kids along the road? Of course not!
That’s why we need to be there for our kids as they take that next step, as they move from primary school to secondary or vocational school, and eventually, for some, on to university. We desperately need your help in building up and maintaining our Next Step Fund, designed to meet the growing financial needs of kids in secondary schools and universities. Please make a donation to the Next Step fund today, to help ensure that the journey of a thousand miles continues for our kids! Click here to give to Next Step: Learners Today, Leaders Tomorrow!
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We can all let out a sigh of relief—Summer is finally here! While all of us are thankful for a few warm months, summer can be a difficult time for ECM financially.
Your gifts are needed TODAY to ensure that there is no let up in the ministry of ECM. Please consider making a special gift, designated for
Where Needed Most, as soon as you are able. Your timely and generous gift will touch many lives, and will help our work move along uninterrupted.
Click here to give today or mail your check to ECM, PO Box 810, Hebron, IN 46341. As always, your support is greatly appreciated!
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Mark Luckey
Executive Director
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ECM started each of its projects specifically to fill a need in that community?
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Triny
Battling fibrous dysplasia
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To hear that a child is suffering from fibrous dysplasia may not move you, especially if you don’t work in the medical world. But one picture of Triny Amuhirwe, one of ECM’s sponsored children in Kampala, Uganda, will almost certainly cause an emotional response.
For many years, Triny, now 14 years old and still a bundle of energy, suffered with this extremely rare disease in which normal bone tissue is replaced by fibrous (scar-like) tissue. The fibrous tissue keeps growing until it eventually destroys the good bone. Triny was sent to the UK twice for emergent surgery with a team called Facing the World, but in each case, it helped only for a short while. The tumor continues to grow, and more than likely will keep growing until she is in her twenties.
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Triny has continued with her education, with the help of ECM, and is doing very well! But if her tumor is left untreated, she faces a very bleak future.
She desperately needs surgical intervention NOW! We need your prayers and
financial assistance to remove the tumor that has returned again and which keeps growing! Currently, a surgeon from the UK is planning to come to Kampala to do the surgery, but Triny needs
your help in order to meet this next challenge. For more information, or to give,
click here.
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In Memory
Marlene Keezer
Dan & Peggy Nutt
Dart Koedyker
Theodore & Debra Blahunka
Margareth & Robert Bothwell
Briar Creek Social Club
James & Bonnie Escott
Gary & Karen Fleming
Bill & Brenda Goldie
Calvin & Laurie Hinz
Ted & Wilma Koelikamp
Ann Nowacki
Riverstone Financial Group
Wayne Tarlton
Richard & Virginia Umlauf
Cheryl Vipond
Judy Wietbrock
Herb & Carolyn Woldt
Fred Slosson
Bethel Church
Wally Wyman
Gary & Becky Crum
Rae DeYoung
Bob & Gwen Eriks
Mary Keller
Carol Oostman
Herb & Carolyn Woldt
Eileen Zacher
Al & Debbie Zacher
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In Honor
Marti Eriks
(mother)
Rev. Kenneth & Barbara Eriks
John Rouster
(birthday)
Floyd & Jean Coffman
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- Pray for a brand new fundraising event, Cosmic Bowling! Pray that the event is well attended, that we obtain new child sponsors, and that people have a heart to support ECM's work beyond the event.
- Pray for Mark Luckey, leading two short term teams this summer in Uganda. He left for Uganda June 4 and will be there approximately 5 weeks.
- Pray for Lorella & Whitney Rouster, whose trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo was delayed because of a delay in receiving their visas. Praise God the visas have been received! Their trip will be August 4-18.
- Pray for missionary Cathy Hayes for physical, emotional & spiritual strength. She asks for prayer that God would use her like never before!
- Pray for missionaries Jim & Carolyn Driscoll and family. Jim's mother has terminal lung cancer and is in her last days. Pray for Comfort, a woman who lost her baby, and a Grandmother & Grandfather who lost their granddaughter.
- Missionaries Russ & Marcia Baugh ask for prayer for a 17 year old and her 2 month old baby. Both needed medicine, and the girl will need surgery in a couple months. They ask for prayer for families to have enough food in the midst of a drought in Uganda, and that people depend on spiritual food in Nasuti and surrounding communities, not only physical food.
- Missionaries Matt & Shelley Actis request prayer for Shelley's dad as he battles stage 4 cancer, and for guidance in handling tough situations with the girls they minister to, and their families.
- Pray for ECM's evangelistic efforts. Pray for wisdom to see the direction the Lord is leading, and for decisions for Christ.
- Pray for funds for Triny's next surgery.
- Pray for one time and ongoing gifts for Next Step. The continuing education of children completing High School is dependent on these funds.
- In spite of very windy weather for two days and a rain washout the last day, the spring garage sale was successful, bringing in over $2,500. Thank you to all who donated and all who volunteered their time to make it a success! Praise God for His provision!
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You Can Support ECM Through Other Methods!
Did you know that there are more ways to partner with ECM in addition to cash donations?
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In May and September ECM holds garage sales. Help is always needed with the overwhelming amount of items that have been donated (thank you donors!).
Our next sale will be Sept. 19 (evening set up), with the sale on Sept. 20-22, and clean up the evening of the 22nd. Just a few hours really helps a lot! Contact us at
[email protected] or 219-996-4201 if you can help any of these days!
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Anytime you have a car, truck, van, SUV, boat, motorcycle, ATV, RV, trailer or airplane (whew, that’s quite the list!) you’d like to donate to benefit ECM, contact CARS (Charitable Auto Resources) through their website
www.careasy.org or at
855-500-RIDE (7433) and choose Every Child Ministries to
receive the profit after sale.
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Do you shop on Amazon? Use
smile.amazon.com and choose ECM as the cause to support.
Amazon makes a donation to ECM on your behalf!
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Anytime throughout the year, you can work with
STEER, Inc. (Steering Money to Missions) to benefit ECM. Donors invest with STEER, and this money is used to purchase livestock for farmers/ranchers partnering with STEER. The farmer/rancher cares for the livestock and chooses the mission agency to receive the gain after sale. If you are a farmer/rancher or know of any, contact STEER at
[email protected] or
701-258-4911.
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Missionary Spotlight
Cathy Hayes
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ECM missionary Cathy Hayes knew at the age of 25 that she had been called into missions. She knew that God was asking her to surrender her heart and allow him to lead. It took more than twenty years for God to work out the details, and for Cathy to take that courageous first step to submit to his will. In 2011, three years after visiting Uganda as part of an ECM short term mission team, Cathy went “all in,” becoming a long-term ECM missionary in Gulu, in the war ravaged northern part of Uganda. Today, she treats the body and soul at ECM’s Tegotatoo Project, working with families displaced in years past because of Uganda’s war with Joseph Kony and the Lord’s Resistance Army. She enjoys working with children at ECM’s weekly Saturday Club, where she teaches Bible lessons and shares the gospel, as well as caring for the sick in the local hospital.
From time to time, Cathy’s friends will ask her if she wants to come home. She answers with this: “Uganda has become my home, the place in which my heart and life seem to be in sync. A place where my calling is like that fuel that burns bright for God. I thrive on living ‘this’ life, the ‘missionary life’ and I am grateful that I get to live it. Sometimes people wait a lifetime to find that ‘one thing’ that causes them to come to life, to acknowledge their purpose in this life… to experience that passion that ignites their souls, that uniquely sets a rhythm to their core and heartbeat. I’ve had the most amazing experience to not only know what my calling and purpose is, but to live it out under His guidance and plan. It’s a privilege, friends; it’s a priceless privilege and I intend to live it out as fully and as passionately as I can.”
What an incredible testimony to God’s calling on our lives, and how we should respond! Is God calling you to serve him in overseas ministry? If the answer is yes, or even maybe, then please give us a call. We would love to help you discover how God wants to use you to expand his kingdom!
For more information about Cathy, or to support her financially, click here.
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Planned Giving
The John & Lorella Rouster Legacy Circle
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You’ve heard it before: This deal is too good to pass up! And usually when you hear that phrase you can live by the adage “if it’s too good to be true, then it probably is.” But at ECM, we want you to know that when we tell you that NOW is the time to invest in ECM’s endowment fund, and that your gift can be doubled – yes, you read that correctly, DOUBLED – it is most definitely true, and is a deal too good to pass up! It’s easy to become a part of the Rouster Legacy Circle! Just let us know that you have either made a gift to ECM’s endowment fund, held at the Porter Country Community Foundation, or that you have included ECM in your planned giving. At least sixteen other faithful friends of ECM have already made this important decision, and many have seen their gifts to ECM doubled! Here’s what long-time ECM friend and donor Robin Schneider has to say about the importance of including ECM in your planned giving: "I have seen for years how ECM has taken care of children and adults, getting them off the streets and into school, but most of all, teaching them about Jesus. I know that anything I give ECM will be used for His glory, and planned giving is one of the easiest ways to help the ministry". Don’t put off this important decision any longer! Contact ECM today for more information!
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Left-Robin Schneider, Right-Marilyn Denhart
Founding members of the John & Lorella Legacy Circle
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