Levi was a severely burned infant left in a farmer’s field to die. Much like the story of the Good Samaritan where the man had been beaten, robbed and left for dead, people took a wide path around his wounded body and walked by until the Samaritan man came along, cleaned his wounds and took him in to be cared for until he was well; Levi was stared at, walked past, and ignored until Shepherd’s Field came by, scooped him up and took him in to be cared for. Levi just turned 9 years old last February. The Bentley’s adopted him and Lisa wrote a book about the journey. We would recommend you read the book called "Saving Levi". It will give you a greater understanding of the plight of orphans in this land.
Just like this story our life stories continue to touch hearts. He continues to present opportunities to share in this land so far from home. We have a young man here now who decided to come because he read our bio on the website. We are grateful the Father continues to use us. Please pr&y we will continue to trust Him with our life story. The story of the Good Samaritan is in found the book with the good news called Luke in chapter 10:27-37.
Clay with children at Samaritan House
Life in this country is interesting! We were able to go to our apartment last weekend (finally!) Despite some mildew because of the humidity and being closed up, the AC worked, and we settled into our first official days off. Bedtime was a little later than usual, about 10pm. Then we woke about 12:30am. No electricity and mosquitoes buzzing all around. Made for some major discomfort! We decided to hold on a little longer…but with no AC and the humidity…we knew we wouldn’t be going back to sleep so we called our director, Christina and she was kind enough to call a taxi for us and bring us back to SF where the AC does work! The way it works here for electricity, gas and water is you put $$ on a card and put it in the slot(s) in your apartment and the card then turns on, (if you can find the slot to put it in). So, there were a few hours left on the card, but not enough to stay the weekend! Packing up by the light of our cell phones was fun at 1am! We were able to get more funds on the card and are back at our apartment as we finish this newsletter. We made it the whole night this time!
Eli is doing wonderful with his new family! His Mom said he hardly stopped smiling the whole time while they were in country. What a blessing to know this young man will have a forever family to love him and call his own and that we will be able to see him grow up. Please keep seriously pr&ying for his buddies, Joseph and Phillip, both 11 years old who have only a few years left to be adopted and have a forever family.
Clay with Phillip and Joseph
Just a week ago we had a group here that was a huge blessing and loved on our children so well. They had a VBS that answered the final questions for Joseph and Seth and they were able to tell us that they became believers during the week the group was here. Now our 4 oldest boys have the hope only He can give. We hope to answer any questions they have and give them guidance in this new decision they have made. Please lift us up as we work with these boys.
New brother in the L0rd, Seth
The Primary Class has their first garden! It is a good sized garden with green beans, cucumbers, hot peppers, tomatoes, watermelon and some sort of squash that doesn’t translate. You should see their faces when they pick their produce! So much pride for all their hard work. One day Wang Laoshi (Teacher Wang) said, “from garden to plate in just 45 minutes!” They are so excited to share their garden veggies and love it when you come and have some during snack time.
Wang Laoshi and Joseph in the garden
Gardener Eric
We are so thankful for air conditioning! It is warmer and more humid than usual. Upwards of 118 to 122 Fahrenheit with the humidity figured in. We can’t imagine the sacrifice many made in previous decades as they served. We are so very grateful for AC, computer, internet and skype. All these things make being here easier for us to stay connected with family and friends.
Clay recently was talking at our staff time about retreating before moving forward. In our desire to be effective we must be willing to retreat into His presence. “Only in the refreshing of His strength can we find the resources to move forward in our service for him”. There are many examples of Je&sus retreating before moving forward. One is in the good book of Matthew, chapter 14:23, when He went up into the hills by himself to pr&y. He had just finished feeding the 5000 people and then he retreated, then he walked on the water to the disciples and calmed His followers fears in the storm, calming the sea and showing His power and might too them. In order to face our day to day fears and doubts we must retreat into His presence too. Thank you for lifting us up as we remember to “retreat.”
Please lift up these requests:
An answer about Grady’s surgery or other options for surgery.
- Joseph and Seth’s decision and how we can help them to grow.
- Lucas, a family is working on paperwork to adopt him, for a quick answer for them. (we have almost enough funds for his cochlear implant but the best answer would be adoption)
- Phillip and Joseph, our next oldest kids here at 11 years old, to be adopted soon. Forever families to open their hearts to these special boys. Joseph’s paperwork is on the international adoption list and Phillip’s orphanage said they will do his paperwork only if a family is interested in adopting him.
- Stacey, pray for healing without much scarring and for her to use the medicine that will help with that. She doesn’t like medicine.
- Seth hasn’t had a seizure for about 3 weeks! Please continue to pray for balance of his meds.
- Reece went to his forever home, heaven. His needs were great and he wasn’t strong enough to make it. We are grateful we were able to provide comfort and love to him here at SFCV.
- Stacey has mostly healed from her first surgery and has had another and is doing well.
- Kennedy is doing very well and his seizures were determined to be fever induced.
- Eli joining his forever family!
- Dan and his group from Maryland, what a blessing!
We love you,
Clay and Jewel
Here is the picture of the building going up on the acreage next door that was mentioned in the last newsletter:
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