Well I'm off to the Philippines this afternoon.  Last night I just realized that our team will be in transit for 24 hours to get to the orphanage!!!  That's 2 hours to the LAX Airport, 3 hours for check in with international flight, 17 hours in the air with a layover in Guam, and then a 2 hour drive to the orphanage.  So please pray for our travel that we'll all be able to get some real rest and that our bodies will adjust to the 15 hour time difference!  Once we arrive here is our tenative schedule!

We arrive in Manila around 6 am Sunday morning, Feb. 10.

• Monday, Feb. 11 – visit local school to provide healthy lunch to (about 250) impoverished children. We will also give them a colorful gospel booklet and a pencil to keep
• Tuesday, Feb 12 - Introduce Preschool Bible curriculum we are bringing to teacher / caregivers, along with Preschool Bibles for all the BoH kids
• Wednesday– Friday, Feb. 13 – 15: Afternoon Bible Club (VBS) at local church for 50+ kids, including a meal
• Friday - movie night with BoH kids
• Sunday, Feb. 17 – attend local church and share briefly about our connection with Les & Cynthia and about outreaches

Sometime during second week - We will be

• Painting learning room, kids’ rooms, and adding colored walls and wall graphics
• Visit Manila and Cynthia’s school

Other possible opportunities we are pursuing – outreach to local barrio or an additional visit to local school.  And of course, there will be lots of playing with the kiddos at the orphanage and brainstorming with Les and Cynthia to assess how we can help them to both broaden and strengthen their support team.

If you want to see what we're up to our church will be updating a blog while we're gone, maybe daily!  The link is http://kingsfieldboh.tumblr.com/

Last all your prayers are going to be vital for this trip!  Below is a full list of things you can pray about!

Thank you all so much for you partnership and support for this trip!  I love you and can not wait to share what wonderful things God has done in the Philippines and in our team when I get back.

Prayer Points

For the Philippines and the local Community near the orphanage:

• That the light of God’s mercy, truth, and love would prevail over darkness in the Philippines
• That each family whose child receives a gospel booklet, would be powerfully and eternally affected by the good news of Jesus Christ. That they will receive His mercy and new life and commit their way to Him.

For Beacon of Hope:

• That God will send His heavenly host to guard and protect Les, Cynthia and the children as they seek to offer a place of refuge and love to needy children.
• That partnership with Kingsfield will be strengthened and they will feel renewed encouragement to pursue God’s purposes
• God’s provision and favor as they take steps to become an official adoption agency – able to facilitate finding loving, Christian homes for children
• That each of the Beacon of Hope children will be assured of God’s love for them and to be set apart to live for His glory
• That the caregivers would be women of faith and virtue, in harmony with Les and Cynthia’s leadership

For our Outreach Team:

• That God’s heart for lost and needy people will transform us
•  Unity in love and purpose
• Grace to bear with the discomforts of travel, foreign culture, and 2 weeks of close quarters with each other and a lot of children
• Protection from illness and injury
• Lasting fruitfulness in all our service to the orphanage and the community

Brother Lawrence

Today I want to share with you a quiet time gem I was introduced to many years ago by my husband David.  It is a very tiny book called "The Practice of the Presence of God" and it consists of journals and letters from a monk named Brother Lawrence who lived in the 1600's.  I just started rereading it and in this season of life it is having a completely new impact on my relationship with God. Now I know it may seem that a monk who lived 400 years ago would have nothing in common with our lives now but that is the beauty of Christianity.  We have a great deal in common with all believers regardless of when or where they live!  When you are reading the version of this book with updated language (i.e. removal of thees & thous) this could just as easily be written today by anyone desiring to draw near to God and be in His prescence continually.  It is basically one man's inner thoughts on how to stay always in God's prescence and the blessings that it can bring.  It is very encouraging because Brother Lawrence was just an average guy like the rest of us who never intended for his words to be published so it is very candid. It is such a short book that last time I read it in a matter of days.  This time I'm reading it right after our small group has finised the Experiencing God study by Henry Blackaby and I think by doing Blackaby's study first Brother Lawrence's book has taken on a much deeper meaning for me.  There is so much in this little book you can read a paragraph and meditate on how to incorporate it's truth into your walk with God all day!  Anyway I just wanted to share with you what a blesssing this tiny little book has been in my life and hopefully if you're in need of an encouraging book you can pick it up (Amazon has it for $6 here).

P.S. If you're visiting my page to find out more about Kingsfield Church's trip to Beacon of Hope Orphanage in the Philippines you can find out more information about the trip here.

Merry Christmas from Beacon of Hope

Well I'm headed to the Philippines on a mission trip to Beacon of Hope Orphanage in 42 days!  I'm so excited!  For those of you partnering with me on this trip I wanted to share the orphanage Christmas letter with you. 

If you would like to donate to this trip click here to get to my church's secure donation site.
On the donation site choose "Team memeber's travel expense" and put my name in the memo line. 

If you would like to give kid's shoes for the orphans click here for details. 

Merry Christmas!
From Beacon of Hope Family!

Kids’ comments about Christmas:

Luis said, “Mama, I am good, will Santa bring me gifts and strawberries?”
Jessie said, “Santa will give me a fire truck and a monster truck.”
Paula said, “It is Jesus’ birthday and Santa, too. Santa will bring you gifts if
you share yours toys with me!”
Christian said, “It is Santa Claus and Jesus’ birthday and I want lots of toys.”
Gabby said, “I want a nice dress.”

The children look forward to opening their gifts. Many thanks to Uncle
Junior, Auntie Pentine and family from Connecticut for sending two
boxes of goodies for the children; to Mary and Matt Descy, also from
Connecticut, for sharing their blessings with us; to Mama Rose’ friends
from Scripps Clinic, La Jolla, for sending clothes for the children, our
friends and families who tirelessly support the ministry since its
inception. Thanks to our sister, Leila, for raising funds for kid’s
education; many thanks to Kingsfield Church and Second Chance
Thrift Store for continued support and prayers.

The gift of love, sharing, happiness, friendship and good health; may
the blessings of Christmas bring you Peace and Joy throughout the
New Year!

With Love In JESUS’ Name,
Les and Cynthia McKinzie, BOH children and staff

Merry Christmas Everyone!

A very Merry Christmas was had by all this year!  Roxy most definitely enjoyed it so I thought I'd share pictures of her highlights!  David and I spent the first half of this Christmas season with the Kartzinels at Donna and Jerry's house.  We had the whole crew there including John's fiance Hannah.  We spent a lot of quality time together catching up and enjoying each other's company around the Christmas tree.  We kicked off our family time together with watching The Hobbit which I must say was fabulous! The day before Christmas was also a blast as we went to the local gun range to fire off hand guns!  I've never fired a handgun before so it was very adventurous.  It wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be either!  Over the week there was also lots of X-Box playing  with Halo and Call of Duty.  Christmas Eve we open all the family gifts and on Christmas morning Santa shows up with some very full stockings.  My favorite Christmas day activities are tied between decorating ginger bread houses together and the family game of nerf wars! The next few evenings we enjoyed watching some of the new DVD's the family got with Men In Black 3, Dark Knight Rises, and The Amazing Spiderman.  David and I agreed it was a fantastic Christmas and a delightful time with family!

Now I'm off to North Carolina for the second half of Christmas with my family there!  I can't wait to see everyone and catch up on how life is going.  I also get to meet Maggie, my cousin Drew's baby for the first time and I know that will be a big high light!  I hope you and yours have also had a wonderful Christmas season!  Love you all lots!

Shoes for 30 Little Feet!

What are 30 little active feet at Beacon of Hope Orphanage always needing?

SHOES!!!

One way you can help out the kids at the orphanage I will be visiting in February is by donating shoes.  What kinds of shoes does Beacon of Hope need?  I'm glad you asked! We need kids shoes sizes 9-1.  Shoes can be new or used as long at they're in good shape.  The Philippines is in the tropics so flip flops, crocs, tennis shoes and other active closed toed shoes are perfect!  Due to location and kids activities we do not need dress shoes or cold weather shoes. 

Getting the shoes to me is where this gets fun depending on your location!

• Orange County Locals: You can drop them off at Kingsfield Church or contact me and I'll happily pick them up from you.
• Durham, NC and surrounding areas: You can give them to my parents or grandparents and we will arrange for their shipment to CA.  Also I will be visiting from Dec 29th-Jan 16th if your shoes are ready to go contact me and we'll arrange a pick up or drop off point!
• Other Locations: You can send them in the mail to my church with a note inside that it is for the Philippines trip.  Kingsfield Church 27111 Aliso Creek Rd Ste. 100 Aliso Viejo, CA 92656

Please make all donations by February 1st so I can prepare them for the trip to the their new little owners. Thanks in advance for all your help!

If you would like to make any monetary donations to help cover my trip costs you can do so securely online here.  On the donation site choose "Team member travel expenses" and put my name in the memo line.

Beacon of Hope

 

 Cynthia and Les with some of the kids!

I am so excited about the opportunity to be going to Beacon of Hope Orphanage in February!  I would love to tell you all a little bit about it and how it came to be.  Les and Cynthia are members of Kingsfield Church and lived in Laguna Beach, CA.  Cynthia is from the Philippines and immigrated to the US when she was 15.  The couple felt a burden for the children that were being abandoned or sold in her home country and were eventually led by the Lord to begin an orphanage in Cynthia's hometown of Manila.  Having no children of their own they began the orphanage out of Cynthia's mother's home starting with infants.  In the five years since the orphanage's beginning the Lord has blessed them tremendously and they now have 15 children all under the age of 6.  They have also moved operations to a compound outside of Manila in the countryside.  The social services in the country refer to their orphanage as Five Star!  They are for the most part self sustaining as they have their own rice field and a variety of farm animals that the children enjoy helping to take care of.  As the amount of children and work at the orphanage has grown so too has the need for extra hands!  Les and Cynthia have brought on several full time local care takers that live in "The Big House" (they do not use the term orphanage) and help with the children. 

One of the next big steps they would like to take at Beacon of Hope is to start an adoption program!  As you can probably imagine there is a lot of important paper work that goes into just the day to day operations of an orphanage not to mention an adoption program so Cynthia has gone back to school and is currently in a social work program to become the orphanage's full time social worker.  There are many details left to be put in place before an adoption program becomes reality so please be in prayer as they move towards this exciting next step!

Other Fun Facts!

• All the children speak English
• They keep chickens for fresh eggs
• They have three kid friendly dogs at the compound, one is a Les & Cynthia's lab brought from the US
• Much of the children's clothing is provided from from quality donations to our church thrift store in Laguna Beach
• The older children are tutored on site and are just beginning to start school

I hope that gives you all a little background on Beacon of Hope!  If you have any questions I would be more than happy to find answers for them!

If you feel lead to donate to this trip you can make a secure tax deductiable donation online here.  Please select team member travel expenses and add my name in the comment box. 
The children are also in need of shoes! If you would like to help provide them the guidelines are here.

Movies I'm Looking Forward To!

I don't know about you but the movies coming out this Christmas look fantastic!!!  The Hobbit goes without mentioning as one that will not be missed but these other two are on my list of must sees.

Have you guys seen the trailer for "The Impossible" yet?  It's one family's story from the massive 2005 tsunami.  For some reason that particular disaster impacted me deeply.  It happened when I was on break from my freshman year of college and I was just glued to the TV for days.  With all of the horrible things that happened that day I am glad to see they are making a movie with some hope in it that appears to honor the tragedy.  I look forward to seeing this one.

On a completely unrelated film, I am completely over the moon that they are doing the musical version of Les Mes on film.  If you have not seen the play do not go in expecting a musical version of Liam Neeson's role in this film a few years back.  In the play there is a much bigger focus on the love story between Cosette and Marius then on the redemption of Jean Valjean.  The score of this play is out of this world and I can not wait to hear at the theater!  This one I won't miss on the big screen!