Wednesday, September 17, 2014


The Shelter of United Love



August



This month has been a blast, following the amazing summer. From the summer coming into the end of August The Shelter of United Love had the help of some amazing servants from the U.S, Canada, and Kenya. It was no doubt that every person on the team, was there because they were ready to see the lives of street children changed.



Elisa joined Cornel, Dan, and Kennedy in the month of May. While the men worked to build a solid outreach and follow up team. Elisa worked alongside helping guide and direct them logistically and backing them with prayer. Elisa also did an amazing job with building a solid foundation for the The Shelter of United Love by leading the organization of the files, databases, and programs for the ministry. Elisa was superb in her strategies in outreach, and financial planning. With all of that and much more needless to say she was a rock star for the team.


Following Elisa, Haley and I arrived ready to work. Not even a week after they arrived the whole ministry moved from a one and a half bedroom apartment, to a compound with three buildings and plenty of room for agriculture and domesticated animals. Once in the compound the team had full hands with all the programs they were facing ahead. One big thing was the house on the compound. It needed a lot of work. Fortunately enough the team had it under control. Going straight to work and working around the clock the house began to look like a true rescue center. Cornel focused on following up the street children that had been taken home, while Dan and Kennedy worked on outreach for the kids who were on the street. The three muzungus (white people) for the most part worked on the compound. Not even a week went by before kids started showing up and getting their lives changed. With our outreach meetings on Fridays and Saturdays along with relational meetings throughout the week, the kids began to realize we were there to help them and we started to see friendships build between our team and the kids.



Our first two kids came off the street, Sammy and Godfrey, which really set the reality of how amazing Jesus is. He is powerful and strong and such a relentless God. After almost three weeks, Haley headed home. But praise Jesus we were able to receive Blake, whom was also from the U.S and brought a lot to the team with her nursing and relational skills. The transition never slowed down the pace of the ministry. It just continued to grow. Through a course of 2 months we saw 8 more kids go home off the streets. These kids included a funny young teen named Laban, two brothers, Joseph and Nice, a very young 6 year old boy named Keddedy, a beautiful 9 year old girl named Sarah, two friends Steven and Tony, a smart young teen named John, and kid with a huge smile named Gideon. Seeing those boys and girls transition into freedom was indescribable.



Sadly to say in early August after months of hard labor, it was time for the U.S and Canada team to head back home. The compound and ministry was left with the three Kenyan men, Cornel, Dan, and Kennedy. During the course of a month theses men have worked hard to secure the compound with a fence which holds over 15 chickens. They have farmed and planned seeds for the harvest, and they have successfully managed a follow up program of 40 children which includes school fees. These men are warriors. The month of August has been one of transition and we can only pray that Jesus continues to do his will for these street children through the ministry. As for now we have received enough money to be able to file for the tax exempt status. Once we file it we will need your prayers as we wait to see if it is approved. But in the time between now and then we are currently raising support for the ministries monthly fees. This includes rent and utilities for the compound ($300), 4 outreach meetings per month ($80), staff employment ($150), school fees for children ($100), transportation ($50), and whatever else the ministry may need. Since the beginning of this ministry over 1 year ago we have never gone without and we know that it is all in the hands of the Heavenly Father.





Thank you all so very much for everything you do,



Haden Hallman



Co-Founder of The Shelter of United Love

205-657-0068


4664 Riva Ridge Drive

Tuscaloosa, AL 35406

1 comment:

  1. Good morning, how are you?

    My name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.

    I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because through them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately, it is impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are very small countries with very few population, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.

    For all this, I would ask you one small favor:
    Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Kenya? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Kenya in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:

    Emilio Fernandez Esteban
    Avenida Juan de la Cierva, 44
    28902 Getafe (Madrid)
    Spain

    If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.

    Finally, I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.

    Yours Sincerely

    Emilio Fernandez

    ReplyDelete