August 2, 2005
Greetings (and goodbye), this time from California! It’s already been 1½ months since we left our home in Flintstone, GA--and our Church family at New City Fellowship--and moved out to Pleasanton, CA. Our journey was a mighty act of God considering our old, rusted-out Nissan was packed full, complete with duffle bags strapped to the top and the trunk! Needless to say, after four days of traveling we were relieved and very grateful to pull into the driveway of Melinda’s mom and step-dad’s house. These past 1½ months we’ve been busy settling in, visiting with family (we spent a week in Washington with Melinda’s brother and sister-in-law), writing thank-you notes, building an entertainment center for Melinda’s dad and step-mom (Matthew specifically!), and speaking to Valley Community Church (where we were married) and various small groups. We really can’t believe how time has flown so quickly.
This will be our final newsletter before we leave for South Africa. We just purchased our tickets and will be flying out of San Francisco on August 17th! We have an amazing story of God’s faithfulness and provision to share with you. Bridges of Hope International (BHI) mandates that their staff raise 80% of their funds before they buy tickets to go to South Africa. The morning we purchased our tickets we were at 55%. Dennis Wadley (the founder/director of BHI) told us to go ahead and purchase our tickets on faith because of their desperate need for us to be in South Africa “yesterday” and because flights were filling up fast. Later that day we received notice that many support slips came in, increasing our support to 79.8%! God certainly worked quickly after we purchased our tickets to bring in the support we needed! We again anticipate that God will work a miracle and bring the rest of the support in. We currently still need $565 more of monthly support. We want to thank so many of you for supporting us in prayer and financial support. We are continually amazed and humbled at how God has used you to encourage us and to make this happen!
We want to share some more information about the HIV/AIDS crisis in South Africa. The health department, under threat of lawsuit from independent watch-dog groups, recently disclosed that there are 6.5 million people with HIV (that’s over 16% of the entire population!), much more than previously recognized. There are currently, at the very least, 1.5 million orphans—this number rapidly nearing the 5 million predicted by 2010. As mentioned in our first letter, we will be working to expand the orphan and vulnerable children wing of BHI. We will work with the South African BHI staff to establish crisis response/safe homes in the township where children can go when they are in danger and immediately after they lose their parents. We will also explore the South African foster care system and, with the recommendation of the local church, identify potential foster homes within the community of Philippi. We hope to train families in basic grief counseling, completing wills, and otherwise preparing for AIDS’ inevitable outcome. Much of this work will be laying the groundwork for BHI’s long-term goal of an orphan-care community.
We want to share some more information about the HIV/AIDS crisis in South Africa. The health department, under threat of lawsuit from independent watch-dog groups, recently disclosed that there are 6.5 million people with HIV (that’s over 16% of the entire population!), much more than previously recognized. There are currently, at the very least, 1.5 million orphans—this number rapidly nearing the 5 million predicted by 2010. As mentioned in our first letter, we will be working to expand the orphan and vulnerable children wing of BHI. We will work with the South African BHI staff to establish crisis response/safe homes in the township where children can go when they are in danger and immediately after they lose their parents. We will also explore the South African foster care system and, with the recommendation of the local church, identify potential foster homes within the community of Philippi. We hope to train families in basic grief counseling, completing wills, and otherwise preparing for AIDS’ inevitable outcome. Much of this work will be laying the groundwork for BHI’s long-term goal of an orphan-care community.
If you did not receive or would like a copy of our first letter (with more specific information about the ministries of BHI), please email us and we will send it to you. Also, we will be using email and particularly this internet blog site as our primary media for updates.
Thank you for taking the time to read this letter. Please email us if you have any questions or want to talk! We love to talk about what God is doing in South Africa, so please do not shy away from giving us the opportunity :).
In Christ, Melinda and Matthew
mattnmeltalley@yahoo.com
matthew@bridges-of-hope.org
melinda@bridges-of-hope.org
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