Author: Dr. Sherri McClurg

Everyone who knows me tends to associate me with Christmas. I get random texts that usually go something like this… “I saw a blow up snowman at Lowes today and thought of you.” Or “I found Christmas cookie cutters at a yard sale and thought of you.” Or “You’d be so proud of me. I bought a Christmas present for someone, and it’s still only August.” It’s common knowledge that I adore Christmas and celebrate it year round. My iphone has a Christmas countdown app on the main screen, so I will ALWAYS know how many days are left (crucial information). I listen to my Christmas music from January to December. I watch The Nativity Story in August. I sing “Oh Christmas Tree” in the shower. I leave several pieces of Christmas decor up in my house year round, simply because I can’t bear to put it away. My family believes I may have issues… I believe they may be right. But it’s ok… I’ve made my peace with it and embrace who I am 🙂

The question is WHY do I love it so much? Most people get exhausted just thinking about Christmas and all the stress it brings (the shopping, the social schedule, the twisted lights, the excessive commercialism, and all sorts of other things that stress people out during the season). They wonder how a celebration of Joy, Hope, and Peace so quickly turns into stress, heartburn, and depression.

Christmas evokes powerful emotion from me for reasons that may come as an interesting surprise to some. When the enemy convinced Adam and Eve to turn away from God in the Garden of Eden, perfection shattered, and we were separated from God. The enemy danced in victory and caused all manner of carnage and destruction on earth and in the lives of all the people that God created and loves. But just at the right moment in time, Jesus came into the world in the most unlikely and shocking way to bring man back to God and bridge the gap. The element of surprise. A swift and decisive “checkmate” out of nowhere. A landed invasion. Nobody expected it. Certainly not the enemy. Christmas is a celebration of that amazing piece of history that shifted the course of humanity and offered hope where there was none before.

Decisive surprise victories draw visceral responses from us. When James Bond looks as though he has lost and suddenly delivers a surprise blow out of nowhere and walks off calmly into the distance as the enemy is seen stunned and plummeting to his doom, we fist pump the sky from our theater seats. When a chess player appears to have lost but suddenly moves a key piece into a decisive checkmate and cracks a slight smile knowing what he was doing all along, we get thrilled. When a football team calls a “Statue Of Liberty” trick play and wins the game to the shock of their opponent and the entire stadium of fans, we throw our bowl of chips in the air and excessively celebrate in our living rooms (Shout out to Boise State fans). When Frodo finally destroys the one ring and Sauron’s freaky eyeball goes wide with shock and utter surprise as his tower crumbles and topples in defeat, we rejoice. When a poker player lays down a surprise royal flush and laughs as a Mount Everest sized pile of chips moves from the opponent to him, we laugh along with him. These are all things that evoke wild delight, cheering, and hysteria out of us. They are things that make us leap out of our chair and scream “YESSS!!!!!!” (Or if you’re a calm, rational individual very unlike myself, you remain in your chair and clap in a dignified poised manner).

THAT is what Christmas means to me. And just as we throw our Superbowl parties, celebrate victories, and gleefully call up all our friends the moment a new Bond movie comes out, Christmas is a massive celebration to me. Sure, snowmen and reindeer have nothing to do with Jesus birth, but hey…. showering confetti and giant foam #1 gloves have nothing to do with the game of football either. It’s just all part of the ecstatic celebration. I do it in fun and as part of the joy of the victory and the ramifications of that victory.

I listen to The Nativity Story soundtrack a lot while I’m working in my home office, and by the time I get to “Is There A Place for Us” (otherwise known as Ring Christmas Bells. Track 17 if you care), as Jesus is just about to enter the world and change EVERYTHING, I’m usually up out of my office chair looking something like this…

REVERSE THE CURSE, BABY!!!!!

That’s what Christmas means to me. “The Lord your God… turned the curse into a blessing for you, because THE LORD YOUR GOD LOVES YOU!!” -Deut. 23:5

He wrote Himself into our story and became human and reversed the curse on humanity and gave us hope and life! The ultimate hero!

So what am I going to do to celebrate this Christmas?? Well, I’m going to host an orphan through New Horizons for Children and celebrate my absolutely favorite holiday by giving hope and joy to a child who has lived far too long without it. I am going to share the JOY and give it out freely instead of confining it within myself. I’m going to bring clothes, food, and HOPE to those in my local community who have none. You can tell me I’m overboard and to calm down, but you can’t stop the wellspring of victory celebration from spilling out of my heart and my smile. You can’t wipe the smile off the face of a fan whose team just won the Superbowl… and you can’t wipe the joy off my face either.

This Christmas, I encourage you to find what God created you to do and go do it with JOY in celebration and revelry that we are NO LONGER without hope! Perhaps you can join me in opening your home to an orphan and shower them with the true meaning of Christmas. Most of them have never even heard of this extraordinary love the Father has lavished on us!

70 days till Christmas…

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night…

Once again, God is pouring financial blessings onto families who are stepping out in faith to care for orphans and be His hands and feet to these precious children.

NHFC has been given an amazing financial opportunity! An anonymous donor has issued us a “Double Your Dollar” challenge!

For each currently available and unmatched Latvian child who receives a $250 scholarship donated to his/her name, our donor will match ANOTHER $250 to that child. This is a great opportunity to help children who may not otherwise be hosted and double your donation. For sibling sets, our donor is willing to match $250 PER child instead of limiting it to $250 per sibling group.

Also, if you are thinking of hosting a Latvian child but have not pulled the trigger yet, you can donate $250 to your child and receive a matching $250 scholarship to go toward your own host fees!

This offer is only for current unmatched Latvian children. Children currently on hold, already hosted, or from a different country would not qualify for this incentive challenge.

Scholarships greatly increase a child’s chances to be chosen for hosting. If you are currently unable to host but want to play a part in changing the course of an orphan’s life, please consider making a $250 donation to the Latvian child of your choice. Your money will double and give that child the opportunity to spend Christmas in America!

If you do not have a password to view our photolisting, you can sign up for one HERE

When you make a donation, please note in the “special instructions” which child you want to receive your scholarship money! Click Here to Make A Tax Deductible Donation

We love seeing God at work moving financial mountains! If you are a past host family and have a great story of how God brought in the money for your host fees, please post it in a comment below as an encouragement to new and future host families!!

Dear Friends and Family of New Horizons for Children:

THE GOOD NEWS: We still have space available for a great Mission Trip this Christmas! For the price of just one person, your whole family (including the kids) and your friends, can participate in a 4 week Mission Trip, and you won’t even need to pack a suitcase … we will send the Mission to your home! Through New Horizons for Children open your home to an orphan from Latvia or Ukraine and share God’s love and your love with a child who may never have experienced that love before (or ever get a chance to, except through YOU!)

Please SHARE this email if you think every child deserves a chance to experience God’s love and check here for children to pray for and still in need of a hosting family.

THE GREAT NEWS: We received some scholarships to help defray the cost for you to go on this international mission trip!
God is holy and perfect but there is a wide gap between Him and us. That’s why He started the very first mission trip when He sent his Son, Jesus to earth to reach us! Now, you can follow His perfect example and bridge the gap between Him and an orphaned child from Ukraine or Latvia.

Everyone has different reasons they love missions.
Here’s a list of our 10 favorites!
(Let us know if we missed yours!)

1.    PURELY, GOD APPROVED
James 1:27 – Religion that God the Father accepts as pure and without fault is this: caring for orphans or widows who need help, and keeping yourself free from the world’s evil influence.

2.    IT WON’T BREAK THE BANK
A 5-week long summer mission trip that your whole family can go on together AND you can take your friends with you! Partial scholarships have already been added to help defray the cost of this trip! You only have to pack for your mission ONE TIME!

3.    RESULTS GUARANTEED
Psalm 10:14 – But you know all about it— the contempt, the abuse. I dare to believe that the luckless will get lucky someday in you. You won’t let them down: orphans won’t be orphans forever.

4.    LIKE-MINDED FRIENDS & ADVOCATES
This road isn’t supposed to be walked alone.  Meet and connect with hundreds of other families on the same mission trip that you are on along with all the staff and volunteers around the country who have been many times and are great leaders!

5.    DIVINE PLACEMENT 
Psalms 68:5-6 – Father to the fatherless, defender of widows—this is God, whose dwelling is holy. God places the lonely in families.

6.    SPECIALIZED PRE-MISSION TRIP TRAINING
For those wanting to go even deeper and truly experience a life changing REAL MISSION TRIP, we provide training by experienced speakers in many locations around the country. Learn about cultural differences, language barriers (how to smash them) and hear from past host children who were later adopted. You’ll also hear from past host families who discovered that the blessing they THOUGHT they were giving to their host child, came back to them a million times more!  Your mission team leaders will explain and share how, as a family, you can get the most from your mission. On line discussion groups and bonus conference calls from the team’s director provide an even greater understanding of what to expect, how to handle specific situations and get the most from the entire mission trip!

7.     MEET JESUS! HE COMES RIGHT INTO YOUR OWN HOME! 
Matthew 18:5 – And anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf is welcoming me.

8.    REALIZE THE CAUSE OF THE FATHERLESS; MAKE A DIFFERENCE
Some of the world’s fatherless children have a lot to give! Learn from them while you share His love and be the hands and feet of Christ to a child who might never see or feel this without your participation! Build their self-esteem and feeling of self-worth while showing them they DO have a Father! 1 Thes 2:8 – We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us.

9.   FREE STUFF! 
Every family who signs up to host a child receives the following, absolutely and completely by grace: blessings, love, attention from a child who never had much, and God’s love and appreciation for eternity! You might even be the first person who ever gave a hug to the child you receive as your mission AND get their first one offered in return!

10. BEAUTIFUL WEATHER
Isaiah 58:10 – If you feed those who are hungry and take care of the needs of those who are troubled, then your light will shine in the darkness, and you will be bright like sunshine at noon.

Plus One more to think about…  Don’t be stagnant. Go out and DO ministry, DO missions and GO fishing for the KING! Realize, all disciples are Christians, but not all Christians are disciples. Be a DISCIPLE!

Matthew 25:40 – Then the King will say, ‘I’m telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.’

For photos and bios of each of our MISSION CHILDREN:

 to get more information about going on a summer mission trip with us!

Can you think of reasons we missed?  Tell us on the New Horizons Facebook page! (If you “LIKE” our page, we have a donor giving NHFC $1 towards a child’s scholarship fund! We have already raised $2600 and have a total of $5000 available!)

May God bless you on this journey with us!
Le Ann Dakake
Director of Hosting Programs and MISSION TRIPS :>

Psalm 82:3 – Defend the weak and the orphans; defend the rights of the poor and suffering.

 

 

 

By: Katie John

For those who have wondered what hosting is like, the best way I can describe it is a 5 week crash course in all the stages of parenthood from infancy to adulthood. (While each child and family is unique, and experiences vary, this is a description of a typical hosting experience. My family and many other families have had similar stories.)

The anticipation of waiting for your child’s arrival is like the intense level of anticipation while you’re pregnant. You don’t know exactly what’s coming, but you’re totally stoked for it anyway (along with a healthy dose of fear and nerves). When the child arrives, you fall into each other’s arms… complete strangers and yet in love already.

The first few days are just a disorientated state of not knowing how to handle anything. On day 1 of our very first host experience, my husband and I were fumbling with the translator software to figure out how to communicate with our host daughter. We fumbled with hand motions, drawings, translations… everything. We did a horrible job with it, and at one point I mentioned to him how it was very much like learning to make a bottle when we first brought our newborn home from the hospital. I was a new mother and massively distraught over the fact that I could not piece the bottle together to feed my baby when we got home from the hospital. It just wasn’t working. Milk was spilling everywhere, and I couldn’t figure the darn thing out. (In my defense, Playtex VentAire bottles are ridiculously complicated and should be banished. The end.) It took me 4 bottle making attempts before I actually got one put together with the milk sealed inside. By then I was frazzled, and baby was screaming. haha! Welcome to motherhood! That’s about how frazzled we were for the first couple of days. You just don’t know how to interact with your non-English speaking child until you are thrown head first into the situation to flail around and eventually figure it out. (Going into our 4th hosting, we are getting much better at this.)

The constant intensity of these 5 weeks is much like the first 3 months of parenting. You are EXHAUSTED, lacking in sleep, constantly providing care, support, and new experiences for your child, trying to find extra hours in the day to keep up with your friends, the bills that need to be paid, the research that needs to be done, the alone time you need with your spouse, the bible study book that is waiting to be cracked open, the pile of laundry, etc… and you would sell your right arm for a good 3 hour nap. But there’s no room for that in the schedule, so you keep going. New mothers just keep pushing through the sleep deprivation and plow forward. You wait for a second wind, third wind, fourth wind… by the time you’re done hosting, you’ve probably gone through about 50 extra winds

Over the next couple of weeks you experience many phases of parenthood. When it comes to manners, nobody has ever really showed these children! So we go back to how we taught our 2 year old children… for example, if we want them to learn to say thank you, we say it for them every time. You take the time to model it in front of them every single opportunity you get. It takes a week or two, but they start catching on. It’s the same with other polite statements (Please, I’m sorry, Excuse me, etc…).

When it comes to saying no, you’d better be prepared to draw a line in the sand and lovingly stand firm like you would with a 3-5 year old. Do not cave, or you’ve just undermined your own authority. They will push on the boundary to see if you crack. Both of my kids did that frequently during their preschool years.

You have to teach them (just like you teach your young children) the importance of hygiene, bathing, changing clothes every day, brushing teeth, etc… At first you wonder why they don’t already do this stuff. But remember, your own kids did not come out of the womb knowing how to brush their teeth and do laundry. You taught them as they grew! It’s the same for host kids. They just need someone to teach them. When it comes to these things, you show them how everything works, but teach them in a non-babyish way so they can also maintain their dignity as teenagers while they learn what kids in families already had the opportunity to learn at much younger ages.

Moving on up to the grade school years, you have to teach them English words and phrases just like teaching a first grader. Flash cards, repetition, etc… “Cat! Dog! House! Banana!” Oh, and offer jubilant praise for any kind of success. Our first host child looked at me in shock when I told her I was proud of her… I don’t think they get that kind of praise very much. She was disinterested in learning until I got crazy happy the first time she said something in English. Children LOVE positive reinforcement. After that she asked me the word for all sorts of items around the house (probably just to see me flip out with glee and gushing praise. LOL!).

There are definitely behavioral issues to deal with. Depending on the scenario on any given day, they may have “8 year old” behavior issues or “15 year old” behavior issues. Or it may be some sort of mutant mix of both. In any case, you’re suddenly thrown into the phase of parenthood that is dealing with a very emotional teenager. Lord help me! I had no experience in this area when we first hosted, but hey… I’m learning fast.

As the days turn into weeks, you begin to look at pictures of day 1 compared to current pictures and realize just how far you’ve come and what a change in demeanor you can clearly see. That’s when you sort of realize, “My baby is growing up.” Well, that’s not exactly what you say, but it’s the same concept. The smiling girl who constantly says “Thank you” and is beginning to accept when you say no and skips through the house with joy is NOTHING like the child you picked up at the airport. You look at the calendar and realize just how little time you have left and remind yourself not to waste a single moment.

As you reach the final days, it’s like getting ready to send your grown child off to college. It’s a cruel world out there, no matter where you are on this earth. Your precious child is going out from under your roof, and you have to let go and commit them into God’s hands for safe keeping. You pray you made a difference in their lives and that they will remember what you’ve taught them about life and the God who loves them. Then you give hugs and kisses and let go.

It’s a 5 week crash course in parenthood, and then you come home from the airport, collapse onto your couch, look around, and realize there’s one more phase of parenthood left… the empty nest. It’s a feeling of deep love for that child you never saw coming….