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Hope
A new year! We enter 2021 with hope, courage, and confidence. 2020 was a difficult year for each of us. In our projects, we see that new plans are being made and that hope and trust are growing, especially now!
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A Merry Christmas to every child
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As Project Held, we wanted to ensure it would be a wonderful Christmas party for vulnerable children, despite everything. Christmas is a time of hope and joy. The past year has been incredibly difficult for many children. How beautiful it is to end the year with a hopeful and happy Christmas. With your support, all children received a present and, in addition to all the beautiful Christmas celebrations, they were able to enjoy a delicious meal. This would not have been possible without your support, thank you very much!
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Double celebration in Mozambique
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In addition to the beautiful Christmas time for the children in Mozambique by Iris Ministries, there was a double celebration in December. A baptismal service was also held in which many children chose to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord. With singing, prayer, and a beautiful baptismal service, this was celebrated in a grand manner. An unforgettable day!
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See here (facebook) and here A Christmas party video from Machava, Mozambique.
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Violence, building, and wondering in Uganda
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As you may have heard in the news, Uganda is in the midst of an election. This brings a lot of unrest and violence. Carolyn: "While gunshots and tear gas are fired in our village, we are locked up in our compound along with all the children, praying continuously for God's grace and protection. The trauma of the war in Sudan has not disappeared. The tension can be read on everyone's face." Let's pray for the protection of the children and the team."
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And yet life goes on as usual despite the elections. A piece of land has been made available for Iris Ministries Uganda for some time now. For years there have been prayers for the financial means to build a new children's home on this land. Two years ago we visited this piece of land with a team from Project Held and had a prayer walk here. And now the time has come! Construction of the first walls has started, what great news!
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That God is a God of abundance is evident from this wonderful story: one evening last week an unknown woman from Kampala came to the children's home with a truck full of cassava, large bags of rice, beans, and soap. She heard someone tell about the children's home and God spoke to her to bring it to them and give it. You can imagine what a party this was; the children danced and shouted for joy!
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Heavy rainfall and meltwater have caused flooding in large parts of Gjakova. Rivers have burst their banks, with all the usual consequences. Families have had to be evacuated because their homes were flooded. The team in Kosovo has delivered additional food parcels to the families affected by the floods. There is also a great need for firewood.
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Through our webshop, you can donate firewood to ensure the elderly in Kosovo stay warm this winter.
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The team from The Bridge delivered additional food parcels to families affected by the floods.
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As we wrote earlier, we went to an elder care facility a number of times with a team from Held@Home to decorate Christmas trees and hand out doughnuts. For example, in January, a small team traveled back to the elder care facility, and they helped with taking away the Christmas trees and cleaned up.
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We are currently exploring ways to assist children from different backgrounds in learning Dutch. We would also like to give out tulips at a nursing home. Therefore, we are not resting on our laurels and would be delighted to involve you as a sponsor, perhaps by joining us, or maybe you have an idea and connections to nursing homes or asylum seeker centers, for example.
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You can send us an email at [email protected]. Our goal is to stop for the one! Will you join us? (Also for our international sponsors. Make a difference in your community and help that one. We'd love to hear from you if you have plans or have already done something for your loved ones.).
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Goats, chickens, and Bibles via the online store
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Besides beautiful cards, bags, and other lovely items available in our webshop, you can also purchase items to donate to our projects. For example, in December, 7 goats and 7 chickens were bought and donated to Hope4Hope in Kenya. Additionally, 9 Bibles were donated to India, and firewood was purchased for Kosovo.
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We have just added a beautiful and useful item to our webshop to enable donations: a sewing machine for widows in India. A sewing machine costs €90 and makes a huge difference in a widow's life. This allows her to generate income and support herself.
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WhatsApp Business for Project Held
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From now on, Project Held has a Business WhatsApp. This means that as a sponsor, you can get in touch with someone from Project Held even faster and easier. You can always reach us via email at [email protected], but from now on, you can also reach us via WhatsApp. We will respond as quickly as possible during office hours.
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We would like to introduce you to Mody. He is one of the children eagerly awaiting a sponsor! With a sponsor, he will be able to attend school, which will make a significant difference for his hopeful future!
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Mody Ashura
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On behalf of our projects and Project Held, thank you very much for your loyal support!
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