It’s Christmas time!

It has been a great but busy past 2 months.  It all started towards the end of October when we were blessed to have an amazing team from our home church, 3 Circle, come and visit with us for a week!  We had 15 people come and spend some time here, meet all the kids and to see what all God is doing here at SCH and in south India.  We hoped to show them some different ways people here are reaching out to their communities.  Of course they were here at SCH meeting all the kids at anchor home, getting to know them, helping us organize the kid’s school room, place some protective barriers on our porches so kids don’t climb up the rails or fall through down the staircases, and also helped with some decorating and painting.  

It is always exciting for us to see our friends meet these amazing kids and to be able to see their faces and their excitement with all that God is doing here.  

It’s also a lot of fun to hear people talk about adoption and their desires to see these kids in forever families.

We have been fortunate over the past 2 years to meet lots of local people doing some other works around Hyderabad and the surrounding areas and we love showing our family and friends those areas also.  There is a great local family here that works with children living in a garbage slum. 

They help provide dinners for the children and also after school studying, tutoring, singing and lots of other fun things.  We were able to take the group their 2 different times, and let them share about their personal stories of God saving them and encourage the kids there.  We also were able to go with another friend of works out in villages, providing whatever care he can, whether it be food, blankets, helping kids get enrolled in school, whatever he and his friends can do to help, all the while building relationships and sharing about Christ and His message of Hope and Salvation.

I have always enjoyed getting out of the city and doing that type of work, and it’s loads of fun for me to see all those city folks from the states come over and jump right in sharing stories, meeting the lady’s, the moms, the kids and talking with them.  From some of the team fees, we were blessed to be able to help 2 kids from the village enroll in school and also able to provide the feeding program here in the city with a salary for a tutor for a year and a year’s supply of cooking gas.  So even though the team is gone for now, they are able to still help for at least of year with these friends of ours.

Of course, some of our closest friends were on the trip, so truly is a huge blessing for us to be around those that we miss all the time.  To be able to strike up conversations, act ourselves, and just hang out and enjoy each other’s company.  And there were even a couple of guys on the trip, which is a little something different than what I’m used to with all the kids and lady volunteers here!  Since we started this journey, our home church, 3 Circle, has been behind us, praying for us, encouraging us, supporting us, and it has made a huge difference in our journey and something that we are extremely thankful for!

Then in November, just about all of Cynthia’s family showed up for a visit!  We had parents, sister’s, brother’s friends, a big ol’ crew and it meant so much to Cynt and me to be able to show them what all is going on here.  They stayed several days with us, meeting all the kids, helping us take family pictures with all the kids, and then we were able to introduce them to some of the culture here.  From eating delicious spicy curry and biryani, to battering at the markets, eating with your hands, fun driving through the streets, lots of honking, and meeting all of our incredible staff here.  Finally it was time for our 6 month visa exit, so the whole family jumped on a plane, taking up 3 rows and headed off to Dubai.  Man, those are some crazy, but amazing malls there.  And beef, lots of beef.  Usually we love taking part in the local culture, experiencing new foods, but this trip was all about missing some parts of America and diving right in and enjoying all the things American in Dubai.  From Shake Shack to Five guys, and back to Shake Shack, and then some Cheesecake Factory, and did I mention Shake Shack?  It was a great time to spend with everyone, resting, having fun, seeing new sights and going snow tubing.  Yes, snow tubing in Dubai.  Me, Maddie and Myra, and then the much older sister in law and Emma, were able to do some snow tubing, sledding, and some snow balls, etc.  Lots of fun for the girls, and me!  Sadly they took off, but we were able to spend a couple more days in Dubai and and enjoy some family time, some good food, and rest. 

 

The past 2 weeks has been about getting ready for Christmas and the girls finishing up their first semester at school.  One of Cynt’s favorite thing around Christmas is the smells of Christmas.  

We were fortunate to have friends and family bring Christmas candles for us to burn, while we have been decorating out tree and the house.  We have received huge support from our friends with help for SCH kids Christmas presents and we are so excited to the kids open their presents of outfits and toys!  We also are looking forward to creating new traditions with them and all of our local caregivers here at Anchor home!  Not only our kids, but all of our staff, including our fearless watchman will get new saree’s and button down shirts!  All from our friends back in the states. Thanks so much for helping with all the needs here.

We have had such a great response, we figured, why not throw some more requests for support before the end of the year. We know so many people have tons of extra money right around Christmas that they are just dieing to unload, for tax benefits of course, before the end of the year, and we have a great way for you to get involved.  One of the things we are excited about with this upcoming year, Anchor home will be setting up its own individual account here in India.  This does several thing, for one, if Anchor home is independent, than all general money donated to SCH, goes to the other homes.  This helps the homes that maybe do not have the advocates we have here in Anchor.  So it frees up money for several other homes, and allows Anchor to take care of its own staff, provisions, bills, etc.  But with that, since our home typically has the most vulnerable and medically compromised children, we have a lot more emergency medical needs than some of the other homes, so we are trying to do a fundraiser to help cover some of our expected upcoming emergency hospitalizations.  This won’t be going towards the surgeries that we try to plan and fundraise for, but for the emergency needs that come up. So you can be apart of helping Anchor home be independent, helping provide medical care, and because of Anchor’s own account, you are also helping all the other homes.  Here is a link where you can join in and partner with Anchor home.  Just click here! Donation Of course this is a tax deductible gift, which I know we all love to take part in.

Besides that we have one last thing, and this you actually can to take with you and enjoy yourself. We are selling t-shirts, because who doesn’t love good comfortable t-shirt which supports a great cause.  We have partnered with Fund the Nations who helped us with our design and will be selling shirts for the next month to help with Anchor home’s medical and education needs.  Here is what the shirt will look like.  We are selling the shirts for $25, that includes shipping.  We have Small/Medium/Large/Xlarge available as supplies last! Here is our paypal account email, 1step1day1mission@gmail.com  In the notes, please put your size and mailing address.  

 

God bless!

-Bakers

 

 

 

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