HAITI TRIP

The dates for the next mission trip will be November 10-15. The cost will be approximately $925.00 depending on where you are flying from. This will include everything but lunches and we will carry items to prepare our own.

The gatehouse at the new school needs to be completed to accommodate mission groups. Some of the needs are for maintenance, painting, tile, plumbing, working with the ladies, and helping teachers. If you have an ability, they have a need. One of the two missionaries takes in small children who are sick or malnourished and she is in desperate need of baby beds. We need a carpenter who can make them. We also need a mechanic who could work on Sherrie's vehicles.

If there is something you might be interested in but have questions, call Jim at
(904)704-8715.

Haiti Update

I wanted to share with you about our latest trip to Haiti. We hit the ground running and pretty much ran all week. It is one of the few trips where we were able to do everything on our agenda. The small MAF plane that flew us all over Haiti to our mission bases was the same plane that Debbie and I flew in many times in the jungle. It was not the one we crashed in, that one is still in the bottom of the Padamo River. This one was part of the Venezuela MAF program. When the Venezuela program shut down, this plane was relocated to Haiti. I felt right at home! One of our board members, Dr. McCarthy, was there with her medical team and saw patients from all over, but most important they saw 49 precious souls receive Christ. Another board member, Mark Cleland, and his daughter Casey along with my sister Donna were on our team. I was honored to preach a little and we were able to help some with the feeding program, the school staff and medical program; but our goal was to get to know better and encourage our wonderful missionaries that struggle day in and day out all over Haiti.

I think the most touching time to me was when a small boy brought his infant brother to the medical team asking for help. He had been taking the little fellow to the voodoo witchdoctor for a while but the baby was no better. When the doctor looked at the baby she realized that he probably had only hours to live. He was blind with gonorrhea in his eyes and his mother had just died from aids so he probably had it also. He was also very dehydrated. The last we heard about little Lavinsky was the family decided to leave him with the missionary and he was improving. (Lavinsky is the baby pictured.) It made me realize once again how fortunate we are here in the states and how needy people are all over the world.

Thank you for your prayers and financial support as we work to take the love of Christ to the utter most parts of the world.

For more information about a mission trip to Haiti,
please contact Jim Hambrick at (904) 704-8715, or
Email: Jim@christianlightfoundation.com
Mark your calendars! Our next scheduled trip is November 10-15.

If you would like to make a tax deductible contribution to our ministry,
you may mail your checks to:

Christian Light Foundation
P.O. Box 23881
Jacksonville, Florida 32241-3881
Indicate on your check: For Jim & Debbie Hambrick

You may also give ONLINE at:

Christianlightfoundation.com
Follow Link for Online Giving.
Indicate on Ministry Line: Jim & Debbie Hambrick

How many saturdays do you have left?

Worth the Read!

This is really something to keep in mind as you wish for each weekend to hurry and get here...

The older I get, the more I enjoy Saturday mornings. Perhaps it's the quiet solitude that comes with being the first to rise, or maybe it's the unbounded joy of not having to be at work. Either way, the first few hours of a Saturday morning are most enjoyable.A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward the garage with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other.

What began as a typical Saturday morning turned into one of those lessons that life seems to hand you from time to time. Let me tell you about it:I turned the dial up into the phone portion of the band on my ham radio in order to listen to a Saturday morning swap net. Along the way, I came across an older sounding chap, with a tremendous signal and a golden voice. You know the kind; he sounded like he should be in the broadcasting business. He was telling whom-ever he was talking with something about 'a thousand marbles.' I was intrigued and stopped to listen to what he had to say

'Well, Tom, it sure sounds like you're busy with your job. I'm sure they pay you well but it's a shame you have to be away from home and your family so much. Hard to believe a young fellow should have to work sixty or seventy hours a week to make ends meet. It's too bad you missed your daughter's 'dance recital' he continued. ;'Let me tell you something that has helped me keep my own priorities.' And that's when he began to explain his theory of a 'thousand marbles.

''You see, I sat down one day and did a little arithmetic. The average person lives about seventy-five years. I know, some live more and some live less, but on average, folks live about seventy-five years.'Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with 3900, which is the number of Saturdays that the average person has in their entire lifetime. Now, stick with me, Tom, I'm getting to the important part.It took me until I was fifty-five years old to think about all this in any detail', he went on, 'and by that time I had lived through over twenty-eight hundred Saturdays.' 'I got to thinking that if I lived to be seventy-five, I only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy. So I went to a toy store and bought every single marble they had. I ended up having to visit three toy stores to round up 1000 marbles I took them home and put them inside a large, clear plastic container right here in the shack next to my gear.''Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out and thrown it away. I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused more on the really important things in life.There's nothing like watching your time here on this earth run out to help get your priorities straight.''Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign-off with you and take my lovely wife out for breakfast. This morning, I took the very last marble out of the container. I figure that if I make it until next Saturday then I have been given a little extra time. And the one thing we can all use is a little more time.''It was nice to meet you Tom, I hope you spend more time with your family, and I hope to meet you again here on the band. This is a 75 Year old Man, K9NZQ, clear and going QRT, good morning!'

You could have heard a pin drop on the band when this fellow signed off. I guess he gave us all a lot to think about. I had planned to work on the antenna that morning, and then I was going to meet up with a few hams to work on the next club newsletter.Instead, I went upstairs and woke my wife up with a kiss.. 'C'mon honey, I'm taking you and the kids to breakfast.' 'What brought this on?' she asked with a smile. 'Oh, nothing special, it's just been a long time since we spent a Saturday together with the kids. And hey, can we stop at a toy store while we're out? I need to buy some marbles.

A friend sent this to me, so I to you, my friend.

And so, as one smart bear once said...'If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day, so I never have to live without you.' - Winnie the Pooh.