Thank you so much for participating in Spend Yourself Week with us this year. We hope it was a meaningful experience for you and one that was filled with reflection and unexpected delight. We also hope that you enjoyed focusing on the theme of HOME, and that it brought up many fond memories for you. If not, we pray that the Lord leads you to people and places that become a refuge for you.

So: now what? Spend Yourself Week is supposed to be a reorientation of our hearts, an opportunity to pause before the busy holiday season to refocus and find center in our faith. It’s intended to help us consider the world—and the people—around us. If you participated in the Dig Deeper challenges, you probably stepped outside of your comfort zone, or discovered something about yourself or your community that may have taken you by surprise. We hope that you find people to share these thoughts and ideas with! Spend Yourself Week should not end on Friday… We pray it’s an outpouring that continues for days, weeks, maybe even a lifetime to come.

Besides continuing to seek ways to Spend Yourself, we hope you’ll consider donating the money you saved throughout Spend Yourself Week. There are so many worthwhile charities, and we regularly pray for and support the ministries of other local, national, and international organizations. If you’d like to give to One Body One Hope, we are in the midst of a very exciting capital campaign…

Christ Our Hope North (our second children’s home) began in the fall of 2014. In the wake of the Ebola crisis, COH North was set up to provide for the orphaned children in Foya. The home kicked off with the Dordt College community joining together to raise over $18,000. These funds provided rent for a large building to house the children, as well as mattresses, pots and pans, workers’ wages, a generator, and all the basic supplies to begin the process of caring for the kids. There are currently 40 children living on-site as a part of the COH North family in a small, rented facility.

Now, four years after COH North was founded, it’s time for us to build them a home that reflects the love that already flourishes inside. Thanks to the generous donation of a Liberian friend, we have been gifted the land. Now we need to clear it and build a compound that will be safe, welcoming, and meet the needs of the children in our care. The plans include:

• boys’ and girls’ dormitories

• school

• cafeteria

• church

• home for Pastor Abraham and his family

• well

• playground

• small farm and pig pen

We would be so delighted if you’d join us in reaching our $100,000 goal! To date we have raised just over $35,000 and we are thrilled with how the Lord is already providing. Want to be a part of this story? We’d love your prayers, encouragement, and financial support.

Thank you, everyone! May God bless you in this season and beyond.