This page was exported from Shelburne Free Press [ https://shelburnefreepress.ca ] Export date:Thu Mar 28 20:54:52 2024 / +0000 GMT ___________________________________________________ Title: A Special Thank You to the Dufferin Veterans Association --------------------------------------------------- Dear editor: Every Wednesday at 10 a.m. I have coffee with the members of the Dufferin Veterans Association, led by Ross Warman of the Shelburne Legion Branch #220. A few months ago I shared with the veterans that I was not going to be around for the next meeting as I would be off to Haiti where I and Abiding Place Fellowship support an orphanage together with Global Christian Ministry Forum. The orphanage, or I should like it to be called a children's home instead, is located in Croix Des Bouquets (this is the reason we call the home “The Little Bouquet Children's Home”), which is in the suburbs of Port au Prince. It is here that the earth quake took place in 2010 when 250,000 people died. If that was not bad enough, after the earthquake there was a severe cholera outbreak which killed a further 4,500 people and is still a great concern even to this day. The veterans asked me some questions about what I would be doing there this time – I go at least once a year, so I told them what I was up to and why. My main job while I was there was to fix up the solar panels and add more batteries to help make enough power to run our fridge all night, so the medicine for the children would not go off and become ineffective because of the heat. I also shared that we as a church continue to send money on a regular basis to help support the children's schooling (it costs $35 a month to send one child to school), and also to assist with additional costs; to feed them, cloth them, to keep the property running, gas for the generator to pump the water from the well up on to the roof into two 6,000 gal tanks, vehicles to take the children to school, also for the upkeep of the home itself – where there are children, there is broken stuff! After I finished sharing the members decided to pass a ‘donation plate' around, to send some money with me to help our children in Haiti. I was not expecting anything from them, and I was deeply touched and very grateful. I do not push these kinds of issues on our great heroes of our past; most of our veterans are on social assistance and old age pensions. I know they did this with great sacrifice to their own needs. As their chaplain I find it a great honor to look out for their spiritual needs, though, at times, they can teach me a thing or two about sacrifice and generosity and laying down one's life. So, for me it is not right to ask them for help, I feel they have helped enough and it is our time to help them! But, I was most greatly touched by this act of sacrifice and generosity, and by the fact that they really sincerely wanted to help! How could I say no! So now I want to publicly thank them from the bottom of my heart. May God bless you all! Not only am I thanking you, but the children from our home in Haiti, also want to thank you! When I left the home in Haiti the extra solar panels and batteries the vets helped provide for had the fridge running through the night; now we do not have to worry about the medicines going off. The veteran's gift was a much needed help, and a real blessing. Thank you once again. Rev. Gord Horsley, Padre to Branch #220 and Senior Pastor at Abiding Place Fellowship --------------------------------------------------- Images: --------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- Post date: 2015-04-30 08:53:40 Post date GMT: 2015-04-30 12:53:40 Post modified date: 2015-05-07 08:24:26 Post modified date GMT: 2015-05-07 12:24:26 ____________________________________________________________________________________________ Export of Post and Page as text file has been powered by [ Universal Post Manager ] plugin from www.gconverters.com