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Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Make Your Year-end Gift Count

As we wrap up 2011, we know a lot of you out there are looking for the right place to invest your year-end tax-deductible gift. We would like you to consider investing that gift in The Sound of Hope. We’ve had a wildly successful year thanks to many generous donors. Our organization’s revenue has grown by 1,209% in 2011. That growth means a greater impact in the lives of hundreds of orphans and at-risk children around the world.

To be more specific, last year (in our first year of operation as a 501c3 organization) we were able to release $3,200.00 to care for our children overseas. This year, we released $100,667.57 to the Children’s Homes and Children’s Programs we are partnered with in Thailand, India, and Swaziland!

We are beyond excited to see this increase in giving. You see, we’ve spent 5 months of this year traveling to and living in 2 of the countries where we have partnerships - Thailand and India - and we have seen the needs of these children first hand. Our bottom line is simple - the more you give, the more we can do for these kids. More money means more children rescued from poverty, drug-trafficking, sex-trafficking, genocide, disease, and abuse. More funding means more children living in safe, loving homes - and more children with an opportunity for an education! 


We know that, as a donor, you want to see the greatest impact made with your year-end financial gift. By giving to The Sound of Hope, your gift will drastically impact many lives. I know this because we’ve put money in the hands of our local partners, and seen in person how they use that money. Our overseas partnerships are built on face-to-face relationships. So you can trust us with your sacrificial financial gift.

Right now we have 3 pressing needs:

1 - The Asha Mission Land Project - We need $36,000 for this project by mid-January, with another $180,000 by July.  The Asha Mission Children’s Home in Delhi, India is home to 33 children, but they only have 2 small bedrooms. Over half of the little boys and girls there must sleep on the cold, concrete floor every night. This Children’s Home needs to expand, and the best way to do that is to buy their own land and build a permanent home. Money given to this fund will go directly to purchase this land.

2 - The HOPE Fund - Money given to this fund will be disbursed evenly to the Children’s Homes and Children’s Programs we are partnered with in Swaziland, India, and Thailand. These funds are used for needs like food, clothing, rent, transportation, school fees, and medical care.

3 - The ADMIN Fund - In order to do this full-time work of fundraising, empowering and advocating for our kids around the world, we need funds to operate our organization. Donations given to the ADMIN Fund provide for our operational expenses, salaries, and travel expenses so that we can work around the clock for hundreds of children trapped in horrific poverty.

One thing we do well as an organization is bring you, the donor, face-to-face with the projects you support. During our trips overseas, we broadcast “real-time” video updates from the field. We believe it’s important for you to know the needs of the children and precisely how your contribution is being used.  Here is an example from a recent project in India.


We are anxious to get to Swaziland in 2012, so that we can share the stories and needs of the children in Nsoko - but we can’t do it without your help! Because donors like you have invested in The Sound of Hope ADMIN Fund we’ve been able to make many direct and intimate impacts around the world in 2011.

2011 PROJECTS ::

As you can see, we’ve had a very successful year!  But the truth is, we are only as successful as our donors are generous. So THANK YOU for giving and partnering with us this year. We hope you’ll continue to help us give HOPE to children around the world by giving a year-end gift today!

Click on your fund of choice to donate online (Asha Mission Land Fund - HOPE Fund - ADMIN Fund) or mail your tax-deductible donation to The Sound of Hope - PO Box 534 - Helena, AL - 35080.

Many thanks & Happy New Year!

Rusty & Ericka Jackson
Co - Founders
The Sound of Hope


ps - We have a lot of exciting projects planned for the coming year, including starting a Children’s Library in each of the homes we support, and starting a school in a slum in India. Please help us continue our work in 2012!

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Videos GALORE!

Right now jet-lag is whipping my tail!

I've been up for FIVE HOURS, and it's only 830AM!

I'm posting this blog for all you folks who don't get on Facebook much. During our six weeks in India and Thailand, Ericka and I put together 12 videos. Below is each video starting from the first one to the last one. I realize if you are getting this blog post in your email, then you can't see the videos inside your email - you'll have to actually click on the Vimeo link, or visit my blog. Yes I know, it's inconvenient, BUT the videos are worth it. They are all short, so please enjoy!


Thursday, December 15, 2011

Success, and Upcoming Challenge

One of the things I was looking forward to the most on this trip was seeing our Thai partners and their NEW children's home. Back in January we started fundraising for this project - The Promised Land, and a couple months ago we/they bought the house! (You can read more about that HERE.) So this trip was our first chance to see it in person!

WOW! That's all I can say! We are SO honored to be a part of this project - and GRATEFUL! Banya and Rapee are people of such great character and honor, we'd couldn't be happier for them. They have a great vision to rescue and raise orphans and at-risk kids. We know they'll do great, and after 27 years of praying and believing - this is a HUGE victory for them!

AND, it's a HUGE victory for our organization, The Sound of Hope. Ericka and I have busted our butts this year and made a TON of sacrifices. So, it's wonderful to see the fruits of our labor! I can't tell you how good it feels to take on a HUGE project and see it finished!

HOWEVER, we did NOT do this alone - without our wonderful donors, we are useless. We had TONS of people give and sacrifice for this project, one BIG donor in particular. We are GRATEFUL for these people, because of THEIR sacrifice, Rapee and Pastor Banya are now LIVING their dream! How cool is that! THIS is what it's all about - empowering local people to fulfill their dreams to serve God and their communities.

Here's a TWO MINUTE video update we put together the other day.


But, I'm learning in this line of work you don't sit around patting yourself on the back. You get ready and gear up for the next big fundraising campaign.

And boy we got a BIG one coming up.

$200,000!

In SEVEN months!

And we need $36,000 by mid-January!

God showed up BIG TIME this past year in the Promised Land project, and we need Him to do it again this year.

We're making a big push to help our local Indian contacts buy a piece of land in New Delhi. The home the kids currently live in is too small. And the bottom line is this - if you really want to grow and expand, you need to own your own land and house - something that is not currently the case for our people at Asha Mission.


So, I'm asking you guys to sow into this by clicking HERE. Don't be intimidated by the total needed - any amount will help. We NEED you guys, because without you - our projects will not get off the ground.

We're only as successful as you are generous!

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Catching you up...

This is a guest post from my wife, Ericka. She does a great job of catching ya'll up from the past 10 days.

Sorry guys for the lack of blogs! My last update was on Thanksgiving in India, which means I'm way behind on all we've been up to overseas.To say things have been busy would be an understatement. Let me try to (quickly) catch you up!

Here are the highlights...

After our time at Asha Mission, and Asha House in Delhi - we headed to Kolkata for a few days to visit the third Children's Home we support - Asha Mission Kolkata (founded by the same people who founded Asha Mission Delhi). This is home to 15 little boys, and we loved spending time with them! While we were there we found out they were sleeping on the cement floor and getting sick from the cold weather (because they couldn't afford mattresses or warm blankets.) So we bought them all new pillows and thick blankets for the winter, and then (thanks to our awesome donors) we were able to raise the funds for new mattresses! Check out the video here...



Asha Mission - Kolkata from The Sound of Hope on Vimeo.

After 3 days with the kids in Kolkata, we finally took a much-needed day off. For some reason we didn't schedule any off-days between the 3 orphanages, brothel, and leper colony this trip, and we now know what a mistake that was! We would work all day at the Children's Homes, travel for hours in Indian traffic, and then come back to the hotel for 4 (or more) hours of video/blog/internet work before falling into bed around midnight or 1am. We were seriously worn out by this point (day 15 of the trip). We'll definitely do a better job of planning some rest into our next trip!

After our rest day we flew back to Delhi. I spent 2 days shopping for merchandise for The Sound of Hope, and let me tell you - that was an adventure all by itself! These ladies don't like to take "no" for an answer. At one point one saleswoman had me by one arm - Rusty had me by the other - and both were pulling as hard as they could! I felt like a human wishbone! (I seriously wish we had a pic of that - LOL!) But I am happy to report that we got some extremely beautiful handmade products that I know many of you are going to love! We're planning a big fundraising event for next November (in B'ham) where we'll be having a silent auction with these items - so keep an eye out to find out how you can be a part of it! 

Our last day in India was one of the busiest, but best days of our trip. We spent the day with Babu John - the founder of both Asha Mission Children's Homes. He shared so much with us about his vision for these homes, the children we care for, and also about the issues orphans and vulnerable children face in India. He also took us to visit the Chauma Slum, and what we saw broke our hearts. I'll be reposting my blog about our time there soon, but I'll go ahead and share our video now. You see, we've decided to plant a school in this slum, and we want YOU to be a part of it! 


Chauma Slum - Delhi, India from The Sound of Hope on Vimeo.

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We said our goodbyes at Asha Mission (Delhi) later that night, and got some beautiful gifts from the children. We also got to celebrate 2 of the kids birthdays with them! It's tradition here for the staff to feed the kids all bites of the birthday cake (kind of like the bride & groom at a wedding in America). Of course, they also smash icing all over their faces and everyone has a good laugh!

Here's the birthday girl, Leel...


And the birthday boy, Ramlal!


We sure are going to miss these two (as well as all the other sweet little boys and girls at all 3 homes here!) India is a very difficult country to visit (it's really rough on your health), but being with the kids  makes it all worth it!

The next day, it was time to fly to Thailand! The plan was to have 3 days to rest in Pattaya, before heading back up to Chiang Mai. Unfortunately, our plan didn't really work out. Our first day in Pattaya ended up being the only day Rusty's 81 year old cousin Sam could visit with us, so we stayed awake for around 36 hours straight! (It sure was good to see him and our Thai friend Thida though!) After that we were just going to sleep in for 2 days and lay by the pool... but our health issues kind of ruined that. We think we both got parasites in India (I guess that's a risk when you are eating in brothels and leper colonies!) and had to take parasite meds for 3 days. Then, I had a serious allergic reaction to the bedding in the hotel (I think it was the detergent the sheets were washed in). I was pretty much covered in a red, itchy rash from head to toe for 4 days. Pretty miserable to say the least! I'm glad to report that after our parasite meds, lots of benadryl, and prescription strength steroid cream we are both feeling much better!

After our (itchy) days in Pattaya, we flew back up to Chiang Mai and immediately hit the road! No rest for the weary! We drove to Mae Sariang to visit the new Children's Home we bought a few months ago (video to come soon) and then headed to the refugee camp to visit the 19 kids at The Refuge for a Christmas party! It was SO good to see them all again. We were really encouraged to see how well they are doing and also to see the new home. We can't wait to share the details with you!

Until then though - here's a pic of some of our kids at The Refuge in their Christmas hats. We had so much fun together!


... and now you're all caught up! (Well, with the basics anyway!) We still have a LOT more stories, videos, and pics to share - so I promise to post more later. I can't believe how fast time is flying by! We only have 6 days left in Thailand, and we still have so much to do!

I'll end for now by saying a big THANK YOU to everyone who's been following our work on our personal blogs, vimeo, facebook, twitter, and The Sound of Hope blog. It has been so encouraging to get your comments and messages, and to see you reposting our videos and blogs! It's great to know you are here with us "in spirit"! We really couldn't do this work without you!

Thursday, December 8, 2011

BLESSED are the Poor

In just a few short verses Jesus spoke words that turned the world on its head.

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
"Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted."
"Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth."
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled."

I've spent a lot of time reading over those verses the last few weeks. I guess that's a by product of who I've been hanging out with - prostitutes, lepers, the homeless, the abandoned, and the orphaned - people that have been forgotten by this world.

If we TRULY believe what Jesus says in the Bible, then these people - the "outcasts" - are called BLESSED by God himself.

And if that is TRULY the case, shouldn't we do everything in our power to invest in their lives.

My last morning in Delhi a few days ago was spent in a forgotten area of the city called the Chauma Slum. The people that live in this slum do trash for a living. What I mean is, they pick it, sort it, recycle it, sell it, eat it, wear it, and LIVE IN IT!

God calls these people BLESSED!

The children here are beautiful, yet they are living in such hopelessness.

I know we can't rescue every child - I wish we could. The three children's homes we support in India are all full of kids and short on space. However, the house dad at one of our homes has been coming down to the Chauma Slum twice a week for the last 6 months, building relationships and working to meet the NUMEROUS physical needs of the kids. He's also been giving simple oral lessons.

So, the day we were with him in the slum we started talking about doing a little more. Sharma says they want to build a simple structure ($175) and rent a small plot of land ($200) in the slum. If he could get that, then reaching and teaching up to 35 kids could happen.

Here's a look at what we saw that day. Will YOU help us plant a school in Chauma Slum? Will you invest in the lives of these GOD BLESSED people?