September  2012         "Oaks from Ashes; Communities from Ruins"
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Leading Edge Acorn
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Donald Helmer

 

Greetings!

 

Jesus taught that the heart of the law is to love God and our neighbor. In the Old Testament Law, God laid out a simple way anyone can check the moral health of a nation. A country demonstrates how just it is by the way it treats the fatherless, the widows or the strangers from other nations. Deut. 10.18. Read more


I am not surprised that one of the first "rebuilding" actions that churches took in Eastern Europe and Eurasia to restore the health of their communities was to start loving unwanted children. Projects are well underway to educate foster children, to introduce the gospel to orphans and to care for the needs of the children of strangers whether they are Roma on hillside of Sofia or as far away as Africa.


By His grace,
Don sig blue
Manager - Leading Edge International
THE FIRST TIME OUR CHILDREN PRAYED
Summer Camp

 

YFC Poland: Volunteers from the UK and US joined us to run two children's camps this

summer. Both included orphans who now live with foster families. Combining games, outdoor activities, crafts and English lessons these camps are a blast for kids who rarely get away from their everyday lives.

 

"Early in the camp our hearts were broken as we listened to some of those children tell the stories about terrible things they had experienced in their short lives. We urgently wanted to show them as much of God's love as possible during the camp.

 

In the evening we built friendships, worshipped and prayed together.

 

On the last night of the camp in Koszalin (northern Poland), the 55 children who attended invited their families and friends to come to a closing meeting. They showed off folk dances, sang Christian songs and shared Bible lessons they had learned.

 

Parents heard some of them pray, often for the first time. Children talked with God in a slogan-free, direct manner with joy on their faces. We all were challenged to be more like these little children who so genuinely trusted their heavenly Father no matter how their earthly parents had mistreated them."
Praise Gate Children's Home
Praise Gate boys
Shelter in Kenya

INTEGRA MALAIKA: Ten years ago a Kenyan couple, Allan and Lucy, started feeding street children who gathered at the back door of the restaurant they own.

 

Now they gather these children into a home outside the city called Praise Gate Children's Home. Children get food, counseling and a chance to go to school. Praise Gate helps 38 kids now, many born on the street, to mothers who live on the street. For such children, theft, glue sniffing and early sexual experience is the circle of life. School is a distant dream.

 

Integra is satisfied that Allan and Lucy can use financial support wisely and have added Praise Gate as a new Malaika project.


 

'We will not replace what the Kenyans can do for themselves. Our part will be to help finish the job of sending all 38 Praise Gate children through High School and some on to college. We are also excited for the Slovak parents and children who will have their world-view transformed as they interact with the children they sponsor."

 

Pray with us that sponsors for all 38 kids sign up by December, so they can begin high school in January.

 

See the Praise Gate kids singing on Facebook.
Summer Camp Stories from Ukraine
Bartek
Bartek and Zhanna

 

MISSION TO THE EAST: Bartek (Polish) and his wife Zhanna (Ukrainian) moved to Rivne, Ukraine last fall. This summer they led a number of outreach camps for communities in the region. Read stories in their own words of how it went.

 

This fall with ARKA's help they and four colleagues will open a Language school. There is a lot of work to complete to get registered. Please pray this can be completed in time to start meeting local people to recruit students. Meanwhile work with young people and churches in Orziv and Rivne continues.

ARKA School Fall Festival
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ARKA students
2012 School exam results are in for ARKA in Wroclaw. Teachers and staff are very excited that their students ranked among the top schools in their region! Enrollment for this fall is a record 151 which will certainly help the budget.

September 15th we celebrated this great start to the year with several hundred under bright blue skies at the Annual "School Festival Day".

SLOT Leaders in Training
Slot volunteers
SLOT Volunteers

SLOT began a two year training program for a core team of volunteers. Out of 1000 who help occasionally every year, 30 have been selected for year round training. These will help launch smaller regional festivals around the country during the year. A work in Krakow has begun that attracts close to 1000 visitors to a regional festival 2-3 times a year.

 

Pray for these 30 leaders to grow in skills, their calling and their maturity in Christ.

In This Issue
Praying the First Time
Street Children in Kenya
Summer Camp: Ukraine
ARKA Festival
SLOT Leaders
Pray for Us
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Prayer Focus: Poland
Polish couple

90% of Poles are Catholic and more than half are faithful religious observers. 0.3% or 110 thousand are Evangelicals.
 

The Lord can swiftly change the "least to a 1000" Isa. 60.22 Pray the few who labor do not grow weary or tired. Isa. 40.31

 

* Download Prayer Page

My Missionary Moment
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Faith in Practice

This summer a helper at the Mission to the East camp in the Ukraine shared what God had taught her.

 

"During the camp I spent a lot of time talking to one girl, but was never brave enough to tell her that she needed Jesus. Later God gave me the courage to ask for a serious talk. She told me that she wanted to change but didn't know how to do that. Later that evening we prayed together to God to change her life and make her more like Christ. God was very close to us both that night. He taught me how to struggle with my fears and to believe in my strength in Him."

 

Board of Trustees

Neil Lessman - Russia
John McNichols - Fishers, IN
Don Helmer - Noblesville, IN
Jane Lessman - Russia

 
Partners

Mike Choby
 

BULGARIA

D3 Navigators

PR Slaveikov School
 

CZECH REPUBLIC

HUNGARY

Steve & Lidia Herrmann


KENYA, ETHIOPIA

Malaika
 

POLAND

Arka School

Julie Clegg

Daybreak

Mission to the East

Hannah Schoen
 

SLOT

YFC Poland
 

ROMANIA

D3 Generations
 

RUSSIA

Don & Sheryl Helmer

Integra Russia

Mirt Ministry Center

Neil & Jane Lessman
 

SLOVAK REPUBLIC

C.S. Lewis School

Ken & Karol Christie

D3 Association

Integra Group
 

UKRAINE

Victor & Darla D'Ettorre
 

Pray for Us
* Refreshed leaders after Oct. 5-7 CEP Conference
* Bartek and Zhanna register a language school.

* Children at School No. 4 who learned of God at camp this summer see Him change their hearts and behavior.

* Growth in spiritual maturity for 30 SLOT volunteers training as regional festival leaders.

* Solve overcrowded classrooms - ARKA, Poland

 * 38 sponsors for Malaika's "Praise Gate" project by December.

 

 
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 Leading Edge International * PO Box 1893 * Noblesville, IN 46061
Phone: (317) 490-6536 Fax: (317) 495-9892