Stromstad News

Friends, family and supporters!

Thank you for joining our mailing list and reading these words! What a blessing. We are able to do what we do because of you who back us and our mission.

Recently one of the Tias resigned so she could prepare to get married! It was so fun to hear her give testimony of how God has changed her life as a result of coming to work at Hogar de Vida more than a year ago! We get to see many lives transformed here. One of my fears is that I get so used to seeing lives changed that I forget to give thanks to the Lord.

This mission was HIS idea and it is so cool to see the lives of children and workers and teams being changed because they came into this HOGAR!

Last Sunday we had our Costa Rica annual meeting. I am including a couple notes from my Presidents report here.

July 2014 - June 2015

• We had 65 children in our homes here. 14 were able to rejoin their family, 2 children were transferred to another NGO (non-governmental organization) and 17 children were adopted into their new Costa Rican family!!!!
• The money from the Chili Fiesta fund raiser is going into rewiring the all of House 1 so it is up to code.
• I drew $6,000 dollars from COPI that donors gave to our "EXPANSION" account to add a needed baby room to House 3. This room is now used for babies 0 - 6 months who need nightly feedings. This enables the Tias to rotate so at least a few of them get a good night's sleep!

That's enough on that! Many more things have happened, but all of you can feel good about supporting this mission and the missionaries! We love it and are grateful to the Lord for enabling us get to do what we do here.

I suspect that some of our readers out there wonder about how we are set up organizationally and who oversees us, so I'll give a few facts about how the two missions, our sending agency and the Stromstads fit together.

Children of Promise International is based in Centerville, OH. (www.promise.org) The founder of COPI was a professor at the seminary where I studied from 1983-85. We joined COPI in 1988 when we first went to the mission field in Haiti. Yes we were actually 25 years old when we started!!! COPI is what many call a para-church mission. It is a 501c3 nonprofit organization as recognized by the IRS. They hold the donations you give to the homes in Costa Rica and Guatemala and to us, the Stromstads, and send the funds to us when needed. COPI also provides the accounting, reporting, and receipts as required by the IRS, as well as providing counsel and guidance.

In 2008, the COPI board decided to pass on 100% of all donations for the purpose designated by the donor. COPI's own administrative expenses would be covered by other sources. For example, if I request financial support to help Costa Rica or Guatemala or the Stromstads, you just drop a note in with your check, or on line, or using PayPal; or email a note to COPI requesting a certain amount of funds go to Costa Rica Workers and another amount to CR Expansion. 100% of donations show up in the categories that the donor requests. I get a monthly report from COPI showing what is in each of our donor designated accounts and make a request for funds as needed.

We are extremely thankful for COPI and all they do to empower us to do what the Lord has called us to.

Hogar de Vida Costa Rica and Hogar de Vida Guatemala are both children's homes that Dena and I founded. Both have legal NGO or non-profit organization status in their respective countries. Both have members and the members elect a Board of Directors. I (Tim) have served as President of the Board in Costa Rica in all but 2010 when we were on sabbatical. All the funds that are sent to the homes from COPI go into the homes' mission accounts. Here in Costa Rica the reporting is every 6 months and we have to report to 4 different Costa Rican governmental departments.

I hope this newsletter was informative and interesting to you. Some people like to know more about how things work behind the scenes. If you have more detailed questions please send them to info@homesoflife.org and we will get you all the answers that we can!

Thanks again and keep us in your prayers!

Hugs from Tim, Dena and Maria