Polar Bear Plunge - Freezin' For A Reason - New Years Day

On January 1, we'll be leaving around 10:30 am to go down to North Avenue Beach in Chicago and jump into Lake Michigan at noon. Then we'll head back to Culver's in Frankfort for lunch. The cost - $25 - will cover transportation and lunch and the rest will go to purchase school supplies for the orphans in Honduras (their school year begins in February and the group going to Honduras will be able to buy them down there). If you would like to come, let us know. If you would like to sponsor someone to jump instead of jumping yourself, you can let us know that as well.

Over $12,000 Raised For Orphans and Children In Need!

GOD HAS BLESSED!

There seems to be no other words needed to say than those 3 words above! God has truly blessed Orland Park Church with so many giving and loving hearts!

On Saturday, October 17^th, HHH held an international dinner followed by a live and silent auction. This was event was to raise awareness and funding to support the orphan ministry’s work in providing various events for single parents, foster children, children in orphanages, financial assistance for adoption and other help for children who are without parents.

The international dinner and auction night went so well. It started with many delicious tasting dishes; from Hungarian goulash, Polish sausage, pork stir fry and spaghetti. And of course, fabulous desserts!

There was time before and during dinner to browse about and make your bid on the silent auction items. Then following dinner the live auction began with items from airline tickets, various gift baskets, fabulous oak bench, sport items and tickets.

There also were items such as picture drawings from our little orphanage children, and a special bid donation item toward a refrigerator for the orphanage.

The orphan ministry would like to say a big “THANK YOU” for such a loving support of this ministry! The auction and dinner raised over $12,000! All of these funds will be to the benefit of fatherless children everywhere! And with these funds we raised enough to purchase the refrigerator AND a water tank for the Hogar Amor orphanage in Honduras!

Sunday morning we celebrated our ministry’s 1-year birthday with John Hiskes speaking at both morning services about the orphanage in Honduras followed by birthday cake in the FLC.

If you are interested in helping this ministry please talk to anyone on the Task Force.

HHH International Buffet Dinner & Auction 10-17-09

Dinner Buffet Time: 5:00PM
Auction Time: 6:15 -8:00 PM
Where: Family Life Center at Orland Park Church
Child Care: Provided for infant to 2nd grade from 6:15 - 8:00PM

Items Up For Auction:

• Southwest Airline Passes
• Passes for Chicago Wolves Game
• Dinner Gift Cards for Lettuce Entertain You Restaurants
• Disney One-Day Park Hopper Tickets
• American Girl Ethnic Clothes
• Scrapbooking Supplies Gift Basket
• And much, much more....

All proceeds from the evening will be used by His heart and Hands Orphan Ministry to bless orphans in our community and the world by providing for physical needs, free events, and various means of support and encouragement.

47 Backpacks To LSSI - THANK YOU Everyone!

A big "THANK YOU!!" to everyone who contributed generously to our 2nd Annual Backpack Drive! We were able to send 47 filled backpacks, PLUS additional school supplies to Lutheran Social Services of IL for their upcoming Health and Education Expo. Know that you have helped kids in foster care have a good head start in the upcoming school year.
As we were completing filling the last backpacks at church after the evening service, one comment Annette Hulford made just sums up this backpack drive well. Annette said, "When we did foster care we did not have anything like this (free school supplies). This is so wonderful!"

1st FREE Babysitting Night

A fun planned night was a missed opportunity for those who weren't able to come join in. We had a jumpy, bozo buckets, bean bag toss, crafts! Some of the kids even had their own game of Hide and Seek! There was yummy pizza for supper. And, of course pie for dessert went real well with enjoying a "Kung Fu Panda" video.
For those of you single parents with younger children who were not able to take advantage of this FREE babysitting night, we are considering the possibility of another FREE babysitting opportunity in December.

Click here to view these pictures larger

Free Babysitting Night For Children of Single Parents on July 11

sWhen: Saturday, July 11, from 5pm to 8pm
Where: Orland Park Church
We will have supervised activities, moon walk and more for children of single parents. Pizza will also be provided for the kids. Please call the church to let us know if you would like to bring your kids to this fun night!

Backpack Drive For LSSI Foster Kids

We are once again sponsoring a backpack drive for the Lutheran Social Services of Illinois. The school supplies we collect will be handed out to foster kids at their annual Expo. School supply drop off at church deadline is Sunday, July 12.
These are the following items needed:

• backpacks

• #2 pencils
• crayons 24 pks
• colored pencils

-->pink erasers

markers

calculators

2" 3-ring binders

2 pocket folders

loose-leaf paper (wide rule)

rulers

pens

spiral notebooks (wide rule)

Bring items to church anytime, June 28th through July 12th deadline.

Orland Children Peddle For A Good Cause

reprint from Orland Prairie local newspaper - June 03, 2009

The children at Orland Park Christian Preschool raised over $1,000 for the Heart and Hands Orphan Ministry of Orland Park Christian Reformed Church through their annual Bike-a-thon Day. The children had a great time riding, and they learned that though they may be small, they could do something really big to help others while they were having fun.

The 29 preschoolers rode their bikes for 20 minutes and the average number of laps around the track was about 15. Those who didn't need training wheels were able to ride close to 20 laps.

The annual Bike-a-thon Day at Orland Park Christian Preschool is an exciting day. The boys and girls were thrilled to bring their own bikes and helmets to school. They looked forward to the end of the morning when they get to ride their bikes around a track in the parking lot of the school.

The teachers counted how many times each child rode around the track and recorded that number of laps on a pledge sheet. The children had previously asked for pledges of money from their families and friends to raise funds that can be donated to a needy cause.

No matter how many laps they rode, the important thing is that they knew they were helping little children in need. The money raised will be used to support the work in an orphanage in Honduras, encourage adoptive families and raise awareness of the need to care for orphans.

Orland Park Christian Preschool is located at 7500 W. Sycamore Dr., Orland Park. For more information, call (708) 532-4900 ext. 246 or visit www.opcrc.org.

ABBA Grants For Adoption Now Available

Are you interested in a child who's looking for a place to call 'Home', but may be hesitant because of the initial costs of the adoption process? Well, we now have in place 2 grants of $2,500 each available for qualified persons seriously interested in adoption. These grants are managed through the ABBA Fund. For more information and to take a look at the application please click here on ABBA Fund or click on the link at the bottom of this site.

Honduras Trip January 16-24, 2009
It was an awesome experience and we had God-sightings daily. Here are just a few of the highlights:

• Dr. Jill Ingelse, Kathy, Cory, Jan and Chris were able to finish over 200 eye exams. About 25% of the kids needed eye glasses. Dr. Jill was excited to share stories each evening at devotions about different kids she was able to help.
• Ross, MaryKate, Alex, and Erik spent a few days helping to build a wall around the property where All God's Children will be building a home for women who are mentally impaired, as well as a home for young mothers with babies.
• Jan, Chris and Brenda were able to go shopping for a day with Arvil and Miriam. And, through the generosity of a few church members, purchase all the school supplies and uniforms for the orphans who will begin school on February 11th.
• Everyone was able to go to the Brickyard (where the poorest and neediest live) and distribute bags of toiletries, clothes, shoes, food and other items. After seeing such poverty, we were all counting our blessings and God's goodness to us.
• We brought blankets, shoes, dresses and Spanish/English books to Hogar Amor. And we brought soccer balls and shoes to the Boy's Farm of Hogar Nazareth. The boys LOVE soccer! We were also able to cheer the boys on at a soccer game one afternoon.
• We ate lots of tortillas,visited many inspiring church courtyards, saw a beautiful rainbow, caught a snake, enjoyed the mountains. We were even stopped in our tracks by a herd of cattle....and so much more!

We were so amazed at the love these orphans had for us and for each other inspite of their situation. You could see hope and joy in their little faces.
The children of Hogar Amor sang " Give Thanks", "How Great Thou Art", "Jesus Loves Me", and "All In All" for us. What a sweet-sounding choir!
Thank you for your prayers, and for the many items that you contributed that we were able to bring with us. Everything was greatly appreciated by the recipients!
Please continue to pray for the children in the orphanages, in foster care, and the fatherless around the world. May God bless you today!

Honduras Orphange Trip Update

Those on the mission trip to Honduras write: "We started building a wall today and were able to do over 100 eye exams so far. The kids have so little and yet are so joyful. They care for each other in an incredible way! We are all seeing God at work and feel so blessed to be here!"