Both Hands

James 1:27 "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

Looking after orphans and widows, a vulnerable group, is something that we as Christians are called by our Heavenly Father to do. I understand that not everyone feels the call to adopt or do foster care, but there are always ways to get involved and help widows and orphans. When Wayne and I found out about the Both Hands organization, we were thrilled. What a great way to serve both vulnerable groups (orphans and widows). 

We are planning our Both Hands project as we speak. Our widow, Jan Kent, lost her husband in November to brain cancer. You can read more about our connection to her here.  I met with Jan this week to talk about projects that we can do around her house. We are working to put a great team of people together who are willing to lend us their Saturday (May 6th) to help complete the projects. We will be doing some yard work (cleaning up spring leaves, pulling weeds, planting flowers, and some general clean up), some repair projects (sanding and painting trim, repairing/replacing a side garage door, mudding and painting a room), and some other maintenance around her house. 

If you are interested in helping us complete these projects, please contact me (rebeccaharder35@gmail.com). We are also looking to find some local businesses who might be willing to donate supplies for our projects (paint, a door, etc). Please let me know if you can help hit the pavement and help us out. 

We are working now to start mailing out support letters to raise money for this project. If you would like to help us with that, please let me know. These projects are such a blessing to both the widow and the families bringing their kiddos home. Since our project entails a lot of outdoor work, we have set the date for May 6th. We will are excited because we will be blessed to have our two boys working with us when we actually complete the project. Hand in hand, both our widow (Jan) and the orphans (who will no longer be orphans), will work together to complete work on Jan's house. I am so excited to see this beautiful picture of James 1:27!!

Widow: Jan Kent

Orphan: DJ

Orphan: Shan Chen

Please join us in praying for the project. It is our prayer that the project not only blesses Jan and our boys, but also impacts the lives of those in Jan's neighborhood. We have seen people's heart soften to the gospel when they see God's people being His hands and feet to a widow and helping orphans. It is our prayer that the ripple effect of obedience to God's call for us to adopt, continues into other people's lives. Below is a video I made for our information meeting last night about the project. The first part is a video made by another family who did a Both Hands project. 

https://bothhands.org/project/harder-306