March 2009 Beveni Challenge update

The Beveni Challenge is coming to its ending goal date this week. As it approaches, we have been reflecting on the blessings and lessons we have learned as a family. There is one that I want to share with you tonight, with the prayer it will bless you.

As many of you know, we are parents to two sons: Anthony, our 14 year old who started the Beveni Challenge with the money that would have been spent on his Christmas presents, and Aidyn, our 13 year old. Both boys came to be our sons through the joy and miracle of adoption.

Aidyn was 4 1/2 years old when he joined our family. He had lived in an orphanage in Karaganda, Kazakhstan called Nyezabutka, which is Russian for Forget Me Not. That name has reverberated through these years as a reminder to never forget the children we left behind.

Aidyn is a hard working kid, always willing to lend a helping hand on tasks that require extra help around our home and business. He is also very frugal: he has been saving every penny he has earned for the last 14 months.

When we first talked about the Beveni Challenge, he knew he wanted to participate in it by giving a donation. We encouraged him to pray about it, and waited patiently for him to let us know how much he wanted to give.

The other night, as I walked through his room, I glanced at his computer screen. He was working on writing a letter to Tom Davis about his gift. Without sharing his entire correspondence, I will tell you the part that made my eyes tear and my heart swell with pride.

He told Tom that it had taken a long time to earn the money, but that he could always earn it again, and that he knew the children of Beveni needed it more then he did.

The next morning, Aidyn asked me if I wanted to know how much he was going to give to the Challenge. You all know I said “Yes”, right?

He answered: “All of it, Mom”.

His earnings of 14 months, totaling $400, is what he desired to give to children who still face the hunger he well remembers from his days as an orphan.

And so one who was once an orphan, who still remembers the pain of hunger, has gifted his entire savings to stop the hunger of other orphans in a far away place in Swaziland.

Every time we care for a child, every time we pour ourselves into their lives, every gesture of love we offer through our bodies as His Body, is an opportunity for that child to know Christ. And that gift goes on, in their own understanding of what it means to love and sacrifice and pour themselves into another child’s life.

I am more than proud of Aidyn. I stand amazed and blessed by his heart of generosity, his grasp of how high and wide is the love of the Father for His children and his willingness to obey the call on his life to care for the widows, orphans and strangers.

This young man named Aidyn is more than my son. He is my brother in Christ, even as he is yours.

When we began this adventure we have called the Beveni Challenge, we felt that God would make it possible for Anthony’s original gift of $200 to multiply to $2000. So far, $1630 has been raised.

If you (or your children!)believe you are called to be part of this Challenge and want to make a gift, please go to https://secure.pursuantgroup.net/pursuant4/hopechest/chcselect/donation.asp, and in the note section, write in Beveni Challenge. You can also mail your gift (with a note indicating it is for the Beveni Challenge)to:

Children's HopeChest
PO Box 8627
Pueblo, CO 81108-8627

As of today, 45 of the 102 children of Beveni are sponsored or in the process of becoming sponsored. If you or anyone you know might be interested in joining the community of sponsors by becoming hope to one of the 57 children waiting, please email me at bevenicarepoint@comcast.net.

I am so grateful for each of you and thank God for your willingness to care about the orphans and vulnerable children in the various ministries represented by the hundreds who will read this message. I pray His amazing blessing of His brand of peace and joy into your hearts.

In Him, with faith,
Deb Gangemi, for the Gangemi Family