Christmas 2018
Happy New Year /
Manigong Bagong Taon
Hello from the Philippines!
We hope that you all had a very Merry Christmas and we send our love and
appreciation from our hearts to yours!
We can’t thank you enough for your continued partnership with us in our mission
to help bring hope to hundreds of families that are at risk here in the
Philippines. We were so incredibly
blessed this last summer through the Perkins family who opened their home and
their hearts to us by allowing us to live with them and share their lives. Words can’t express our deepest love and
appreciation for your kindness and open arms!
We have had a very busy year with many struggles and
frustrations but also many wonderful examples of love and warmth from so many
others. There are two separate areas of
this ministry that we would like to share our experiences, frustrations,
successes and failures in the last year or so.
These areas are the business / software side of Threads of Hope and then
the people side of Threads of Hope.
In regard to the software side of TOH, there were two
separate software implementations we were working on (mostly Julie). We were implementing a new Shopping Cart
called Shopify (with a LOT of enhancements from a consulting firm). That software was finally implemented in
August of this year. It went live with
very few issues and remains to work fairly well. We do have a list of enhancements that we
would like to implement but at this time we don’t have the funds to make this
happen. The other software we implemented
was Any Time Collect (collection software).
This is an automated emailing system and tickler system to help us
collect our outstanding Accounts Receivable balances. This software is being implemented in stages
because of the size of the customer base and the amounts of open balances. We are starting with the most recent
customers to remove any future overdue balances going forward. Then we will attack the older overdue
balances.
We are working on prototype / samples of our newest product
– dog collars. These will be collars
only – probably not leashes for bigger dogs and collar/leash for smaller
dogs/cats. We have created a couple
sample collars and so far they look fantastic. Julie is working with Alfie (our camera strap
seamster) to make this happen.
In regard to the people side of Threads of Hope, we are
about to implement a change to our attendance policy and its connection to the
church attendance. We have wanted to
remove this process for quite some time and we are about to make that change. There have been problems with the
sign-in/sign-out process for Wednesday and Sunday services for quite a
while. We are about to disconnect the
mandatory attendance to church with the ability to get orders. We have always wanted to make sure that the
people who need the income the most were the ones getting orders but at the
same time we have wanted to make sure that the people attending church were
being fed properly with no distractions.
We believe we are going to be able to accomplish that coming in
January. We are going to make the
leaders (23 of them) responsible for their groups and we will monitor their
lists on a monthly basis to validate that the people on their lists are alive
and living in the area and in need of orders.
Church attendance will be heart-driven.
The people who want to be at church and study Scripture will be able to
do that with no strings attached. We are
praying that this change will make stronger disciples who can share the Gospel
more to help the Kingdom grow.
We are currently helping 17 students with expenses for
college and we are always open to anyone who might feel led to sponsor a young
person by giving them a scholarship to pay for their schooling. It is considerably less expensive here in the
Philippines. Please contact Chris Kuhlow
if you are interested in being a sponsor.
Her email is kuhlcrew2@hotmail.com
. There are many students who could
really use the help with any amount you could offer.
Aninuan Christian Training School (ACTS) has been going very
well. We are in the last steps to being
recognized by the government and eligible for grants for each student. We have been through the interviews and it is
now up to the waiting game. Ben Coltrane
and his staff have done an amazing job with the school. Please pray that the school will be funded to
take away a part of the burden from TOH to keep the school running financially.
We have had sad notes here in the Philippines where people
have passed away, both old and young. It
really highlights the importance of assurance of salvation and the need for a
savior! May the Lord bless you in the
coming new year ahead. Again, we want to
send you our love and deepest appreciation for your support and partnership
with us here in this ministry.
God Bless you all!
Jim and Julie
