Dear friends of Familia Feliz,

As I write to you again, it is with gratitude to God for His goodness. He has continued to provide in ways that we can’t even understand. I am being constantly reminded that “He has a thousand ways to provide for us of which we know nothing”.  How like Israel of  old, traveling from Egypt to Canaan, we tend to be, fretting and complaining because we can’t see around the next corner. Oh that I would learn to walk totally by faith, and not by my own human wisdom!

Dear friends of Familia Feliz,

As I write to you again, it is with gratitude to God for His goodness. He has continued to provide in ways that we can’t even understand. I am being constantly reminded that “He has a thousand ways to provide for us of which we know nothing”.  How like Israel of  old, traveling from Egypt to Canaan, we tend to be, fretting and complaining because we can’t see around the next corner. Oh that I would learn to walk totally by faith, and not by my own human wisdom!

In doubling the number of children on our campus, and the number of day students attending our school, it was easy to answer the calls for help and continue to fill the “lifeboat”. We moved ahead with the certainty that we were acting under the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit and the written Word. Why is it then that when we began to face the realities of feeding, clothing, medical expenses, and all the other expenses that are involved in caring for these children that we are not able to hear as clearly His leading? I can clearly identify with Peter, as he steps out of the boat and begins to walk on the water, only to find that when he takes his eyes off Jesus he begins to sink. My prayer is that of the father who, in desperation, wanting his son to be healed, cried out, ”Lord I believe, help thou my unbelief.” I am reminded that the greatest need of these children is to trust Jesus completely with their lives, their emotions, their happiness, in short with everything they have and are, and how shall they learn to do this except they have us to lead the way.

I want to share with a small evidence of the difference that Familia Feliz is making in the lives of the children. If you look back in your newsletters from me, you will find the brief recounting of the story of Gheorghe, the little eight year old boy who was brought to us by children’s services, from living on the streets. He is the one that I referred to as reminding me of a wild little animal, captured, and with furtive eyes, always looking for a way to escape. He is also the one that three of us had to take turns physically holding him on our laps for several hours at a time, trying to get the message through that we were safe and he could relax and join us, not fight us. We finally placed him in Melissa’s home, and she was holding him and talking to him one day, and she told him she loved him. His response was very definite and immediate, “Don’t tell me that! I don’t like that!” His walls, built to protect him from being hurt, were very high, and love threatened those walls.  It was easier to refuse love than to yield to it and risk being hurt. His problems are not all over, but today he is a happy child, functioning well in the home, doing his chores along with the rest, and accepting being loved.

I received this in my email within the last few days and I would like for you to see the spirit of sacrifice and missions in action. “Yesterday we celebrated the fourth birthday of our twins, Jared and Joseph. A few days earlier, we all agreed to send party invitations to families with children in our church, in which we asked that if they wanted to bring a gift, to make it a cash donation for missionary purposes.Yesterday, when we counted the money, we had a total of $140 dollars, and with great joy we decided to send it to you for the children of “Familia Feliz." I am reminded of the building of our first mission boat, the Pitcairn, and how it was built with the mission offerings of the children. A tiny snowflake doesn’t amount to much, but many of them put together contain the power of an avalanche!

I am writing this from California because my mother-in-law has some very serious health issues that may prove terminal in the near future, and we wanted to be able to spend a little time with her before it was too late. My heart is still with our work at Familia Feliz, and I am lifting our staff and our children up in my prayers, asking that God will sustain them, and continue to pour out His blessings upon them. I will be returning  to Familia Feliz in the next few weeks.  I ask that you not only continue to support this work with your finances, but that each day you will lift us up in prayer, seeking  God’s intervention in the lives of these children. Heaven is not far off, and there is so much to be done!

Dave Harding
Familia Feliz Director