july 2012 house of friends news letter
DESCRIPTION
Harry and Mary Hartzler of Gunn City, Missouri took Shon, Zion, Sherman and Vivian, their children, and also Jacob, a youth from their church, on a mission trip to Uganda. The family is familiar with Uganda. They dug the foundation for the first Abba House built several years ago. House of Friends founder, John Gross, a friend of the family for 25 years, had the pleasure of being with them the entire trip. Also updates from Eddy Reber House, and updates from the dominican republic.TRANSCRIPT
Volume 12 Issue 2 101 N. Zeysing · P O Box 228 · Alma, MO 64001 · 660.674.2222 · www.houseoffriends.org
Mamma Rose, Dale Ritter, John and Dianna Gross, Inger Katz (wife of the late Art Katz) and Jeanie Ritter pose on Mamma Rose’s front porch. She is a long time friend of the Katz’ s and quite a prayer warrior.
Ana and Willie, Native American evangelists shared their testimonies of God’s saving grace. Right—Pastor Fatai Jubril and wife of the African Church where John shared.
John and team joined Russian friend, Vladi (left), in doing repair work at Ben Israel community, located on the edge of the res-ervation. Here they are joined with Peter and Joanne Brock, residents of the Ben Israel community. Ben Israel was estab-lished by Art Katz and is devoted to prayer for the nation, Israel, Native Americans, and others. They also provide assistance to Native Americans and host various camps and retreats throughout the year.
A scouting mission trip to White Earth Ojibwe Indian Reservation was made by
House of Friends Founder and Board President, John Gross, his wife, Dianna, and Na-
tive American Outreach Directors, Dale and Jeannie Ritter. While there, they did a lit-
tle work at Camp Dominion. This outreach of Ben Israel near Leech Lake, Minnesota,
is overseen by Art and Mary Beebe. The Ben Israel leaders extended great hospitality
to the team and gave them a place to stay
while meeting with several Native Ameri-
can ministries.
John preached at Naytahwaush, a small
town on the White Earth Ojibwe Reserva-
tion. While there, Bibles, donated to House of Friends for out-
reaches, were given to leaders as well as pew Bibles for an upcom-
ing evangelistic meeting being held by leaders, Willie and Anna
Atkinson of First Nations Ministries of Cass Lake, Minnesota.
On the trip back home John was invited to speak at an all night prayer meeting of an African church after
being introduced by our Minnesota contact, Vladi Pisarchuk. Vladi is originally from Russia and has outreaches
to Haiti and throughout Minnesota. The African church, located in St. Paul, actually became a sponsor of a
child at Abba House and provided funds for clothing for the children.
The team also met with prayer warrior, Susan Jones and Joanne Norton (who has spent time as a missionary
with her husband Dave) and visited the family of David Katz, a family preparing for a missionary adventure in
Africa. They also visited with David’s pastor who is Native American. His insights were invaluable for prepar-
ing House of Friends for future ministry in the area and ended in an invitation to do outreaches together.
Team works on grounds at Camp Dominion.
Lodge at Camp Dominion where Dale and John did a small amount of labor.
The Ninemire family is teaching their
children acts of love and sacrifice. The re-
turn is the joy of seeing children across the
world receive attention and times of rejoic-
ing in the gift of life with a special monthly
or bi-monthly birthday party. How do they
do that? They do fund raising and celebrate
their own birthdays but forego receiving a
gift so Abba House children can have a gift.
It has a dual effect on hearts. The children
at Abba House recognize the sacrifice and
pray for them and their sponsors.
Harry and Mary Hartzler of Gunn
City, Missouri took Shon, Zion,
Sherman and Vivian, their children,
and also Jacob, a youth from their
church, on a mission trip to Uganda.
The family is familiar with Uganda.
They dug the foundation for the first
Abba House built several years ago.
House of Friends founder, John Gross,
a friend of the family for 25 years, had
the pleasure of being with them the
entire trip. Two other Hartzler daugh-
ters, Bethany and Joan, visited Abba
House in Uganda the previous week.
The team accomplished a lot in less than 2 weeks. Some of the projects
included painting the inside of the boy’s house and helped pay for a veranda
to be built for the same house. They brought clothes and gifts for the kids
and provided a huge special meal. Mary and Vivian updated the profile pic-
tures for the all the
children. Harry and
the boys built nesting
boxes for the chicken
house and erected a
basketball goal which
was a huge uplift for
the kids, especially
the older ones.
The children with May and June birthdays are showing off their special birthday gifts and enjoying a wiener roast birthday party held on June1st.
During their daily devotionals, the chil-
dren often pray for their needs. One such
need was flip flops. Who would know that
God would bring to the home a couple of
college students from Milwaukee, Wiscon-
sin, Alice McCoy and Justine Shorter, to
personally spend time with the children and
buy 48 pairs of flip flops. Alice and Justine
also provided some cooking supplies for
donuts, snicker bars and strawberry
twizzlers to top off the birthday party.
Left to right—Deborah Kaaya, Justine, Alice, and one of the children, Faridah, who is help-ing in the preparation. To the right—Irene frying the donuts.
Julius and Allen, the main cooks
INVESTING IN A LIFE IS THE
BEST INVESTMENT YOU
CAN MAKE!
For less than $1/day you can join a partner
sponsor in meeting the needs of a child. Or
consider taking care of a child’s entire needs.
Partner Child Care Sponsorship $20/mo
Full Child Care Sponsorship $40/mo
Education Sponsorship $25/mo
Go to www.houseoffriends.org to choose your
child and write or call to make your commitment.
This little cutie is a displaced
Haitian orphan receiving a supply of
food provided by House of Friends
donors. We are thankful to Bolivar
(Moreno) Reineso who volunteers his
time to make purchases and hand out
supplies monthly to families who
have temporarily taken these children
into their homes.
The whole team, along with veteran mis-
sionary, Barb Decker, went to Katogwe to
visit the Eddy Reber Memorial House. They
took soccer jerseys which had been donated
by American teams who knew Shon and
Zion. The children received them with joy.
They checked the status of the plaster pro-
ject (which sealed the bricks on the inside
and outside of the home) being finished with
funds from the sale of a motorcycle donated
by the Wyatts of Concordia, Mo. The project
was about half completed and looked great.
They added a small solar panel, that we had
suggested previously, and had lights in the
house that would normally be very dark due
to no electricity in the area. The youth did a
skit and the adults testified about God’s
faithfulness. The day was finished with a
great traditional meal. The team was im-
pressed with the joy that was so evident in
our friends from Katogwe.
Barb Decker, John Gross, Harry Hartzler and his son, Sherman, made
the trek up to Richard Kaaya’s family farm. Harry did soil tests and we
visited with Richard’s brothers about partnering with House Of Friends to
take Abba House to the place of
being self sustainable in the next
few years. Richard did a great job
of presenting our case to his larger
family, and we are in the process
of moving forward with a large
scale farm operation. The property
still shows the effects of the war
but has great potential. Details
will be coming. For all those who
have a passion for farming, get
ready!
John Gross,, Barb Decker, and Harry Hartzler went with pastors Richard
Kaaya and Paul Busulwa to Adilang in Pader (Northern Uganda) to meet
Peter, who is a pastor in an aban-
doned Sudanese refugee camp. It was
a very hard trip with great fruit in the
end. Richard, who had been through
the war in Uganda in the 1980’s, had
a fresh message of forgiveness to
these wonderful people who have
lived through the Kony war in recent
years. The team took a few supplies
that are hard to obtain in that area.
There was a torrential rain that
provided the team with the opportu-
nity to stretch their faith. God was faithful to get them safely back to
Entebbe, despite the obstacles caused by the rains.
OPPORTUNITIES TO EXTEND THE HAND OF FRIENDSHIP
______ Partner sponsorship of a child ($20/month)
Child preference _______________________
______ Sponsor a child ($40/month—child care
$25/month—education)
Child preference _______________________
______ Sponsor a worker monthly (any amount)
______ Kitchen/Dining Hall Project
______ Missionary Quarters Project
______ Farm Project
______ Native American Outreach
______ Ethiopia Widows/Orphans
______ Dominican Republic Outreach
______ Greatest Ministry Need
______ World Operations
______ TOTAL GIFT
____ Send me information on _____________________
All donations are tax deductible. Make checks payable to House of Friends and send to P O Box 228, Alma, MO.
The mission journey proved to be a great experience for
all. In the end, I personally have a new respect of love for
what House of Friends is doing through Abba House, espe-
cially what our missionary, Barb Decker, has brought to the
homes. After living there for a week it is so evident that the
kids are abso-
lutely in love with
her, and I am
sure Jesus is well
pleased in the
care of His
children.
One last note,
we added a new
girl, Alice, who is
15. Barb and I
made the deci-
sion to take her,
trusting the Lord will add the finances that will be needed. Her
story is so sad, but she showed such joy she inspired me
deeply. Thank you all for your prayers and financial support.
God’s blessings to each one,
John Gross
Barbara Decker and several of her Uganda children.
Dear John,
It was such a great honor seeing you back in Uganda.
I appreciate everything you did for us, especially in
Abba House. You
really left the place
looking good. We
appreciate the fi-
nancial support
House of Friends
sends to us, and
it’s our prayer that
God opens more
doors. Greetings to
all our House of
Friends sponsors. We love you all and pray for you.
Greetings from Deborah to your family at large. God
bless you my brother.
House of Friends
P O Box 228
Alma, MO 64001
NewS from the HOUSE
Funding was sent to help meet needs of widows for the
next four months.
Our partners, The About Group, have merged with
Lakota Hope Ministry, so as we bring news of our partner-
ship on the reservation, we will now be referring to Lakota
Hope Ministry. Dale and Jeanne Ritter, Native American
Outreach Directors, will be going to the reservation soon
on a short mission trip.