Haiti

On Tuesday, January 12, 2010, Port-au-Prince, Haiti was struck with a devastating 7.0 magnitude earthquake. The full repercussions of this quake are yet to be seen. So far, nearly 170,000 people (as of January 27) have been killed by this quake, and the Red Cross estimates that as many as 3 million Haitians have been affected by this quake.

Before the quake took place, it was placed on the heart of the leadership at BEFC to help this poverty stricken nation. In June of 2009 we sent our first mission team to Haiti, and it had a big impact on all of those who went. While there, they worked with Jesus in Haiti Ministries (JiHM), a non-profit group based out of Fort Wayne, Indiana. Currently, BEFC has two mission teams set to travel to Haiti - one from February 17th-26th and the other from June 21st-28th.

Even though we are not in Haiti, we can still help with the relief effort. This can be done through monetary donations to JiHM and to Feed My Starving Children. 100% of our Haiti Earthquake Relief donations to JiHM will be put towards the relief efforts. 94% of our donations to Feed My Starving Children will go towards providing food for children in countries throughout the world, including Haiti. If you are interested in volunteering at Feed My Starving Children, they have an easy to use format where you are able to signup.

If you would like to follow the progress of the Jesus in Haiti Ministries relief effort, please follow Tom Osbecks' blog. We will keep this page as up to date as possible. Please continue to check back for the latest information.

(Click on the image above to view Haiti at Google Maps)

BEFC Jesus in Haiti '09

China

We currently live in Kunming, China with 5 of our children: Luke, Miriam, Laura, Isaac and Natalie. Our oldest son, Jacob is studying at Northwestern College in Minnesota. We are studying Mandarin Chinese at Kunming Medical University, fostering three special-needs orphans, and coordinating summer camps for the orphans of Yunnan Province.

We are originally from Big Lake, Minnesota. We have 6 children of our own who you can get to know below. Tim is a licensed Elementary teacher, and Amy is a stay-at-home mom.

In 2003, we moved to Hebei province in northern China, and our lives were changed forever. We hoped to be able to invite abandoned children into our home thinking that we would be able to impact their lives somehow. We didn’t realize that it would be the other way around.

I’ll never forget the first day we me a small group of orphan children at the orphanage. When our eyes met, I was overcome with an intense feeling of awe, but at the same time, I wanted to melt. I was humbled as I was suddenly faced with the blaring question, “What are you going to do now that we are face to face?” Right then we decided that we would spend our lives doing whatever we could to show love, compassion, and encouragement to as many Chinese orphans as we could.

The Reddoor project is a family endeavor. As we work with China’s orphaned children, we hope to fill their lives with joy and hope. Our goal is to open doors of opportunity for these kids and give each one of them a chance to thrive in a loving family environment. Our strategy is simple:

• Live and Learn in China
• Develop partnerships with local Chinese friends who want to be involved in orphan care
• Provide foster care for at-risk and special needs orphans
• Promote domestic and foreign adoption
• Host Bring Me Hope’s summer camps for orphans

For more information on the Hedden's in China, check out their blog, and take a look at their most recent Newsletter.

(*All information from this mission is taken verbatim from the Hedden's website.)

Minnesota
Information coming soon...