Dear friend,

Impoverished orphans and disabled children around the world will wake up Christmas morning just like every other morning. Hungry. Shivering in the cold. And desperately lonely.

But you can help change that. You can bring the real message of Christmas HOPE and JOY to their lives with a simple gift of critical care for orphans.

Our staff and volunteers are preparing right now to visit 50 orphanages, disabled child homes and other facilities in the former Soviet Union over the coming weeks. In these countries, Christmas is celebrated January 7. With your help, theyll deliver critical care that creates Christmas moments like these:

A lonely orphan throws his arms around one of our volunteers and wants to play family --- if only for a day.

A desperately poor boy receives a pack of pencils, paper and a Childrens Bible and gasps, Do American children get this much for Christmas?

A child hears the Gospel for the first time. She gets it because someone gives her a colorful bead bracelet and uses it to explain Gods love.

Some of these children have simply been abandoned by their families. Others are there because of disabilities. Boys and girls are placed in protective institutions because their parents are alcoholic and abusive.

They dont know Jesus . . . love . . . or hope. But you can help turn their dismal world around . . . with the miracle of Christmas!

The gift you send today will help provide clothes to replace their tattered little shirts, blankets to survive the brutally cold winter, school supplies to open their minds and fuel their dreams. And other essential care items ----- just in time for Christmas.

Every $48 you send will not only supply individual gifts for each girl and boy, but youll also help provide nourishing food so children dont go hungry . . . large appliances and crucial repairs for the childrens homes they live in . . . medicine and vitamins to bolster their fragile health.

Best of all, this critical care will open the door to share the Gospel!

Boys and girls get so excited about Jesus that they share what theyve learned with others, using their Gospel Bead Bracelet as a visual aid.

But time is of the essence.

With help from partners like you, we hope to reach 5,000 boys and girls around the world with critical care during the Christmas season. That means we need a total of $240,000 before December 31. Our teams will be leaving soon. I urge you to pray with me that God will provide the funds needed to touch the hearts and lives and these little ones.

This is a special opportunity to really make a huge impact among boys and girls who feel they are not wanted. But we know our Heavenly Father counts each one as precious. Today, you can help them know that for certain.

Your compassion now will transform their hearts for eternity.

On behalf of the children,

Duane E. Zook
President and CEO