Dear Family and Friends,
We hope this letter finds you all doing well. It has been a long time since we have seen some of you, but we think of you all often and pray that God is blessing your families. We are still living in the Chicago area where Butch is the children’s pastor at a church called Deer Creek Christian Church. It’s hard to believe that we’re in our 4th year serving at this great church!
Ben is now a 6’5” 16-year old ready for his driver’s license. He works part-time at a private Christian school as a teacher’s aid in the after-school program. He has a real gift for working with children, and we are praying that God will direct him as he begins to make plans for college and a career. At 13, Tori Jo is growing up beautifully. We’re often amazed at the maturity and responsibility she shows. She has a job doing weekly cleaning for an older couple in our church, and volunteers with several different organizations.
Jonah is now 11, and looks like he is heading in the same direction as Ben concerning his height. We are really hoping that his feet stop growing soon, since we have a hard enough time finding size 15’s for Ben! This year Jonah is excited to be taking drama and music classes with an organization called Midwest Homeschool Fine Arts. And, finally, our 9-year old Silas is still a fireball of energy. He fills his time building with legos, drawing, and playing practical jokes. Trust me, there’s never a dull moment in this house!
The reason we are writing is to tell you that we are about to take the biggest step of faith our family has ever taken. As a family, next August (God willing) we are planning to join World Compassion Network on a Family 2 Family mission trip to Honduras. This will be a huge financial undertaking, but we are confident that if God wants us to go, we will be able to raise the money.
Family 2 Family is an annual project of WCN that gives food and supplies to impoverished families overseas. More than half of the world's population lives on less than $2 a day, and an estimated 250,000 children will die of malnutrition this year. WCN collects food boxes and clothing from partnering churches and delivers these boxes directly to families in need.
Ben and Butch were privileged to be a part of a week-long WCN Honduras mission trip just last August. It was a life-changing experience for both of them. Each day their group loaded up their bus and traveled to two different villages to hand out food boxes and tell people how much Jesus loves them. At each village they were able to spend time interacting with the people. Butch’s favorite thing to do was make balloon animals for the children, many of them didn’t even know what a balloon was. Ben loved taking Polaroid pictures of the families who received the food boxes and giving the pictures to the families as a gift. For most of them, it is the only family picture they will ever have taken. The people who benefit from this program live in extreme poverty; it is hard to imagine how difficult their lives are, but Butch and Ben found them to be loving and hospitable with great faith in God to meet all their needs. As a result of taking this trip, Butch and Ben were able to see firsthand how God answer the prayers of His people in amazing ways, and our entire family has seen our own faith grow tremendously.
Our children are excited about the prospect of sharing their faith with the people of Honduras. Since we are homeschooling, we are incorporating Spanish lessons and an in-depth study of Honduras into our schoolwork. They are also busy making plans for a fundraiser. This trip will cost us approximately $1400-1600 per person, for a total of $8400-9600. We know this is an incredible amount of money. We are asking you to prayerfully consider partnering with us in this ministry both financially and with your prayers. Again, we are certain that if this is God’s will, he will help us raise the money.
If your church or small group would like us to visit and share more information about this mission, we would love to do so…before or after our trip. Butch and Ben already have a lot of experiences and pictures they would love to share with you. You can also see all of their pictures at www.kidzcreek.com Click on “Blog” at the top of the page.
If you are able to make a donation, please make your tax-deductible check payable to Deer Creek Christian Church, and enclose it with the memo card in this envelope. (Please do not write our name on the memo line of your check. Doing so will make your contribution non-tax-deductible.) Or we have set up an online giving site hosed by our church you can give by debit or credit card too. Click Here To make an Online Donation
If you are unable to make a donation, we ask that you please keep us in your prayers.
Thank you for taking the time to read this letter…God bless you all!
In Christ,
The Hunter Family
Butch, Chrissy, Benjamin, Tori Jo, Jonah, & Silas
