A day with Dave & Renee Schertzer at Children of the Nations




Stepping Out - Fall 2016

Dear Friends & Family,

Your prayers and notes of encouragement have been such a blessing! Your partnership means so much to us. Thank you for praying for our ministry for the children.   Here’s some exciting news!

Kaitemu – High School in Banta Sierra Leone
Our sponsored teen, Kaitemu, is attending secondary school at our campus in Banta and is so excited. She recently wrote, “Thank you for caring for me. God bless you and your family…You and your friends and family are invited to visit Sierra Leone.”

Kaitemu lives in the village of Bondayan with her parents, aunt, uncle, three brothers, and three sisters. She realizes the importance of schooling and is working hard to continue her education. Her family is supported through farming and they live in very poor conditions. Their house is made of mud and sticks with a thatched roof. Kaitemu helps her family at home by sweeping the floor, carrying water, and washing dishes. We are excited to visit her in February.


Good News – Children of the Nations is still growing!!!
COTN continues to prove good stewardship with stellar financial audits, continued membership in the Evangelical Council of Financial Accountability (ECFA) and a continued 4-star rating by Charity Navigator.  We saw a 9% growth in total donations in 2015.


Dave lead a team of volunteers to send over $736,000 of physical donations to our countries, an increase of 7% in 2015. This year the goal is increased to $750,000 . We need your help!  As you have connections with businesses and organizations with donations we can use, please refer them to Dave – thank you!

Sierra Leone Strategic Trip in February 2017
We will be leading a team of strategic Resource Partnerships who have supported COTN Sierra Leone throughout the Ebola and post-Ebola outreach efforts. This team will visit all of the locations served, listening and observing how we can partner with our communities for years to come with new and exciting initiatives.

Our team will also provide staff training for Finance and Resources, equipping a computer lab and computer training for staff and students. Trip costs are $3,500 per person. We are already funded for our trip costs – thank you! Additional gifts will help purchase the technology supplies needed for the computer lab.  



Current prayer requests:
1)       Special gifts toward our Sierra Leone Trip in February 2017 for the computer lab.
2)      Recruiting 2-4 more Resource Partnerships to join our team to Sierra Leone.
3)      25 more families or individuals to join our monthly support team.  Thank you!

4)     Wisdom for planning and budgeting for 2017 ministry goals – personal, USA and COTN Countries. 

For the children,
Dave & ReneĆ© Schertzer 
Serving with Children of the Nations

daveschertzer@cotni.org    360-633-1635 office

P.S. Your investment makes a difference! Please send your special gift by November 30th. Thank you!
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Dave & ReneƩ,
o  I/We want to give a special gift of $__________ for the Sierra Leone computer lab.
o  I/We want to invite you to share with our small group/family in the month of ______________.
o  I/We will join your support team with a monthly gift of  O $10    O $20    O $_________.
o  I/We will increase our monthly support to $_________.


Please Mail to:  Children of the Nations – Schertzer, PO Box 3970, Silverdale WA 98383

Haiti Trip Highlight #1: Deliver Vitamins for our children

We were blessed by a donation of vitamins by our cousins, Sandy and Deanne Stephens, who are Advocare distributors and are very passionate supporters of global outreach and missions. Dave was able to send some of these vitamins with missions teams to Sierra Leone, Uganda and Malawi. Last month, we personally delivered Advocare Tropical Chews to our ministry in Haiti.
Dave 'demonstrates' the easy-to-open packaging.
Part of the Holistic Care of Children of the Nations is Physical Care: Meeting the children's physical needs by providing nutritious food, vitamin supplements, medical and dental care, and sports programs that emphasize physical fitness.

The Tropical Chews will support our 75 children for several months. Marc Antoine was very thankful, and expressed his thanks and appreciation for the vitamins so the children can stay healthy and attend school every day.  
Delivering Vitamins to Timon Tout Payi Country Coordinator Marc Antoine Michael
Part of the feeding program in the community of Bellevue (outside Gressier) includes packaged meals assembled across the USA and shipped in containers - Dave works on the shipment logistics for Children of the Nations.

If you would like to package meals for our children, go to www.cotni.org/get-involved/locally/meal-packaging and watch this video to see how you can Feed a child. Change a life!

If you would like to provide more Advocare vitamins for our children, contact us through our Advocare page at https://www.advocare.com/121115707/default.aspx and we can followup with photos of the children receiving your blessing of health and nutrition. 



Sierra Leone Shipment on Monday 12/9 - Busy Finance Office Needing Volunteers - DR/Haiti Trip Update

Here are a few updates heading into this 2nd week of Advent...

On Monday, Dave and a few volunteers will send a 40-foot container of packaged meals and blankets to Sierra Leone. This was prompted by the loss of a donated warehouse space with 8 days to vacate the location. PRAISE GOD there was a temporary space to move the meal packaging supplies, and volunteers to help move the rest to our COTN-Silverdale campus. The shipment will arrive in Freetown in March 2014 and provide over 200,000 meal servings and 500+ blankets for the children surrounding our Banta Ministry Center.

The COTN Finance Office has been blessed to receive so many donation checks to enter that Renee and her staff are searching for more volunteers and even some COTN staff to help enter gifts into our database. Yes, this is a great problem to have, as our partners and sponsors across the US have been amazingly generous this year. If you are available to volunteer at our Silverdale offices 1-2 days a week, and are interested in serving with Renee in the Finance Office, please apply here.
  
DR/Haiti Trip Update:
Our 'squad' is halfway through training and planning for our projects, which include:

  • Bringing quilts for our VPP children in Haiti
  • Water rescue & CPR training
  • Pool improvement and safety station at Casa Bethesda Mission House (where most teams stay while serving in the DR).  The Casa is also used as a reward for our students in VPP.

Funding for Dave & Renee's trip: