HOPE

In 1 Peter Chapter One verse 3 the bible makes this statement. “In His (Gods) great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

This season we will enter the fifteenth year of the Joshua Tree ministry in India. Looking back, it has been an honor and privilege to partner with a dedicated group of Indian Pastors to provide this message of a living hope to children, lepers and widows living in extreme poverty. Our hope is that we can increase our level of giving and service for the year 2020 and beyond and we need a miracle! 
 
The Joshua Tree has always operated with a very limited budget. We rent rooms in private homes for our slum school children. We provide a limited salary of $30 per month to our teachers. We have even rented a barn in one village to conduct classes because that was all we could afford. Everywhere we travel we find villages where the leaders beg us to start a school for their children and we would love to say yes but with limited finances we have turn down many of these requests. 
 
We are now beginning to sense a change in seasons regarding what the Lord wants to do with this ministry. We have located some farmland for sale where we can build a school that will serve as our ministry headquarters and help us to grow and become financially self-sustaining. 
 
We would like to ask you to pray for the Joshua Tree ministry this upcoming year. We need an increase in finances to purchase land and construct the school, dorm rooms, kitchen and staff quarters. We need favor with Government officials for zoning and construction permits. We need wisdom from God to know His will and purpose for our daily operations so that we can be a living hope to people in need.
 
On behalf of our partner pastors, our school children, our leper families and widows we would like to say thank you for your support.

Peace and Blessings,
Cliff & Amy White

---

O U R    Y E A R

Founder, Cliff White walking property in India for new school location.

New school rendering.

Sewing machines were delivered to the Leper Colony so they could develop their own business and support their families.

We started supporting the Hope Village Widows in March 2019.

Generosity

Hello Everyone,

This past Sunday one of our senior church board members taught on the biblical principal of tithes and offerings. He said that the heart of giving is not about following rules and regulations but rather having the same spirit of generosity that our Heavenly Father has towards each one of us. Every good gift that has ever come our way is from God and His desire is that we imitate Him by being generous people.
 
We want to thank all of you that haven given to the Joshua Tree over the past fourteen years. We have reached thousands of children, hundreds of lepers and provided care for many widows as a direct result of your prayers and financial gifts. Each of these people have not only heard about the love of Jesus and His plan of redemption, but they have seen that love in action through your gifts and prayers.
 
We are traveling to India in March to meet with all of our ministry partners in order to plan for the years of ministry ahead of us. Our plan is to expand the number of children’s schools that we operate, provide job skills training to people living in leper colonies, increase the number of widows who receive monthly financial support for their living expenses, and to continue to rescue young girls from sex trafficking.
 
We need approximately $6,000 to cover trip expenses and to purchase school supplies, clothing, food, medicine and other essential items while in India. We would like you to consider helping us with this trip and our upcoming expenses for 2019.
 
Please pray for the safety of our Pastors and their families and for everyone that the Joshua Tree touches with the love of Jesus. Any financial gift that we receive goes directly to people in need and on their behalf we would like to say thank you for being a generous people.

Peace and Blessings,
Cliff & Amy White

FOURTEEN

F O U R T E E N

{years of loving on the children of India}

Hello Everyone,

We hope that you have had a blessed year in 2018 and that you are looking forward to the holiday season and the beginning of a new year.
 
We at the Joshua Tree are entering our fourteenth year of work in India and are praying and hoping for a year of hope and peace in 2019. The past two years in India have been a time of extreme distress as we have seen hundreds of Christian ministries, orphanages and schools shut down by anti-christian elements within the Indian government and the general population. Many churches have been destroyed and their pastors and congregations have been forced to flee to other regions for their safety. We have also seen some of our close friends lose their lives because of their Christian faith.

The persecution of Christians in India and around the world is on the increase but despite these difficult times our ministry partners in India are continuing to share the love of Jesus and message of His resurrection life with everyone they meet.
 
We are partnered with 8 pastors who are operating Joshua Tree Mercy centers where children living in slums receive food, clothing and education.  We also provide care for widows and families living in leper colonies and operate a Hope Home for 100 young girls who have been rescued from sex trafficking. 
 
Currently, we are in the process of starting a new Joshua Tree Mercy Center in a red light district so that we can provide education and care for children of sex workers in hope that they can escape the cycle of poverty and prostitution that their mothers have been forced into. Many of these children will be forced into prostitution around the age of 12 just to avoid starvation.
 
The bible teaches us that God desires for us to “loose the chains of injustice, set the oppressed free, share our food with the hungry, provide shelter, clothe the naked and care for widows and orphans in their distress”.
 
Our mission at the Joshua Tree has always been to help children, widows and lepers the best way we can with whatever resources we have available.  We do this by partnering with local Indian pastors who are in touch with the people living in their communities and know best how to provide for their needs. We also rely on the prayers and financial support from our Joshua Tree family. Please consider becoming a child sponsor today.  You can have a major impact on a child’s future by donating just $15 per month. Your donation will provide education, clothing, food and other basic essentials for a child hoping to escape a life of poverty.
 
Thank you for your support and prayers!
 
 Peace and Blessings,
 Cliff & Amy White

Pastor Joseph visiting children living in the red light district.

New outdoor class for red light district children.

Distribution of blankets and clothing for leper colony children.

Renovation

R E N O V A T I O N

{restore, modernize or improve an existing structure}

In March of 2016 The Joshua Tree went under a renovation. Our India Operations Director, Pastor Joseph was asked to consider becoming the director of a girls home that provides shelter for 65 girls age 5 to 18. Some of these girls are orphans, some have been rescued from prostitution and others were once used as slave labor.
 
After careful consideration and prayer, we and Pastor Joseph felt that this was an opportunity provided by God to serve these young girls in need.  So, beginning in May 2016 The Joshua Tree along with Pastor Joseph and his family have become stewards of this very important ministry. The campus where these girls live is owned by a Christian organization in North India and they provide some staff members to help run the girls home along with some financial support. We are responsible for the daily operation of the home, care of the girls, and oversight of the staff and facility.
 
This ministry is a huge responsibility and our desire is to see these girls grow into young women who will be free from the pain and suffering they endured as children. We also would like to see this ministry grow so that we can provide help to other young girls trapped in similar situations. The girls home is located on 5 acres of land and has multiple buildings in need of renovation. We need sponsors who will help us financially so that we can remodel the buildings, increase our bed space and purchase furniture and other items to make this place into a comfortable home for these girls.
 
Because of the faithfulness and generosity of our sponsors we are able to continually expand our work in India to children in need. Our children’s slum school programs, ministry to widows and lepers and church planting efforts continue to thrive despite the constant persecution and oppression faced by Christians in India. Our ministry team greatly values your prayers and financial support and we can never say thank you enough for you generosity and compassion. Please share our story with anyone you know who has a heart to help children living in poverty.

Peace and Blessings to you all from all of us at The Joshua Tree. 
 

Peace and Blessings,

Cliff & Amy White,

Founders

Meet Muskan

I had the opportunity to spend time with a very special young girl named Muskan. Her mother who lives in a slum just a short walk from our Joshua Mercy Centre school brought Muskan to our school five years ago. Our team immediately recognized that Muskan was different than the other children. She had both physical and mental handicaps as a result of a birth defect. She was still crawling at an age when other children were running and playing. She also had not developed in areas of speech and reading. Our team began to pray for her and work every day with her. 
 
Fast forward five years, Muskan is able to walk to school on her own and she is continuing to learn and develop along with her classmates. Muskan loves school so much that she doesn’t want to leave in the afternoon.
 
We recently received a donation of school uniforms for this particular school location and we gave the very first uniform to Muskan. We were also able to buy her new shoes for school and play. Her parents are unable to pay tuition fees and other school expenses for their children and are so grateful for the support of the Joshua Tree. They never dreamed that Muskan would ever be anything other than an invalid that required constant care but now through faith, hope, love and the power of Jesus they are watching their daughter grow up with the hope of a productive life and future.
 
Muskan still has a number of challenges ahead of her. It's our plan to send her to a specialist to evaluate issues with her neck and back which prevent her from walking properly and will also look into some mental health evaluations to determine the extent of her birth defects.
 
It is an honor and privilege to serve Muskan and the rest of the children that attend our slum and leper schools.  Each child is unique and deserves the very best help that we can provide.
 
As always, we rely on the generous prayer and financial support of our Joshua Tree partners and our dedicated staff in India who work so hard to serve these children in need.
 
On behalf of Muskan and all of our Joshua students and staff we say thank you for your support! 
 

CLIFF WHITE
CO-FOUNDER

Are You Shiny?

Are You Shiny?

shin·y
ˈSHīnē/
adjective: shiny; comparative adjective: shinier; superlative adjective: shiniest

1. (of a smooth surface) reflecting light, typically because very clean or polished.

If you are like me and you have been watching the news this past year it seems as if nothing good is happening on our planet.  The news is filled with stories of war, terrorism, famine, drought, economic crisis, Ebola, ISIS, corrupt politics, earthquakes, severe storms, global climate crisis, and on and on it goes.  With all of this bad news flooding the airwaves it’s easy to see how people can become discouraged and depressed and to feel like darkness is covering the earth.
 
When Jesus explained the parable of the wheat and the tares He said that evil and good would be allowed to grow together on the earth until a harvest at the end of the age and “then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father” (Matt. 13:43 NKJV).
 
Also in Isaiah 60:1 the Lord spoke through the prophet and said, ”Arise shine for your light has come and the Glory of the Lord is risen upon you.  For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth and deep darkness the people; but the Lord will arise over you and His glory will be seen upon you.  The gentiles will come to your light and kings to the brightness of you rising”(Isaiah 60:1-3 NKJV).
 
So my question for you is, are you shiny?  Are you a light in a dark place bringing love, hope and truth to people living in darkness.  If not, would you like to become shiny?
 
This past year the Joshua Tree India volunteers and staff were a shining light to children and families living in extreme poverty.  Here are a few ways that we were shiny this year;

We provided hearing aids to a leper man who now can hear his family when they speak to him.

• We rebuilt a home damaged by an earthquake for a leper family.

• We provided support for a community of lepers that was struggling to keep their school open and to feed their families.  We provided school supplies, hired a teacher for the children’s school, supplied the families with rice, and provided toiletries.

• We provided Vacation Bible School programs for approximately 18,000 children this summer teaching them about the love of Jesus, worship songs, and how to pray the Lord’s Prayer.

• We continued to operate and expand our slum school program providing free education for children who cannot attend government schools due to their extreme poverty.

• We shared the love of Jesus with approximately 15,000 children attending private schools teaching them biblical principles like honoring their mothers, fathers, teachers and government leaders.  We also taught them about prayer and worship and the good news of salvation through the death and resurrection of Jesus.

• We put a down payment on Pastor Joseph’s first car.  He now can transport the slum school teachers safely throughout the community, provide emergency transportation for members of the leper colony, deliver food and supplies to the poor, and travel throughout India for summer VBS programs.

A light will always shine brightest in the darkest place and now is the time for you and I to begin shining to people living in darkness.  We all have family members, neighbors, co-workers and friends who are going through hard times and it is up to us to love them, provide them with hope and encouragement and above all to share the message of salvation through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
 
As always, we are so grateful for the prayers and financial support of our Joshua Tree volunteers.  We hope that 2014 was a year of blessing for you and we are praying for each of you to have a prosperous and blessed New Year for 2015.
 
Our goals for 2015 include paying off Pastor Joseph’s ministry vehicle ($8,000), providing free lunch for all of our slum school children ($750 per month), hiring a new children’s pastor to support our school programs ($400 per month), and hiring four more teachers for our leper colony and slum school program ($160 per month).
 
Are you looking for a place to shine in 2015.  If so, please consider a monthly gift of $10, $25 or more to help free a child from a life of poverty and despair.  Please contact us at info@thejoshuatreeindia.org, if you would like to become a Joshua Tree India partner.  We need your financial help for 2015 in order to continue to be shiny for these beautiful children in need.
 
For more information on our ministry you can visit our website at: http://thejoshuatreeindia.org.
 
Peace & Blessing
 
Cliff, Amy, Pastor Joseph, our staff and all of our India children.
 

Opened Doors

Opened Doors

In December 2011 The Joshua Tree ministry team was invited to perform a Christmas program for a Hindu school with 1200 students.  The program had such a positive effect on the principal, students and teachers that we were invited to visit the school each week and share stories from the bible, teach children to pray and sing worship songs and pray for students and staff needs. God touched the principal when He performed a miracle in her life by restoring her marriage and family and as a result, this principal recommended our ministry to several other principals in the area. Now, in 2014 we are ministering in 13 schools to 15,000 Hindu and Muslim children who are praying the Lord’s prayer each day, learning the principals from the bible, and singing worship songs to Jesus.
 
I visited these schools along with Joshua Tree volunteers, Mat Bunnel and Kandis Feldman and we were amazed at how hungry the Hindu and Muslim principals, teachers and school children were to hear the good news of Jesus Christ.  We had the opportunity to visit 8 different schools and see first hand the effect that the “Good News” of Jesus Christ has had on all who hear.  We were treated like family everywhere we went and were fed fabulous Indian cuisine, sweet desserts and wonderful chai tea.  We were the guests of honor at one school where the children had created clay and chalk art and we were asked to be the guest judges. All of the work was beautiful and we told the children it was difficult to choose a winner because all of the art was so beautiful.
 
We received numerous invitations to tea and dinner because the word was out that the Americans were in town and everyone wanted to host us in their home. We were showered with gifts, fed till we couldn’t eat another bite, and prayed with people who had never heard of the love that Jesus has for them. It was an open door moment like you dream and pray for all your life... that people would have eyes to see and ears to hear the good news of eternal life through Jesus Christ.

The Joshua Tree is growing because God is blessing our small effort. All of us together are making a huge difference in the lives of beautiful people who are hungry for the TRUTH.
 
Thank you for your prayers and support and we invite you to travel with us to experience the open door first hand…
 
Peace & Blessings to you in 2014,
Cliff White, Co-Founder