Dear Friends

All of us at Smiles trust you have had a good month and for our friends in America, we pray you
had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Whilst for different reasons, it is good for us all, wherever we are from, to be Thankful to God for all His Goodness shown to us every day, month by month. 

It has been another busy month for us all, but particularly for Maria and myself as we spent 2 weeks of extensive travelling and numerous meetings across several South-East States of America.

In 12 days of meetings, we had visits to Charlotte NC, Hendersonville NC, Kingsport TN, Cincinnati OH, Groveport OH, Baker LA, Baton Rouge LA, Jacksonville FL, Stuart FL and Lake Wales FL. We travelled 2000 miles by road and 9800 miles by air during the 13 days. Although exhausting, it was a very beneficial visit with several highlights.

The first Sunday provided opportunity for me to share at 3 morning services at Christ Lutheran Church in Charlotte NC followed by a luncheon with a number of Smiles supporters. We were so delighted and thankful to receive a Gift of $50,000 from Pastor Scott on behalf of the Church towards the Joint Facility of Love.
                                                                                                                                                                                A fantastic boost to the Capital Fund for which we truly Praise God!  

We also met with many friends in relation to Mission Trips in 2012. One Church in Tennessee has booked a team of 34 to come next summer. A School in Louisiana is looking to book for December 2012. They brought a team of 27 last Easter and had a fantastic experience. Other Churches from Florida are making plans for their first trip to Romania with Smiles while others are planning their return trips. Overall, we are expecting more than 100 visitors from America in 2012 on Mission Trips – a fantastic expectation and great support for the work of Smiles.

Of course, we haven’t finished 2011 yet, so must not forget we have 21 Mission Trip guests this month who start arriving Saturday! 

Great News - your December Gift to Smiles Can be Doubled... read on..

Just a few days after getting back to England, I had a wonderful piece of news from supporters we had met while in America. This wonderful offer is something I would like you ALL to be involved with. Smiles has received a fantastically generous offer from a loyal supporter in America for the month of December.
A $25,000 Matching Gift Challenge! (That is £17,000 for the Brits)

What this means is – every US dollar/British pound donated in the 31 days of December (over and above the regular monthly supports) for any of our Projects will be matched by our supporting donors.
That also means – your Gift is Doubled!

This is an amazing opportunity which I ask you to think hard about responding to and to consider how much extra you can do this month. Having a specific focus on extra income this month of potentially $25,000 (£17,000) is wonderful in itself, but the fact it will be ‘matched’ and therefore ‘doubled’ is amazing.
So potentially $50,000 (£34,000) extra income this month will be such a blessing on so many fronts. PLEASE SUPPORT.

Let’s not loose any of the potential support on offer. If we only donate an extra $5,000 (£3,400) it will only be doubled to $10,000 (£6,800) – but, if we can go an extra mile or two – we will see an extra $25,000/£17,000 become $50,000/£34,000!!! I probably don’t need to explain how difficult the economic climate is making life for Charities and Mission Organisations. But, that is one really good reason for supporting this type of Challenge – one that can double the direct impact of our gift. This is really important.

Please take this Challenge and make it have the full impact it can. 
 

Give generously here – NOW – and be thankful that whatever you give will be doubled by the Smiles December Matching Gift Challenge.  Options to support would be:

• Christmas Corner – includes S.O.S., Christmas Food Parcels, Winter Fuel Support.
   
• Smiles 100 Love Club – includes Gepiu, Emergency Housing, Salard
   
• Smiles 200 Hope Club – includes Family Care, Homeless & Housing
   
• Smiles 400 Faith Club – includes Church, School, Nursery, Medical and Gypsy Community
   
• Enterprise Initiatives – includes Farm, Glasshouse and Retail
   
• Capital Project – Joint Facility of Love 
 

Thank you for your help and support. I will keep you updated on progress through out the month.
 

Now, I don’t want to distract you from the importance of the Matching Challenge, so I am keeping other news here to a minimum. We do have some regular articles for you to see, namely from Maria to know News from Romania and our Staff profile this month is featuring Ritza from Homeless and Salard Projects plus Mission Centre. Our UK DA Report this month is from   Sue Allen, Region 3.

As we move into this exciting month of December, preparing to Celebrate the Birth of our King, I pray you will know the Peace and Joy only found in Jesus, who came to Earth at the first Christmas to give us Hope for the future … a Hope of Eternal Life.

Thank you all for your continued support, love and prayers for God’s Work through Smiles.
God Bless you all 

Kevin Hoy
Cheif Executive to
The Smiles Foundation

p.s. If you shop on-line you can now raise funds for The Smiles Foundation with NO COST TO YOU involved! Please check the easyfundraising link for details.