The Wingard Home Blog

 To all Friends and Supporters of the Wingard Home,

CAUSE AND EFFECT:

Most of you have probably already heard about Roy’s horrible accident on November 3rd. As we are entering an incredibly busy time of the year for this ministry, suddenly we are thrust into a spiral of ambulance, trauma unit, hospital stays and two surgeries so far. We are now waiting on the all-clear for the third surgery. We are blessed to have had Christian friends and supporters who have been praying without ceasing. Miracles! are what we are seeing!

OPPORTUNITY TO HELP:

As we go through the just-before-December slump every year, we have to do a little shaking of the bushes to raise the extra support. This year, because of Roy’s accident I have not been “at full capacity” to make folks aware…….that we are getting seriously behind.

 We have close to $ 5,250.00 in bills for the month of November and only  $1,000 in the bank.

To quote a friend of ours from a local church ” there are goods folks out here who are willing and able to help, but you have to let them know where the need is!”

ON TASK: 

As far as the ministry is concerned, we are still running as usual- taking people in, making pick-ups, counseling, doing the interviews for the Christmas Festival and having Chapel four times a week! Supper is prepared every day for 40 people. We have on-going projects and are still in need of volunteers. We are full-steam-ahead with the big Christmas Festival for the hundreds of needy children.

WE ARE BLESSED:

Roy has round-the-clock care here at the ministry because of God bringing us an awesome nurse named Joe and a volunteer ministry intern named Amanda who is working in the kitchen and food pantry. Our children have been wonderful helpers through this whole ordeal and I, personally, am leaning on Jesus and one of my favorite scriptures- “Not by might, not by power, but, by my Spirit, says the Lord.” I have no idea how anyone could survive the trauma this family has been through the past two weeks without a personal relationship with Jesus Christ……I could NOT do this without God in our life!!

We love you all and thank-you for your prayers and support in the past: we pray you choose to continue.

Love in Christ,

Charlotte Wingard and family 

Next Monday, November 2, our Christmas assistance flyers will begin to go out to strageic areas all over central Mississippi. Our prayer- that we would be led by the Holy Spirit to the families MOST in-need this Christmas Season. We love to be able to help the children of families who are really trying to help themselves, but just need a helping hand this year.

We also have a brochure that explains the Christmas Programs and details the ways you can help. We are truly excited about the many opportunities for  blessings this year and invite you to join us as we minister this Christmas.christmas-brochure-09.pdf

I must tell you about an awesome printing company in the metro area (located in Flowood,Ms): Harvey Dallas Printing Co. ! If you ever want to get a job done and get it done right, then they are the company for you! I am so impressed by their professional attitude…..and they are “techno awesome” !

They did an awesome job for this ministry…..thousands of Christmas Festival Flyers will go out to the Rankin County Schools this week in order to reach the families there who need assistance…….and Harvey Dallas made that possible. Check them out at the link below. I think when you find something wonderful, you should share it:

www.harveydallasprinting.com

We have a Christmas program in it’s 19th year of existence. It is the HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JESUS! FESTIVAL. Through God’s guidance, we comb the surrounding communities and find children who are very much in need of things for Christmas. Now, I say things because, sometimes the three Christmas wishes we ask the children for consist of clothing, homework supplies, warm bedding, personal care items…….in other words, necessities! There are toy and bike wishes, too ….and skates, skateboards, CD players, etc.

We target the children or grandchildren of working parents or grandparents. The people our ministry helps (through you, of course) are the folks who are trying to provide and are just temporarily in dire straits. In other words, trying to work a start-up job and attend school to do better for themselves OR grandparents who are still working a little or are disabled and trying to support a household full of grandchildren in order to keep them in the family. We go to the home and meet and talk to the parent, interview the children and find out what their Christmas wishes are and then invite them as special guests to the big party for baby Jesus. We find special needs all the time by doing this …….like children without proper bedding, homes with no furniture, homes needing heat or air. We are so moved by the Christmas wishes we see from the children, that this is our most passionate time of the year.

We have grand opportunities to show the love of Jesus Christ at this time of year, so we want to grasp every opportunity that God gives us to bless families. Won’t you join us! You will be so blessed that this will undoubtably become a “family tradition” for your family, too!

We call the children who need sponsors, “Little Lambs” because Jesus is called the “Lamb of God”. We have written the wishes of the children on lamb-shaped cards and placed them on a Christmas tree at the Flowood Wal Mart on Lakeland Drive. If you are local, I challenge you to go out and sign up to adopt the wishes of one of these children. If you are not local, and want to have a hand in this anyway, call me and I’ll work out something with you……the opportunities are infinite!! The rewards are out of this world!!

Charlotte Wingard       601-355-9589   OR   601-906-1976

e-mail      wwjdcaw@aol.com

Don’t let this opportunity slip by you……..we have 400 children and each one of them needs a sponsor..IMAGINE THE POSSIBILITIES!!!!

From the front lines,

Charlotte 

We are sitting at the door of November, the air has a chill in it, and thoughts of giving thanks for our fall harvests and bountiful blessings are overshadowing the long, hot, weary summer. The next big group of projects for this ministry will be the very busy task of helping hundreds of children and their family for the Christmas season. The season actually begins with Thanksgiving and ends with Christmas morning festivities and celebration.

Of course, the biggest thing for us is the big birthday bash that we throw for Jesus. We invite hundreds of this areas “children in-need” and throw a huge Happy Birthday, Jesus, Festival ! These pre-qualified, screened, specially invited children and their family are honored at the festival and  given toys, Bibles, food, entertainment, photos, and furniture (ex. sometimes, when children are giving us their Christmas wishes, they ask for things like a bed or a new mattress or a study desk). For these children, the festival is the absolute high point of their holiday season. For us, it is an awesome opportunity to , not only tell folks about Jesus’ love, but also to show them the love of Jesus in our works and actions.

I have a photo show from last year for the Happy Birthday, Jesus, Party and the Christmas Morning Family Christmas we do for the Wingard Home residents. Please pray as you watch and ask that God reveal to you how you can be a part of the Holidays at Wingard Home for 2008.

Wingard Home Christmas Morning, 2007        

18th Annual Happy Birthday, Jesus, Festival, 2007

Call me or e-mail me with your thoughts, ideas, suggestions, and pledges.

Get involved! You just can’t out-give God!!!

Charlotte Wingard (601-906-1976)

wwjdcaw@aol.com

Thanksgiving was a glorious time of thankfulness and peace around our house…..and with a full house, we are talking MIRACLE! We have 23 children at our home and most of them are under the age of 8. We do want to thank all of you who made that Thanksgiving meal possible because you gave unselfishly.

Since Thanksgiving, we have been very busy screening Christmas applications made by families in need of assistance. We are now gathering decorations for the ministry houses and for the families we find that don’t have a tree or lights for the children to enjoy.

Our biggest ministry concern right now is that we really, really need a warehouse. This is the perfect time of year to gather furniture and appliances to give to our families as they move out on their own and get on their feet. The not-so-perfect thing for us is that we have no way to store the things.

On North State Street in Jackson, there is a man named Mr. Warren Wright who owns a row of warehouse type storefront buildings and they are for sale. I have my eye and my prayers on one of those buildings for the  ministry. Please call me if you can help with this in any way or if you know someone who can & will help us get a warehouse or to get that warehouse. My office number at the ministry is 601-355-9589…..anytime!

Please remember to check the brochure for all the times and needs for the festival. There is a link to the brochure on one of the previous posts to this blog. We are still looking for places to put up a bunch of lambs for folks to choose a child to sponsor for Christmas.

Please e-mail me if you have any questions…….      

wwjdcaw@aol.com

Serving gladly,

Charlotte Wingard

If you have seen our festival brochure, you know that the needy children who attend the “Happy Birthday, Jesus! Party” (alias,”the Festival”) are specially chosen children of the working poor in our communities. We call them “little lambs” for two reasons: first, they are the children of the flock of sheep (in God’s word, Jesus said to His deciple, “Do you love me? …….then feed my sheep”) and second, Jesus, himself, was referred to as the “Lamb of God”.

We place the names of these needy children and their three wishes on a card shaped like a lamb. The children are given 3 wishes which is symbolic of the Holy Trinity-Father, Son, & Holy Spirit (3). These cards are then placed on a Christmas tree where sponsors can view them and pick out children to help for Christmas. There is an instruction card on the bottom of each lamb. It looks like this:

Thank-you all so much for your prayers and support in this year of 2007. We are getting set now to help hundreds of children-in-need for the Christmas season; and, have created a printable brochure filled with all the information about the festival. Please click on this link to view or to print…. Christmas 2007 Brochure

Please feel free to tell folks you know about the festival, the projects, the brochure, the website. They will have the opportunity to help…..OR, to tell someone else, or to pray for the projects, this ministry and our family as we minister on the “front lines”.

Blessings to you,

my e-mail … wwjdcaw@aol.com