I am beyond excited and just plain jumping up and down giddy! We are days, literally days, away from getting our group home license for Courage House NorCal! Which means we are weeks away from welcoming girls home to Courage House NorCal! In addition, we received a $30,000 donation designated to expedite the opening of Courage House Tanzania! Lauren Edens (C2BU’s director there) is beginning to interview and hire staff for the home there!
The C2BU Nor Cal Licensing Team met with the California State Licensing Board during early April to review the final updates to the Courage House program statement. The state licensing board was extremely complimentary and supportive of the years worth of work it took our volunteer team to take the vision God had given me and translate that into a 900 page application and program statement the state of California could approve. After a few minor revisions to the application, the state then scheduled our site inspection. On April 12th that inspection was held. Every bed was beautifully made with soft, new comforters in neon colors, fragrant flowers were placed in vases throughout the house and every staff member stood ready, waiting to show off their hard work from the past 12 months. We all had butterflies! Much to our amazement, the only improvements we were required to make was to replace 2 screens on bedroom windows, raise a section of the fence around the pond one inch and vacuum the windowsills! With 50 acres, that is nothing short of a miracle and a testimony to the hundreds, dare I say thousands, of volunteer hours given by many who sacrificed their time, talents and treasure to do what needed to be done to accelerate the process of gaining the approvals we need to open Courage House and welcome girls home! Now we wait! We been given the date of April29th as the day to expect our provisional license! We have no doubt we will receive it!
So by faith, we have scheduled a celebration event to thank God and honor YOU and all those who not only believed in the dream of Courage House NorCal and Tanzania but also who contributed in tangible ways to make it a reality. The event will be held on May 1, 2011, at First Baptist Church in Elk Grove. Please join us! It will be an amazing night of music, prayer, laughter, tears and celebration! We will “remember” all that God has done in the past and all that He is fulfilling today! We will be releasing the new music video “Who will call me family” as well as presenting C2BU’s prestigious “Water Walker, Giant Slayer, History Maker” annual . The 2010 honoree is Vicki Zito. Vicki’s courageous stance and bold voice in the fight against sex trafficking made her a unanimous choice for this award. We will also honor our 350 certified volunteers as well as our law enforcement partners, c2bu staff and board of directors. We are also praying that Lauren Edens will be able to join us from Tanzania via SKYPE if we get an internet connection!
We are also so excited to provide you with a new 5 minute video update that includes live footage from Courage House NorCal. I long to bring everyone “home” to see Courage House here or take you half way across the world to see the Courage House in Tanzania! But the reality is that we must keep the location of Courage Houses secret so the girls who live there will remain safe. I hope the visuals on this video will encourage and remind you in a very tangible way of the need to pray for the first six girls who will call Courage House home here in the Sacramento area as well as Tanzania. I often wonder what their names are. What they look like, how will they adjust to their new home. I get anxious wondering if they will let us love them. I feel like I did when I was pregnant awaiting the arrival of each of my babies … excited, scared and so ready for them to be here! I pray as you watch this video you will also!
Watch Courage House Video Here
Bless you, bless you, bless you!.. “Not by might, not by power but by God’s spirit!” these homes will be open soon!
Jenny
