Christ Business Partners

To Whom It May Concern:

I’m a pastor at Desert Oasis Fellowship in Indio, CA. We have been in the valley for 6 years outreaching to the community around us in many ways. We love to “take it to the streets” with a 20 ft trailer we personally own that folds out to a stage.  Along with providing free BBQ, snacks and drinks, we also bring instruments, songs, testimonies, puppets, clowns, games, and lots of prizes.  We also have two yearly events: one at Easter with a 2000 Easter egg hunt and another at Harvest Time with a carnival atmosphere to keep the kids off the streets.  We are actively involved with two major homeless shelters here; Martha’s Kitchen- we host children’s service once a month, bible study once a week and provide rides to church every service with two vans. Coachella Valley Rescue Mission Center- we host weekly bible studies and provide rides to services as well.  All of these events are sponsored by going out to local business and requesting donations to help with the community.  What ever is not covered comes in house where the people freely give many times what they don’t have.

Currently we are leasing three suites in a commercial building two being the main sanctuary, pastor’s office and nursery.  The third is our multi-purpose building which is our main classrooms and sanctuary for kdz JAM! 
We still have needs to complete the main sanctuary in the first two suites consisting of paint, baptism and actual walls for our nursery estimated around $5000.00.  The kdz JAM in our third suite is our recent expansion which we don’t have the money to build the classrooms we need. It’s estimated about another $5,000.00 for that.

We have always leased our buildings and have a great desire to build our own. For this to reach reality first we would need property.  At this time we have access to foreclosure property for around $100,000.00 this would allow funding for us to get a contractors loan to build.  I also have my Contractors License, and have the ability to save us lots of money on the construction side.

We are also in need of some more sound equipment about 4 cordless mikes, Church Computer, Duplicator for cd’s, We have two 15 passenger vans with over 345,000 miles we need tune-ups and new tires!

Thank you for your time and consideration!

Your servants here in Indio, CA

Desert Oasis Fellowship
Pastor Thom Letwinch

Church site address:
45116 Commerce St.
Indio Ca 92201

Mailing address
P.O box 864
Indio Ca 92202

The Audrene Scism Children’s home is a haven of hope for orphaned babies and children who are brought through its welcoming gates.  This refuge is situated in the town of Kolasib, which is located in the state of Mizoram in northeast India.  Although a great deal of the town is primitive, the community of people are the kindest, most gentle people and they are very proud of the children’s home and the help it brings to the children who are in such desperate need.  A few years ago, I made the journey to Mizoram via a flight from Bangkok through Calcutta and then into this restricted, government-controlled country of India where I made the 2 hour drive to the CIA in order to first be fingerprinted and photographed before going any further.  I hired a professional taxicab driver and for the next 8 hours (no exaggeration) I hung onto the top, bottom and sides of the cab.  The roads are winding and curving and lead straight up through impossible mountain passages.  In many places, there is a three foot gravel shoulder which drops down thousands of feet below with no guardrail in between the cars and the drop.

When we finally arrived and I saw those little children, it was worth all of the effort.  The children in the orphanage are so beautiful and they range in age from newborn babies up through high school.  What was totally overwhelming to me is that every one of them was nurtured, cherished and well cared for.  They receive an excellent academic education and they are also socially prepared for the time that they will eventually take their place in the outside world.  Currently, there are 50 orphans and 300 students in the boarding school.  Since there are no government programs which financially support orphaned children, the Audrene Scissom children’s home is funded solely through private donations.   Its future plan is to expand the facility in order to allow room to accommodate more children and take in more orphans and monetary donations are very welcomed and appreciated.

I have visited many orphanages in my life and this orphanage, by far, is the most impressive because of the special love, care and attentiveness that is shown to these children.  In other orphanages, there seems to be a shortage of staff and not enough comfort to share with all of the children, but at the Audrene Scism Children’s Home, the staff is so warm and it is as if these children belong to them.  It would be an amazing and fruitful investment to make a monetary donation to this Haven and to these beautiful children.

Nancy J. Grandquist