A Message from Our Executive Director...
Let me tell you another story about the amazing providence that continues to occur in the history of the James Connection. As you know, our Christian brothers have been growing lemongrass in the hills of Manipur in the hopes of making a profit that can be used to support the many orphans at Angels' Place. With our help, they have cleared, plowed and planted about 500 acres of the lemongrass and have extracted the oil from the crops through steaming them in our three distilleries. They have been storing the oil in a warehouse in the hopes of marketing the oil in the west where the price greatly exceeds that in India. There have been two chief hurdles to bringing the oil to the western marketplace: an export license and marketing skill. We have finally obtained the export license and providence has brought us to the market place.
Here's how that happened. For years, we have been presenting our case to many churches and groups throughout the US telling them about Angels’ Place and God’s work there. The message has included the story about lemongrass. At every stop I have asked the audience if anyone knows the export-import business and how to market this oil internationally. After years of asking that question I finally got the answer we needed. Diane Samueloff, a Christian in the church in Jupiter, FL said, “Yes, I worked for a company that imported essential oils from all over the world.” She then gave me details about a company named doTerra. She secured the name of the buyer of essential oils who happened to be in Kenya and was on his way to Bangalore, India to buy essential oils. We made contact, and, after we had our oil tested (which proved to be of high quality), we are now negotiating a partnership with doTerra. We will supply lemongrass oil for a fair price which will give us a profit that can help the orphans of Manipur.
A representative of doTerra plans to visit Angels’ Place the first week of July to see our orphanage and our means of producing lemongrass oil. It is our mutual expectation that he will be more than satisfied with his inspection of our work and that we will enter an agreement to both supply the product they need and provide the financial support that Angels' Place needs. Our contact at doTerra explains that their company's mission includes doing significant social good where they do business so we are very encouraged about a long-term partnership.
The James Connection has received so many blessings that are unquestionably the work of a divine helping hand. We do not know from where the next blessing will come to help this work, but we know that if we have faith and we continue to do this work to help the kids, the blessings will continue. God, very explicitly, told us to help orphans. If God commands us to do something that means that He will help us do it. He has certainly helped the James Connection. If we keep on obeying Him, He will continue to bless us. Please pray for the success of this project.
Jan
