Just a quick note to sincerely wish you a beautiful Thanksgiving. I often say “Thanks for journeying with New Thing,” and I mean it literally. Journeying isn’t always easy or fun. Journeying means staying on the path regardless. I’m truly grateful for so many friends willing to stick with this journey. Whether you give to a project or not, whether you’re inspired by a project or not... I’m thankful that you’ve kept going, kept looking and listening, to see what comes next . T

We've loved the children and workers at Osipovichi in Belarus for a long time. This photo was taken on my first-ever visit, almost 10 years ago. When we learned they had no money for ordinary medicine cabinet meds and supplies, friends of New Thing started helping. The American Thanksgiving holiday became our time each year to meet this simple but very real need. This year, with a $6500 need, we received a Matching Challenge: Give half the total by Thanksgiving Day, and every

Quick update: We’re so close!  The goal is $3,250. The deadline is Thanksgiving. Make them both and a Matching Challenge kicks in — so every gift already given doubles . You’ll provide a full year’s worth of medicine cabinet meds and supplies  for all the children with disabilities at the boarding school in Osipovichi, Belarus. THANK YOU to the 24 households who have already generously given to bring us this far: Just $438.55 to go. But it’s less than 100 hours to the deadlin

They’re smiling because of a friend like you. They’re children with disabilities at the boarding school in Osipovichi (pronounced oh-see-POE-vee-chee), Belarus. They’re happy and healthy, but they need our help to stay that way. Their loving professional caregivers need things like: B6 and B12 and multi-vitamins Gauze and cotton balls Medical gloves Hydrogen peroxide Amoxycillin  And more than 50 other medicines. Basic medicine-cabinet meds and supplies. New Thing is their on

A quick update on the children with disabilities and their need for medicine-cabinet meds and supplies: 1. The Matching Challenge expires in 13 days — Thanksgiving Day.  2. IF we make the $3250 goal, the Challenge will double every donation. 3. Reaching the Challenge goal, we’ll be able to provide a year’s worth of meds and supplies for the children at Osipovichi: aspirin , Bandaids , all the basics for all 80 children . (It’s only 23¢ a day but with 80 kids it adds up.) 

You and I hear it, and maybe say it, every year: “Count your blessings.”  We set aside a day for it. Thanksgiving: a uniquely American holiday. Friends of New Thing have an unusual count-your-blessings tradition: Every year at Thanksgiving time, we provide a year’s worth of the ordinary medicine-cabinet meds and supplies needed to care for 80 children with disabilities. They live in a boarding school in Osipovichi, Belarus, many abandoned at birth because of their conditions.

Every year at Thanksgiving time, friends of New Thing renew a heartwarming decade-long tradition: Providing a year’s worth of medicine-cabinet meds and supplies for some 80 children at Osipovichi, Belarus. These kids have physical and mental disabilities, but their boarding-school caregivers give them absolutely the best care possible. And the workers are so grateful that the Americans remember them every year ... so when a child needs an aspirin or a bandaid, they don’t have

He’s working on something. But he pauses and looks over his shoulder. Needing help? Waiting for advice? Wary of a scolding? Hoping for approval? Or maybe just annoyed by an interruption — Hey, tryin’ to work here! The fact that he’s in school, and healthy, well fed, and wearing clean clothes, is enough to know. He’s safe and loved in the Belarusian town of Rudensk, 30 miles southeast of Minsk, in a boarding school for children who have lost their parents. Here, a little guy —

Some grateful families! ... Here’s  a very brief photo report  from Belarus. Thanks for journeying with New Thing! Much love, Doug Brendel

Here’s  a brief photo report from Belarus . Thanks for journeying with New Thing! Much love, Doug Brendel (Photos by Oleg Yarovenko)