Dear Acres of Love family and friends,

I am pleased to share significant progress for Acres of Love in 2009. Our focus has been the replication of our Forever Home and Forever Family model program, in the best interest of the infants and children, who have been entrusted into our care.

Acres of Love is strategically evolving into a global movement of compassionate individuals united and creatively collaborating to solve a very complex problem. It is with deep humility that Gerda and I seek Divine wisdom on how to effectively engage and facilitate all our best gifts in a focused and sustainable manner.

It is our privilege to thank our South African Operational team, our U.S. Development team, our international board members and every precious partner for your love and compassion and proactive role.

We look forward to hosting you at Provision House, our newly established base in South Africa, and we wish you a very fruitful and productive 2010. Merry Christmas.

Provision House

"Provision House is an answer to prayer and a miraculous development" says Ryan.

In 2008 Gerda and Ryan realized that a new facility was required in order to enable the expansion of the core operational team, host vision casting sessions and enable the relationships between our children and partners to blossom. The establishment of this facility was a quantum leap for Acres of Love.

Provision House is now the nerve center of the Acres of Love grass roots operations, administration and the coordination of all the needs for the infants and children in 22 Forever Homes. "Provision House is empowering us to go to the next level" says Ryan.

Acres of Love Team is grateful for the wisdom and generosity of the anonymous donor who has made this exciting development possible.

"But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from You, and we have given You only what comes from Your hand." I Chronicles 29:14.

House Parent Thanksgiving Breakfast

The Acres of Love house parents were blessed by a Thanksgiving breakfast at the Grace Hotel in mid- November. They all met for a delicious meal and Sue Foster shared from the Word and from her own life experiences.

The full team of 7 Blairgowrie Sisters (the house moms from Blairgowrie) got up and sang a beautiful song of praise in three part harmonies!

Through wise counsel and mentorship, Sue Foster esteemed our parents and gave them a renewed understanding of their value and their calling

Donor Recognition

AVMS has generously donated a new VW multi- passenger Caddy to the Acres of Love fleet. This vehicle will be used to transport the children that live in the Forever Homes to various activities daily but more importantly will provided much needed transportation for many medical appointments and care necessary for some of our special needs children. Thank you to AVMS for their ongoing commitment and care of the transportation and Acres vehicles.

Additionally Acres of Love wishes to thank ABSA and their Corporate Social Investment group for remaining focused and committed. ABSA created a Wish Tree specifically addressing the needs and wishes of the children that live in 7 Forever Homes. Every wish was granted and now ABSA is raising funds for the Christmas foods and sweets for the children. Thank you to ABSA for showing love and generosity.

Samsung Changing Lives Forever

A huge thank you to the Samsung team who hosted the golf day at Woodmead Country Club in Johannesburg.

Proceeds from this incredible event will be applied to the Educational budget for the Acres of Love children with special needs.

We also thank Samsung for the incredible appliances they provide for our forever homes.

Huge Thank You To Pool Pro

We would like to express extreme gratitude to Pool Pro for arranging for the pool at the Santa Barbara Forever Home to be re-marbalited. This is a procedure that required expertise and specialized products and Pool Pro managed to arrange this as a donation to Acres of Love.

The kids were very excited to take their first dip in the new pool and have since had many hours of fun splashing around!

Treasures of Love Cookbook

In almost every family, there's a treasured recipe handed down for generations, special and secret and often requested but seldom shared with others. This book changes that. The proceeds from its sales go to benefit the children in South Africa, orphaned or abandoned.

For the past year, a widely varied group of women - some professional business people, others homemakers, and a few somewhere in between - have worked diligently and ceaselessly to put together a project designed to earn funds to create and sustain houses for Acres of Love. The result is a cookbook, hard-bound and beautifully designed, well-worded, and wonderfully photographed, compiling dozens of cherished, secret family recipes.

The 2nd Annual Gift of Life Celebration

In November, our San Juan Capistrano and Friends group rallied to put on a fantastic fundraising event to benefit the children that live in the San Juan Capistrano and Friends Forever Home.

The 2nd Annual Gift of Life Celebration was a tremendous success. Acres of Love would like to thank all who made this possible, in particular, the Solazzo family and the Oedekerk family who volunteered their beautiful home as the venue.

Our Preschool Christmas Play

Our Acres of Love pre-school classes worked very hard on a Christmas Play called "The Three Christmas Trees." The children and the teachers decided it would be wonderful to perform it for the "Safari Sisters" when they came to visit our school, during their trip to South Africa.

The children were little stars and everyone had a great time. It is such a pleasure to see these little angels on stage with their beautiful little voices.

"Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat. " by Mother Teresa