Thank you,

Angela

As you know, I love tea. Exotic, fantastic, hand crafted, artisanal tea. Every penny I earn goes to the missions I support. I personally pay all the business expenses of this hobby venture so all earnings I receive go directly to charity. In fact, in the future all commission checks from my supplier will be written directly to New Missions to save me the time of cashing checks and re-writing them to New Missions.

But there is a bigger issue here…………this isn’t really about the exotic, fantastic, hand crafted, artisanal tea….its about the kids.

They need YOU more than you need the tea. They need you sponsor them and they need you TODAY.

The tea is secondary, changing lives for good is PRIMARY.

Invest in a young child’s future….through New Missions.

In Haiti most people speak Haitian Creole. It is my heart’s greatest desire to go and serve in Haiti – and to put my arms around our sweet sponsored New Missions boy, Jean Robert Martin.

As my seed faith planting, I am going to start learning, and teaching my children, the following terms:

Hello or good morning     *Bonjou

Good afternoon or evening     *Bonswa

Good-bye     *Bay-bay (Orevwa)

Thank you     *Merci

Welcome     *Bien-vini

How are you?     *Kouma ou ye?

I’m fine.     *Mwe bien

You’re welcome.     *Padekwa.

I’m very well thank God.     *Mwe tre bien gras a Dieu

I’m not bad.     *Mwe pa mal

I’m not too bad.     *Mwe pa tro mal

I’m not worse.    *Mwe pa pi mal

I’m not good.     *Mwe pa bon.

Everything is fine.     *Tout bagay mache bien

What is your name?     *Kouma ou rele?

child    *ti moun

little girl     *tifi

girl teenage    *genfi

married woman     *madame

woman    *fanm

little boy    *tigazon

man        *msie

sister    *ser

brother     *frè

mother    *mama

father    *papa

pastor    *pasteur

worker     *travaye

teacher      *professeur

someone in authority      *chef

friend    *zami

everyone    *tout moun

Stay tuned….as I have an idea of making large vocabulary cards with the Haitian term on front, English translation on back….and then have my children help me find examples of the terms and take photos with the cards. We can use the photos for learning and posting for others to learn from….. hmmmm….

A couple of weeks ago more construction supplies, first aid supplies and tarps were sent to Haiti, including Jean Robert Martin’s village. Since the devastating earthquake the villagers have been sleeping on the ground, unprotected by the elements. A new shoebox campaign is going on for New Missions, and this time I elected to send a targeted donation to New Missions which they specifically use to fill shoeboxes for school children with specific needed supplies like antiseptic soap, bandages, protein bars etc. These are targeted to the current needs, different than the school suplies and toy filled shoeboxes we sent 6 months ago. The prepackaged shoeboxes available to send on New Missions website, newmissions.org enable folks to get a bigger bang for your donation dollar. Instead of picking and packing supplies and paying additional shipping fees to get your boxes to the New Missions Florida office for forwarding to Haiti on the cargo containers, all of your donation can go to the supplies they most urgently need.

Just because we don’t see daily updates on the news doesn’t mean that life is back to normal in Haiti. Please keep our sweet kiddos in your mids and prayers, and if you have a chance, please check out what New Missions is doing at the New Missions website, and on Facebook

Blessings all,

Angela

It is with a sad heart that I write to you about a terrible loss to the World Vision family. Six staff members were killed in a brutal and senseless attack on our offices in the Mansehra District of Pakistan. Additionally, eight employees are hospitalized with injuries after the unprovoked assault by gunmen. Four of the staff have been released from the hospital.

Our work in Pakistan is conducted by local citizens. We remember those staff who died as dedicated workers seeking to improve the lives of people affected by poverty and disasters. World Vision has temporarily suspended our operations in Pakistan, but we remain committed to helping children, families, and communities in this country.

As World Vision mourns our colleagues, we ask you to join us in praying for the families of our staff members and the people they serve in Pakistan, including those who respond to kindness with violence.
God bless,


Rich Stearns
President, World Vision U.S.
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This evening I came home to a great big box of yummy teas hand blended by my awesome tea crafter, Joy. The first cup I prepared was PANDA PARADISE.

Panda Paradise contains bamboo leaf, azaleas, lilies, peonies, ginger, pepperberries, orange peel and essence….uh, YUM!!

Charles Cain, of the fabulous Tea Retailer site, has this to say about tea bags:

1. Tea bags are filled with dust and fannings – the detritus left over from the production of “real tea”. The West simply didn’t appreciate good tea and we were too lazy or uncivilized to get beyond dipping a bag in warm water (or so the thinking went).

2. Tea bags are too small to allow whole, or even slightly broken leaf teas to properly expand and infuse. The tea bag itself was responsible for the use of dust and fannings.

3. Twinings has always recommended brewing a Black Tea between 3 and 5 minutes for optimal flavor. To their horror, they conducted a study and found that the average black tea drinker dunked that bag for only 45 seconds. The lazy or uncivilized Western tea drinker needs to be served dust and fannings so that some flavor makes it into the cup in 45 seconds or less.

4. Paper tea bags don’t allow much circulation of the water and delivered weak infusions.

5. Because tea bags are primarily dust and fannings, or at best CTC teas (finely chopped leaf pieces), they go stale quickly.

6. Because of all the extra packaging, shipping and storage costs, bagged teas are more than twice as expensive as the same tea sold loose.

The Giving Teas Project is proud to only offer loose leaf teas to our customers. We know you value high quality and taste-intensive teas and tisanes, and we are proud to bring you only the best.

If you want to learn more about the best ways to brew your loose leaf teas, in single serving or traditional tea pots, just shoot us an email at thegivingteas@me.com

You can’t change the weather – but you can change some lives – and warm yourself from the inside out! This month my two most popular looseleaf teas (tisanes) are………(drumroll please):

CRANBERRY FRUIT INFUSION

and

TRILLIUM FRUIT INFUSION.

The Giving Tea Project’s Cranberry Fruit Infusion contains succulent cranberries, apples, rosehips & hibiscus and our Trillium Fruit Infusion contains cherries, blackberries, sumac, hibiscus, rose hips and blackberry leaf.

I typically prepare these infusions hot (208 degreed water poured over a steeper basket directly into a steeper cup) or in my Curve Teapot which contains a stainless infuser basket (24 oz and 45 oz versions are available – just add it to your list when you email me your order at thegivingteas@me.com).

These infusions are also nice when chilled, for some of your southerners who love iced tea all day long.

All of my profit from your purchases will be donated to New Missions Haiti and World Vision Uganda, changing lives of children every day.