Some important questions you need to ask.

Christian House Sitters has a ‘sister’ ministry called TLC Childrens Trust who run a home for vulnerable children in rural Kenya. The home is called Home of Peace Children’s Home.
Christian House Sitters helps Christians around the world enjoy rent free vacations and helps Christian home owners find someone to look after their home and pets, free of charge while they are away.

Many of our the Christian House Sitters members also choose to support this work. There is no requirement to do that but all income from Christian House Sitters goes to Home of Peace through TLC Children Trust

Because of this close relationship I wanted to answer a few important questions

There are a lot of people asking for your support and we believe it is important that everyone checks before giving because sadly given to some so called good causes is actually money wasted. Here are some basic questions about our charity to help you make a more informed decision.


How can I check that TLC Childrens Trust is genuine?
Visit the UK Charity Commissioner website and search for Charity 1156786. We are a UK Government Registered Charity.

How do you make sure the money used is not stolen or wasted?
Marilyn White, the chair of T.L.C. Children’s Trust, is on the Home of Peace management team and in daily contact. We make all their financial decisions. Ray White, as a Trustee and the Treasure, demands receipts for everything and photos of large items purchased. He also gets copies of their financial statements every month and checks it agrees with our records.

What percentage of money received is held by TLC Children’s Trust for overheads?
NIL! The trustees cover overheads and 100% of income goes to Home of Peace.

Who visits and checks on Home of Peace?
The home is registered with the Kenyan Government and is inspected by the Department of Children’s Services, the Department of Health and various other government departments.

When missionaries are visiting Kenya we also ask them to visit.

On our website you can read the views of 2 UK Pastors who spent 10 days at Home of Peace

We would love to visit more often but can’t justify the cost when that money is needed to feed the children.

How do you know these children really need to be in the home?
They are referred to us by the Dept. of Children’s Services and then committed to the home by the court after a magistrate has carefully examined each case. Their committal to Home of Peace is under continuous review by both the court and the Dept of Children’s Services.

Some charities have large amounts of money invested. Do you?
No. We actually struggle to meet the monthly running costs. For example a few times Marilyn and Ray have personally had to lend the charity some money that they had set aside for their own rent and other accounts. They did this knowing that there were donations due a few days later which would enable them to pay their rent, etc.

So if you don’t have a large reserve how do you cope with emergencies?

Through prayer and letting people who have expressed an interest know the situation.

Are we a School?
NO. We are NOT a school we are a Children’s Home. Our younger children attend the Primary School. Our older students attend a local Secondary School. We are responsible for covering all the costs associated with their education but we recognise without an education they have no future.

How can I support the work?
Through prayer. Ask for our quarterly newsletter
Through gifts. Every gift is a blessing
Through regular monthly giving. There is no restriction on how much you need to give. We appreciate everyone.
If you are a UK Tax payer please Gift Aid your gift as the government will then increase it by 25%

How do I give?
This can be done through many different ways. Have a look at www.TLC-Childrenstrust.org/support

I still have questions. Please feel free to ask us any questions.

God bless you,

Ray

Author: housesitters

ABOUT Christian House Sitters Christian House Sitters is a Worldwide ministry that started in order to provide holidays for Christians and sitters for owners who needed a reliable Christian to look after their home, pets and garden. House owners do not pay anything to have their property listed. House sitters are only charged £25 per year and in return for this some enjoy numerous holidays each year. All fees from membership go to sponsor food for children at the Home of Peace Children’s Home in Kenya. This only supplies about a quarter of what is needed to feed the children so we urgently need sponsors. All funds go via our Registered Charity TLC Children’s Trust Charity Number 1156786 website http://www.tlc-childrenstrust.org N.B. Joining Christian House Sitters does NOT commit you to sponsoring a child or giving any support beyond your membership fee to these children. Although naturally if you want to support that would be greatly appreciated. We have some regular sponsors and other people who give an occasional gift. All are greatly appreciated. ABOUT RAY & MARILYN We are Marilyn & Ray White. A fun loving Christian couple who have been in Christian work for over 30 years. Marilyn was born in England but moved to Zimbabwe as a baby. At the age of 16 she moved to South Africa. Ray was born in South Africa and grew up on a farm. We met in Johannesburg and got married in 1966. Ray worked in business for many years then he worked for YfC in South Africa then went on to Bible College and Pastored a church. In 1982 we moved from South Africa to England. In addition to his theological training Ray trained in Psychology and since moving to the UK he has lectured in Psychology, counselled for the NHS and opened a Christian Counselling Centre. Marilyn is also a trained counsellor and manager. In addition to the counselling we trained Christian counsellors both in our local area and by invitation in other areas of the UK. In total over 700 people completed the training courses. Many are serving the Lord by working in or through their local churches. We also ran a secular Stress Management business. We are now semi-retired and focus our time and attention on Christian House Sitters and Ray also serves as a member of our Church Leadership Team. Ray also has an active preaching ministry and runs Christian seminars on subjects such as stress management for church groups. He has written two books. A Christian book that is a very practical workbook on Christian commitment as applied to real life. The book looks at how we can surrender ourselves more fully to God. This is looked at under the headings of Physical, Mental, Social and Spiritual commitment. The book is called Let’s Get Serious. He has also written a secular book on Stress Management called Stress Overcoming this Potential Killer. (Ray was previously Chair of the International Stress Management Association UK). News Update This book has now been released as an e-book as well A few years ago we did a 2 month House Sit in France. Whilst there we felt the Lord leading us to set up a Christian House Sitting service. Since then we have done a number of other house sits. We believe this site will benefit many Christians around the world. Feel free to contact us (BUT please no spam) NOTE: If you want a fast reply the best way to contact us is via the contact page on the Christian House Sitters website www.christian-housesitters.com God bless you, Ray & Marilyn

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