“To provide Christ-centered family homes for orphaned children, especially those affected by AIDS, where they can be raised in a loving and safe environment; to show God’s love, hope and protection for those orphaned children left helpless, vulnerable and rejected by their society.“ Matthew 25:40.
Mission:
“As a Christ-centered ministry, we desire to reach out to the ‘fatherless’ as Christ did and demonstrate His precious love; physically, emotionally and spiritually.“
Values:
Whispering Eagle Ministries conducts its affairs according to the following values:
- We believe in prayer, so we seek the Lord’s guidance and wisdom through prayer.
- God loves us, so we want to share His love with others.
- As the Lord has mercy on us, we want to be merciful to others.
- As God has prospered us, we want to share with others less fortunate.
- As God has a heart for the fatherless and widows, we want to honor God by reaching out to the fatherless and widows.
- As we have received blessings from God, we want to share those blessings with others.
History:
Whispering Eagle Ministries, (WEM), was founded in 2007 as a nonprofit corporation in Colorado to reach out to AIDs orphan children in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Ans VanderPlas De Zeeuw had been a missionary to the former Zaire for 10 years before a civil war there forced her to leave. Ans had a love for the African people from a very early age and her whole desire in life was to minister to them with the love of Christ. The Christian and Missionary Alliance, the organization that she was associated with in Africa, decided not to return to Zaire, now called the Democratic Republic of Congo, (DRC) after the troubles. Ans was devastated, because she wanted to return to ‘her’ people in her role as a CMA missionary. To make a long story short; in the interim, Ans married Len De Zeeuw and they moved to Colorado.
Vision for WEM
Although Ans lived in Colorado Springs, she never forgot ‘her’ people in Africa and through much prayer for them, she received a vision from the Lord about helping the children in DRC. At first, it seemed like a dream, but it wasn’t too long that the Lord made that dream a reality. Through the help of a dear aunt in Holland, the vision was confirmed and land was purchased in Muanda for a site for family homes. In 2008, we took a team from EMI, Engineering Ministries International, to Muanda to survey the land and design some buildings. That was the first time that Ans had been back to DRC since the civil war in 1992. What a reunion!
Abri De L’Esperance
Sadly, for us, Ans went to be with the Lord in 2010. However, she had passed the vision of the family homes on to a number of us so that today the Lord has blessed AE, Abri De L’Esperance, the name we use over there for the family home center with the following. We have 80 acres of land, two family homes, the Mama Ans house, a large building that we use for accommodation for Pastor Nkudulu, our director and his wife Esther, for prayer meetings, for clinics and for housing teams that go to Muanda.
Precious Children
Towards the end of 2012, the first family home was completed and in early 2013 we accepted twelve precious orphaned children into our home. The parents are two widows. Then we added another twelve children in 2014 and the parents of that home are a married couple. As of this writing, we have 24 children in our care.
Dutch Connection
The Netherlands also has a WEM organization and they have built a school for the children and also for the surrounding community. They have also modified one of the original buildings so that it now houses a bakery and an office. The Dutch have provided the equipment for two water wells and solar panels for the Mama Ans house, three family homes and the school. Each year the Dutch and the US generally bring teams to Muanda for construction projects, outreach to the children, medical clinics, dental clinics; etc.
Agriculture
We have plans for the 55 acres of land we own across the river to be used for agriculture. Food produced from that land will help the project to be more self-sufficient either by using the food directly for the children or by selling food items for hard cash. Two farmer houses have been built at each end of the land so that those in charge of the agriculture have a place to live and are close to their work.
Clinic
We have plans to build a clinic on that side of the river also. The reason we want to build one over there is that we have the promise of 24/7 electricity if we do so. Project CURE, a medical foundation in the US, will make available to us about a half million dollars of medical equipment and supplies once we get the clinic built. All we have to pay for is the cost of sending a needs assessor to Muanda which will be about $4,000 and then the cost of shipping a container which will be about $20,000. Not a bad investment for that amount of equipment. Over the last two years Project cure has partnered with us by sending medical teams to Muanda.