Today, Imani Orphan Care supports 158 children through their children’s home Imani Home of Love located in Narok, Kenya and Imani Secondary School Program, Imani Polytechnic/University Program and through their Imani Chapel and Outreach Center in Olenkuluo, Kenya.  The goal of Imani is to help offer these disadvantaged children the opportunity to gain tools, skills and knowledge, so that they can create a better future for themselves.

GLM Mortgage Group has continued to provide financial support for Imani by donating a portion of each completed mortgage. It’s a small but significant way that we can continue to support Imani’s sustainable approach that transforms lives.The GLM team has also taken an interest in participating in the mission’s trips to Imani each year. Imani runs two missions’ trips annually—one in the fall and one in the spring/summer. This year, our entire family joined us for an unforgettable missions’ trip, and I wanted to share it with you in hopes that you will consider partnering with Imani in the future! Enjoy the recap and I look forward to your comments!

On June 27^th, my family and I went on a summers mission trip to Imani—located in Narok which is about 2.5 hours outside of Nairobi. We went with a group of 20 people; however, this was a special trip as we had my family, Kim’s (my wife) sister’s family, Kim’s parents and three other families along for the trip! It was a really memorable and neat experience to be a part of.

We had many projects that we wanted to accomplish while there. One of those was not redoing the playing field but like many of our mission trips became something that needed to get done?. The playing field is where our Imani children play   football (soccer to us North Americans), do all their outdoor activities, etc. It’s quite a large field.  The field was not even, had lots of large divots and rocks throughout and on the last mission’s trip one of the team members set a goal for the field to be fixed and finance it personally as it was an accident waiting to happen! When we went back, we set out to make his goal happen and repair the field so our Imani kids could enjoy it without the fear of spraining an ankle.

The first step was to fill all the divots. There were hundreds of them! We ordered 3 huge trucks full of topsoil and leveled the field out. It’s now completely levelled and ready for the kids to play on it without fear of injury.

The second project we set out to complete was the planting of a shamba (garden). We wanted to make this garden special and have meaning to our kids. To do this, we partnered with an organization called Farming God’s Way which emphasizes using and respecting the land and resources around you to provide sustainable resources for communities. With this in mind, we cleared out the rocks, tilled the soil, planted sees and laid fresh mulch, created a rock wall and had each of our Imani Children plant a fruit tree!

Each child, (59 to be exact) planted a fruit tree which they have the responsibility to tend to and care for. This garden will provide the home with a food source and the fruit trees planted by each child symbolizes the ability of each of our Imani kids to bear fruit through their talents.

It was a phenomenal and productive missions’ trip and we are eager to go back in the fall. In the meantime, I’d like to encourage each of you to visit Imani’s website to learn more OR to come out and get involved in toone of the upcoming events:

• Hockey Marathon of Hope 2019-September 7 join 64 hockey players + volunteers as they all help to fundraise for Imani. We are currently seeking a few final players to fill out the remaining spots…do you want to play? We’d love to have you there to join us!
• Join us for the Imani Orphan Care Annual Charity Dinner and see what we are doing in and throughout Kenya thru the Imani Orphan Care Foundation—Friday November 1^st, 2019.

The other thing we would encourage everyone to do is consider sponsoring a child. Often I find people get caught up in thinking that you need to spend thousands to support an organization when in truth it costs about $40 a month to sponsor one child—A little is a lot and we don’t need a lot… we need a lot of a little.

We have a ton of projects on the horizon for Imani and big dreams that God has given us to pursue—any step you can take to join in help makes a difference. If you are interested in more info, I encourage you to check out their website: www.imaniorphancare.comor reach out to me and I’d be happy to give you more details!

Let’s change the world one child at a time… Geoff

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We have been named as a finalist for the Manulife Bank Award, Best Customer Service Individual Office in the 13 th annual Canadian Mortgage Awards, the leading and longest-running awards event for the mortgage industry in Canada and top representation of outstanding service, performance, innovation and principle in the business.

Winners in all 22 categories will be selected by a panel of industry experts and announced on April
26, 2019 during a stellar black-tie awards ceremony at The Liberty Grand Toronto hosted by ET
Canada’s Cheryl Hickey.

“The finalists are among the industry’s most dedicated, diligent and diverse individuals and
organizations, and are to be congratulated for their achievements thus far,” said Jessica Duce, project
director of the Canadian Mortgage Awards. “They demonstrate the resilience and sheer management
smarts it takes to build a thriving mortgage business today. Success stories like theirs are the
lifeblood of mortgage in Canada.”

“At GLM Mortgage Group, we would like to thank all of our current, past and loyal clients who have helped us to get this far–it’s a true honour to be nominated by your peers for an award like this! Customer service is #1 in our books and being a finalist in this award category means a lot to us…thank you to all of you for your continued support!” ~Geoff Lee

About Canadian Mortgage Professional:
Canadian Mortgage Professional (CMP) is the leading business magazine for the mortgage and
finance industry for in-depth industry issues, market trends, business analysis and intelligence. CMP is
complemented by daily news website www.mortgagebrokernews.ca (MBN) featuring breaking news,
an industry forum and exclusive multimedia content, as well as sister publications in the US and

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We all do different things to go green in our day to day life: using reusable shopping bags, biking instead of driving, re-using water bottles…you name it. All of the various steps we take to minimize our environmental foot-print gives us the satisfaction of knowing we are working towards a greener tomorrow-but how often do you get rewarded for going green? If your experience is anything like ours, not very often. But we have some exciting news right from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC)-they want to reward YOU for going Green! Here’s how.

Introducing the CMHC Green Home Program. This relatively new program allows lenders to offer borrowers more affordable financing choices when purchasing an energy efficient home or when purchasing an existing home and making energy-efficient improvements.  This program gives you a refund of up to 25% of the CMHC Mortgage Loan Insurance Premium as long as the home is located in Canada. In addition, the process to apply is simple, all a borrower must do is fill out this application form and submit it to CMHC.

Sounds fairly straight forward doesn’t it? Let’s dig into a few more details though with a straightforward FAQ.

When Does the Program Apply?

The program is applicable when a new home is purchased (with a traditional or non-traditional source of down payment). The program also applies to new construction and to CMHC improvements related to energy efficiency.

What is the Loan-to-Value Ration?

The Loan to Value Ratio of this program will vary by CMHC product and the number of units. Contact CMHC or a mortgage broker to find out more.

What are the Benefits of the Program?

The Program can offer a 15% or 25% refund of the total premium paid provided to borrowers. This is how you are “Paid to go Green”

What are the Energy Efficiency Requirements?

The requirements that must be met in order to qualify for a premium refund include:
Purchase of energy efficient homes or units located in low-rise residential building:

• Most new homes built under a CMHC eligible energy-efficient building standard automatically qualify for a premium refund.
• For all other homes, eligibility will be assessed using the NRCan EnerGuide Rating System (ERS) either the 0-100 scale or the gigajoule scale.

Purchase of condominium units located in high-rise residential buildings:

• For homes built under the LEED Canada New Construction Standard (certified, silver, gold and platinum)-Level 1 only.
• The building is designed to be either 20% or 40% more energy efficient than compliance with the applicable building cod.

Energy Efficient retrofit (renovations) of an existing home (purchase)

• To qualify the home must be assessed by a qualified energy advisor before and after the energy-efficient renovations.
• The refund is based on the improvement in the energy rating assessed using the NRCan EnerGuide Rating System (ERS) either the 0-100 scale or the gigajoule scale.

How Does the Refund Application Process Work?

Borrowers should look at filling out the application located on the CMHC’s website. The application must be submitted within 2 years of the closing date of the mortgage and the energy efficiency documentation must be no more than 5 years old. Finally, the partial premium refund will be provided by CMHC directly to eligible borrowers that have incurred the costs of their lender’s CMHC mortgage loan insurance premium.
For those who qualify for this refund, it presents a unique opportunity to gain back some of their hard-earned money. If you are wondering if this program is right for you, contact us at GLM Mortgage Group and we would be happy to walk you through the entire process.
_{*Sources: CMHC Green Home Program https://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/en/hoficlincl/moloin/hopr/upload/cmhc-green-home.pdf}
 

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• We planted and built our first church
• We drilled our first well (220 meters) in the dry Masai
• We preached the gospel and spread the word of Jesus Christ to the Masai people within their remote villages.
• We painted and built a toilet in our orphanage

 
But BEST of all reconnected and loved on all our Kenyan Children in The Imani Home of Love (our orphanage)
 
Nothing can ever replace the feeling of giving back to the people and country that you love and that so desperately need it.  Sadly after 19 days we returned with saddened hearts but knowing that we are set to return very shortly (my wife travels to Africa up to 4 times a year AND my family no less than once a year) to continue to do god’s work in and throughout Kenya and the Imani Orphan Care Foundation.
 
I invite you to check out the Imani Orphan Care Foundation and encourage you to get involved? – you never know we just might see you on our next mission trip?

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