Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Learning to walk...again!

Greetings from a much calmer Haiti! Thank you so much for your prayers on our behalf over these past few weeks. We ask for your continued prayers for this very troubled country. Our one group of visitors were not able to come last week as the flights into Haiti had been canceled, but we were able to receive the second team. They arrived on Saturday, and have been busy doing different projects around the HOH and the hospital as well. I know they would appreciate prayer that they would have good health while here, a number have been struggling in that area so far, and also that they would have a safe trip back home to PA on Saturday.



We were able to see a number of children return to their homes this past week. Our numbers are down a bit (we only have 87 now!), and somehow the house seems quiet without them. Most are doing really well, including these two cute little boys. Both Jamesley (left) and Daphno came here to the HOH with TB in their spines. While they had walked before coming to the HOH by the time they got here their TB was so advanced that they could no longer do so. It has taken several months of treatment, but slowly both these boys are starting to walk again. They get so excited when they get a chance to show off their new ability to walk. I had a hard time keeping them in one place to take a picture!



The Our Hope kids are back into school and also working hard helping with the work team here. The boys, and even some of the girls have been helping the masons put up the back wall at the HOH, it will be nice to have our yard completely enclosed. The girls have been busy making food for the visitors for the noon meal. We are so thankful for these kids and their very gracious servant spirits, so willing to help out.



The Psalms that the children and young people wrote on Sunday night were pretty good. One group actually wrote a Psalm that had music and could be sung, we were pretty impressed. Next week we'll begin to study Proverbs together.



Dr. Boucher is coming up again this week, so we are looking forward to having him here. Linda and I will be returning with him to Port-au-Prince on Sunday, so we can take Linda to the doctor to redo the tests she had done last September to make sure everything is ok with her Gall Bladder. So we would appreciate your prayers for a safe trip, and also for the HOH while we are gone. We will only be gone for a few days, we should be back, Lord willing, on Tuesday.

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Prayer Needed!


Prayer Needed!
Originally uploaded by House of Hope.
Greetings to all of our friends who regularly read and pray about our needs.

A week ago a number of our young people over the age of 18 were able to vote for the first time in their lives. They were very happy for the chance to do so in spite of it turning out to be a very difficult thing for some of them to do. After standing in line a the polling place in our town for over an hour they found out they were not registered to vote there. So some of them had to walk 2 miles down the road to the next polling station to vote, while some of them succeeded in voting there others had to come all the way back because they weren't registered there either. In the end they were able to vote, but it took them most of the day to do so!

We had asked you to pray for 9 year old Enitel last week. Unfortunately he passed away on Saturday morning. We were sad we couldn't help him more, but were also glad that he was a believer, and is no longer suffering.

The kids were supposed to start school yesterday, but we've had two straight days of non-stop raining, so they've had an extra extension on their vacation days from the elections. We thought it was funny, some of our friends in the North East US were stuck at home for snow days, and we were stuck here with rain days! They've had a nice time catching up on work around the house, and even taking a few naps here and there, it's been good for them, sometimes life just gets too busy.

Four of our older girls started using their Child Evangelism Training this past week. Phania, Vonette and Dada are teaching two clubs, one at our local church on Sunday afternoons, and one here at the HOH on Wednesday evenings. Stephanie is teaching Sunday School here at the HOH to the younger children on Sunday mornings. We are excited to see them using their talents and skills to present the Gospel to children.

We are continuing with our other Bible studies during the week. We are just starting to study Prayer on Tuesday nights with the older kids, as well as God's plan for the family on Saturday nights. Sunday evenings we are studying the book of Psalms with everyone. This coming Sunday each of the family groups will be writing their own Psalm to share or sing to the rest of us. It should be very interesting.

We would ask you all to pray fervently for this country, pray for peace and stability, and safety for our friends, students and colleagues in PAP at this time. We also want to assure you that we are doing fine where we are, but do appreciate your prayers for us as well, it is always hard on the kids when there is trouble around the country. We have two teams scheduled to come in to help us out with various projects this week. Please pray for wisdom and safety as we make decisions and seek the Lord's direction.

Monday, February 06, 2006

She's back!!!


She's back!!!
Originally uploaded by House of Hope.
Happy New Week to all of you! We are so thrilled that Linda is doing much better, her leg is healing, and she is once again able to come down to the HOH and be with us. After over a month pretty much having to stay in her bed, or at least in her house, she is also thrilled to be able to come down to the HOH and give of her love to the children, and a helping hand to the rest of us. Thank you so much for your prayers on her behalf. Continue to pray for her to be able to rebuild strength in her leg.

Due to the elections scheduled to be held tomorrow, the kids are all out of school for the week. They are busy with a lot of different things around the house, the boys are all working on preparing the foundation to finish off the last little bit of wall behind the HOH that hasn't been built yet. Due to insecurities around the country we've felt for a long time that we needed to do this, and finally are able to do so. In a couple of weeks a team from Pennsylvania will be coming to help us actually build the wall and the boys and some local builders are preparing the foundation in the meantime.

We'd appreciate your prayers for the country of Haiti this week with elections being held. Most everything is closed down, so we made sure we bought food and supplies ahead of time last week. We would appreciate your prayers for safety during these next few days. And pray also for the Haitian people as they vote for the next leader of this needy country.

Health wise the children are doing quite well this week. Only one, Enitel is still really struggling, and the doctors have decided that he needs to go to Port-au-Prince to see a specialist. His parents will take him there as soon as the elections are over, please pray for them that they would find a doctor who can help figure out exactly what Enitel has and can help him.

Jackson is still doing ok. He was quite sick last week, but bounced back after receiving another blood transfusion. We appreciate your prayers for him and his family.

We appreciate you our prayer warriors, we really ask for your prayers this coming week, we know our Heavenly Father knows exactly what will happen in this coming week, pray that we don't lose sight of Him and His perfect plan for us and for this country in the days ahead.