It's a zoo!

It's a zoo!
Originally uploaded by House of Hope.

Hello to Everyone! It has been quite the week, and we are busy preparing for another one just like it. The kids were all home from school this past week, making the house seem like quite a zoo. They just always seem to find ways of keeping us on our toes, and usually laughing, like when some of the girls dressed 11 month old Dieula up in long fake hair they tied to her head. She was so proud, she walked around the whole HOH stopping in every room that had people in it and stomped her foot on the ground to get everyone's attention, demanding they admire her new look. We are always so grateful all of the young people here take such good care of the children and babies, making them feel special.



Linda and my trip to Port-au-Prince went well. God was really watching out for us, as it wasn't until after we got there that we found out Linda's Doctor had closed his clinic for the week (after giving us an appointment for Monday morning--go figure). We searched several other places that did the type of test that she needed done, and finally found one who could do it. Amazingly enough, that Doctor wasn't really working that day either (it was Mardi Gras week, so there were Carnival festivities going on everywhere), but had left something at the office and had come by to pick it up. We got there at the same time, and she was more than willing to do the test for us. Praise God, because if she hadn't we'd have had to stay in PAP until Thursday, and we didn't want to have to do that. In the end Linda's tests all turned out normal, so she is finally off of our Surgeon's radar screen for an operation, for now at least. We are thankful for that. Please pray that she would continue to regain full health, as her foot still gives trouble from time to time.



When we arrived back on Tuesday, we found some of the young people in the midst of planning and pulling off 2 days of recreational activity at the HOH. They had all kinds of games, movies, programs planned, and worked very hard to give all of the children here a wonderful two days of fun and relaxation. It is so nice to see the older young people being able to completely plan and pull off something like that themselves. Linda and I were able to just sit back and enjoy the fact that everyone was having a great time.



We also arrived back to find that there had been some type of power surge at some point while we were gone, and both of our inverter systems have stopped working properly. It's kinda funny actually, the inverter system that works one half of the HOH (including my house) won't give any power while the generator is running, but as soon as they turn off the generator we have power. The other half that's on the other inverter (including Linda's house) only has power when the generator is running, the rest of the time there's no electricity...so, things take a bit of juggling to decide where to do things, which room will have electricity at what time, but hopefully we'll get it all sorted out soon. The one inverter in my house will have to go to PAP to get fixed. We are checking things on the other one to see what needs to be done. Please pray we can fix this problem relatively quickly as we do so much here that requires the use of these things that God has given us.



Today we have a group of 11 visitors coming in, most of them dentists coming from the Seattle area to do a dental clinic here at the HOH, and also at Passe Catabois, a small village about 30 miles west of here. It will be a busy week as we help them all get moved around to where they need to be, and also help them with running the clinic. You could pray for physical strength for Linda and I, and also that we would reflect our Lord in all that we do. Please continue to pray for our young people, some who are really struggling in certain areas, that they would be open to the transforming power of God at work in their lives, and wouldn't fight it. Pray that they would grow in wisdom and knowledge, and strive to glorify the Lord in all that they do.



We appreciate you all, our faithful prayer warriors. "The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine on you, and be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance on you, and give you peace!" (Numbers 6:24-26)