I meant to write this before today, but didn't get a chance. This morning one of our oldest boys, Jean Daniel will be going through surgery to have his tonsils removed. We'd appreciate your prayers for Jean Daniel, and for the surgeon, Dr. Mozart, as this operation takes place. Thank you so much. God bless, and have a great day!

Christmas is Here!!

This past week Christmas arrived at the HOH. We love to start early, as everyone here loves the lights and the decorations. For some of the children, this will be the first Christmas they've ever celebrated, and for some the only one they ever will. The new ones have never seen lights and decorations before, it is so fun to watch their faces light up with each decoration that is put in place. We are looking forward to being able to enjoy this time of the year with our children and young people, and to share the Good News of Jesus with those who don't yet know Him.

Speaking of those who don't know Him yet, we can cross Djimmy off that list! Remember a couple of weeks ago I asked you to pray for him. Well last week he accepted Jesus as his Savior, here in the office with Linda and I. It was so wonderful, and at that moment I pictured the angels in Heaven celebrating this newborn member of the family. Thank you for your prayers for him.

It has been a difficult week for us, as one of the young people who has been here 5 years decided she wanted to return home to her father's house. We had been trying to discourage this, as her father is extremely poor, and has no way to take care of her, but she insisted, so we had to let her go, even though it was very difficult for us. In the end she wanted more freedom to do as she pleases, and she knew she wouldn't get it here. That is a very difficult for some of our young people, especially as they have friends whose parents let them do what they want. Please pray for our young people, that they'd be able to stand up to the peer pressure around them, and continue to learn and grow in their walk with Christ so that they are a positive influence to their friends and schoolmates.

We are looking forward to some visitors this next week. A young man from Seattle named Mason Young is coming to spend several weeks helping us out here at the HOH, and a group of men from Oklahoma are coming for a quick visit as well. I have been spending quite a bit of time planning for the work teams that will start to come here in January and continue through to April. Please pray for me as I work out all the logistics of having these teams here. Pray also for security in Haiti so they can come and help us do some much needed repairs at the HOH and the hospital as well.

This week has been rainy and stormy, we actually pulled out the winter clothes yesterday evening for the young children! We have a number of needs here at the moment, and would appreciate your prayers for God's provision for all of our needs. Pray also for a number of very sick children we have here right now. Those include: Gamaniel, Wendjina, Edmaya, and Ashley.

We want to say Happy Thanksgiving to all of our US friends. Hope you have a lovely day.

Fun on Holidays!

Fun on Holidays!
Originally uploaded by House of Hope.

Greetings once again from the HOH. Last week our students had 3 days of vacation from school, having just completed their mid term exams. Not wanting to let this opportunity to have some fun pass them by, our older young people put their heads together and organized 3 days of fun and games. They opened it up to some of the children in our local community, and did a superb job of organizing and pulling off the fun days. It was such a joy for Linda and myself to see our young people take the initiative to do this, and then to organize it and pull it off! The one young man who really put his all into this project was St. Germain. Which won't be a surprise to any of you who know him. He just really shined forth his God-given talents of leadership and administration. It was really exciting to watch and participate in, although by the end of the week we were all exhausted! In this picture you can see a group of both our kids and the community kids playing Bingo together.



Having a group of young people come in from the community did open our eyes to the sad moral state that some of these young people are in. We hear stories from the community every now and then, but seeing it and experiencing it with our own eyes was another story. It made me realize how much peer pressure our kids are under when they are in school with these other young people, and it reminded me of the great need we have to pray for our kids to be a light and a witness for Jesus Christ in their schools and the local community. Please keep them in your prayers.



We were surprised when we looked at the news online on Monday to find that Haiti was named the world's most corrupt country. What a mark of distinction! And another reason to get on our knees and pray for Haiti, for the leaders of this country and for all the believers here trying to make a difference for Christ in such a corrupt setting. I was reading in Phil 2:13-15 this morning, and it struck me that this is what we are trying to do here in Haiti. Here's what it says: "...for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe." So pray that we would do our work here without complaining or arguing, so we may shine like stars in this struggling country.



Please continue to pray that God would supply all of our needs. We appreciate your prayer support very much, and know that this is God's work, we are all just partners together in it--He will supply what we need. Thank you for lifting us up before the Father. God bless, and have a great week...