A whole new me!

Well, here I am again. This is my third chance to write to you, and boy am I excited to show you my picture this time. I am doing so well, if I should say so myself. The TB treatment is really doing the trick, and I am feeling so healthy. Here I am doing my absolutely most favorite activity -- eating!!! Fortunately for me eating is very good for me right now, so I am doing as much of it as I can. You'll be able to see in this picture and some of the others that my skin pigment is smoothing out, the swelling is almost completely gone from my hands and feet, and I am just overall much healthier. The boys cut off my white hair, so I lost my "Father Christmas" nickname along with the hair. My new nickname is "Ti Blan", which literally means "little white".

Well, this has been another very busy month...which is why it has taken me more than a month to update you all on what's been going on. As you know the kids are almost all on summer vacation now. All except for Manno who is in his last days of writing his final year exams. All the other kids have finished their government exams, and now have to go through the stress of waiting for the results. I was able to take part in more activities this month, so are you up for some pictures to help you see what's been going on? I hope so, because I have a lot this month...

The first major event since we last talked was Tati Jen's birthday. Boy was that a big day, because it was a big birthday....but she won't let me tell you which one it was...you'll have to figure that one out on your own.
Anyway, we had a big party, and good food, and Birthday cake and presents, and singing and music and jokes and laughing. It was a good evening (actually I'm just telling you what they told me because I actually fell asleep before the whole thing started!).

The next big event was Lala and Ivinsky's graduation...from Kindergarten!! Yep, after 3 hard years of pre-school, they are now full fledge students. Lala even graduated with honors, coming in third in her class for her grades. We had a nice party for them after the graduation...boy was that fun, we had cookies and candy and juice. And we sang songs, and listened to music and showed off our dancing skills. They sure do know how to have fun around here!

After that came another graduation, this time it was a group of pastors who were graduating from Bible School. Tati Da was asked to be the "God-mother" of the graduating class, which is a really big deal here, and a big honor. She looked beautiful, so I just have to share her picture with you...Then came the really big occasion that happens every July here in our town. That is the big July conference, where over 5,000 people come from all over Haiti to spend a week in meetings. They have Bible studies, kids meetings, Praise and worship sessions. It is absolutely mayhem around here with that many people added to our village. Here' how it looked from around here...A few days before the conference started they older kids braided all the little girl's hair, and put beads on the braids...
It was such a big job, even the boys helped out. And the results were just great...The girls looked so good, I was quite proud to walk with them over to the campground where the kids' meetings. Every morning at 9 am and every afternoon we all dressed up for the occasion and headed out... We had to take our own benches to sit on, because by the time we got there all the seats were already taken up by other kids. But thanks to our older boys, we always had seats because they carried the benches over for us. Here I am sitting on one...We were thankful for the chance to sit, but boy was it crowded and hot! As you can see we weren't the only kids there...
In fact, we were only about 40 kids in the midst of 2,000 kids who came every day for the conference!!!
It was so much fun!! We sang and danced, and learned verses and our theme this year was "My eyes are fixed on Jesus". To learn the theme we learned a little chant to say, "My eyes are fixed on Jesus, his eyes are fixed on Jesus, our eyes are fixed on Jesus, and you? Are your eyes fixed on Jesus?" To learn the Bible lessons, we divided up into smaller groups, this was my small group...
Can you see me? Didn't think so. Here I am...
You can see I found the Bible lessons very interesting. It was all so much fun and I'm so thankful I got to be a part of the conference this year.

So that pretty much brings us up to date. The next few weeks are going to be so busy. We have a team coming in from Pennsylvania with our friend Jeb Bland. They are coming in to take care of us kids, while the older kids and Tati Da and Tati Jen hold a retreat for the House of Hope staff. Tati Jen is driving down on Friday to Port-au-Prince to pick the team up and bring them back here on Saturday. Then, all next week is the Staff Retreat.

They have the retreat every 2 years to give the staff a break, and to make them feel special and appreciated for all their hard work during the years. They take such good care of us, and it's our way to say thank you back to them. So pray for us over the next couple of weeks, it's going to be crazy busy around here, with lots of comings and goings. Pray for safety in travel, for good health, for good times in God's Word as our local pastor comes and shares with our staff and for just a great time of being together. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures to show you the next time I update.

Please continue to pray for God to provide for our needs at the HOH. Giving is still really low, and it is an added stress on Tati Da and Tati Jen. I know they trust God to provide for all of our needs, so please pray that He would do so. They almost cancelled the staff retreat, but are trying to do it anyway with what we have. So pray that God would open His storehouses and send us what we need to continue this special ministry. Til next time...Loveson