Greetings to all of you and a very Happy New Year as well! We are sorry for the long pause in updating the blog, as you can imagine it's been a busy time for everyone. Jenny just returned from her travels and things at the HOH are slowly getting back to normal.
The Christmas celebrations were a really special time for everyone. The older HOH kids worked very hard along with St. Germain and Linda to host a Christmas Program for our local community. On Christmas Eve over 150 of our neighbors came to hear songs, Bible verses and skits celebrating the Greatest gift of all -- Jesus.
Here is Linda and some of the kids on the day of the program:
Then, on Christmas Day they had a special meal all together along with our staff members.
Here is the staff table:
And some of the kid's tables:
The meal was finished with a special treat of homemade cake!
The kids waited patiently through the day as the meal was prepared, then eaten. But the main event was still to come -- the presents -- sent to us from Grace Baptist Church in York, PA with the help of our friends in Miami and the Miami Shores Presbyterian Church. It is such a blessing to have so many people work together to make sure this was a special time for the House of Hope.
Here are a few pictures of the joy these gifts brought to the kids:
Thank you to everyone who made it possible for our kids to have a nice Christmas and also have the chance to share the Best News Ever with those in our local community. All of it is important: your prayers, financial donations, participation in getting us supplies and food, as well as sending gifts and clothing. Without your giving and help, the work at the HOH would not be possible. Thank you!
Now we are into the new year and it has been a tough start to 2018 in our part of Haiti. It rained through the entire past weekend and many homes were flooded, some destroyed and lives lost. Some of our own staff members lost their belongings as their homes flooded out. The start of school had to be cancelled, but they hope to start again tomorrow. As you can imagine this has been a tough weekend for many around us. Please pray for us as we seek ways to help those in need, especially our staff members and their families. If you'd like to help with these needs, please let us know.
We do have another couple of prayer requests:
- First would be for health for several at the HOH who are not feeling well, including Linda -- who has been working very hard these past couple of weeks and now feels a bit worn down and under the weather. Also having a tough time are our babies, Moise and Handy. Both of them have diarrhea and are quite dehydrated -- they are receiving hydration solutions and we hope that they will recover soon.
- One last person on our sick list is Jamesley, our young man who struggles with Hemophilia. He's been going through a tough time lately, and is going to need surgery this coming week. Please pray for him and the doctors.
- Then, we'd ask you to pray for a solution to the water shortage. I know that might sound strange given that they've had non-stop rain for the past 4 days. But the flooding has messed up the water pipes, what water they do get through is so muddy you can't use it and the pump on our campus isn't working to get us water from the well. So, as you can imagine -- it's a bit frustrating and complicated caring for our large family with limited muddy water and needing to find and purchase water for them to drink.
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