Good News!

I received some good news from the HOH and wanted to share it with you.  It seems like Dorothy is steadily improving, and was even able to stand for a little bit yesterday.  Linda took a picture for me to post so you all can see how she's doing and rejoice with us...

Thank you so much for your prayers for her.  We'd ask that you continue to pray that she will take her meds on her own volition (we are still having to give them to her in a tube), eat our good food and continue to improve.  Also pray for her emotional needs.  Many of our kids know what if feels like to be discouraged and feel like there is no hope; so pray that they will be able to minister to Dorothy and share the hope they have found with her.

Another good bit of news I received last night is that our little girl Lyse is doing much better.  She had a crisis a couple of weeks ago and needed a blood transfusion.  When they went back earlier this week to have a check up they found that for the first time in her life her blood count went up not down in the past couple of weeks.  This feels like a big turn of events in her little life and while she is not out of the woods yet, we feel this is a big step ahead.  Please continue to pray for her and her family as well.

Lyse has a lot to smile about these days!!

Thanks so much for your care for this special place.  We appreciate the many ways you stand with us to bring hope to these precious ones.  Have a great rest of the week!!

Moving ahead

Thanks for your prayers for Dorothy and those giving her care.  She is continuing to take small steps ahead.  She is talking more but still needs the tubes to eat and is not able to sit up yet.  We are thankful for every little bit of improvement and ask you to continue to pray for her and her needs. 

Lyse has had a few rough days as well, but seems to be on the up side of that.  As you can imagine, with so many bodies in our home, every day is a surprise when you wake up to see who is doing better and who is worse health wise.  Thank you for allowing us to care for these precious lives and for standing with us in prayer and support as we do so. 

Happy Valentines Day to you all!  (or as our kids call it, Happy Chocolate Day!)

A Small Step ahead for Dorothy

Once again, thank you so much to everyone who has been praying for Dorothy and for your notes of encouragement.  While it may not seem like a huge deal, she has made a small step ahead, she is speaking a few words -- so we'll take that!  We just wanted to let you know that and ask you to keep it up!  We'll share more as things progress.  Thanks!

Update on Dorothy

Thank you to everyone who has been praying for Dorothy.  We appreciate your prayers and your notes of encouragement for everyone involved.  She had a really rough weekend and while she seems to have rallied a little bit, she is not improving much at all.  Over the weekend she became unresponsive and the doctors fear she might have had a stroke.  She is at least a little bit responsive now, Linda took a picture for me but I can't share it online as she is not in good shape at all.  

This is one of those frustrating cases where we are doing all we can, but are hindered greatly by the limitations of health care in our area.  Even if her family could make it happen she wouldn't survive a trip to the capital city where they might be able to do more extensive testing for her.   So, please continue to pray for the doctors and nurses -- for wisdom to do all they can.  Pray for her family who have come to be with her and hurt so much for her.  Pray for the HOH family as they continue to serve Dorothy and her family at this difficult time.  

Your partnership enables us to bring what hope and health care we can to the children who come to our home.  Please continue to pray for the other areas of the HOH -- for our students as they are studying hard for a successful school year -- and for our continuing financial needs. 

Please continue

We were hoping to be able to offer you an update of Dorothy doing much better, but unfortunately that is not the case.  She seems to have gotten worse and they are having to feed and give her meds through a tube they've put from her nose into her stomach.  We know it is hard to imagine how she'll be able to pull through at this point, but we have seen it happen before... so, please continue your prayers on her behalf.  We will update as we are able to.

Prayer needed for Dorothy

I mentioned 14 year old Dorothy in our last blog.  She is not doing well at all.  She is extremely sick with TB and as you can see by her picture extremely sad.   She refuses to eat or take the medication that she needs

Linda asked me to ask for our prayers. She needs wisdom in dealing with Dorothy and trying to get her to open up and be willing to receive treatment.  Pray also for the kids and staff as they try to reach out to Dorothy by serving her needs at this time.  We are so glad Dorothy has come to our home and has the chance to learn what a precious young lady she is.  Thank you to each of you for the part you play in bringing the message of hope to Dorothy. 

Happy New Year!!

Christmas is such a special time at the House of Hope.  The house is all decorated and the kids are all excited.  Those who have been here for previous Christmas times tell their most grandiose stories to the newcomers who in turn get equally excited.  

This year was no different as the decorations went up, the songs started to be sung and taught to the new arrivals.  Throughout the house impromptu singing sessions would break out into Christmas songs always within earshot of Linda.  She would respond with her usual response, "I know, I know, you are just singing for your gifts", at which point the kids would run away laughing the kind of laughing that comes from deep within the gut and explodes all over the place.  The little game never seems to get tiring -- for the kids at least.  

So, as can be expected all eyes were on the boat bringing in the gifts this year.  We had assurances from the shipping company that they would arrive in time for Christmas, but started to doubt as Christmas morning arrived and the gifts were nowhere to be found.  

No problem, this is Haiti -- we are flexible.  With great gusto Linda and the kids threw themselves into preparing a lovely  meal to be shared by the HOH kids, staff, friends and some neighbors.  We don't often get to eat all together as a whole family, so this is always a special meal and everyone helped to put it together...

 

 It takes a lot of work to get a special meal prepared for as big a family as we have.  Then, in the middle of all the meal preparation came a call -- the gifts were ready to be picked up!  You can sure believe some of the boys dropped everything they were doing, grabbed the vehicle and went to pick up the gifts...

Even though they waited until the next couple of days to go through everything and organize the gifts, it was well worth the wait and allowed Christmas to be stretched out for even more days.  

 

 

 

The gifts once again came from a supporting church in York, PA with some staff gifts and big Christmas cloth gift bags came from our church in Simcoe, Ontario Canada.  Some friends in Texas helped us with some extra funds to use for the Christmas meal, and others in Colorado sent some new Christmas decorations for this year.  Our friends in Miami made sure everything got to us, as well as purchased and sent in food and other items we needed.  We are so blessed to have a such a wide and varied support team that allows us to have such a special time for our kids.  Thank you to each one of you who played a part.

The best part of our Christmas Season is being able to share the true meaning of the season with our kids.  The hope that Jesus brought to us all when he came so long ago means a lot to our kids who come from extremely hopeless situations.   We received 2 new arrivals over the holiday season and everyone at the HOH now has a chance to share this message with them.  

They've asked me to ask you to pray for them as they share God's love with Dorothy and Saskie.  Saskie is a little 2 year old girl suffering from extreme malnutrition; she is at the HOH with her mother.  Dorothy is 14 and is having a particularly difficult time being at the HOH.   She is in such terrible physical condition Linda is not comfortable even taking a picture to show us.  She has been suffering from TB for quite some time and has just now come for medical care.  She needs daily medication but refuses to take it.   Our staff, and the other kids are doing all they can to care for her.  Many of them remember how hard the first few weeks at the HOH can be, especially when you are feeling so very sick.  Please pray for patience for all those giving her care and that they would be able to show her the love and hope that come from life with Jesus.

 

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas season and we look forward to another year sharing life with all of you, our friends and partners.  A Happy New Year to you all!

A nice calm...

It's not often I get to write an update at a time when all seems to be calm at the House of Hope.  I do realize that "calm" is probably a very relative term.  Calm in some of your houses will likely look very different than "calm" in a house full of 100+ bodies at any given time!  But, calm is how things feel at the HOH at this moment, and it feels good.  It reminds us of how many things we have to be thankful for.  Here are a few that have encouraged us and we hope it encourages you as well:

• After a fairly rough virus went through the house over the past couple of weeks, it's nice to have everyone in good health.  We continue to pray for Lyse as she still needs blood transfusion every couple of weeks.  But, a pediatric friend in Quebec is running some tests on her blood and we hope for a more complete diagnosis soon.

• The boat arrived last week bringing some new Christmas decorations and also some Christmas gifts for our staff.  The Christmas gifts for the kids from our partnering church in Pennsylvania are presently on the boat and if all goes well should arrive before Christmas.  These things have everyone excited about Christmas.  Here's some pictures of the decorations...

Here are some wreaths they made out of old Christmas cards... 

• We have been receiving numerous financial gifts that have helped us pay back over half of the money that we owed to our partnering hospital.  This is a big relief for us to see that number getting lower instead of higher and we are so thankful to all who have helped us out in this way.  We also have been receiving more monthly gifts that will help us not get back in debt so badly in the future.  Thanks also to those of you who have been praying with us about this need.  We ask that you continue pray as we try to finish off this debt in the New Year.

• Our kids have almost completed this semester of school.  They are in the process of writing their exams, and should be done in the next week or so -- just in time for Christmas vacation.  They work hard and study hard and certainly appreciate your prayers for them in this area. 

• We just love this time of the year.  It creates such excitement and fun for our kids.  But the real reason it is such a special time for us is because it's about Jesus.  That he became one of us, one that we can relate with very much at the HOH -- a poor baby.  And that he lived and died and rose again to save us and give us life -- this is our true Hope.  What greater reason is there to celebrate?

So you see, there is much to be thankful for and each one of you plays a part in making this thing called Hope happen at our House! 

We want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas in your corner of the world.   Thanks for reaching out and touching ours.

 

Catching up

Greetings to you all from a wet, soggy House of Hope.  Almost since the hurricane went through, there has been constant storms and rain showers go through our area of Haiti.  While for us it has been mostly annoying dealing with constant damp and muddy conditions, for many others it has caused flooding and destruction of property and more loss of life.  

 Nannie trying to stay dry on her way to school during the rain.

 

As a result of one of these storms, we lost one of the lovely trees in our yard.  We are very grateful that it fell in a direction that was away from our buildings and didn't cause a lot damage, but we did have to cut the rest of it down.  It took a couple of days work to get it all cut up and moved off our yard.  Thankfully, we were able to make charcoal out of it and will be able to use it for cooking for a while.

The boys working on clearing out the fallen tree

Another project the kids and Linda have been working on is updating our kitchen.  We were blessed by a gift from a partner, who visited us last year, to be used to update the kitchen.  This project includes getting new propane cooking burners...

And new tiles on the floor and part of the walls...

and paint on the walls...

We still have to find and purchase stainless steel counters and tables to be used for food prep and the kitchen project will be finished.  This is something we've wanted to do for a really long time and we are so thankful to the people who put money towards us accomplishing this project.

As you can imagine, there are so many logistical details that go into running a ministry like the House of Hope and we cherish each and every supporter that helps us in many different ways.  After many days of waiting for the rain to slow down so the boat could be unloaded we finally were able to receive a shipment of food to fill up our pantry...

These food shipments come to us from our friends in Miami and are such a blessing to us.  Lately, they have had trouble raising enough funds to send in full shipments of food, so we make do with what they are able to send and purchase the rest ourselves in Haiti.  If anyone would be interested in directly helping them supply this food shipment for us, we could link you with their organization to help in this area. 

This food shipment came in just in time to help us receive a few new children into our home.  The first of these children is a young girl named Chanika.  She has Tuberculosis in her stomach and will need care at the House of Hope for at least the next 9 months to a year to receive treatment and become healthy again...

Several young children have come with severe malnutrition and skin infections.  These children remain at the House of Hope along with a family member who helps us care for them.  They will only stay a few weeks, up to a month until the child is healthy again.  We have a constant rotation of these small children in our home.  

Another important addition this past week is 4 month old John Kerry (it is a boy, in spite of the pink outfit!)...

The reason John Kerry's admittance to the House of Hope is so important is because of his parents.  Both of his parents are significantly intellectually challenged.  There is very little if any help for people with these disabilities in our area of Haiti and John's mom knows nothing of taking care of a small baby.  We are happy to be able to provide them with a safe place to stay while Linda and our staff take time to show and teach her how to care for her child.  

 

We love being able to provide hope in all of it's forms for those in need around us. Thank you so much for your part in helping us do this.

Some News

Greetings to you all from the House of Hope.  Linda and the kids asked me to thank you specifically for your prayers for us over the past few weeks.  They are all doing well, the kids are in school and life seems pretty much back to normal.  The only fallout for us from the big hurricane that went through has been receiving more children into our home.  We've already received about half a dozen from the affected areas out west of us and we anticipate that going up even further in the next few weeks.  

Thank you too for your prayers as I traveled out to see some of our partners out in Western Canada.  We made it there and back safely in spite of having to drive through a pretty bad storm and counting semi-trailers stuck in the ditch part of the way along.  It was a bit of stressful driving -- but we made it and had a great time with our friends out there.  

An exciting story that came out of this trip is that while speaking at our partnering church in Banff on Sunday morning I shared the story of Lyse and our desire to find someone who could help us with her case.  Banff is a tourist town and they often have visitors from all over the world in their church services.   In the service that morning was a family from another area of Canada  They had family visiting from Brazil and they brought them to see this beautiful area of Canada.   So, turns out the father of the family just happens to be a pediatric doctor in a children's hospital here in Canada!  He offered to do what he could to help us with Lyse's case.  He has all her information and is seeking some answers with the other doctors in their hospital.  We are so grateful that our Heavenly Father cares so much about each of us that he coordinated all these events so that we would cross paths!  Keep praying for wisdom for the doctors and that we could get some definitive answers for Lyse.

On the same note of exciting news, we are so grateful for everyone who has sent in extra financial support for us over these past few weeks.  We have been able to make 2 significant payments on what we owe to the hospital and while we still have some debt left, we are feeling much better about it than before and are hopeful that the rest will come in as this year is coming to an end.  Our next prayer request would then be that we would be able to get some more partners to support us on a monthly basis so we don't go back into debt to them in the future.

 We have some prayer requests to share with you for the days and weeks ahead:

• Linda had a fall last night and injured her foot.  She had x-rays today and the doctor said it wasn't broken, but it is swollen and painful.  Please pray for quick and total healing for her.
• There is a medical team visiting our partnering hospital this week and another one heading there next week.  The team that is currently there will be doing skin grafts on one of our little girls at the House of Hope this coming Friday.  Five year old Neisha has been in our home for a little over a month now and she came with significant burns across her stomach.  We are grateful that this team has the tools and skills to do these grafts for her, and we ask you to pray for them as they do the work and for Neisha that she would heal nicely and that this would really help her.
  

A big thank you to everyone who has given and prayed for us -- you are such a blessing to us!

An Update

Good Morning Everyone.  First of all, very sorry I didn't get to write an update yesterday, I was not home all day.  I did keep in touch with Linda and the kids throughout the past couple of days to make sure all was OK. They are doing fine.  

We are located on the North coast of Haiti, so not in the area where the hurricane hit directly and where it seems there is much more damage.  I haven't heard anything about if there is damage in our general area, but I do know the HOH and all our kids are safe.  The had lots of wind and rain through the day yesterday; what scared them the most was how dark it got throughout the day.  Now it is calm but still raining off and on.  

Thank you so much for your prayers on their behalf, and please continue to pray for Haiti and those who now have to start cleaning up and helping those most affected. 

I'll update when I can, but I am heading out on a road trip today to visit with a supporting church in Alberta, Canada, to visit family and to attend the funeral of a friend of ours who passed away suddenly this past week.  While the HOH is dealing with rain, I'm preparing to drive through our first snow storm of the season!  So, I could use your prayers as well.

Thanks so much for all the messages of concern and assurances of your prayers.

Thank you!

We appreciate the response we've had from you our supporters to our call for help.  We have had numerous donations made, as well as some promises of help and continued prayers for which we are so thankful.  We will be able to make a payment on our debt and hopefully continue to pay off more in the months to come.  Please continue to keep our projects in your prayers.

Before I give you a bit more of an update on my trip down to Haiti -- which I promised but haven't had a chance to do yet -- I wanted to give you a bit of an update on our "grand" babies.  Fafane and Jeremiah are doing really well.  Unfortunately Fafane's father-in-law passed away last week, so with the rejoicing of a new baby in the family came a time of mourning the passing of the child's grandfather.  You could keep that family in your prayers as well.

Lyse continues to hang in there.  She continues to have her blood count monitored and receives transfusions as necessary.  We heard back from one set of doctors in Miami that they were not able to help us with her case at this time.  We are not sure if that means, nothing can be done to help her, or that they are just not able to get involved in her case.  Our friends in Miami are still checking into this, so we remain hopeful and ask for your continued prayers for her as well.

Now, for some more pictures from my trip down to the HOH... VBS (we call it camp in Haiti) as always was a special time for all of us.  We had the 60 HOH kids there and before we knew it, they were joined by about 100 of their friends and fellow students from our local community.  We were glad to have them come, but it did get a bit crowded and chaotic as we just don't have enough space for that many people.  But everyone just moved over a little bit and it really was a great time to be together and studying God's Word and how it applies to our lives today.   The theme this year was Jesus makes me a 10 out of 10.  Here are some pictures...

The three different "teams" sitting in the shade during lesson times.

This team used construction paper to make hats for their team members one day.

 This team shows off their handy work after taking part in the craft session.

 Games are always a fun time -- this is a rousing game of dodge ball

Not even the pouring rain could squelch the enthusiasm during a balloon popping game.

Unfortunately, the T-shirts didn't arrive until after camp was over and we all went home, so we weren't able to get a picture of everyone in their shirts, but this is a group of them.

The girls show off their theme based shirts.

But, as with all things -- summer holidays has come to an end, and now the kids are into the school year.  This is the first year for Kateleen and Davidson... They were excited on their first day.

Here are some others on their way...

And here is a picture of the two girls who were adopted by the Haitian family in Port-au-Prince as they head off for their start in school as well...

Once again, we thank you for the part you play in changing the lives and futures of these precious ones in our care.  We appreciate your continued prayers and support in whatever way you are able to help us out.  We hope you all have a great week... until next time....

We need your help...

When you are involved in a work such as the House of Hope there are several things that become very clear as time goes by.  Two of these things stood out for us these past couple of weeks.  First of all, we are more convinced than ever of the necessity of the work we are doing.  Just this past week two sets of twin boys have come to our home extremely malnourished.  These and every new story of lives being changed brings new excitement and understanding that what we are doing is the most important thing for us.

The second thing that has stood out for us is how dependent we are on others to accomplish this ministry.   We are totally dependent on God to provide everything we need to love, care and provide hope for these children.  But we are also dependent on our partners to help us out in the ways that they can.  

We have come to a place where we are really in need of your help at this moment.  We have mentioned the financial struggle we have had off and on for the past couple of year.  We are so grateful for everyone one of you who has been a part of the House of Hope family over the years; whether it is through giving of your time or resources, or your encouragement and prayers.  

The past couple of weeks have been tough as we are receiving more and more pressure to pay off the debt that we have to our local hospital.  It is a debt that has been around for a long time and no matter how hard we have worked to reduce it, we haven't been able to as more expenses continue to be added to it.  We have mentioned it as a need in our latest newsletter that you will see below, but since writing the letter it has become an even bigger need as the pressure to pay it off has become more intense.  

We realize not everyone is able to help us in a financial way.  But if you are, would you please consider helping us with this need by sending a gift to one of the organizations listed on our page?  If you cannot help in that way, could you please pray with us that our God who has provided for us so faithfully in the past would do so again in this moment of need?  Either way you can help, we are thrilled to have you partner with us in this exciting ministry.   We hope you are encouraged as you read our latest news in this link below...

   Sept 2016

Welcome Baby Jeremiah!!

A new addition to the HOH family arrived this evening with the birth of Jeremiah Liam Justin.  He weighed in a 3.7 kg, just over 8 pounds -- a big baby for us -- we are used to the under 4 pound crowd!  

Both baby and mother are doing great.  By this evening the doctor had given Fafane one hour to give birth or he was going to have to do a C-section... we are thankful everything went well.

Thank you so much for your prayers together with us.  We are excited to have another "grand" baby in our family.  And he has many "moms", and "dads" waiting to show him lots of love.

Prayer needed

Good Evening, we hope this blog post finds you all doing well in your respective areas of life.  I know I promised you more stories of my latest travels to the HOH and the goings on there -- and I will be posting more about that.  But for the moment, we have an important prayer request we wanted to share with you.

You might remember last summer when I went to Haiti I attended a wedding of one of our girls, Estephanie (Fafane).  She is expecting their first child and has been having some issues since last month.  She is 8 months along and has started to have contractions.  While we are thankful that she was able to hang on a bit longer than when the troubles started at 7 months, we would like the baby to stay in just a bit longer!  The doctors have admitted her to the hospital and she is on bed rest.   They are watching her blood pressure closely and we are just waiting to see what will happen.

Please pray for Fafane, her husband Ronald, Linda and the medical staff giving her care.  You can see Fafane and Ronald here in this picture (along with our boy Mits).  

On the same praying note, continue to pray for Lyse.  The doctor in Miami has the medical report now, and we are just waiting to hear from him if anything can be done to help her out.

We appreciate your prayers on our behalf very much.  We are very blessed!  Thank you for your part.

Catching up

I am back from my trip to Haiti.  It was a wonderful time for all of us and as always ended too soon!  I have many stories to share and hope to do that in bits and pieces over the next few weeks.  

Of course, seeing my two girls just made my trip and we spent as much time as possible together over the weeks I was there.  Every time we had a chance to hug Nannie (on the right) would tell me, "I'm not done with you yet" and the hug would go on for a while longer.  They are both doing really well though, and Lala (on the left) is just a huge help to Linda with all of the younger kids -- I'm so proud of both of them.  Lala brings a seriousness of someone who knows the importance of bringing order out of chaos, and Nannie comes along behind and brings an insatiable joy to every aspect of life.

Another highlight for me was finally getting to hold little Lyse.  What a precious little girl.  I was surprised to see how alert she was; she is a fighter and is just fighting for her life with all her might.  Here we are...

Every day is touch and go for little Lyse as she can hardly go a week without needing a blood transfusion.  This makes each day stressful for her mom and dad as blood is not always easy to find.  They asked me to pass along their thank you to you all for keeping them in your prayers.  

On my way into Haiti, I received a phone call from a friend in Miami who has a doctor friend who wants to see if he can help us help Lyse.  While we do not know if anything really can be done to help her complicated condition(s), we are so thrilled to have that possibility arise.  I was able to get all the information we needed to write a complete medical history for her.  We have sent it to the doctor and are just waiting for him to get back to us with his thoughts.  

In the meantime, please continue to remember this family in your prayers.

Some other prayer requests at this time are:  

• I will be traveling again this week, heading to our friend Bonita's wedding in Ontario.  I'm really looking forward to seeing a number of our good friends and supporters, and also excited to have the chance to swing by our great supporting church in Simcoe.  
• Linda is already busy in getting things together for the new school year.  She has many uniforms to get made as well as decisions as to who should study in which school.  One of our biggest needs as the start of the school year looms before us is the finances to pay the tuition, books and uniforms for the year.  Please pray with us as we watch God supply this need.

We appreciate you all and the various ways you help us bring hope to the children and youth of Haiti.  

A forever family found

Greetings to all our friends and supporters.  Thank you so much for the prayers for our students who were writing the exams.  They all feel they did pretty well -- time will tell -- now they just have to wait to get the results back, which will likely take a month or two.  

A couple of months ago, two of our lovely little girls found a forever family here in Haiti.  Our pediatrician here at the hospital had a sister who wanted to adopt some children.  Unable to have their own children, she asked her sister to watch out for some little girls who needed a home.  She found two of our little girls, Rose Nirva and Julienne, who do not have homes to return to.  

They came up from Port-au-Prince to meet the girls and it was love at first sight!  Now, the girls have joined their family in PAP and seem to be fitting right in.  As you can see from the picture of Rose Nirva in their new home, they look so happy.

 

  And here they are with their new mom...

It doesn't happen often, but when it does we are thrilled to have our little ones find a family here in Haiti to adopt them.  As you can imagine, it was an emotionally difficult day when they came to take the girls with them.  Both of them have been with us since they were just a few months old.  But, we are thankful for more people in Haiti who are willing to love and care for these children and now we can receive others in their place.  We look forward to filling their beds again!!

Thanks for your support that helps us bring hope in so many different ways to the children and youth who come through our doors.  Please continue to pray for Lyse whose health is still so poor.  Pray for Jenny as she travels down to Haiti during the next week.  She will be in Miami for a few days over the weekend, so she hopes to see as many of you there as she can.  Pray for the team from Miami who will also be traveling to Haiti a little later.  And pray for the camp as we have fun together, study the Bible together and make many special memories as we share the good news of Jesus with all those who come.