Whew!!! We're back!!

Wow, well, that was quite the trip!  It took me 5 whole days of traveling to get back to the House of Hope from Canada this time.  I guess it was that short cut through the Dominican Republic -- we'll be thinking twice before we take that route again!  We had a great 6 weeks in Canada visiting friends, family and supporters.  Thank you everyone for the great hospitality.

Arriving back at the HOH was a joyous occasion as always.  It's always a great boost for the moral when you pull through the back gate and hear the chants of "Here's Tati Jen!!" getting louder and louder.  We got back to find the kids neck deep into summer holidays. Thankfully, our friends from England and the Hands of Hope charity were here to keep them busy during the days.  And the week before that it was our friends from Miami Shores who were here.  The kids sure have had a lot of fun spending time with these different teams, and with all the free time they have every day.

Berlanda, Ivinsky, Nitchy and Lala wearing their homemade necklaces and playing a very unique rendition of Chinese checkers

The Poultry coop is teaming with life again as the kids have rebuilt and restocked it.

Ronaldson adds some extra noise to the day with his drummer boy routine.

Real men wear Pink!!  Making masks was a fun way to spend an afternoon. 

Now we are looking forward to a visit from our friends from Centennial Church in Frisco, Tx.  Lord willing they'll be coming in later on this week, with lots of energy to entertain the kids over the weekend.  We are thankful for the blessing that these teams are to the kids. 

Before I left for Canada, we sat down and had a bit of restructuring at the HOH.  Linda and I have felt for a while that the older kids needed to take on more responsibility at the home, and I have felt a need to spend my time in some different areas of development.  Our goals are to work to more self-sufficiency, and at the same time responsibility and ownership among the kids, and not spoon fed from Linda and myself all the time.  With this in mind, we have done some shuffling around of positions and job responsibilities.  The most significant of this has been my stepping aside as Linda's assistants to make room for a team of three young men who have stepped up from the ranks of the HOH to become leaders under her direction.  These three young men are St. Germain, Jean Daniel, and Ernst.  My role will be much more one of coaching, and support/donor development.

Over the past number of years really, our support level has been in decline.  This partly has caused us to put our new project "Hope Village" on hold for the present time, as we work through these issues with the kids and young people at the HOH; and also as we attempt to rebuild our support base. If you have any way of helping us in this area, please feel free to contact us at houseofhope1@hotmail.com.  

Prayer requests:

• Pray for the three new leaders who have stepped forward to try and make changes at the HOH.
• As the kids are busy enjoying their summer vacation, we are starting to pray about God's provision for us to be able to pay for another school year for them.  Please pray with us for God's provision.  Share the news around to friends and family if they'd be interested in helping us provide our kids with an education.
• We have lots of traveling planned over the next couple of weeks.  From teams traveling in to see us, us traveling around for various reasons, and the kids traveling back to their home communities to touch base as they do every summer.  Please pray for safety, wisdom and smart choices as we are all on the road (or in the air).
• We have come into debt quite heavily with our local hospital.  They have, for a number of months now, covered our staff salaries as we were not able to.  We need to pay them back these funds as they are in desperate need of them now.  It looks hopeless from our human perspective, but we know we are not alone.  Please share the word around that the HOH needs a helping hand with our finances at this time.  And please pray and ask our Heavenly Father, who has all the resources we could ever need, to open his floodgates of blessing and meet this pressing need. 

Thank you so much for your partnership in this ministry.  We marvel everyday at the lives God has changed through this ministry. 

• Ayi, the boy with Myosthenia Gravis is doing incredibly well.  He passed his grade at school, and is now even able to play the keyboard in our church services.
• Remember Nani, the 1.8 lbs little 2 week old baby no one thought was going to live?  She'll be 6 in November.  She just graduated from Kindergarten and just lost her first tooth.
• Carl Evens who has been working through University in Port-au-Prince will finish this year with a degree in Business Management.  He has a job working at a factory in PAP.
• Jean Daniel, Ernst, and St. Germain all started here as sick young kids... now they have stepped up as leaders among their peers. 

The list could go on and on, we praise God for his work, and thank you for your part.  Blessings...