Friday, January 22, 2016

Into the New Year we go...

Where on earth does time go by?  December and this part of January have just been a whirlwind for us all.  Thank you for your patience in hearing from us.  The month of December saw our kids writing exams and then getting off for Christmas break.  In the midst of all of that came many drums, totes and boxes from the US with all kinds of goodies in them. 

These supplies are such a huge blessing to us.  Finding and affording these things for as many people as we have in our house would be so much harder if our friends and partners didn't help us out with these things.  Thank you to everyone involved.

Among those things that arrived were the Christmas presents.  While they didn't make it here in time for Christmas, they did arrive before the kids had to go back to school.  The extra days of waiting only made everyone more excited to get the gift bags and dig in to find out what they got...
As you can see... smiles all around, it was a fun evening for everyone and they were thrilled with their gifts.  A great big thanks to our friends at Grace Baptist Church for once again sending down gifts for each of the kids.  There were others who sent in some items as well; from chocolate to toys and food.  We appreciated all the efforts made to make it a special time for the kids.  Thank you!

The New Year seemed to bring with it a new virus that hit the HOH in early January and is still making the rounds.  It is called Zika and while perhaps not as bad as some of the viruses we've faced, it is annoying and makes you feel pretty bad.  This week Linda is among the fallen and she'd appreciate your prayers as she tries to get over it.

Here's a quick up date on Jamesley.  He received the medicine he needed to treat his Hemophilia.  So far, we have seen marked improvement, his leg has healed up nicely and he's even able to take a few steps around the house. 
To help him and the other kids we have who are wheelchair bound, we received a gift of some snazzy new wheelchairs.  These chairs enable them to get around at the HOH and also to go out into the community for school each day.  We are very grateful to everyone who played a part in getting these for us.

We hope you all have had a good start to this new year and we look forward to continuing to bring the Hope of Jesus to the children and young people in our care.  Please continue to pray for our students as they work hard to have a successful year.  Pray for our continuing financial needs.  Pray for wisdom for Linda, Jenny and the young leaders.  Be on the watch for terribly overdue HOH Newsletter to come out in the weeks ahead that tells you more about these leaders...