Playing Catch Up! Here Is An Update!

Well I had a big gap in my updates to you but I hope you know it is nothing personal but I have been so busy around here and time flies when you are having fun! So I thought I could give you a run down of tidbits to get us up to speed.



• If you recall, Robyn received a gift to fly back home for a long overdue visit with our family. She will visit some churches and friends along the way and hopefully see many of our sponsors as she travels her circuit.
• Of course with Robyn away it has left me with a heavier workload, especially since school just started! But this has caused me to work smarter so I can survive this "one man show".
• In December we hired an administrative assistant for me, since I just could not get caught up in all the required duties. The accounting alone has lifted a burden. Praise God! Shopping is not easy here because you have to go to so many places to get a few things. It is not like going into a Wal-Mart and finding everything you need. The flip side is, we end up with so many receipts and pay-out vouchers (for the places that don't have receipts), that it becomes a huge mountain of little receipts to be entered in the books.
• We had a few kids choose to go back to their village to live with a relative for various reasons. The biggest reasons were that they didn't want to follow our family rules. Interestingly enough, the ones that left were the ones who had a "fall back" relative to go to. In other words the best behaved and faithful ones are the orphaned and vulnerable children under our care. Basically the orphans and street kids are the ones who really value the family. God has a way of refining through fire and I believe He revealed what He wanted.
• Finances have been difficult this year and we have reached an all time low in our bank account. But I feel this was part of God's big plan that we can not see right now. I ask myself; If we had plenty of funds, would we have agreed to let these children go when they showed their true colors of character? Yes refinement through fire is pretty powerful!
• Like I said, we have all of the children enrolled in school. We have most of the school supplies and we were able to make an agreement with one of the schools to defer some school fees until next term when hopefully we will have more funds. We know the Lord Will Provide, but it is stretching our faith for sure!
• Speaking of school, I am happy to announce that John in P-2 is his Class Monitor, Moses in P-3 is his Class Monitor, Rob in P-5 is his Class Monitor, Matty in P-7 is the school prefect and English Speaking Prefect and in charge of his class. Sara in S-2 is her Class Monitor. It looks like we are raising some leaders here!
• As far as special duties here at home we have Jennifer as our "Interpreter"(she interprets here at the house when needed but also goes on the radio with me on Monday and Tuesday) , Moses as the "Breakfast Chef"(he prepares the early morning breakfast before school), Sara as the "Shopkeeper" (she issues the supplies, like soap, toothpaste, pencils, etc. to kids from the store room twice a week) and Priscilla as our "Hospitality Hostess" (you can always depend on her to make guests feel welcome & comfortable, and to decorate for birthday parties). John is the "Maintenance Man" (he loves to fix things, replaces burned out security lights, turns on the security lights every night, prunes trees, etc.) All of the children have their regular chores which includes cleaning the compound. The entire compound is divided into sections and everyone has their area of responsibility.
• As you will recall, we had a tragic accident involving Richard on the motorcycle early in January. We since have repaired the motorcycle and now have just put it back in service. The accident ended up costing us quite a bit of money, because of the burial expenses, transporting the children, retrieving the motorcycle, repairing the motorcycle, etc. So hopefully it will begin to earn money as that was its purpose.
• Speaking of finances, we are behind in our rent here so please say some extra prayers for us. If you know anyone that might be interested in sponsoring the Door of Hope, we have three levels of sponsorships at $14.00, $28.00. $60.00 per month. Just go to our web site.
• Now that we mentioned the web site, Jessica has just finished another batch of updates for us with some new pictures throughout our site. Please watch for more updates coming soon.

Well that does it for now since it is about 2:00 AM and I need to get up early to get the kids off to school. Thanks for joining us here!! We will talk soon!