I wanted to take a moment to update everyone on Matthew.  Homebound Missions has been assisting Matthew with his education so he can come to america to go to College.  He would like to become a nurse.

After the earthquake Matthew worked as an interpreter for Doctors and Surgeons in the operating room (this word is relative).  He liked it so much that he decided he would like to be a nurse.

Matthew has been working on his SAT’s and has also been taking some extra English courses.  English is the key to him being successful.  Today, I will send him the funds to purchase his new English book and CD’s along with a CD player.

Please keep Matthew in your prayers that God will continue to do a mighty work in his life.  He has been on the straight and narrow path and over the last  year has truly blessed Tyler and I.  He has been assisting us with our families and making great strides in bringing or families together to help one another.  This is no easy task.

This fabric provides women in Haiti with the resources they need to create beautiful purses which they sell to earn a living.

If you would like to see the purses or even schedule a purse party check out Haitian Creations.

There is some praise in all of this as well.  Job has been an outstanding person from the moment we have met him.  There is nothing that we ask of him that he doesn’t graciously do.  I have asked him to help our other families and it is always a yes.  This last incident, one of our other families were able to help him.  Mr Previlus told me that he knew how to repair vehicles and so I asked him to help Job with his brakes.  Mr Previlus went right to Job and repaired his brakes saving us lots of money.  I am so blessed when I see our families willing to help each other out.  They are not all willing, but these two guys sure are.   This meant more to me than I can say.

Venise had a baby girl.  She is about 1 month old.  She and her husband Mr Previlus are working hard to solve their families financial problems.  Mr Previlus would like for us to help him buy a vehicle so he could be a driver.  I am reluctant because of the trials I have seen Job face.  I realize that buying a vehicle at any price could end up being a $10,000. proposition.  That’s more money than we have.  But they are eager to work and are talking about their future.  This is all good.

Hyppolite is trying to change what he does for work.  He is thinking about buying shoes in bulk and selling them.  I have asked him to prepare some information for us and he is working on that now.

Please pray for our families that God would bless them with ideas and opportunities that will allow them to provide for their families adequately.  Thank you.

Smith $50.00 to buy clothes and shoes for church and home.

Matthew was sent food.

Job Lira was sent $85.00 for brakes

Matthew was sent $125.00 for materials related to taking the SAT’s.

Job Lira was sent $250.00 to repair a vehicle he hit.

Hyppolite was sent $316.00 for his children’s school tuition.

$25.00 was sent to Venise for baby supplies

Food was sent to the Previlus family.

First, our children are way smarter than us.  No truly!  Magnalie’s third language is English and she gets 105 on her report card for English.  Spanish is her fourth language and she is two years in.  Say Day Paw speaks three languages and English is her fourth.  She speaks Karen, Karenni, and Burmese, but also knows a little Spanish and French.  BuReh is working on his second language, English.  This makes watching a movie at our house quite interesting, as surprise we don’t usually watch them in English and this can be heavily debated. In my wildest dreams I could not have imagined that happening in my home.  I was thinking out loud with Say one day and mentioned we have seven languages in the house and she informed me that I was wrong because Ka Paw speaks seven languages.  She continued that he is really smart.  However, when I asked her what languages he spoke I couldn’t even pronounce the names of them.  So, I am sticking with the seven I actually know.  I figure if we can’t pronounce the names of the languages I am safe not counting them.  Tyler and I are still working on mastering English.

Say is a jokester and I think Tyler may have met his match.  A majority of their school work is just reading right now and we are having some challenges that are common to people who speak an Asian dialect and who are learning English.  One of these, I like to call the added n.  Whenever there is a short sounding vowel followed by a d they add an n sound, so that ed is end, edge is endge.  We laugh about it all the time.  This last weekend we were in the car with Say and she was purposely adding an n sound to her words, but she didn’t know that I already knew that she doesn’t do this with long sounding vowels, just short, so she was saying the word reand for read and I caught her.  She laughed hysterically.

Another word we have fun with is lunch.  Although I can spell this I can’t actually say it, but Say is always offering to make us lunsh. Go ahead, try and say it.

Then, there was our vacation in Newport.  We took the kids across the street to walk the wharf and Say was leaning into dad singing High School Musical to him and then informed him he needed to sing his part.  Tyler doesn’t sing much, but he definitely doesn’t sing High School Musical.  She teased him for days to sing to her.

We had a fun time doing Hu jokes when the President of China was here.  Say and Bu just got a kick out of the Hu?  Hu? jokes, then we heard that another higher up in Chinese government was named Wen.  It just started all over again.  Then this weekend Bu slept over at the Karenni house as they call it, and was watching Jackie Chan and I guess there was a you/me joke and Bu came home laughing so hard while he tried to impersonate Jackie Chan.

Say already knows our families insider jokes.  She could tell you all the stuff that you don’t learn unless you are really close and she calls us on it all the time.  Sometimes I am amazed that she figured it out so fast.

BuReh is dads guy.  He wants to be with him every moment.  It’s really such a blessing.  He kept wearing Tyler’s boots, so Tyler went and bought him some for his birthday.  This last week while we were visiting Grama he told her that dad is his best friend.  Yeah wow.  Today, as I struggled to motivate him to do school dad called and told him he could go to work with him on Friday if he gets all his school work done and I had a star student for the rest of the day.

Magnalie has been great.  OK in some ways she has knocked my socks off.  She is a young woman now and it shows.  She is mentoring Say and Bu and has been so gracious teaching piano, reading, and much more.  Thank you Lord again.

There are so many things I would like to share, but I think you get the idea.  This has been a lot of work but also a lot of fun.  We are doing good.

Our new children Say Day Paw and BuReh have been here now for 1 month.  It has been a month filled with laughter, joy, and answered prayers.  I can still hardly believe that these children that I have waited for, for so long are finally here.  We are homeschooling which is wonderful because I want to spend every waking moment with them.  The neat thing is that they feel the same way about us.  I am so thankful that the Lord has blessed us in this incredible way.

Ka Paw Htoo, their guardian is doing well also.  He was hired by Walmart and really enjoys the people he is working with.  I am very happy for him.

Thank you for your patience.  I am sure that I will eventually work into a schedule that allows for more office time.  We are still just trying to make it all work.

Needs Provided

The last few days have been very busy for our families.

Money wires have been sent to Job to retrieve his truck from the repair shop ($700.00), to get his license which was lost in the earthquake ($151.00), and to purchase a battery ($118.00).  Job and I talked extensively about the financial plan that Tyler and I asked for him to follow.  We have asked him to tithe on his earnings first and then take whatever is left over and split it in half; half he can spend and half goes in the bank.  Job understands that he really needs to get to a place where he is on his own.  The goal is to get $1000.00 US in the bank as quickly as possible and to keep adding to it, so that he is able to go to the bank for school funds for his daughter, truck repairs, and rent.

Job really likes this plan and assured me that he will follow it.  For now HM’s will still be there to assist Job if something beyond his ability occurs, but we are very excited to think that our first family will be saying goodbye soon.  Goodbye means we really did the right thing; we assisted him to not need us anymore.

Tomorrow Jean and Venise will be sent the rest of their rent money for the year ($340.00).  We were able to secure their place with little over half down and the landlord said he would wait a few weeks for the rest.  Tomorrow it will be paid in full.

The following food has been sent to Jean and Venise; 1 Gal Oil, 25 lbs Pinto Beans,55 lbs Rice, 1 Case Sardines, 24 Spaghetti, 12 Sports Drinks (Total $133.00)  The sports drinks are for Venise to give her the extra calories she needs to produce breast milk.

We also sent Matthew food: 1 Gal Oil, 25 lbs Pinto Beans, 27 lbs Rice, 1 Case Sardines, 24 Spaghetti ($99.00).

An Updated Needs List

• Rebecca’s School tuition is still a priority ($443.03).  I am going to ask Matthew to check on it today.  My goal is to have it paid so she can attend as soon as school opens again in January.
• Shipment for Three Angel’s.  We have over a thousand pounds of medical supplies ready to go, also I have inquired as to their readiness to receive orphanage supplies as we have about 500 pounds of those.  Because our shipping company is trying to give us a super low price I want to send everything I can.   Our original estimate for the 1,100 pounds of medical supplies was $310.00 with the possibility of an liftgate charge on the other side, so between $310.00 and $400.00.  This is about 1/3 of what we would usually get charged, so I am very hopeful to get to use this opportunity to it’s fullest.

This is the end of a really long needs list that we have been trying to provide for.  We are already starting discussions on how to help our families become self sufficient and independent.  I will try to convey those discussions to everyone and truly hope that you will respond with ideas you might have.  Thank you.

Baby Jean Grace Djoody is welcomed by her family.  Matthew tells me that they named her Grace because she is the last baby in the family.

Yesterday, Venise gave birth to a lovely baby girl.  Matthew called to let me know that mom and baby are doing just fine.  Homebound Missions will send a small amount of money to Venise so that she can get some baby items.

I am so thankful to know that mom and baby are well.  Please stand with us in prayer for this family as we continue to walk along side them with Jesus and His answer for them.