We moved into a different place and we are enjoying the hot water and the oven! As well as the much appreciated insulated roof that affords a much cooler (temperature wise) house. It was unfurnished but God has just blessed us so much through people in our church. Our good friends Julie and Shannon mentioned it at church (their the pastors) that we needed furniture as we moved here pretty empty handed and the new house was unfurnished and several people have really helped us out! We now have a matching set of a love seat with 2 chairs, a storage chest (like a coffee table), a bed and mattress and a new set of metal bunk beds with mattress, and a kitchen full of dishes, a few pots, utensils and even mixing bowls, glasses and serving platters! We were blown away by the generosity of our church!
Our church is very small and only has less than 50 people so it was amazing! What an amazing God we serve! So here I sit on my love seat in the coolness of the shade of our house looking at a kitchen full of dishes and kitchenware that needs to be put away since we just got it today. HOW AWESOME IS THAT!! Shannon even delivered the furniture for us, oh and we had a truck to run errands this weekend that someone lent us ! Did I fail to mention my sister & her husband sent us a hard drive for our computer that after a little borrowing here and there is full of season of our favorite tv shows and TONS of movies. It is awesome! We have no tv or tv service so this acts as our entertainment center and the best part is we can watch what we want when we want without commercials!! Thank you Janel and Kevin!!
Sickness wise we are mostly good! But Bella has a serious diaper rash that is an allergic reaction to the formula we use as it is not lactose free. I am still nursing most of the time but still have to supplement with about 3 bottles a day of formula. Please pray we can get some lactose free formula. I am trying to get some teams coming from New Zealand to our base to bring some when they come and I can pay them when it arrives.
We have 2 teams of doctors, nurses and other medical professionals at the base at the moment here on outreach. Ywam hosts a lot of outreach teams every year and does a great job setting up outreaches for them. They have been doing local clinics in the poorest villages, they visited our preschool and did a clinic there as well as a very basic teaching on health, they also teach at the local nursing schools and volunteer at the hospital. It has been great to hear what God is doing through them, Lots of full healing miracles, and seeing where Gods heart is.
Through this team and other events we are seeing a DESPERATE need for a type of a safe house / foster care home and feeding projects for the unwanted kids all over this island in the poorest villages. We just found out how bad Angelina's (one of Pierces good 7 yr old friends from the village) situation really is. Rachel the teacher told me she has seen her selling still green papayas at the little kava bars for 20 vt (like .20 us) just to try to scrape some money together for food.
Her grandparents who she lives with have some meals but she usually goes without breakfast for lack of funds. We also just found out how badly abused she really is. Once I told her (she knows me from teaching the preschool with Rachel and playing at my house a lot ) that we want to know if someone is hurting her so we can help her situation she opened up. She showed me a scar on her head where her uncle had beat her with a stick (read big stick) till he left a bloody gash. I asked if she was happy with life and she said no. I asked about her family if she felt wanted and loved and she said no.
She lives with her grandparents as her mother abandoned her with them when she was a baby. Her Uncles and aunties live with them as well. When I found out the scope of these problems we started praying and praying asking God for a solution and we are still waiting on the full answer but we doing a few things. First of all she now knows she can come any day for breakfast or a meal if she has no food.
We are trying to raise a little support to help provide the preschool with food for a healthy breakfast for the students, as we found out quite a few are having to go with out breakfast for lack of it. (let us know if you want to give toward that). We are also trying to help them raise funds (the teacher who lives in a tiny room in a shack and Angelina who is 7 or 8) by helping them make something like necklaces or paintings or sarongs that we would then sell them for them at the YWAM base to all the visiting outreach teams (we have a lot) with the proceeds going directly to them.
We cannot also help but see the immediate need for some kind of safe house or foster home for some of these seriously neglected kids. We don't currently have the funds or the space to do it, but we are waiting on God to see what we could do to make it happen at some time. Ywam is currently already looking at several pieces of property for a relocation of the base as we are growing and need a larger facility, so we are keeping this need in our mind as we do that. Please be praying. We would need more staff, a larger facility, and more resources. But we believe God is the ALMIGHTY not just another religion so we shall see what He does. I know it breaks his heart and we want to be part of the solution. There are so many stories like Angelinas. Too many. I am trying to get little stories like this of the kids that need your prayers the most so that I can post them on the blog with a photo and you all can commit to praying for them at least weekly. THEY NEED IT!!
I will blog soon with a story of one of our little preschoolers who's home was burnt down and all food plants chopped down because they got behind on their rent.... Horrible story and the same land owner is threatening her cousin Jimmy's (from preschool that I have mentioned before) family since they are getting behind as well. I plan to go take photos and post them for prayer. It is Babette's family who was literally burnt out of their home. They have moved and we don't know where. Please be praying for them. Babette was one of our little students. HAVE mercy Lord. Help us to help these people!
Josh is waiting to hear on that job that they were bidding on months ago and it is now down to two companys. Please pray for that. He also has an in with a friend from church for a job interview as an oncall telecomunications field guy. don't know much about that but please be praying for that as well. We need a financial break through. Thank you all for your friendship. We feel so blessed to have you all as a great home network of friends that we know are there for us!
Miss you all dearly and thank you all so much for all your prayers! I will try to make sure I start blogging once a week. Blessings Kristy, Josh, Pierce, Dahlia and Bella!
