Haven of Hope Orphanage

March 15, 2010

HEALING OF THE CHILDREN

     It has been so hot here in Digos, I mean really hot!    We haven't had a good rain in many weeks.  The government is very concerned as water levels in rivers and lakes are noticeably down.  Consequently, this has affected power generation.  The electric company in our city has been forced to ration power, thus we are experiencing blackouts for four to six hours every day.  This impacts the children as they are restless and cannot sleep well at night without the use of electric fans, especially when the weather is so hot.  Mindanao has been declared to be in a State of Calamity due to the drought.                   

This and probably some other factors has caused a lot of the children to come down with flu like symptoms leading in some cases to hospitalization.  Two were diagnosed with pneumonia, two had asthma attacks and Kevin had to be hospitalized.   Praise God that our staff has not been impacted and the children are now mostly able to resume their studies.  We thank the Lord, our Great Physician, for healing our children and providing for the hospitalization, doctor's bills and medicines.  God was once again our Rescuer in this time of need.   Please continue to pray for healing of the children and for an end to this long drought.   There are some predictions of even worse power outages and crop failures if the rains don't come soon.

GRADUATIONS AND PROMOTIONS

On the 29th of March, Tiraima and Jessa will graduate from elementary to join Aicel in high school.  

Limson and Arlene will be promoted to the 6th grade; Hasmin, Johnrey, Honeylen (Janna), Edelina and Rufina will be promoted to 5th grade.  Donnalyn will move to 4th grade, while five of the new children will now also be able to go to school.  Ivan will also be in the 5th grade, Melody in 3rd grade and Kevin in 1st grade.  This will be Kevin's first time to go to school.  Kristine and Nemar will be in Kindergarten.  Nelvin, the youngest child here will continue to be tutored at HOH.

What a joy it is to see these children getting the much needed education which they could not receive without faithful prayers and consistent support.   You are a great part of this ministry and we are so pleased that you have been led to be a part of the HOH team.    Your prayers, monthly support, donations of school bags, school shoes, shirts, underwear and all kinds of school supplies makes this possible. 

NEW PARTNERS AND CONTINUED BLESSINGS

We were so pleased to hear that people in Dayton, Tennessee, from The Family Church, have taken an interest in HOH and village ministries here in Digos.   Peter filled his suitcases with many things for us and already passed on many pairs of new shoes,  socks, underwear, bras and even Bibles. Many more things are being shipped.  We especially thank the members of the Provine family for coordinating these efforts.

We thank the many other supporters who recently donated vitamins.   People from California, Washington, Florida, Pennsylvania and Tennessee.   These precious vitamins were hand carried already and allow us to help many people with serious nutritional deficiencies in the villages and of course to help the children here at HOH.

We also received another large box from our friends in Singapore. Thank you Penny for coordinating this effort and for paying for the shipping of the items.

Thanks to Tim and Kathy for providing medicine for Rufina's eyes, and for the many friends in the US who have been donating to our need for rice.

We appreciate all of you and thank you so much for your love and care for our children.

Jo Pabalate - Executive Director

For the Staff and Children at HOH