This past week, Inday and a couple of the children were cooking a meal in what in the USA we might call it a summer kitchen, there I’ve heard it referred to as a dirty kitchen.  It is a place where cooking can be done and the heat will not get in the house.

They were having a storm, and in the middle of it, a coconut tree fell on the dirty kitchen.  Since it is made with posts, a thatched roof, and walls made out of palm leaves woven together, there was essentially no protection.

Needless to say, they were very frightened.  When everything calmed down, no one was hurt and the heavy rain put out the fire before it spread or anyone got burned.  Inday was able to repair everything herself, for a little over $50.00 USD, so didn’t have to pay anyone to do the repairs, so she saved that much money.

Princess took a couple pictures.   On was of her mom after she had come inside after making sure everything was safe and secure.  The other one was Inday cleaning up after fixing everything, with the help of Kevin, 6 years old, and Leray, 4 years old.

This will let you take a small look into the daily activities there in the Philippines.

We thank God for His protection over all of them.

Last week little Leray was using the toilet before her bath and Inday noticed that in her stool was a fairly large worm.   In the past several of the children had gotten pinworms from the municipal water supply, but Inday said that this was about the size of her little finger.

As many of you might remember from the past postings, Leray is a very precocious little girl who turned four years old in April.   Inday told her what she saw and said that she would have to get treated for that problem.

Her brother, Kevin who just turned 6 a couple of months ago, was teasing her and said that she would just have to live with it.  “No, when Daddy hears about it, he will make sure that the doctor takes care of me”, she replied very confidently.   Kevin and another cousin continued to tease her a little bit.

“Why do you think that Daddy will want you to go to the doctor?” they asked her.

“I’m Daddy Junior,” she replied without hesitation.  “He’s LeRoy and I’m Leray.   I’m named after him.”  She was right, as the parents had told me before she was born if it was a boy, they were going to name him LeRoy and if it was a girl, she would be named Leray.

Inday knew without telling me that she needed to go to the doctor and with the poor signal strength, by the time I knew about it, she had been to the doctor and gotten the medicine and treatment was underway.

She told her father when he was home for a short time from his work on the ship.  “I am so wonderfully cared for, Papa, I have both a Papa and Daddy that love me and cares for me.”   Her father has thanked me several times for taking special care of Kevin and Leray.

I often think of her when I read in the bible about faith as a little child.   She has total faith that her needs will be met as funds allow and even some of her wants and desires.    After their mother abandoned Kevin and Leray, I have personally sponsored them along with some of the other children.    While the laws between the USA and the Philippines make it almost impossible, I would love to adopt these two and give them the opportunity to grow up where I could take care of them and provide for them all the time.   Since it is not possible, I do what I can for these two wonderful children.

You can keep up with the happenings at the children’s home in your Facebook feed by liking and following us on Facebook at  https://www.facebook.com/childrens.hope.90

You may also support the children’s home by going to the following link http://hopehomeandschool.com/index.php/support/  one time donations or regular monthly donations are always appreciated.   If you wish to sponsor a child, please contact us and we will work with you on that outreach.

Also, if you share the Facebook postings when you find them interesting, it will help spread the word about our children.

If you would like to hear more about the children’s home, I am available to speak to your church, missions group, or other organization.

 

Monday was the first day of school for the children in the Philippines there at the children’s home.   All except for Leray, our very precocious 4-year-old.   More about her later.  The older children, 4 girls, have started senior high school, grades 11 and 12.  Previously the schooling had ended at the end of 10^th grade.   This is the first year that 11 and 12 was offered in this area.  To get further education, you had to go to college.

Little Leray has been tutored by Princess and Meriam in reading and writing English as well as other subjects, since shortly after she turned 3.  She did well enough that at Christmas time, she was able to send me a message that was mostly readable and spelled right with a strange, somewhat Spanish sentence construction.   She is so advanced that she is going to start preschool next Monday to get a more systematic learning.

She was so proud of her backpack and school supplies that she wanted to make sure that Inday took the picture of her and Kevin with their backpacks to send to me.   She wanted Daddy, as all the children call me, to know that she would do very good in school to make me proud.  Kevin and Dindo, they are cousins, are in the same classroom.   This is good because Kevin was scared to go to school.

I have included the pictures of all the children that I could immediately locate so you can see some of our children that we provide school supplies, uniforms, and other needed items so that they can stay in school.

This was delayed because I just got more of the pictures to share.

This year, we were able to do something we had never done before.

Through the use of a designated donation for this specific use, each of the children at the children’s home was given gifts specially chosen for them, each of the families was given rice and Goldilocks treats, and a meal served to the children, their family that they stay with and the volunteers.   The meal was rice, lechon (whole roast pig) spaghetti, and macaroni.

The budget for each child was $15. Many of the children had never had such a thing. While gifts are not the most important part of Christmas, we wanted it to be special for them.  Each child was given an age appropriate toy or toys, shoes or clothing, and chocolate.

The neighbors had to check out the celebration.

Dindo who will be 6 soon watched gifts being passed out and very politely told Princess that he had been good also. A couple of the children were so excited that they were at a loss for words.

Leray had her toys for a few minutes and then went to Inday and asked if Daddy (that is what the children call me) was there. Inday told her no. Leray asked, “If I give my toys back, can he come?”