We have rented the building that the children’s home is located in for over 10 years.   The owner had taken a mortgage out using the property as collateral.   About a year and a half ago, the owner quit making the mortgage payment.

Inday found out about from the bank what was going on and that they were going to start foreclosure action.   She has been making the payments since then to keep it out of foreclosure.

When I was there in May, the banker talked to me and explained that the owner had actually taken out mortgages against two properties.    As I understand the problem, the other property was in such bad condition that the unpaid mortgage exceeded the value of that property.   The value of the property where the children’s home is located exceeds the unpaid balance of both properties.   The banker is feeling pressured to liquidate both of these properties to recover the bank’s financial exposure.

At this time, we do not have a deadline, but it will be coming sooner than later.   The preferred way is to pay off the unpaid balance of the property where we are and get it into our name.   It will cost right at $5,400 at the current rate of exchange for all fees; payoff of the mortgage, survey or as they called it engineering, and legal fees to register it.

The current owner has already signed the papers with the banker to allow this transaction to take place.   We would own the property and would not be liable for the other property if this occurs before the banker is forced to take action.   If it occurs after the bank takes action, our expense to keep the property would be more than double that amount.

I would ask that you keep this situation in prayer.   If you have a donation that you would like to put towards the building fund, you may do so on the support tab on the website, and with that in mind, we are a 501-C-3 non-profit organization with all the tax advantages that would apply to your situation.

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/

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.

 

I have in the past shown some pictures of the ocean side of the village, but I thought you might enjoy seeing more of the village where we help these children.

Here are a series of pictures that give an almost panoramic view of the hillside of the children’s home towards the national highway.

On the south side of the children’s home, the hills rise to and beyond the national highway to where what they call the mountains are located.

Beyond the national highway, the hills continue on up.

The children’s home is located west of the town of Sindangan in Zamboanga del Norte.   To get to Sindangan, you go up to the national highway and then wait for a ride.  In May, several times, I had to wait for over an hour because the buses and tricycles were all full. Then it is about a 40-minute ride to the public market.

There is an important sign posted.

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/

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.

A donor from Ohio gave me funds for the children’s home to make improvements.

One of the things that has been a problem is the electric service.   There were only 2 electric receptacles, everything was run off extension cords.   It looked like the proverbial explosion in a spaghetti factory.   Even the power company hookup looked iffy to me but that was not a high concern.

Power company hookup

The wires feeding into the meter are just laying on the metal roof.

I made an appointment with an electrician and we reviewed what loads were on what circuits and the needed wiring to handle the loads.   He did a very workmanship job installing the wiring.   His fee was 600 pesos and I bought the materials.   600 pesos amounted to $12.00 for him and his helper.

  This wire feeds the overhead lightbulb

 

I am frustrated because my camera would take pictures, and everything seemed normal, but it did not save the pictures to the memory card.  I didn’t know about it until I sat down and went to review them on the computer and there was nothing there.   I found out that it was a setting on the lens that needed to be changed.   That means I have a number of before pictures but none of the after pictures.

 One of the permanently mounted receptacles.

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/

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.

 

 

In the past I have talked about Pearl.   She was the young lady that was helping clean up after the rains from a typhoon.   She was carrying her little brother in her arm and tripped.  To keep from hurting him, she reached out with her free arm to break the fall.

A good idea but it didn’t work.  She snapped her arm above the elbow.   The hospital refused to treat her because her parents didn’t have the money to get it fixed.  Via internet and email, directions were able to be sent that allowed the quack doctor’s bark method to be replaced with locally available materials.

It has healed properly with just a small bump where the break occurred.   It does not slow her down at all.   Contrary to the statement from the hospital, she has not lost the use of it.

Here she is now, a happy young lady full of life.

I have returned from the Philippines where I was able to spend over 3 weeks working at the children’s home, teaching a little over 40 hours in the school and speaking 6 times at the conference.

 

I was not able to take as many pictures this time as the Nikon digital camera quit working and I wasn’t able to repair it for a few days.   My phone was not usable as often as in the past as the electricity was very erratic at the children’s home.   Having said all that, I still have about 850 pictures to sort and start posting.

I hope you will allow me a little time to get these posted and sorted.   I see that I still have over 20 hours left in the upload so there will be little or no pictures in this posting.   All in all, it was a good time.

A short update – –

Lilang, is a girl I mentioned before that had contracted Dengue Fever and was bleeding from the mouth and nose.  Her parents took her to the hospital and they were told that she was going to die.   She was put into a room with around a dozen other dying people and left.   I told Inday, who takes care of the children at the children’s home, to go get the same medicine that she had taken when she had Dengue a few months before and give it to Lilang.   Happily, she recovered.

Lilang a couple weeks ago in front of her house.

Lilang with a tuna that her father caught on his fishing boat.  I had tuna steak less than 3 hours after it was taken out of the water.