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Published: July 23rd 2010
House of Hope kids
The Kids enjoying their ice cream.Dear friends,
We hope everyone is enjoying their holidays at home although I’m sure they are mostly over by now. We have had a good week from we last put a blog entry up. The Bible college is continuing to progress well and it is a great experience for us both to be on staff. We are getting to know the students better and, to an extent, we are starting to get our heads round the cultural mindset out here. There is a good mix of students in the class (23 in all). Some who have just left school, others have their master’s degree in Theology, one student is a medical Dr, and another is a professor (who is the same age as me, Stephen). Most speak very good English but there are a few who are struggling.
Before we arrived we were also dubious about relationships with the other staff members as we did not want to be perceived as stepping into leadership while a lot of them have been working with the ministry for a good number of years. Thankfully we are getting on very well with them and having great craic at times too.
Today
House of Hope kids
The Kids enjoying their ice cream. (Thursday) we had no class as the Lecturer wasn’t available so we made the most of the opportunity to take another trip to the cinema (Toy Story 3). The ministry we are working with have an orphanage called House of Hope. They look after 20 children who were affected by the tsunami on Boxing Day 2004. A few of the children are orphans and the others are from families who are struggling etc. An idea of what these kids are dealing with became very obvious to us when we were told that after five years one boy began to open up about his experience. He had tried to hold onto his sister when the wave hit but lost his grip and regrettably she was taken out to sea! You can’t begin to imagine the kind of counseling a kid like that would need.
Most of them had never been to the cinema before so Bronagh, a hired driver and I drove them across the city to the cinema in two jeeps and a car, there were 24 of us altogether, I think Bronagh had 10 kids in her jeep and the traffic was absolute madness once again!!! Although we
went to a different cinema from the last one I described it was still an experience. I won’t go into the details again but all logic just seems to go out the window! The kids had a brilliant time and we feel so honored to be in a position to give them a day out, they deserve it and a BIG thank you goes to Stephen Cross who sponsored the trip!!! Afterwards we took them to our favourite ice cream shop, Cool Cats….we all had a great day! For the 24 cinema tickets, the hire of the 3D glasses and popcorn for the kids it all came to less than £60, and to hire a driver for 4.5 hours cost £3.30.
The heat isn’t just as bad as last year as it has fallen to around 32 - 33oC but we have an air conditioned bedroom in the house, air conditioned jeep to travel in and the classroom and offices are also air conditioned, Praise the Lord for that!
Once again, thanks to everyone who is reading along, your comments are very encouraging and its great to know that people are following our journey. Do keep in touch and let us know how you are all doing.
God Bless
Stephen and Bronagh.
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B Hamilton
non-member comment
fantastic
What a great story. I know how excited our kids get when they have a treat but that wouldn't be a patch on how those kids would have felt. It gave me goose bumps just reading your article. You will have given them such wonderful impression of what is possible. Love to read your text . Take care .