House Of Hope "Almost Ready for Children"

I' m posting these pictures in hope that you'll get as excited as we are. The HOH is almost ready for kids! Hopefully by fall some of our children will be starting school at Blanchard. We still need to dig a well and get a generator and purchase funiture and appliances before we open.


This is Patrick with Allison Breininger and her daughter, Maya, age 2 1/2 yrs. old. They were staying at our hotel awaiting signing final papers before taking her home to Minn. It was taking longer than hoped and they we running out of toys to entertain Maya, so Patrick shared one of the Matchbook cars that he'd brought down with her. She stole all out hearts partly because she's the age of the children we'll be taking into the HOH to raise.


This is my granddaughter, Kalah, with one of the children in the nursery at the church in Blanchard. He was dancing to the worship music and Kalah feel in love with him. He also is the age of the children we will be supporting.


This little angel was also at the Blanchard church. She's holding Livia's teddybear that Darrel brought to Haiti for Livia. There's just something in the smiles of theses little ones that makes you feel like you're looking into the face of God and getting hugged by them is just indescribally pure love.

Haiti Mission Trip Pictures

It's good to be home but we all left our hearts in Haiti. We got alot done. Soon, it will be home for several children whom otherwise wouldn't have a change to grow, feel safe, go to school, learn about Jesus, learn to support themselves and hopefully make a difference in their country.
We want to say thanks to everyone who helped send us. We gained more than we gave! Thanks for your prayers...continue to pray for the House Of Hope. We still need to dig a well and get a generator. The children are ready.....waiting for a place to call home, with loving parents.

Blog pick me up - Post 3

We got bumped off the page so I'm reposting the game :).

So here's the deal...I'm posting links to movie screenshots. If you think you know what movie the screenshot comes from. Post a comment. The first person to answer correctly gains 5 points. I'll keep a running tally as to the overall score...the first person to 100 points wins. You can, however, only post one answer at a time. Once you recieve a response from me, you can guess again :). That keeps anyone from posting 5 different guesses at once.

Here's the kicker. CCJ staff and their families are excluded from winning the prize. However, they can guess, rack up points, and frustrate others who are trying to be the ultimate victors!

Not all movies will be recent, not all will be well known. I'll do my best to post at different times during the day and a variety of genres. In closing, my decision of awarding points is final...confusing, vague or misleading screenshots are par for the course. Sticklers for the truth will need to start their own game ;).

Haiti Team

We're home! Praise the Lord for a safe and productive trip. We have many exciting stories to "share." (The quotation marks are an inside joke....guess you had to be there.)

We completed painting the inside and outside of the orphanage.

It's 1:30am.....I'll post more pictures later. Right now, I can't wait to sleep in my own bed.

Thanks to everyone who lifted us up in prayer and helped us financially. We couldn't have done it without you.

Haiti '09: Day 8 (Thursday)

The crew is on their way home. Pray for safety and happy reunions.

Haiti '09: Day 7 (Wednesday)

A HAITI UPDATE FROM DARREL:
I thought I would try to give you an update on our week in Haiti. This has been an amazing week for all of us and for the House of Hope. Of course you know the week started off with us arriving with only two of our bags. The awesome thing is that all of our painting supplies were in those bags. God provided for us so we could get to work and the rest of the stuff didn't matter much. The team really worked hard and today we were able to leave the House of Hope compound knowing the whole building was painted inside and out. It is so hard to believe this dream we had a few years ago is coming to a reality. In the next month the kitchen will be finished and the well will be dug. After that we only have a few loose ends to tie up and we will be ready to open. Leon assures us it will be filled right away and there will be a waiting list beyond that. We will begin with 6 to 8 boys and 6 to 8 girls. I am just in awe about how God is pulling this off.

Thanks to all of you who have helped and prayed for us and thanks to a great team down here in Haiti. They have worked so hard. We did get to spend a day at my favorite spot on earth (Wahoo Bay Beach). Tomorrow we fly out. Please pray for safe and good travel. We can't wait to share all about our trip with you all. God bless and have a good rest of the week.

Haiti '09: Day 6 (Tuesday)

More from Darrel's Facebook:
"This little girl Miya is staying at our hotel. She gets to go home to her new adopted family soon. She is the exact age (2 and a half) of kids who will be entering the house of hope orphanage CCJ is starting.

Hotel Guard.

Haiti '09: Day 5 (Monday)

Darrel says via Facebook

This morning: "back to work .... Things are going great."
This evening: "hottest day yet. Great day of work. There is at least one coat of paint on everything and two on most. The plumbing and electrical is far along. House of Hope will be up and running in no time."

Here are some more photos I stole from his Facebook page:

Haiti '09: Day 4 (Sunday)

The gang went to Haitian church services today. This is a photo from Glenda of her granddaughter, Kalah, with some Haitian kids.

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there.

UPDATE: Here's two more from Glenda.


Also, looks like Glenda and Ken's computer is back up. Glenda says, "I laid hands on my computer and prayed for God to fix it and gave it a nights rest and yesterday morning ....IT WORKED! Praise God."

Haiti '09: Day 3 (Saturday)

As Darrel said in the previous post's comments, blogging is sparse in Haiti because a good Internet connection is hard to find (sorry, Ken, about your laptop - that stinks).

Here's some updates from Facebook.

Darrel:
"Ready to begin work" (7:30 a.m.)
"Loving dinner tonight. We had great fish" (7:30 p.m.)
"The gang is going to 3 Haitian church services in the morning."

Some More Photos:





Stay tuned ...

Haiti '09: Day 2 (Friday)

Looks like the Haiti updates will come via Facebook status updates. For those of you not on Facebook, here are some sparse updates.

From Darrel:
Update # 1: "No luggage yet but we had a great first day on the job."
Update # 2: (Two hours later) "We have our luggage..... Praise God."

From Glenda:
"Just got back from painting the orphanage. A few are in the pool....who happen to have swimsuits! Got a lot done today. Put on primer paint. After I get some rest and cool down, I'll try to down load pictures."

More to come ... hopefully.





Photo via Darrel's Facebook.

Haiti '09: Day 1 (Thursday)

According to Holli (Darrel's wife) "our crew in Haiti has no luggage. None of it made it there. They will check with the airport tomorrow to see if it has been found."

Hopefully, the luggage will arrive soon. Keep them all in your prayers.

UPDATE: Glenda e-mails and says ...
We had an uneventfully good trip. Got here with 4 of our 24 pieces of luggage, Kalah's and Christina's 1 each and 2 full of paint brushes and rollers and L and XL t-shirts to paint in. Praise God. The rain kept us off line last night. Going to work today (Friday) and go back to airpot to see if our luggage is back this afternoon. God is GOOD!

Generation Change 2009

Pictured is the first graduating class of 'Generation Change.' This is basically a shortened Financial Peace University for students. This class will begin their adult lives with knowledge that so many others never had and, hopefully, they will hold on to what they learned and use God's principles for their individual financial lives.

Congratulations to these students for taking the class and finishing up.

From left: Chelsea Reinbold, Ricardo Ramos, Melissa Allen (instructor), Jade Dorsam, Malia Reinbold, Kacie Cooke, Patrick Deel, Ryan Shipman, Justin Vertin & Alex Zehr (instructor).

House of Hope

I am so excited! Five more days. I wonder what color paint Pastor Leon got for us to paint the House Of Hope. Yellow is my favorite color. The guys will be putting in plumbing and electricity. I will be posting pictures and updates again. I'll bring back a bracelet for the posted comment who guesses the right color.

CCJ Summer Carnival 2009 Photos

See the full photo album on CCJ's Facebook page. FYI: You do not have to be a Facebook user to see the photos.

Thanks to all of the great volunteers (there were too many to name one by one) and organizers of the day. What a great time and opportunity to spread the love of Jesus simply by giving something back to the community we live in.

Camp Illiana

I enjoyed visiting camp today. The kids are having a great time already. (Uh...looks like the dorm dad's are too!)

It certainly is off to a good start. The temp was hot but there was a cool breeze and those who got to go to the pool today appreciated the cold water.

Darrel & I had the missions class this morning, talking about Haiti. We were so excited to see how interested the children were in our work there. They had lots of great questions for us.

Pray for good weather the rest of the week and for the strength of the workers, esp. Darrel who has way tooooo many things going on this week!). And the hearts of the children to be receptive to the Lord and for their safety.