Greetings from Hope House:

It is a quiet Saturday, early evening. I was out for most of the day, getting my mail, grocery shopping, purchasing some Haitian articles for a silent auction and then stopped to visit some friends....just a normal Saturday like y'all have at back home. The week was also fillled with other routine business...payroll, paper work and the like. My ear was buring after the two hour teleconference I joined in with the Board members. I think it is such a miracle everytime I can do that....when I think back to my first days in Haiti, we would have to drive sometimes 1-2 hours to get to a phone if we needed to make a call and we only had HAM radio contact once a day with our PAP office......it seems like it was the "dark ages"...amazing what can change in only a few short years!

We got the exam results for the kids at the school and I am happy to report that we had a 95% pass rate overall. We still await the results for the Grade 6,9, Philo and Rheto (grades 12&13) classes all of whom wrote their state exams in mid August. Hopefully they will prove to do as well as the rest of the classes.

The kids in the Grade 6,9,Philo and Rheto classes were rewarded with a day at the beach and by all reports from Clovis it was a day most enjoyed and appreciated by all. Unfortunately I was home on vacation when they went so I have no pictures to share of the kids frolicking about.

In a few short days I will be heading to the US for a brief trip to attend a fund raising event in Fond du Lac Wisconsin. Perry Prichard a Mission trip alumni is going to try to set a Guiness Book of World Record for the most times around a motor cross raceway in 24 hours. All proceeds will come to the Lazarus Project. If you are interested in learning more check out http://www.24hoursforhaiti.com/. I am going to "cheer him on".

It's short I know but that about sums up the week. I tried to post the picture below last time around but it was a no go then. This is just a glimpse at the tropical paradise Wilner and I 'suffered" with during our free days in the Dominican Republic....it was a taste of heaven!

Until next time, peace be with you.....Debbie