I'm back! We finally took the plunge and decided to pay a bit more for faster internet. Ours has steadily been getting worse to where it has been hard to Skype or upload photos. Jake is the one that does the ministry website so it has been frustrating in many ways. The new router was hooked up last week and it has been amazing! I can get so much more done on the internet now (or not get so much more done: I can watch all those videos ya'll post of Facebook now!). I'm hoping this will motivate me to get more blogs up as I shouldn't have to spend anymore grueling hours to upload a couple of photos.
Each school break, Helping Hands Children's Home does some type of outreach. Our main goal in doing this is to teach our children the importance of reaching out to to those around them, to show them the love of Jesus. So often our kids are on the receiving end of things, we don't want them to take their blessings for granted, or to think that the ball stops there. This year we decided to visit CEFED, a home for mentally and physically handicapped children, which is about 45 minutes away from Bamenda. Ours girls got busy crocheting hats for everyone (yes, people love woolly hats here even though it is Africa). The boys made a bunch of wordless books, and we all worked on baking and decorating Christmas cookies. What an amazing morning it was! The children were so happy to see us and many became excited with the singing and drama. The hats were a hit as were the cookies. HHCH was able to bless them with clothes and toys too as they have been so blessed this past year.
It was a eye opening experience to our children to see how blessed they are to have a body that works correctly, that we really have nothing to complain about it. The disabilities at the home range from severe mental disabilities, children with no arms, blindness, and polio to name a few. I feel it was good for our staff to see how much easier they have it compared to the staff of CEFED. Most of the children there could not wash, dress, or feed themselves: it is a huge amount of work every single day, 365 days a year.
It was a blessing to me to see how well the children are being looked after at CEFED. I once spend a few nights at a hospital with Sandrine when she was getting her legs straightened out. This was a hospital/home for handicapped children as well. It made me sick to my stomach to see some of the ways the kids were treated/neglected. But at CEFED all the kids were clean, happy, and you could just tell they are well cared for.
Decorating Christmas cookies
Singing some songs
These kids danced the whole time we sang!
Loving their hats
The boys doing their drama
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