Lots of painting

Our church will have their first service at the new building next Sunday. This week every afternoon we have been busy down there cleaning and painting. It is always fun to paint in public as people always stop and watch. I must have been told 10 times that they have never seen a women painting before and that they didn't know women could paint :D. I had quite the crowd at one point! They whole church has been a huge help and it is great to see everyone working together. We still have a lot to do as well as moving all the chairs, podium, benches, over. I am looking forward to Sunday though.

Painting...

more painting...

Jake has been busy at HHCH getting lots of little projects finished up. The chicken coops are now plastered and all we need to put up is the run. He and Norbert (with the help of the older boys) made a cement bench for the kids to do their clothes washing on. Also he has put up 6 clothes lines pole and two bathrooms have been tiled.  

Our first 50 chickens

 We had to keep them in a small warm place for the first few days. They have a lot more room now and have about doubled in size already. They will be ready to eat in 4 weeks.

 The chicken coops

The farm is doing great. You can see corn and beans growing in the back. The kids are doing a great job of looking after it and keeping it weed free. 

New church building

We had some very exciting news this week. As I have mentioned before, the church plant we are helping out with, CCB, is bursting out of its little walls (about 90 people). By the end of service on Sundays, there is usually no chairs left (a good problem, I know!). Well, Pastor Titus and Jake have been looking all over town for a good size meeting hall... we have found a few but rent is pretty high. A couple of months ago there was one that we were really interested in and then as we were negotiating someone else came and took it. We were pretty bummed as it was big, in a great location, and even had extra rooms for children's church. Well last week, the landlord called us and said that that deal fell through and asked if we were still interested. So we went and signed the contract today and it is a go! It is certainly a step of faith as rents will be more than triple of what we are paying now but we are believing as the church grows, so will the offering. It is really exciting to be moving into anther hall, we have had to delay outreach meetings simply because we didn't have space for new converts. I will get two rooms for Children's church, YES!! It really isn't easy teaching 12 year-olds with three-year-olds at the same time so now we can have two classes. The building also has an office for the pastor and a room for a student pastor to live in to keep an eye on the place. It does have a lot of work to be done, cleaning, painting, electrical things, etc., so the whole church will be busy for the next couple of weeks. We are hoping to be in by the 29th of this month. Praise the Lord!

The outside of the buildings... lots of parking space too.

Inside the building, it will comfortably seat 500

This weeks goings on...

Happy Mother's day to all the mothers out there! The electric was off all day so I didn't think I would get to speak to my mum. Finally came back on a few hours ago so I could skype her. Nothing like having kids to appreciate your mum! Jake and the boys made me breakfast (breakfast burritos, yum!) and they boys made me cards and gave me M&Ms, what else could a mum want?

Staying pretty busy these last couple of weeks; homeschooling, kid's club, sunday school, church meetings, hanging out with the kids at HHCH, etc. But just four more weeks of home schooling and then onto summer school. I'm looking forward to it! We are also planning a week at the beach late June, REALLY looking forward to that!!

We now have 37 bunnies and 10 full grown rabbits at HHCH, what can I say, they're breeding like rabbits! We also now have 50 three week old chicks. The children's home farm is doing great; corn, soya beans, black beans, and groundnut are all sprouting up. It is exciting to see all these things taking off.

Some of our rabbits

The new chickens

The boys got hair cuts on Saturday, their hair was getting super long. Seth still didn't want to cut his hair but he was having trouble combing it!

Jude's first time at the barber

This a pig we slaughtered last week to make sausage. She was really sweet though and Brindie our dog really liked her. 

Mother's Day today, we went out for lunch after church. A super nice day!

Our little clan!

Easter Weekend

We had a full Easter weekend. We started off by having an Easter celebration at the children's home Saturday morning. First we did a cross craft then an egg hunt in the yard (with candy and coins inside). Next I taught an Easter lesson using the resurrection eggs, the kids really enjoyed them. Last, we showed the Jesus film for children. We were planning on showing it on the projector but when Jake open the projector up he realized the cords weren't there. So 30 of us gathered around the laptop but it was actually fine. We made a bunch of popcorn, roasted peanuts, and juice, so it was a lot of fun. It's wonderful to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus with these precious children.

Then I headed to church for worship practice. We decided that Easter Sunday would be a celebration service, with mostly praise and worship with a short exultation at the end. I stayed at practice for three hours and finally headed home before we even started singing (3 hours of praying, choosing songs, writing them down, phew!). 

Sunday service was really special, the praise and worship was great and really uplifting. It is amazing just to be in the presence of God. My fingers were aching by the end and I broke a string, but a really awesome time. Jake gave a short exaltation and did a fantastic job at preaching the gospel. He certainly didn't mince his words. Praise the Lord, one lady came forward for salvation and many come up for prayer. It was a wonderful service. Then we headed out with our good friends, the Dibbits for pizza. Not very traditional I know, but a special treat for us. 

Making cross murals

beautiful Dorcus

Kingsley's cross

And the hunt begins...

Searching...

With their eggs

Sakina won some chocolate

Watching the Jesus Film

Our little Jordan all ready for church (I know, the purple shoes don't match but she doesn't have any black patent leather ones :-)

Our boys (a rare occurrence for them all to be so clean!)

Jordan and her buddy Miracle

Our kiddos before service

Sandrine update

Praise the Lord, Sandrine will be back home tomorrow (and Pa of course)!! It's been just over fours weeks that Sandrine has been at the hospital and she's done incredibly well. Her legs have already started to straighten and she's gained a couple of inches in height because of it. I know the rest of the children at HHCH will be so happy to see her.


I did go and spend the weekend with Sandrine a couple of weeks back. She has a tiny little room with one single bed. I managed to set up the pack 'n play for Jordan so it was just Sandrine and I in the bed. It felt a bit like being in the village with pit toilets, authentic African food, and everyone being super friendly and not even bother to knock when they come into your room. My whole evening was full of visitors, chatting with those also staying at the hospital. One person had come from the extreme north just to be there and another from the capital city, Douala. It is amazing to think this place is only 30 minutes away from us. On Sunday, Sandrine and I just hung out, playing games, reading books, and going for walks. It was so nice to have some one on one time with her. I didn't see Jordan much as she just got taken away by everybody. 


Some things did make my stomach turn though... it is also a home for mentally disabled children. I guess the families pay for them to be there and find a caretaker. A couple of young boys were close to our room, the caretakers were less than compassionate, even whacking them across the face when they wouldn't eat. At one point I went and tried to rub one of the boy's hair and he cowered away from me, so sad! I did get them to smile at me after a while. I know they are probably the fortunate ones to have a family that actually pays for them to have someone to look after them and not just left in a hut somewhere but it still was very hard to see. I also saw mothers making their children (with braces on) walk by hitting them with switches... arrrh it is so hard not to interfere in such cases. I know the mothers have the child's best interests at heart but it is hard to see the kids so upset. 


On a happier note, Jordan is now walking... her clothes are staying a lot cleaner! We are also 7 weeks away from being done with the school. It has been a great home schooling year, 3rd and 5th grade next year... yikes!

Stormy weather

Last night we had a major storm, it felt like we were in a hurricane for a few minutes. This often happens at the start of rainy season. It made us realize that we need to get our roof patched in a few places! Also my favorite pear tree snapped in half :(... we have 4 others but this one has the best tasting "pear" ever. Thankfully the bough fell away from the chicken coop and only knocked down a little bit of their fence. So the boys and I spend the afternoon chopping up the wood (for firewood) and collecting all the avocados. I think the tree will continue to grow, yay! Looks like we will be eating pear nonstop for the next couple of weeks. The children's home will get a bunch plus neighbours. I'm still trying to figure out if it's possible to can guacamole... any suggestions?

Car wash

Well you know what they say, imitation is the highest form of flattery, so I should feel very flattered right now. A car wash in town just put up some new signs and they seem very similar to those of Helping Hands Car Wash that Jake runs (all profits go to the Children's Home)

 Here is the one that Jake designed and I painted

And another one that Jake got made here...

And then here is the ones that the other car wash just put up...

They even stole our motto! Oh well, it must mean that we are doing a good job if they want to copy us so bad, right ?

Rabbit Farm

HHCH was blessed with some extra money from a church in the States to start up a rabbit farm. This will add some extra protein into the diet of our children. Hopefully it will also add some more monies to their food budget through sales. Jake grew up raising and even showing rabbits (he won $300 for a rabbit once!) so he is really enjoying designing and making their cages. I must admit the rabbits look too cute to eat but the kids don't think so :D. 

 Norbert, Jake, and Tim hard at work

 Cages with nesting boxes

We bought our rabbits from a Catholic farm where they raise rabbits, pigs, chickens etc. plus teach people about raising them. They have an amazing setup.

 We have one more of these cages made now plus a few more rabbits. They are currently in the garage but will be moved outside once a lean-to has been built.

Four bunnies already! The mother rabbit pulls her fur out to make a nest. They are so cute!

Delanee Scone

So I have mentioned Delanee Scone, an intern that has been staying with us for the last couple of months. She is from Satalite Beach, FL. She has a blog going too, check it out, it might be nice to see what is going on over here from another person perspective:


http://ready2impact.blogspot.com/


Lanee only has two weeks left here, I should have put this up sooner!

Front Wall Project

This month the front wall of the new Helping Hands Children's Home location has had a face lift. Delanee (our intern) has been busy painting and putting the logo up on one section. She has also put a scripture with a mural on another. On Saturday we spent the morning with the kids, getting them to put their hand prints all around the logo. The kids had a blast and it looks fantastic. No one will be able to miss the orphanage now!

What it looked like when we moved in

After a layer of plaster and a lick of paint

Delanee hard at work

Just about done

And the fun begins...

Marvelous (in his Sponge Bob PJ's no less)!

 Derek, Kingsley, Marvelous, and Noel

Getting their hands painted

We went through a lot of paint thinner

Jake was our step ladder

Our little Dorcas

Just about finished