I don’t know were to begin in praising the Lord for His protection of the kids last Sunday. The kids where napping with one of the young ladies that watches them when some wiring in my other helper’s bedroom caught on fire. There was a soccer game in progress in the field nearby and the players helped get the kids out of the house safely and called the fire department. The fire totaly destroyed everything in that bedroom and had started into the next room by the time they put it out. Everyone was very shaken, but praise the Lord, no one was injured. Felipe and I are living in a guest house a good ways from the kids’ house, and we did not know what was going on until the kids were on their way to us.
The kids’ house, also known as “The Clinic”, does not have structural damage as the walls are cinder block, the floor is cement tile, and the roof is aluminum, but the plans are to go ahead and completely redo the wiring, ceiling, paint and tile in the whole 100 by 50 foot building, as well as completely renovate the kitchen. These repairs have been put off for several years. I have been told that a very rough estimate was made of $35,000 and anywhere from four months to a year to complete. In the mean time, the the nine boys will be living with Felipe and I, and the nine girls will be in the other guest house with my helpers. During the day, they will all be coming up to our house so I can watch them while my helpers are in classes.
It is also important that our house next to the kids be finished so we can be more involved in their care and safety when they return to “the clinic”. Construction has been very slow as Felipe has classes several days a week and almost all of the teen boys that help him have classes every afternoon. We have been having to hire workers from outside of the home. With this extra expense and the rise in cost of material, the original estimate is probably about $10,000 short.












