The news this month was the earthquake in Southern Peru. The orphanage is located about 350 miles north of Lima and the quake was 60 miles southeast of Lima. We had only minor movement and if you were in a car you did not feel it at all. The beautiful thing is that Peruvians are helping other Peruvians. They have several collection centers in Trujillo and the church I attend took up a special offering for the victims. To see the people giving and sharing is a real blessing to me.

Alex Cenepo (co-director) and I are working together to check our “spirit control life”. Peru is the greatest place I know to check on your spiritual growth. We have a test every day, but the one we had several days ago hit the max. We have had problems with the pumps at the orphanage because we use well water, and well water has some sand in it (not good on pumps). We had to get one of our water pumps repaired and took it to a shop. The gentleman took a couple of weeks to fix it and I paid him 130 soles. We reinstalled the pump but it lasted only three days and we had to put another one in. We took it back to the shop and told him that he did not fix it properly. His response was that he only did repairs that last for three days and if we needed more days we had to pay more. My spirit control meter went to zero, and I lost it (Alex lost it also). We explained to the shop owner (no amable manera) that if we knew he was going to do that we would have gone to another shop. After a few minutes of frank discussion he took the pump back and said he was going to fix it better. Stay tuned…

We have two young ladies Hayley and Erin from the Coast Guard Academy who are volunteering for one year. They work with the young children who are too young to go to school in the morning. Hayley dressed up in her uniform and taught the children how to march. She also taught them how to do some exercises. The children really love to wear uniforms here and respect the military. Maybe before Hayley and Erin leave we can have some children ready for the military.

My language skills are a bit deficient. I was at a lunch with some veterinarians, and I was explaining in Spanish some problems we have had with raising animals. I told them about the male horse that we were given and that one of the workers suggested that since the horse was so aggressive that we should give the horse an operation. I could not think of the word for castration in Spanish. So I said the horse needed in Spanish ( un cambio en sexo) a sex change. The Peruvian veterinarians got a real laugh.

Vickie and I have a passion for getting our kids adopted. We would like all of our supporters to get the word out about the children we have up for adoption and to be praying for parents who are willing to adopt.

Thanks for your faithful support and prayers for the orphanage.

Dave and Vickie