The children are out of school for two and half months for their summer break ( those of you that live in the Northern hemisphere can only dream of summer). We kept them busy by starting them off in the morning with four different courses: English, computer, debate and music. Also some children have private tutoring if they are behind in their school work. In the afternoon they have handcrafts , recreation and reading. They also have a special activity of playing in the water fountain or going to the beach. We also have special classes for the physically disabled children and the children who need special speech therapy.

I want to thank Christ Community Church for doing such an excellent job of starting the reservoir and pouring two out of the three levels with concrete. What amazed me the most are the Peruvian women who helped on the project. One of the ladies put a 90 lb sack of concrete on her back and carried it 200 yards. Another lady was helping with pouring the concrete. She brought buckets of mixed concrete so I could lift the buckets to the next level where another person took them and lifted them to another person. This concrete work is a proven weight reducer. The children of the community are coming to the job site everyday.One problem we had is to watch for the tools not to be stolen. However, we did not have any tools taken to my knowledge but we had a lot drinking water for the workers missing (that is a little indication of how bad the water is). We hope to finish the reservoir by mid February. The second phase of the project it to lay 40000 feet of six inch pipe. I would like to challenge church groups to take several thousand feet of pipe to lay.

Starting the fifth of February we are having Peruvian men and women who want to be in the ministry. They are coming from all parts of Peru for one month and staying at the Ranch. A local church, Central Biblical is sponsoring the event. While the students are here at the orphanage, they plan to do work projects and do other ministries in the community as well.

A real neat thing happened to four of our special needs children. It just happens that these kids have birthdays in January. We try to do something special for each child’s birthday. This time we had a volunteer couple Adam and Kristen Runyan take them to a restaurant named Rocky’s in town. Rocky’s has a special play area for children and they had a blast.

Please pray that the mayors of all the cities involved in the water project to work together and another is that a business close to the Hogar de Esperanza will give permission to the orphanage to tap on to their existing power lines. I pray that God gives you a great blessing this year.

Chau,

Dave