We had 5 children leave the orphanage in July. Three children were adopted and two went home to their natural parents. It is very difficult to see the children leave for the staff but we stay in touch and know that they are in a better situation. The goal of the orphanage is not how many children we have but how many we can adopt.

We had one large group come from Platte City, Missouri.  They worked on two major projects. The large project was building a home for a widow lady in Alto Salaverry.  The lady is 40 years old and lost her husband and is raising two children. She collects metal and plastic during the day and makes approximately one dollar. Her house was made of old metal, straw and trash. The group built a brick and concrete house around her shack. I wish I could have had a photo of her coming back from a day of collecting and seeing her new house take shape for the first time. She will have a window out of her house for the first time.  The second project is planting 100 fruit trees next to the orphanage that will supply fresh fruit for the children. The group also performed a evangelistic play in the Plaza that was well received.

The water project is getting more interesting.  I was invited to a town meeting that pit the tough guys against the nice guys.  The nice guys want to start their own water district and control how the water is distributed. The tough guys like how things are going and are quite happy to kept the status-quo. The tough guys had their screamers and shouters there blasting anything the nice guys said. I am in the middle and do not want to start the project in the midst of a political war. I think I might wait until there is a new election this December.

The guinea pig project started with 23 people signing up to raise the little critters. I was in Alto Salaverry explaining the program in my broken Spanish. I told them all they had to do is get a man and women to have guinea pigs and I should have said a male and female. (They really got a big laugh out of that).

With so many people coming to visit we now have a 3 year supply of baby clothes and formula.  Thanks for your generosity of supplying the needs of the orphanage. Pray for more families that are willing to adopt our children.

Chau,

Dave