Back in Action

  After eight months back in the U.S., I was blessed to join back up with Kate this week for the Kids of Hope club. With new property, buildings, and even our own water source - it was as though the club hadn't even skipped a beat! Things are rolling right along and there will be many more pictures to come! Stay tuned for more updates on how the Christmas distribution with the boys went and how wonderful and blessed we are with the new property!

New Goals for 2008!

The boys received new 'mini-goels' as a gift from Joel Hayslip (fellow missionary) here in Burkina Faso. The boys were thrilled (though hard to tell by the pic) as they have been playing for so many years with just rocks and brick pieces to mark the goels. They put them right to good use and will be playing with them 6 days a week! Thank you Joel Hayslip!!!!

Yet another property option......

On the search - read post below for details.

A Potential Move......

With time comes change.
We have been looking here now for about 6 months for new property to re-locate the Kids of Hope club. With the constant expansion here in the capital city, we have been told that the property that we currently host the club on just might have a duplex on it by next year. That said - nothing is "for sure" at this point; but Kate is still doing an excellent job looking at all kinds of other options (properties) all over the city......some are even quite a bit larger than what we are on right now and would be a great move! Please continue to lift the club up in prayer as we scout out new property.

Pills all around....

Just this last Saturday, we were blessed to be visited by two ladies who were distributing pills city wide against parasites and another nasty local disease. The boys were all very hesitant at first but then jumped right in after they saw that it was not a shot.

Question time........

So each week after the big combined game, we choose three boys at random and ask them questions from the previous week for a chance to win a new t-shirt. The week before last we shared the story from when Jesus healed the sick man that was lowered through the roof by his friends. When we asked, "What did Jesus do to the man that was sick?" we got the most interesting response......."Um.....Jesus bowed to the east and prayed 5 times for the man."
I couldn't help but smile since almost all of these boys come from a Muslim background and are around an Islamic teacher all week long. He was trying his hardest to remember from the week before; but was obviously a little nervous in front of all the other kids and simply gave the response that he knew about prayer. At least he tried though.

A SWEET gift!

The previous week, we had a great group of students come and visit the club. They were a great blessing and left the kids a bunch of candy; so this week we divided up all the candy and handed it out to just over 50 boys! They were just a little excited - to say the least.

Class time - a little review.

With a new year here, we get a lot of new kids who do not even know the French alphabet. Often a good review is in order to see where everyone is at.

Eight of the 25 students who came to help out this last Saturday. It was quite a full house; but the boys had a blast!

Having fun with the kids

A great visit!

This week we had a great time as a team of about 25 students from Berea University came and helped out with the club. Here are a few pics from their visit.

Back in action.

After a short Christmas break, the club was back up and running on January 12th. We were happy to see just around 50 boys come back for the new year and jump right back into things. In this photo Kate and I (Tyler) showing off our skills with our Jesus stick figures. God bless pipe cleaners.

Slide Show of Christmas Club (December 8, 2007)

The smile says it all.....

It was a great year filled with games, food, laughter, and a whole ton of prizes. Each week we give out t-shirts (for prizes), candy (for whoever wins the group games), vitamins (for correct answers to challenge questions), cokes (for extra good behavior), and a meal (for everyone who comes). The year is capped off with a big drama presentation and an extra special gift for all the boys!
The smile says it all.....

Kids of Hope Christmas!!!

This Christmas with the boys was a BLAST! There are MANY more pics to come - and very soon.....