New Favorite photo

This might be my favorite photo of all time. It's killing me. This is a little boy that was found abandoned last year and taken to the orphanage. Esperance named him Schekinah. Maria looks like she's about to go to Jazzercize!

Good news for orphanage

It's been a long time in coming, but I have finally updated the House of Hope blog concerning the purchase of their property! I was personallly there to witness the transfer of funds and signed the contract as a representative of all the folks in the US who made this possible!

Orphanage needs urgent help

Please check out my blog about the House of Hope and spread the word about this urgent financial need. We have an opportunity to provide these orphans with a home of their own! Thanks for praying and a big THANK YOU to all who have already given. Help me continue on to see the project to its glorious conclusion!

Video of orphans singing

I've been showing friends this video I took at the orphanage I'm invovled with and people seem to LOVE it, so I thought I'd post it on the House of Hope blog.

Alternative Xmas and Year-End Giving

Hello from iced over Salem, OR! Are you too stuck inside unable to complete your Christmas shopping? Or looking for a way to give away more money and not pay so many taxes? Consider giving to the House of Hope in Brazzaville, Congo. We'd really love to make a sizeable down payment on a new house for the orphanage by the end of the month. For more information see the blog about the project.

Merci beaucoup to all the precious people who have already donated! May God bless you!!

Orphanage needs urgent help

Hello my friends! The orphanage I've been going to for a year and a half now is in urgent need of a new house. Together we can buy them one! We're just getting it started, but check out: HouseOfHopeOrphanage.blogspot.com

Please pray that:
--People would give to the project and we'd be able to make a downpayment soon
--The owners wouldn't sell the house to someone else (they're receiving lots of offers but so far have been faithful to us)
--God would put peace in the hearts of the workers who are very stressed about the situation

You can also check out my Facebook photos of the kids.

Living Faith

Thursday night was one of my best meetings with my girls from church. They were all there, which was amazing ‘cause they’ve been super busy with the end of the school year and attendance has been pretty spotty. But they were there and we had a great discussion. They were attentive and interested and even looking up verses for themselves.

The preacher on Sunday had talked about how we will be judged not by our faith but by our works. The Bible does say over and over that we will be judged according to what we do in this life, but I was a little concerned that he didn’t emphasize the fact that we’re saved by grace. So I looked at Ephesians 2:8-9 with my girls, to make sure they understand this foundational truth. We’re working on memorizing it in French and Lingala:

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.”

But we also held up this truth in relation to what James has to say:

“What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” James 2:14, 17

Unintentionally on my part, this teaching went incredibly well with what we were experiencing as a group. On Sunday we had gone to the orphanage for my girls’ first visit there. I’d had to leave early, but the girls ended up staying quite late and apparently the kids begged them not to leave even then. They played and played and then had a really great praise and worship time together. The girls were so excited to report to me how well it had gone, how the kids loved them, how God really came and did a work in their midst.


We often hear “faith without deeds is dead,” but what about faith WITH deeds? It’s so alive! After having spent themselves in service at the orphanage, I could see my girls’ faith just bursting with life. Nothing better than knowing you’ve done something for someone else and feeling the Spirit of the Lord work through you. So satisfying, so life-giving.