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Emmanuel, Victoria and the Children of A Place of Hope

Having TEN children to care for is very different than having THREE! Their ages range from two months to one teenager.  Keeping them clean, fed, medicated, in school and out of the usual trouble kids can get into keeps us extremely busy.  We have received Baby Joy’s HIV results.  Her initial test, which tests for antibodies to the virus, was positive.  This definitely means her mother was HIV positive.  However, infants can carry the mother’s antibodies and not be truly HIV positive.  We now know she is positive to the  and will care for her accordingly and pray the cure is found real soon.

Two of the girls graduated from one level to the next in their schooling.   They are a couple of years behind where a child would be in the USA, but nevertheless they are now steady in school.  Mezoma is turning out to be a very intelligent little girl.  She was the top child in her class!

Bev continues to treat the villagers for their varying sicknesses as she can.  Her bout with Malaria put her down for a week and slowed her pace considerably, but thankfully she is now back to normal.  Brittni, a volunteer from Kansas who has spent 4 months here, was able to help carry the load along with Ebuka and myself.  We took turns caring for the baby in the night.  A week or so later, Brittni also came down with Malaria and was also out of commission for a week.  Everyone is doing great now!

We recently had an 11 year old girl, claiming to be from South Africa show up at our house asking to stay for a few days.  Her auntie had been in an accident and her uncle had taken the auntie to another city.  She said she didn’t want to stay alone at her house in Nsukka.  We weren’t comfortable with the whole story, so we pried and she then told us that she had been living on the street and had been trafficked to Nigeria from South Africa.  That very evening we got the police involved.  They questioned her and we spent several days dealing with various Nigerian police agencies.After a week in the custody of a Nigerian Agency for Trafficked Persons, she disclosed to a social worker there that her mother lived in Nsukka and she had run away!  We had been duped by an 11 year old run away.  The only consolation was that the police agencies had also been duped!  She was reunited with her mother, a widow with 7 children.  We will continue to try and work with this child to find out what led her to choose to run away from her home and fabricate a very intricate story.

The University of Nigeria Nsukka has offered their assistance with the medical care of our orphans at their medical center on campus.  This will be very beneficial and will reduce the cost of their care.  We are grateful for this assistance.  Also, the Department of Student Affairs has appointed me to the post of Volunteer Student Advisor and Counselor to help with their load of students facing various problems.  This will give us the opportunity to help students in need of advice as many of them face difficult decisions about their future.

We have been joined by some new staff.  Originally last August we had asked Emanuel and Victoria about coming to work with A Place of Hope.  However, at that time they declined.  This year, due to Pastor Williams resignation from our staff, they made the decision to come on board and have marked an incredible difference.  They both have just jumped in and are doing marvelous.   We are encouraged by their presence and sincere love for the children.

The house plans were finally approved yesterday and we will begin the foundations for the first house on the property next week. We have been waiting for so long and it will be slow this time of year because of the rain, as it is the full fledged rainy season.  Hopefully before our return to the USA next month for fund-raising the foundations will be completed and the walls will start to go up.  Remember this is third world and there are no spinning cement trucks out in the jungle.  Mixing and pouring is all done by hand!

We are busy helping in two church plants with students from the Biblical Training School we have started on Saturdays.  Men from this school have asked us to help them to do this and it has been a blessing as we share the good news that Jesus is the way, truth and the life and that God truly cares for the people of Opi!

Our 501(c)(3) status with the US Gov. has been approved and we are now a full-fledged public charity.  Our church, Temple Baptist of Fort Worth, TX, helped cover A Place of Hope-Africa with their status and we are grateful to them.  Today we can emit our own receipts.  This has not been easy nor inexpensive, so we are grateful that it has finally been completed.THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT & PRAYER!

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[singlepic=1,400,,,right] We made the decision to take the child to the Hospital in the Nsukka and try to save his life. The Doctor indicated that he was very near death. Thanks to a Great Physician we know, and the help of the local Doctor, we were able to bring him back from the brink of death. The mother remains hospitalized and we have taken Naemeka home with us for the time being. She asked us to care for him, as she cannot any longer. Her other children are older than him but not at a working age. Her desperate cry for help was answered because of your help.

[singlepic=2,400,,,left] Naemeka has a long battle ahead. The mother and sister indicated that he does not speak but a few words. Apparently there had been some seizures a few years back that had left him without the ability to speak. His arms and legs are very small and very weak, so he cannot walk very much. We are blessed at A Place of Hope to care for such a one. Since coming to our place, he has regained bladder control and is beginning to feed himself, using a spoon. He is saying more words than the three or four we were told he could say. He also has mastered the skill of holding a color crayon. His health is improving greatly. There is a sense of hope in his eyes and we can see that his comprehension may even be even with his age, but his oral communication skills are weak. Naemeka has been showing real improvement.

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