hurricane passes...

Hello all! An update on the hurricane that we expereienced on Tuesday morning. We barely got touched by the storm. All we had was wind. There was very little rain. A couple of trees on Melissa's parents yard blew down, but nothing that caused very much damage. We are very thankful it didn't do as much damage as they were predicting (although a very small part of me wanted to see a BIG storm). If only you could see that much power without damage to people and buildings. We travelled to Corozal which is on the border of Mexico and Belize. That town is in VERY bad shape. The further north we went the more damage there was. The jungle just looks like a tangled up mess, as well as many houses that look this way. Terrible damage.

We are on our last day here at the orphanage. Actually that isn't entirely true. We aren't at the orphanage today! We took the kids back to Blue Creek yesterday for a kind of "getaway"! So we have a bunch of kids staying at our house. (we just moved into this house on Wednesday night, FINALLY a place to call home) It has been so good for them to get out of there. They are totally different kids once they are out of the home. They have been nothing but a joy to have around and WAY easier to train, I believe. At the home everything has a 'negative' slant to it. If they are asked to do the dishes, they are FORCED to do the dishes. If they are told to go to bed, they are FORCED to go to bed. This is the way it has been for them. So it is good to see smiles on their faces as they help out. Today we'll go swimming with them, and go play at the park. Its really cool too, as they visit their friends that went out of the orphanage to a home in Blue Creek. They had a blast yesterday playing with those kids! Its been an exciting and tiring day and night so far.

Thank you so much for praying! Please pray for one thing in particular. Yesterday Melissa talked to Leslie (the person in charge of the home) and she said that the governement had come to tell her that she needed to shut down the home. It didn't have enough bathrooms for the number of kids, it didn't meet the many requirements they have for a home like this. Leslie was very discouraged. She wants to give these kids a better home but she just doesn't have the finances to build something new. She had asked the officials if they would give any government grant or anything, and they said no, its all on her own. WOW! So I think it is good that we are staying for a year. We want to help her out to find some sort of mission, that would be willing to consider taking over the home, helping us build a new home. So we'll see what happens! It would be terribly sad to see a place like this go down. We'll do everything we can to make sure that doesn't happen!

Have a great day. Thank you for your e-mails! We love getting e-mails! We hope that God is blessing you daily!

God bless,
Blaine & Melissa Dueck