I hope you’re summer has been a little less hectic than mine.  I have been busy with my own kids this summer as they come home from college to visit, to work, to move back in again and to marry.  My daughter Grace was married on July 17^th and will return as Dean of Women to New Tribes Bible College with her husband soon.  She has been very involved in HOPE in Haiti and has gone on most of the trips.  Now hopefully, we will be joined by her husband Brandon who has already been on one team.

I watched Grace prepare for the wedding weeks ahead of the actual occasion.  She made cd’s of their favorite music to give out.  She made slide shows of their growing up years.  With help from friends, they made and bought food for the guests.  We worked for hours on decorations for the tables.  She bought buckets of flowers at the farmer’s market to be arranged.  Getting the family together for the photographer and trying to think through every detail was difficult but necessary.  And then the day arrived and what a celebration it was!  As I watched my little girl being escorted down the isle on her older brother’s arm I was deeply moved. He gave her away in place of her father who died four years ago.  She was beautiful inside and out.  I listened to another brother sing a song that he had written for them.  I saw another daughter as a bride’s maid standing next to me and other numerous siblings involved in her wedding.  This unity, this common goal had brought us together once again as we celebrated someone we love.  As I watched each one doing his/her part, I thought of how grateful I am for each of them.  I am so thankful that I have the opportunity to invest my life, myself in my children.

What does this have to do with Haiti?  I think the same is true for each person involved in HOPE in Haiti.  Whether one is a part of a team that goes to Haiti and serves or is one who is giving time, energy, or money here making it possible for children to attend school,  have a hot lunch, learn of God, and go to camp.  We have a common goal to invest in these children and their families.  The churches/schools that we have built are being used constantly for school, church, meetings, and camp this summer.  Here in the United States we might go to church twice a week, but in Nan Wo, they meet every evening for study and prayer and that’s after the building has been filled with children during the day for school.  We have built a well which the outlying community uses, producing clean water.  August 9-14 will be the third annual camp for about two hundred children and this year they will be able to use their own building, saving money by not renting another large building.  Once again, I am so grateful for each one of you and the part that you play in this.  What could be more important than investing in these children’s lives? This generation may not see a great change, but it will come, I have no doubt.  As these children learn about the love God has for them it will change their perspective of life, and eventually their country.  Please continue to invest with me.  We have great HOPE in Haiti because of Jesus Christ.

Blessings always,

Dixie