Greetings and I pray for a great Ney Year for all of you. I have been in Vietnam for several days and you may think this sounds weird (My wife's not here to edit me) but I almost feel like I am cheating on you guys. I am here and have not told you. I know weird…

  But what got to me is that I realized how much I am missing hearing from all of you. How much this little newsletter is part of my trips and how much encouragement I get from all of you. I also realized I am here and most don’t know it and are not praying for this trip. OPPS!

  So I am in Danang. The main purpose of the trip is to find a new office. The landlords asked us to be out by month’s end. They want to move back into the place. It is not as easy finding a place in the states. At home there is listings and realtors. But here mostly word of mouth.

  Tam our program director found several spots but most were either too costly or just not right. Many she found, the landlords insisted on keeping a room for their family alters. But the last one I looked at may just do. There needs to be some work (a lot of work) but the landlord agrees to do most of it. If we take it we will need to enclose a patio into another meeting room at our cost.  Pray for me as I try to make a good decision. In Vietnam you pay ahead. In this case it is 2 -3 years ahead. But that guarantees our rate.

  During this trip I will be going to visit many of the families that were most affected by the recent typhoon. GIBTK was one of the first to reach them and give the much needed immediate relief of food,  water and supplies. We have since gone back and began rehabilitation and development of those most affected.

  This trip we will continue our efforts. Camino Da Vida, a church in Lima Peru took up a special offering and raised $3700 for Vietnam. This still brings tears to my eyes. You see this is not some wealthy church this is a church filled with many poor and middle class and they found $3700 for Vietnam!!! That’s crazy. And then another small  congreation from Texas The Agape Vietnamese church had the kids raise $670 more!

With the $4370 I keep up with “I got an idea campaign” It has brought in almost $2000 more! If you want to still help in this let me know. But we are going out to give pigs to families, cloth for kids uniforms (families lost everything and uniforms and education is low priority), we have several families we hope to rebuild homes and more importantly I will be in several meetings with locals to find strategic methods to develop the area.

  God Bless you guys. Sorry for lack of pictures. They will come. Here is a interview written by a staff from a recent wheelchair distribution.

 Nguyen Phuoc Hau  7 years old:

“Like others, I hoped I would have a healthy boy. Unfortunately, my boy gets an inborn cerebral palsy disease. He is not like other children. No matter how he is, he still is my lovely boy. Day by day, I pray for a miracle. ”

                No one could control their emotion as hearing these words from a poor mother.

Nguyen Phuoc Hau, a 7 year boy, gets inborn cerebral palsy and lives with his family in Phu Thuan Commune, Duc Pho District, Quang Ngai Province.

                Hau is the second son in a poor family. Daily his mother goes to work to earn a meager living just so his siblings could go to school. But Hau must stay home alone. His father died.

Though he was very timid and it took a long time for him to step out. His mother said through her tears. “He is very happy. Although he cannot speak, but I know how happy he is.” She also told me that sometime she and his siblings can carry him places in their arms, but most of the time Hau must crawl to get where he wants.

When I asked about a dream of wheelchair, Hau’s mother cried and said “It’s a huge dream! When would we ever have money for such a luxury? Sometimes we don’t have anything to eat. And most times it is just a little rice with salt.” At this point I squatted looking at them and could not stop my tears.

                Today her huge dream came true. One wheelchair for one little boy. Yes it will relieve their difficulty. But more importantly I saw a new hope appear on this mother’s face. Sometimes I think what may seem like very little to someone but to another it is invaluable gift. To this young boy and his mother a gift of hope came with this wheelchair!

                Thank you donors and FWM.

><((((º>  BBlessed