Today was a very long day! I hope I can remember even a little of what happened. We went to the Special Needs Orphanage today. The residents (age 7-50) were very happy to see us when we arrived. Some of them have very slight disabilities and it makes us wonder why they are there. There are others who have severe handicaps. Most of the ones who are out and about have been there each time we have visited. They seem to remember us. We brought lots of soft balls for them and spent some time tossing them back and forth. We then presented a bible lesson and sang songs with them - they absolutely loved the music. Several of them kept coming up and wanting to sing to us. They were precious. The music always has such a calming effect on them. We played some more and then passed out some gospel tracts and some bibles and then it was time to leave. I want to share with you about one of the men at this orphanage. He has been here each of the 4 times I have visited. The first time we came – he told us about how God had created us all and that everyone was special to God. He them told us this…”God misses you when you don’t seek Him!” Very convicting! This year he told us about heaven and hell, about the plagues, that God was going to destroy the earth with fire and that he was going to create a new earth where everyone got along with each other and that it was going to be paradise! He told us about Jesus death and Resurrection on the 3rd day, he told us that there was power in the blood of Christ! After he finished I told him that he blesses us each time we come. His response was this…”God is the only one that blesses!” Once again…he set us straight! We asked him if he goes to church and he said no! He said that sometimes evangelical people come and visit. He told us he learned all of this on his own. His name is Carlos and he seems very depressed. We all feel that he is perfectly capable of holding a job and functioning to some degree it the world….I can see why he would be depressed with his situation. We tried very hard to let him know that God had a plan for his life and that maybe it was to be the one to tell all of the other residents about God. We gave him and some other residents a bible and said our goodbyes! After lunch we went to the AIDS orphanage which is right behind the Special Needs Orphanage. There were 14 young children. When we first arrived they were very shy and reserved. We sang a few songs, had the bible lesson and then since we prayed for them. Since there were 16 of us and 14 of them – we each took one child and prayed for them. This seemed to be the turning point for most of them. We then went out to play and each child had bonded with the person who had prayed for them. I took a picture of each of us with the one we prayed for so that we could have it and remember to pray for them this year! As I walked around to take the pictures…each child was playing with the one who had prayed for them. We had a great day with these children. There is a girl who is 15 at this orphanage who is in a wheel chair. She is not able to talk or anything. They told us that they needed to find her a wheel chair that they could wheel into the shower. We are going to try to find one before we leave. We asked about their needs and were told that the only need they had at this time was milk. They were giving the children water with rice powder in it. We noticed another building on the property and asked about it and we were told that it was an Emergency Center for teen mothers. They only keep as many as they can afford to feed – which at this time is 4 mothers with their babies. It was a nice place. Each bedroom had 2 beds (for the moms) and 2 cribs. Each mother took care of their child. They can stay until they are 18 years old. When we left the orphanages we went to the store and purchased 40 HUGE bags of powdered milk for the children. We also purchase some diapers for the Emergency Center. They knew that we were bringing milk back but were shocked when we unloaded many boxes filled with bags of milk. We are guessing it will last for a VERY long time! I cannot tell you how kind the people here are. When we go into the stores they go out of their way to help us. Then they box it all up for us and thank us for being there. We have found this in all of the stores we have visited. The staff at the hotel is the same way. At this point they know us because we stay here every year. No matter what we ask of them…the answer is “no problem!” It has been an emotionally draining day! Please continue to pray for the children we visit and our team!