Rob and Sarah Page (sponsors from England) visited us first in Malaysia, and together we went to Medan and Banda Aceh to visit the projects and the team there. On our journey over we were able to transport the other 2 computers - one to our orphanage director in Medan, the other for Nelson and Ruth, our project managers for Punge. The computer will give us greater reporting and administrative capability. A big thank you goes out to John who supported us by providing the three computer systems that are now in place.
We also were able to rent a house in Medan for two years to start our first orphanage in Indonesia. We now are sponsoring 11 children in Medan and hope to have this first home set up soon.
We visited all of the orphans and children at risk that we are sponsoring in Banda Aceh. We have now 40 children sponsored in Banda Aceh (the city itself) with about 100 waiting sponsors. The monthly birthday party was a big success with all of the family members of the children coming and participating. Sarah helped out by playing the guitar and teaching a new song to the children.
Aside from the sightseeing and visits to the projects in Banda Aceh, we also visited the sites in Jantho and Riting for our future projects. Someone has pledged to provide a desalination system for the location in Riting. This is an answered prayer as there is no fresh water available at the location. If the system can produce enough fresh water, even the refugee settlement across the road from us can benefit.
The Jantho location has 367 families that can be helped in the areas of child development and transportation to school. Most have to walk about 3 kilometers for elementary school and 5 to 6 km for junior and senior high school into town. The people also need help with micro-enterprise development. The government has given some land for husbandry use and we think we can help them with the fishpond development.
