Finlayson Newsletter

January 21, 2006

Dearest Friends:

First I must say Happy New Year to each of you. It's hard to believe that 2005 is behind us but even harder to think that January 2006 is half gone! The past year was such a good one for HOPE. God just filled it with many opportunities and blessings. I've tried to keep you up to date but that seems to be a downfall that I have. There are truly so many things to accomplish in one day that my intentions are good but do not always get followed up with results. I will try to do better this year.

I believe I left off on the last newsletter about our special Character Counts Week, www.charactercounts.org at Hope Christian Academy. It was truly a blessing to see the children working so very hard to accomplish things that they unsure they could pull off. We are indebted to brother Nat Cooper of Lubbock, TX for introducing the program to us and for coming last July to train me and our teachers how to implement it effectively. It is refreshing to see and hear our children talk about the 6 pillars in their conversations as well as see it in their art work. Such things as Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Caring, and Citizenship are things that we would all agree make up a better person. I'm excited about the future possibilities of this program which has been proven over and over again. I know you will enjoying seeing them in all together singing the Kids for Character song with our rainbow background that we made for our special day. In the photo the children look sad. This is so deceiving! They were SO excited but also very scared. The song is beautiful as it talks about making this world a better place...being unified.....working together.....side by side. What an encouraging thought!

Christmas was a fun time at HCH. Many of you helped to make our Holiday Season even more fun by providing bits of this and that for them. Of course among the tooth brushes, shampoo and underclothes...the toys and other "special touches" were the most favorite. We appreciate so much the love and effort that goes into those boxes. We depend heavily on these boxes to keep us afloat for the coming year in hygiene products as well as socks and underclothes. Thanks a Million for doing this for the children. They appreciate it and so do we!

We ended 2005 and began 2006 in fellowship and worship at the Enmore church of Christ. There were over 150 persons in attendance and it was an uplifting event. Many commented afterwards that they were so encouraged to see our children taking part in different activities for the evening. Each person would dwell on how brave and talented our children are. God has been so good to us through out the past five years. I know that he has many wonderful blessings as well as trials for this new year.

My parents arrived in Guyana January 11th with plans to stay 2 weeks in order for my Dad to pour the foundation for our new home. It has rained everyday since he arrived!!! We have not been able to do anything on the land. His trip has not been in vain, however, as he has used this time to sit with the contractor and discuss in detail the building plans, check out the quality of building materials and to look around to know what is available and what we need to ship. When the rain stops we will try again.

Once again we would like to say thank you for your support of our efforts. We appreciate all that you do for us. Please continue to pray for us. It is because of you that we are able to help the 47 children that God has blessed us with. The challenge before us is one that we do not take lightly. We depend heavily upon God to give us wisdom. Please offer up prayers daily on our behalf. We appreciate this.

Just one note before closing off. One of our little boys, Joel...age 4 years....is in the hospital since Friday morning. He is asthmatic and was in respiratory distress. He is doing much better but today developed a fever. Please pray that God will heal him and that he will be back with us soon.

In His Love,
Samantha