It has been a very hot summer in Florida and for much of the U.S. Many Floridians have gone north for the hot summer months so our condo pool is empty most of the time. Ron and I have been going early in the mornings to get some pool exercise but just now the water is cool, the morning air is cool and we will wait until the heat is turned on in the pool October 1st.
We have hot afternoons with numerous thunderstorms. We had a heavy rain about 3 p.m. yesterday. By 4 p.m. it was totally sunny again but another storm came in about 6 p.m. and it rained again. The good news is that Florida has been in a drought situation and the rain is needed. We had no hurricanes last year to bring us rain and so far there are none in the Atlanta this season. We are not in the clear yet as the season will not really be over until November. We remember one hurricane in December when we were in St. Croix, U.S.V. I. There was one in the Philippines at Christmas time a few years ago. Weather can be unpredictable.
We have been busy. I have been transferring more of my work over to Carole Booker. Ronald's IT man in the Philippines has designed a database for us and we have also been busy preparing Excel worksheets for him to transfer our data into the database. We are still in the preliminary stages of getting this developed. It will take some time to complete it and check out the information to be sure it is accurate before Carole can work more with the database.
The SAS work remains steady with the number of girls averaging from 320 to 350. Some graduate and leave the safe house and others come in to begin a new life at our centers. There are always more that need help than we can accommodate, but we are still adding girls as facilities have space. Our workers are diligent and eager to help as many poor girls as they can.
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Many girls are being added in Nepal on a regular basis. We had several to leave after completing their high school education. It is our goal to keep them as long as they want to study so they can be better prepared to take care of themselves. The longer they stay, the stronger background they have in the Bible to build their faith and keep them strong spiritually.
We have quite a few new girls coming to the safe houses in Laos also.
Two new girls have arrived at our safe house in the Philippines. A picture of them with their mother and the house where they lived are shown here.
They are now at our safe house at Casa Esperanza of Angels (Ronald and Gigi's orphanage). The parents live in a very remote area and the girls were not able to continue their schooling. The family is facing severe financial difficulties and poverty. The girls' house on the CEA campus is full now.
Focus, in the middle of the picture, is one of our girls in Udon Thani, Thailand. She was baptized a week ago. The entire congregation came to see her baptism.
TG, on the left is the girl's house mother. Another girl has been accepted and will join these girls at this home soon. 
Congregation at Udon Thani, Thailand
Several girls in Nepal have been baptized in the past few months. They are all taught the Bible regularly and we are not facing any opposition to our teaching just yet. We know this could happen, but while we have the openness to teach the workers are diligent to teach and train the girls on a daily basis.
On a personal note, Ron will see a new neurologist October 1. We have not been pleased with the ones we had in the past. We hope this one will be more suitable to working with Ron as Parkinson's Disease offers many challenges. Ron is trying to keep active physically and mentally everyday.
We have both had major dental work done recently. At our age, we really hate spending money on our teeth, but we can't neglect them and just let them rot out as people do in third world countries. I have two back teeth that I will need to have pulled soon. Two weeks ago, I had a root canal on a front tooth and now I have to have a crown for it.
I also had an ear infection in both ears that lasted for over two weeks with a round of antibiotics and a prednisone pack of medication. The pain is gone but I may have had some hearing loss occur.
Ronald and Gigi are celebrating their anniversary this Thursday. They will be coming to Florida to be with us the weekend of October 4th. It is their last traveling trip before returning to the Philippines. We have not seen them in a year so we are looking forward to their visit.
Thank you, everyone, for keeping up with us and our work in Asia. We love and appreciate each of you. May God continue to bless you!
