April 5, 2008

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

We hope that all of you are well. We are doing fine. God has sustained us through all our difficult moments. We know that we are blessed to have so many friends around the world praying for us and the children here at the home. Things are quiet for the moment. The official judge is back and reading all the processes. There are four volumes of paperwork to read through. Each volume has about 1,000 pages. I'm glad I'm not the judge, aren't you?!? Pray for the judge as he studies the documents that God will give him wisdom. Pray for us and the children that we do what He wants us to do. Pray for the children that left. We know that some of them are not doing very well. Their homes just aren't good situations for them. But at the moment, we cannot take anyone in.

There are still some things that we need to do to get the home up to standards with the health department. However, we have much less to do, thanks to so many of you, we have accomplished many things. We are going to try and get some more things done while we have fewer children. There are still several places in the roof that need changing and major fixing. Rooms need to be painted again. Actually, the rooms need to be painted every year. When you consider that you have about 25 to 30 living in a hall "house," you can understand why it needs painting every year. Some of the floors need the tile replaced. The money for the dining room floor has already been donated. We are getting granite for the dining room as it can take all the wear and tear. On the outside of the home, other things need to be done. We have not done a whole lot because those things are not our priority. However, the health department sees it different. I'm sure you understand. The facilities for the animals (pigs, chickens, ducks, and other animals) are the ones that were here when we moved here. So, obviously laws have changed for farm facilities. We need to get that in order. I know that for many of you that may not sound too important, but when you live with one hundred kids you need all the activities you can possibly have to keep kids busy and out of trouble. What most people do with kids is just put them in front of a computer or a television. Trust me, that is not what they need.

While all that is going on, there are also tons of things going on with the church. The church is relocating. The structure of the church is old and the fire department was starting to give us a hard time. Since the building was bought some twenty-five years ago, the area around it has changed. Because of the big businesses around the church, regulations have changed in that area. We started checking prices to make the changes and it would have been very expensive to do the work. So, the church decided that they would buy part of the land where the Alpha and Omega Home is that has not been purchased yet. This decision has really been interesting. There have always been people from church that were not involved with the home, but since we have moved the services to the home it has been interesting to see the changes in attitudes. Today we are going to have a big activity day. A big group is going to visit the areas around the church building, some painting has been done, etc. Everybody is getting involved. This is really exciting. We want to use our facilities more to reach the children and teens that need help and need Jesus. There are so many that need help but don't need to live in the home. Pray for us and the church as we try to reach these kids. We have many people from church and friends that teach in the public schools and they tell us how bad things are out there. Pray for us! Pray for the church! Pray and see what God would have you to do! We love and appreciate each of you. We would love to have you visit and see for yourself what great things God has done. We are excited to see what more great things God has in store. Want to be part of this? Feel free to contact us at anytime. To the left are all the ways you can find us. We would love to hear from you. May God bless each of you.

Love in Christ,

Odali and Kathy Barros