It is rather difficult for the other months of the year to match the excitement that December brings. However, this year January came close to achieving that feat at Victory House. We have had ourselves a very exciting month thanks to all the visitors, friends of El Shaddai and the volunteers who came with smiles on their faces and left a lasting impression on our hearts.

On the last day of 2007 our boys attended the midnight service to usher in the New Year. There was great excitement as they wished each other the very best. Boys from the Cottage even performed a dance on stage. With the New Year came new hope and new dreams. The 1st evening all boys and staff went to Mapusa to see the circus in town. They enjoyed it thoroughly and were especially impressed with the stilt walkers as some of them had performed on stilts for FANTASIA at Mumbai, Pune and Goa. Schools reopened and boys got serious with their studies. The internal quality audit of VH went smoothly. We received a new menu and it has brought great joy to the boys. There are some very big changes and items listed are ones the boys love to cook and eat. They have now made a suggestion to Management to allow them one other delicacy that they love to prepare and consume. Kumar and Prasad Vanga were two special admissions made by Pastor Matthew. Kumar who has cerebral malaria and a claw hand as a result is presently at Pune undergoing a series of surgical procedures and will be back with us shortly. Prasad Vanga is another young boy of seventeen who has irregular heart palpitations coupled with Asthma. Both these boys are being treated at specialist hospitals and El Shaddai is paying for the treatment. The maintenance department has been busy at VH and we are happy to announce that all the gadgets are working 100%.

Mr. Jose and family, UK made a very generous donation towards the needs list of the Home. We are very grateful to them. Pastor Michael Whittle much loved by boys and staff visited with Anitamother and even conducted the evening assembly and prayed for the children. Maurizio, a long and faithful friend of El Shaddai visited regularly and coached the boys in football. Andrew from Scotland treated the boys to a fireworks display at the ground. Sponsor of Pandu along with four of his friends visited and played some music and sang songs for the boys. Our neighbours too witnessed and enjoyed the same. Loukesh the cook from Shekinah House prepared our meals as our cook David was on a short leave of absence. The hard work of the boys in the gardening venture is finally bearing fruit or rather flowers. They are so excited and want to show every visitor the beautiful garden coming up.

Various other activities like football matches, carom and craft competitions were held at VH. Agnel comes to the House every Tuesday to teach Cottage boys to play the guitar and keyboards. The beach outings are a great time of enjoyment for boys. The month ended on a high note. On 30th 5 boys from VH and 8 boys of Cottage celebrated their birthdays. The party was enjoyed by all with good food, plenty of soft drinks, lots of games and a very tasty birthday cake.

January has been good and a great start to the year. We hope the following months are as good. Our boys are concentrating on their studies presently as exams are fast approaching. We hope and pray they do well. We also hope we are able to make a lasting impression on their lives which will help them to mould a brighter future for themselves.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 5th, 2008 at 5:17 pm and is filed under Events, Victory House. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.