Mrs Lorna Wishart's visit to Bethany.

Mrs Wishart with little Ian at Bethany.

On the 21st March Mrs Lorna Wishart a close family friend of Marilou and I paid a visit to Talakag from her Philippine holiday house in Davao. Lorna was on holiday in the Philippines from her family home in Hartburn near Stockton on Tees in the North East of England.
Lorna has been a donor of Bethany for sometime now and had recently contributed a large Trampoline for the play area along with a cash donation to the Rubber Plantation.
During her visit to Bethany Lorna was able to see and play with the children and meet the House Parents and carers. She was particularly interested in the Rubber Plantation project and how it was progressing as well as knowing that her Trampoline was being well used by the children.
I know she left with a heavy heart and a pledge to do even more for Bethany in the future.
Thank you Lorna for taking the time out to visit us here in Talakag and especially for your visit to Bethany which was very much appreciated.

Jim and Jean Kirchner visit Bethany.

Jim & Jean receive a farewell present from Rachel a House Parent.

Jim and Jean Kirchner recently left their home in Smith Centre Kansas to spend six weeks doing voluntary work at Bethany.
Jim until his retrial was involved in managing his business interests namely furniture retail outlets as well as funeral direction companies.
Jean until her retirement worked in the banking industry for 42 years and became VP of her branch.
Jim and Jean had previously done voluntary work in Belize prior to visiting Bethany so were well equipped for their stay.
Jim had a project in mind before coming which was to uplift the wooden floor in one of the children’s cottages and replace it with ceramic tiles as termites had started to destroy the wood. Like all projects when you begin you find other things that need fixing like the window screens and the kitchen fabric and the toilets and showers and on and on and on!!!!!!! Jim found a friend in Jojo who hails from Luzon and is a talented artist who was funded by Lynn and Terry Habeck (see previous post) and together they transformed a functional cottage to a very desirable residence for the children.
In between looking after the toddlers and infants Jean also assisted in the above project but her heart lay in caring for the children who miss her daily visits to them.
I must confess I witnessed two very happy retired Americans during the six weeks they spent at Bethany without serious complaint.
Before Jim and Jean left a farewell party was provided by the Bethany staff for them in order to say a big thank you for all they had done during their visit.
Once again a “BIG THANK YOU” from all at Bethany and we hope to see you back again some day.