What a blessing it is to be able to share with you the adventures with God we have been on this year! We are grateful beyond words for your generous prayers and faithful support as we continue our work with the children of Casa Hogar Elim orphanage. We pray that as you have so generously given to us, it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over.... Luke 6:38
As we look forward to this day and what it holds, we cannot help but see your fingerprints on every part of it. Please take a moment to read this and soak it all in. This all is happening because of your faithfulness.
Let’s Take a Walk Together
As the sun is rising, we will soon be headed out to feed and care for the 70 chicks, 7 baby goats and 9 rabbits that were recently brought on. The intention is to sell the goat and rabbit offspring to bring in money for CHE and to use the chickens for eggs as well as meat. Should there be a shortage of meat in the future, the goats and rabbits could be harvested to feed the orphanage. I personally am hopeful that does not happen because I have fallen in love with these beautiful creatures!
On our way to the animals, we will pass through the beautiful garden that Senor Rodney has been helping to create. Rodney first connected with Mama Lupita back when Casa Hogar Elim was first created. He has been involved in many different missions in s life, many connected to raising gardens. What a blessing he has been, bringing knowledge and experience and time to an area that laid dormant during Covid. Corn, beans, squash, peppers, grapes, potatoes, beets, tomatoes, grapes, cucumbers, and chard! I love wandering up and down the aisles breathing it all in and watching it flourish.
Today, Friday, is a day off from school so our time in the learning center will be a balancing act – helping those who are studying for next weeks exams or those who need tutoring with those who just want to make music, play with Legos, draw or build puzzles! It promises to be chaotic and fun. Thank God for Carli White who has been with us now for over a year and is such a blessing to both us and the children of Casa Hogar. Between the two of us, we will keep the place from exploding! Enjoy these photos of the kiddos!
We will stop at the Mexico location (that’s what we call it) so that we can see the latest and greatest work on the swimming pool! We raised money two years ago intending to purchase property adjacent to CHE. When it was clear that was not going to happen, we made the prayerful decision to pay the back taxes on a property that Mama had temporary access. This would allow her to receive the title to the property. The plan is to build the swimming pool and a small dormitory so that we can take groups of children there for overnight stays, use the pool when groups visit CHE, as well as rent it out to help pay to maintain the pool and area.The pool is ALMOST finished, and it is gorgeous. All the work was done by Kimio and the older boys. Pretty darn amazing!
Later this afternoon, I will sit with Mama, give her the monthly donation for food and catch up on the latest happenings around CHE. We will discuss the upcoming graduations of five sixth graders into junior high, two junior high students into high school, and three high schoolers into university! With your help, we continue to pay for all expenses related to high school and university students and it is wonderful to see this number grow.
After serving a healthy snack, we will close the learning center and head back to the volu to care for the animals and answer the doorbell as the kids stop by to chat . And THAT is a day in the life for us and your presence is woven into the fabric of every single part of it.
We have some very specific prayer requests to share with you, and we thank you for adding these to your time with God.
Casa Hogar Elim is a private Christian orphanage and receives little funding from the government. They have always been dependent on donations and have had a small number of groups who have provided the majority of financial support for them over the years. One of those groups, the largest donor, has had some changes in the direction for their mission efforts and is dramatically reducing their giving, going to zero by 2025. We have been reaching out to other churches in San Antonio and Dallas and are hopeful we can bring them onboard with monthly donations to help fill the gap. God has already blessed the orphanage with some localLaredo donors whose giving has helped to ease the worry and I remind Mama often that God has always taken care of the children of Casa Hogar. We may have to tighten the belt a bit but it will be exciting to see what God does with this opportunity.
Preparing for uncertain times. We have been planting seeds of preparation for food shortages with Mama Lupita for several months and finally they are taking root. Her focus is shifting to ensuring that she has the basics for several months. We will tour the stored food this week to determine what is on hand, what is needed, what type of containers we need to maintain it, as well as, implementing a first in/first out method of consumption. Please pray for her attention to stay on this until we finish the task. In addition, after some research, we determined that the water tables are quite near the surface in our area. We believe we could dig a well and reach water at about 15 meters and Mama Lupita is finally ready to begin this work. This will be important as it is not uncommon for water to be disrupted and that can cause significant health problems. It will be very helpful to have our own source of water.
One area that has always needed significant and purposeful attention is preparing the older children to launch into life outside of the orphanage. We are working on several approaches to assist in this area. We were blessed with a program that teaches saving, budgeting for monthly expenses and long-term goals, and staying out of debt We will begin teaching the program this summer. We are looking for people who can teach web development (front and backend), video editing, photo shop and photography. For those children who show a passion and talent in a particular area, we can support formal training/certification and assist with equipment and connections to work down the road. Your prayers around this effort would be appreciated and if you know of anyone who fits the bill, please send them our way! We are pressing Mama to begin using the carpentry workshop regularly as a training center for those who have an interest. We are also excited to welcome a local architect to visit with the kids, talk to them about architecture and the education needed to achieve this type of career. Your prayers on these initiatives are appreciated!
We lift up a young man named Roberto to you for prayer. Roberto came to Casa Hogar Elim when he was about 10 years old with his two younger brothers and sisters. Two years ago, while Roberto was going to high school, he got involved with drugs and bad influences and had to leave the orphanage. Over the years he has had moments of clarity when he wanted out of that lifestyle, but he was always pulled back in. At this moment, he has come up for air again and wants desperately to change his life. He is haunted by how he has treated people in the past, especially his siblings, and is questioning that he can be forgiven by God or by them. He is afraid of being pulled back into old ways but wounds from the past are distracting him from focusing on the true solution – our Lord and Saviour – Christ Jesus. He is not free from drugs at this point, marijuana, but he is trying. We have role played how to say no and walk away. To his credit, he has held a solid job at Dominoes for over a year and, at this point in time, he is serious. He is coming by and sitting with me for an hour or so several times a week and our latest conversation was about salvation. Having my own personal experience with the hell of addiction, I know that the window of desire to change is short. Please keep him in your prayers.
Please continue to pray for Thad and me, for our discernment, energy, and ability to walk in the joy of the Lord every day so that we are a light in what can sometimes be a dark world.
One final note, we would like to introduce our new board members to you! Carli White and Mayra Gutierrez joined us late last year. Mikaela Fuller joined us just this month! Carli first visited Casa Hogar Elim in 2016and, over many visits, fell in love with the children. She joined the mission of Gift of Dignity last February and has been indispensable in our learning center ever since. Mayra Gutierrez and Mikaela Fuller have been consistent visitors for several years and have been closely connected to the kids and to our mission. They live in the Dallas area. We are blessed to have their presence and are excited to see what God has planned for this new team!
And, as always, we will continue to pray for each of you and your families. We pray these updates bring you joy as you see how you are impacting Gods children in life altering ways.
May the Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace. Numbers 6:24-26