A Wonderful, Merry Christmas...!

Tomorrow or today, depending on when you read this, will be our third Christmas down here in Bachiniva.  I must say I absolutely love Christmas here at the orphanage.  I’d say a lot of that has to do with the peace and quiet that comes with the holiday season in a small Mexican town.

Yes, I did use the words “peace” and “quiet” in the same sentence as “orphanage”.  In all actuality, this is the most quiet and relaxing time of the year for us.  It is filled with both joy and sadness.

The joyful part, obviously, is celebrating the wonderful birth of our Savior.  I find that being away from the distractions of the holiday season in the USA, allows me to really ponder and reflect on our sweet Lord and His miraculous birth.  It is also a joyful time prepping all the presents and holiday treats for the kids here.  The month has been filled with so many Christmas crafts, carols, sweets, cozy fires, and random visits from friends in the community.

The children, you see, well that’s where a bit of the sadness comes in to play.  Christmas vacation is when the majority of our children leave the orphanage to spend time with their moms, grandparents and other family members.  Now, some of you might think, why is that sad?  A huge part of Christmas is all about spending time with friends and family.  Yes, that is true.  But, the very reason why these children are here in the first place is a sign of the sadness and brokenness within their families.

The majority of our children are not true orphans, and do indeed have a mom.  However, their moms are either busy working, trying to survive, and can’t take care of their kids.  Or, life is simply easier without their children.  That gives us the wonderful blessing and privilege of caring for and ministering to the children here at the Casa.  Truly we want the children to have a relationship with their moms, but, that is hard when they only see them once a month, OR, a few times a year.  

I must admit its difficult to be truly joyful and excited for these visits with their families, because we know what they are going back to.  Chaos, lack of quality meals, spending most of the day home alone while their moms still work, being subject to their moms random boyfriends and men that come into the homes, etc.  But, we know and trust that the children are in the Lord’s hands and He is with them wherever they go.

Currently there are only four children here with us, Erasmo, MariaAna, Juan and Luis.  Juan and Luis are our true orphans, brought to us by the government, and have no family.  Erasmo and Maria Ana are a unique situation.  Their father passed away a number of years ago and then the two of them, along with their 3 siblings were abandoned by their mom.  The 5 children were taken into care by their grandparents, up until coming to the orphanage.  So, basically for the past 5-6 years, there has been no relationship with their mom whatsoever.  They have seen her a few times when going back up to their mountain village to visit their grandparents, but its been short and unfruitful.

This year however all that has changed and the Lord has brought us one of the most amazing Christmas presents yet.  2 days ago, we drove to Cuahtemoc to pick up Marisela (their mother) and their two little sisters, Carolina and LuzyDalia.  Marisela called on Monday and asked if she could come spend Christmas with her children.  I honestly didn’t believe it at first and not even until with actually picked them up at the train station.  Maria Ana and Erasmo couldn’t believe the news when I told them their mother was coming and were overjoyed.  Wow, what an amazing Christmas present for them.

I can’t express the joy that has warmed my heart as I have watched an estranged mother reunite with her children, the past 2 days.  To see them laugh together, eat a meal together, hug each other, go for walks as a family, and now, get to spend Christmas together is indescribable.  In fact, it brings tears to my eyes as I type this.

I couldn’t have asked for a better Christmas then what we are experiencing now.  To see a mother do the dishes alongside her daughter.  To see her son help her carry her things.  To see a family hold hands as we all pray before a meal.  To hear a mother and her 3 daughters talking in their room until late in the evening.  These things have changed me, will forever stick with me and I will treasure for the rest of my life.

This truly will be a wonderful and MERRY CHRISTMAS!

What a beautiful family!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year...from the Casa de Bendicion family!

Transformer, Ninos and Missions...

I remember the day when it was quite easy to blog and update everyone on the things taking place here at the Casa de Bendicion.  However, it seems like nowadays it is more challenging with every month that passes by.  Most likely it is because of the sheer busyness and chaos that takes place these days.  The month of September flew by, and now we are halfway through October.  Needless to say, all is well and we are very thankful for both the blessings AND challenges that come our way.  Actually, I should correct my statement, because we know that challenges DO BRING blessings!

Let me take a moment to fill you in on some of the things that have gone down the past month and a half.  September brought us another wonderful and fruitful missions team from Lowry City, Missouri.  Back in April, I was able to fly out and preach/share at Park Grove Christian Church about the ministry.  It was at that point that God opened the door and put together a team of 8 brothers and sisters to come down and serve with us.

We absolutely love having missions teams for so many different reasons.  It is such a blessing to our staff and especially to the children.  My wife and I love and appreciate the fellowship and encouragement that teams bring.  The focus for our dear Lowry City friends was our new offices.  The guys did a great job of framing the whole inside as well as laying out the footings for our new director's house.  The ladies stayed busy helping with the daily chores as well as paint projects.  Most of the team had never been on a missions trip before, so it was great to see the impact it had on their lives as well.

September also brought us 3 new children: Idaly (7 years), Angel Jesus (6 yrs), and little Gladys (3 yrs).  I was actually up in the States when these lovely children came to the home.  I took back the missions team to El Paso, flew up to Idaho for meetings, and then went on to Washington for our annual Missions Dinner, the NW Pastors Conference, and teaching at a wonderful church, Calvary Ballard.  It does seem that whenever I am gone, both good AND bad things happen.

One of those bad things was that the transformer at our well basically blew up, burnt out, gave up its ghost.  Fortunately, it didn’t effect our power at the orphanage.  It did mean, however, that we would receive no more water from the well.  We were very blessed to have the town water truck come out once a week to refill our water tanks.  So, even though we were without the well, we still had water.  Thankfully the transformer was fixed two days ago and now we are back up and running.  Thank you to those who donated to help pay for the fix.

Our newest additions are adjusting well.  We successfully enrolled them in school and they are learning more then ever before.  Angel and Gladis are brother and sister.  Both their mom and Idaly’s mom approached us asking if we could help care for them.  Like all the mothers, no fathers are involved in the children’s lives.  Both of their moms work full-time at an apple factory in Cuahtemoc(about 1 hour away).  These three have been a wonderful blessing to our family!

Idaly

Angel Jesus

Gladis

Currently, we have another missions team from Puyallup, Washington and Rio Rancho, New Mexico.  The four of them have been working away at our new offices.  They finished framing, installing the electrical and insulation, and are now finishing up with the sheet rock.  Their wonderful assistance has allowed our staff workers to concentrate on our new Director's House.  It is so exciting to finally see it coming together.  They are almost finished with the outer structure of block.  God is good!

The outer structure of our new directors home!

HOB Update (8/04)

Back to school is in full effect here at the Casa.  The children started school last week and so far so good.  Wow, it was a bit crazy getting 13 children (including our daughter) prepped and ready for school.  But, with our great staff and a lot of work, everything fell into place and the kids are loving the new school year.  We have 4 kids in Jr. High, 7 kids in elementary and 2 in kindergarten.  Our staff was just as excited as the kids, for school to start because now we have 8 hours of peace and quiet each day.  I do miss the kids, but I too am enjoying the quietness.  Now I know why my mom was so excited all those years for the 5 of us kids to start school.

The elementary and jr high kids are all set!

We had quite the busy summer, and time FLEW by.  Our Casa family continues to change and grow constantly.  At the beginning of summer, I think we had 14 kids.  Most of the children were able to spend part of their summer vacation with their mom's and extended family.  Overall, the kids enjoyed their time.  It is usually a challenge when kids come back from vacation because they are use to the freedom and lack of rules with their family.  However, for the most part, the kids have adjusted just fine being back at the orphanage.

Mary, the mother of Delia, Zuley and Victoria, also went to spend time with her sister in Chihuahua city.  We were really hoping and praying that they would come back to the orphanage by school time, however, they decided to stay in Chihuahua.  There are mixed feelings and emotions about this.  Obviously it is hard when children leave, but, in this case, Mary has found a job and will be living with her sister.  We are very thankful for the time the Lord allowed us to minister to this sweet mother and her girls.  Please continue to pray for them!

We also had a surge of new children come to the orphanage.  This past week, 3 new precious kids joined our family.  Natalia (age 6) and Valeria (age 5) came to the orphanage 6 days ago.  Both of their moms live locally here in Bachiniva, but need to travel to try to search for work.  They were wanting the girls to get a chance to go to school, but couldn't do that on their own.  These two girls are beautiful and have already been a blessing thus far.  Valeria is in the same class as our daughter Ayantu and already they are best friends.  

Valeria (on the left) and Natalia.  Sweet little princesses!

This past Sunday, another young boy named Osvaldo (age 10) joined our family.  Osvaldo's mother works locally here at the nursing home.  It's a blessing that she has a steady job, however, she works anywhere from 60-70 hours a week.  Whether its the morning shift or graveyard shift, Maria works constantly which forces Osvaldo to be home alone most of the day.  We were able to enroll Osvaldo in school and he is doing great.  He is a very nice and polite young man.  He has already become friends with the boys here at the orphanage and is adjusting very well!

Osvaldo...

Not only were we busy with children coming and going, but also with activities and missions teams.  This summer we were able to host 2 different missions teams.  Our first group consisted of 16 individuals from Horizon Christian Fellowship and Immanuel Christian School, both located in El Paso.  Then earlier this month, we hosted 8 individuals from Cottage Grove Calvary in Oregon.  Both teams did an amazing job loving on the children, serving, encouraging and working hard.  The focus for both teams was laying the foundation and plumbing for our new offices.  We are SO exited to have these as it will free up space and allow for further growth.

I had the chance again, to travel back to Seattle for our annual golf invitational.  This year we had 81 golfers come out for an incredible day and we raised over $6,000.  I was absolutely amazed and had an incredible time with so many people supporting the ministry!

GOD IS FAITHFUL...and continues to show that to me every single day.  Most recently, it has been in His financial provision.  I am absolutely amazed at the individuals, families, churches, businesses and even people I've never met, who give to the orphanage.  When Paul encouraged us that God would supply all our needs, he was speaking wonderful truths.  Anytime we've been in need of something, be that a vehicle, clothes, school uniforms and supplies, washing machine, utility bills, food, etc for our ever growing family, GOD HAS PROVIDED.  He has put it on the hearts of so many individuals who tirelessly give, pray and support us.  To all of you, we thank you from the bottom of our heart.  Truly, we could not do this without your help and support!