Month: March 2019

Federated Church Visits La Familia

by

Federated Church from Kingfisher, OK traveled to La Familia with a
mission team this month. They arrived in Tecamachalco on Tuesday, February 26 and departed on Monday, March 4 to spend their final day in the City of Puebla en route back to the Mexico City Airport.

Three of the missioners made their first trip to La Familia and the five remaining had traveled to Mexico to visit the children and staff on multiple occasions over the past several years. Patty Tilghman was leader of the Oklahoma team. I met the team in Houston and escorted them to our hotel in Tecamachalco.

The primary project that’s in process right now is constructing a small two-room office building on the front of the property (next to the exterior wall) to give the directors a quiet and private space to process new children who are moving into the casa hogar. In the past, the only place to orient the new children and get paperwork filled out was the dining and study area on the first floor, which is everything but private. The times when new children arrive are frequently anxious, stressful and full of unknowns for those just arriving.

Chuy’s first cousin is the general contractor on the construction job. His name is Roman and Roman is the same contractor who constructed the small open air bodega just outside the walls of the main house that is being used to store fruits and vegetables.

Another project that is in progress at La Familia is completing several projects that were a part of the master plan. Helping fund this work are the owners of a biochemical firm located in Cuidad Serdan, the town where La Familia was located before moving to Tehuacan and two years later to Palmarito, our present location.

To go along with the iron railings that have been installed on the balconies on the front of the main building, the perimeter wall will be completed with an iron railing along the top of the wall, individual pavers (what Mexicans call adoquines) and additional lighting will be installed in the area where the home’s vehicles park and the parishioners park while attending church on Sunday mornings and Thursday evenings.

Below are posted several photographs from the trip:

L-R Joyce, Jean and Elise help chop vegetables for lunch.
Staff member, Chuy, warming tortillas over a BBQ grill at the local Water Park as Mary Fernanda watches.
Praise band at the 11:00 AM Worship Service at on the second floor at La Familia.
The children of La Familia square off on the “cancha,” (Spanish word for the court where competitive sporting
events are held).
Director Silvia oversees children making posters for the mission team.
Nine of the children of La Familia having lunch together following the Sunday Worship Service.
The Federated Mission Team taught the children a highly intellectual card game by the name of “Trash.” L-R Mission team members: Jack, Doug, Joyce, Beth.