Bill Lee, President of Embrace the Dream Foundation, Inc., Greenville, South Carolina
Bill Lee is a former executive with a $640 million building material distribution company. In 1987, Bill sold his interest in that company to found Lee Resources, Inc., a consulting, training and publishing organization that serves the building supply industry. In 2000, Bill took his first mission trip to Casa Hogar La Familia. Since then, he has lead more than 50 mission teams to work with the children of Casa Hogar La Familia. To help Bill fund this Christ-centered ministry, he founded Embrace the Dream Foundation, Inc., a non profit organization based in Greenville, SC. For the past 29 years, Bill has been married to Patti Lee, has three grown children, four grandchildren and is an active member of Church of the Redeemer - Episcopal in Greenville, SC.
I received a telephone call from Silvia yesterday. She wanted to tell me that as of this week, La Familia welcomed EIGHT new children to the Casa Hogar.
Leonardo is 12 years old and from Quecholac. (Arrived on Sunday, February 5)
Karla is 11 years old and from Zinacatepec (very close to Quecholac).
Kamila is 3 years old.
Keyla Alejandra is ten months old.
(All three girls arrived on Thursday, February 9)
In addition, they have two new children arriving this weekend from a small town near Quecholac.
On November 29, Marshall Sansbury led a team from Lighthouse Fellowship in Fort Worth, TX to La Familia. The primary work project for the Lighthouse Mission Team was to repair the homes of members of the church Juan Francisco and Silvia founded. This particular family in Palmarito really needed help with their home. This type work is designed to help both the missioners and the La Familia organization to do a better job of serving the local community.
Lighthouse Fellowship Mission Team led by Marshall Sansbury of Fort Worth, TX (Center front row in blue long sleeve shirt) The La Familia dining room receives a much-needed coat of paint
While the Lighthouse Fellowship team was on site, the long-awaited new industrial grade washing machine was installed. A 220 electrical line had to be installed for this new “lavadora” that has the ability to handled eight to ten loads a day without breaking down or wearing out. This was a very expensive washing machine that we had to go all the way to Mexico City to purchase, but we believe it will be a good investment since the less expensive washing machines were having to be replaced every year or so. (See photographs below)
The long-awaited new industrial grade washing machine VBS-type crafts with the children of La Familia Lighthouse Fellowship missioner working with children of La Familia Outdoor activities on the “cancha” with the children of La Familia. David is at the front of the line in his new “very cool” sunglasses
2017 Mission Trip Dates: Please email me at LeeResourcesInc@Gmail.com when you have your 2017 dates nailed down for your church’s mission trip. I will make sure there are no conflicts and double-check with Silvia to ensure that your dates are confirmed.
We have four new children at Casa Hogar La Familia:
Marcela Utrera Lagunes is 15 years of age. She is from Veracruz. Her mom was kidnapped and disappeared. Her father is an alcoholic and takes no responsibility for his children. She has been living with her grandparents, but they are elderly and they asked the Casa Hogar for help.
Isaac Damian Jimenez Lozano is 15 years of age. He was born in California, but brought back to Mexico when he was four. His mom asked the Casa Hogar for support due to their economic situation.
Karen (I do not know her full name) is 18 years of age and is a single mom. She is the mother of an adorable little one month old baby named Adaza. Karen was living in a difficult family situation and asked the Casa Hogar for help for econoic reasons. She also asked for spiritual guidance.
News about Cintya and Omar
Since Cintya and Omar left their positions as volunteers at Casa Hogar, they have been living with Omar’s parents. However, they have been accepted as trainees in a small town a few miles outside Colima, but in the town of Esperanza in the State of Jalisco. Once they are trained, it is their wish to move into a casa hogar that realy needs them to become its directors.
Damaly and Chuy have selected April 15, 2017 as their Wedding Day
The Cornerstone Church mission team had a terrific experience at La Familia in late June. Ms. Gina’s Crochet Club was a major success; the kids were tied up for hours making small satchel soap savers, friendship bracelets, and crosses. The boys especially took to hand-made crafts.
Ms. Gina with Josue, Juan Manuel, and Rodolpho. Rodolpho, Chris, Jonathan, and Renato.
We purchased new school backpacks, splashed a day at the local water park, played lots of volleyball, and Connect4. We also raised enough money to help purchase new wiring for the church sound system.
Juan Francisco & Silvia, and volunteer Judy shopping at Sam’s Club for backpacks…
Two very important projects were accomplished during our visit. The first project, we assisted a volunteer from Texas, Ms. Cathleen, with English lessons. The younger children met for an hour and created their own visual English/Spanish dictionaries by cutting out pictures and pasting into their very own English notebooks. The older children met for about 1 ½ hours and had a very informative lesson in problem solving, again scribing English words in their notebooks.
Renato looking up words in the English/Spanish dictionary. Abi searching for just the right word.
Our second project took us to Monica’s Kindergarten class in Quecholac. The children greeted us with a song and many smiles, then were dismissed for a recess. While the women (Cornerstone team and Siliva & Mayho) cleaned the classroom from top to bottom (yes, we did windows!), Chucho & the older boys gave some of the playground equipment a fresh, bright new coat of paint. As the parents gathered to take their children home, we presented them with a hygiene/first aid kit including bandaids, sport tape, antifungal cream, bar of soap, alcohol swabs, (a great big THANK YOU to CVS Pharmacy for giving us a major discount on these items), and toothbrush & toothpaste (another call-out to Dr. Adam Salzberg of Fishersville, VA for his generous donation), and some bubblegum and lollipops.
Oh, and we made sure that Silvia had a Girls Night in Tecamachalco ~ we miss you already, dear friend!
Team Cornerstone is Abigail, Gina, Violet, Judy, Leah, and Jillian.
Arriving June 1 and departing June 8, an 11-member mission team from Church of the Good Shepherd – Episcopal of York, SC visited Casa Hogar La Familia for the first time, but according to several members of the team, “It won’t be our last.”
Led by Spanish-speaking team leader, Tanya Whitehead, this mission team spent much of their project time working in one of the local schools. Actually, it was the school attended by Lalo and Suri. They helped out with various cleaning chores and interacted with the students.
Team member, Kevin Duncan, built three sturdy wooden tables for the casa hogar. After locating a truck loaded with bamboo, Paul Mishoe purchased enough bamboo to build what looks a lot like a Native American teepee. The children loved playing on the teepee, climbing, swinging and doing flips on the bamboo structure.
While at the casa, several of the youth taught the children how to apply makeup while others washed down the walls leading up to the second floor church area.
On Sunday, one of the families attending church invited the 11-member team to participate in the “presentation” of their daughter to the life of the church with the beautifully decorated cakes you’ll see in the photographs that accompany this newsletter.
The final day of the York Team’s visit to Mexico included touring the pyramid in Cholula and going on a privately guided tour of some of the attractions in the beautiful City of Puebla.
Don’t forget to take time to look over the photos the York-team took on their visit to Mexico. The children of Casa Hogar La Familia welcome the York-team to the casa. Another group photograph of the class who benefitted from the team’s hard work in their school. A wide angle of the school class where the York team worked. Two of the youth from the York team, Maiah and Sara, sand down one of the tables built for the casa. Another wooden table made by Kevin Duncan and gifted to the casa. Teepee made from bamboo provided the boys of the casa with a lot of fun. Lilly Duncan has a good laugh with Jazmin. Mary Fer received her “professional” make-over from Annah. Well-decorated cake made in tribute to the young woman being presented to the church.
