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.

Fort Worth Mission Team’s Visit to La Familia

July 9, 2014 by Bill Lee, President of Embrace the Dream Foundation, Inc., Greenville, South Carolina

During the Fort Worth mission team’s visit to La Familia, several of the children — several of whom are now adults and living away from La Familia — who grew up together at La Familia held a reunion to celebrate what La Familia has meant to them and to catch up on what’s going on in each of their lives. Isabel and her family along with Karla (who now lives in Lawrenceville, GA) and Raquel date back to the late 1990s when they first came to La Familia.

Below are two photographs of children many of you will remember.

Left to Right on the back row of the first photograph: Isabel Urbina and her son, Josue, Isabel’s brother Juan, sister, Alicia, Karla Frye, Isabel’s youngest sister, Mary Fernanda, with the ball cap: Caesar and his son, Isabel’s sister, Jasmin, Caesar’s brother, Luis Angel and his wife. Caesar and Luis Angel live and work in Palmarito about two miles from La Familia. Front Row: Raquel and her two children, Cristofer Emmanuel and Luz. — Left to Right on the back row: Isabel Urbina and her son, Josue, Isabel’s brother Juan, sister, Alicia, Karla Frye, Isabel’s youngest sister, Mary Fernanda, with the ball cap: Caesar and his son, Isabel’s sister, Jasmin, Caesar’s brother, Luis Angel and his wife. Caesar and Luis Angel live and work in Palmarito about two miles from La Familia. Front Row: Raquel and her two children, Cristofer Emmanuel and Luz.

Above L to R: Marshall Sansbury, Luis Angel and his wife.

Omar, Cintya’s Husband, Suffers Stroke

July 9, 2014July 9, 2014 by Bill Lee, President of Embrace the Dream Foundation, Inc., Greenville, South Carolina

A mission team from Fort Worth, TX returned from La Familia on July 3 and reported that Omar, Cintya and their baby boy have returned to La Familia following a stroke Omar suffered recently.

Several months ago, Omar and Cintya (volunteers at La Familia) were married and when a friend of Omar’s offered the newly weds his home to live in while he was working in the US, they took him up on his offer. Omar quickly found a job working with a large agricultural business.

I don’t have a lot of details, but the Fort Worth team told me that Omar has some facial distortion from the effects of the stroke and has some speech issues. I have asked several of the physicians who have joined me on mission trips to La Familia to make recommendations as to what type of medical attention Embrace the Dream Foundation and other interested parties might assist Omar in receiving.

I also learned that one of the boys that recently became a part of La Familia has quite a few large growths on his body and has never been seen by a physician. I have also asked for advice on how to get this new La Familia resident the medical attention he needs.

Signal Crest UMC from Signal Mountain, TN is going down with a team next week and they are going to do their best to see that both the young boy and Omar are able to see a competent physician.

One of our doctors from the Sumter Team in Sumter, SC has been updated on the situation and has given me instructions on questions to get answered.

Father – Son Mission Trip to Casa Hogar La Familia

July 9, 2014April 30, 2014 by Bill Lee, President of Embrace the Dream Foundation, Inc., Greenville, South Carolina

Over Easter week this year (Semana Santa) Bill Lee from the Church of the Redeemer in Greenville, SC led five fathers and five sons from Sumter, SC to Mexico to spend their Spring Break with the Children of La Familia.

One of the main projects for this mission team was to add clothes line posts and restring the clothes lines in the outdoor area where the children’s clean clothes are hung out to dry. See photographs below of the finished project.

(L to R) Gary Brown, Ed Bynum, Barnes Boyle III, Bert Parker

One of the most valued contributions the Sumter made was to replace the worn and bald tires on the old white van mission teams use for transportation when visiting La Familia. Brand new tires were installed during our visit. To illustrate how badly the tires needed to be replaced, one person commented that the old tires were so bald that you could see the air inside the tire.

Each morning before breakfast at Sandy’s Restaurant, one of the father’s led a scripture lesson and one of the son’s offered up prayers for the success of the team that day and for the food we were about to receive. The food Sandy prepared was terrific as usual.

At Easter Sunday worship services, the building was packed as usual. One special treat we all appreciated was to have Karla Frye translate Juan Francisco’s excellent sermon for the benefit of the Gringos. Ten years ago Karla was adopted by a family in the Atlanta Area and now has returned to La Familia to serve as a volunteer. She did a great job of translating. Below is a photograph of two missioners sitting on the “Papa Joe” bench following the worship service with several of the Children of La Familia.

We have been waiting a long time for enough donations to pave the area outside the front entrance of the main building at La Familia, but that day has finally come and the area is now a combination basketball court, futbol field and volleyball court. I promise you it gets plenty of use.

The visit was completed with a day in Puebla and Cholula visiting the pyramid and climbing the stairs up to the church that is located on top of the pyramid.