Casa Hogar La Familia

Beginning with their arrival on April 15 at DFW Airport in Texas and ending with their departure on May 2, Juan Francisco and Silvia visited eleven churches that support Casa Hogar La Familia.

The turnout was terrific. Missioners and soon-to-be missioners came to hear Juan Francisco and Silvia sing songs of praise to our Lord and tell some extremely interesting stories about how the Lord used them to serve the children of Casa Hogar La Familia.

Selected Portions of Juan Francisco’s and Silvia’s Joint Presentation

“We have pastor friends who were familiar with Palmarito and they told us not to go there. They told us that many of the people there had hard hearts and had no desire to know the Lord. So we prayed and prayed and the more we prayed, the more we realized that although we would rather not be faced with the challenges going to Palmarito presented, we knew that this is where God was leading us. We decided to be obedient to the Lord’s wishes.

“One of the ways God let us know what He wanted us to do had to do with real estate. Land is very expensive in Mexico and we could not find land we could afford, but one day the grandmother of two of the children in the Casa Hogar told us that she had spoken with the mayor of Palmarito and he had agreed to gift us two acres of land where we eventually built the new children’s home.

“When we began construction, people would walk by the building and tell us to leave. A few actually picked up rocks and threw them at us. Each night we would call all of the children together and pray for the townspeople. We prayed that their hearts would soften.

“When the ground floor was completed, we bought chairs and used the living room area of the Casa Hogar to hold worship services each Sunday. Only a handful of people from the community came at first, but after a few weeks passed, more and more came. Today, we have average attendance of over 160 people who initially did not want us to be a part of their community. God answered our prayers.

“Today, many of those who threw rocks at us and told us to get out of their community are our friends and attend worship services regularly. These people have apologized to us and asked for our forgiveness. We did not make this miracle happen; God made it happen. He answered our prayers.”

See Below for Photographs from Juan Francisco’s and Silvia’s US Tour
 
Photographs from Juan Francisco’s and Silvia’s US Visit that Covered over 3,000 Miles
 

 

Pastor Eric Joppa and eight members of his congregation formed the initial mission team to visit Casa Hogar La Familia from the Federated Church located in Kingfisher, OK.

The team members were a big hit with the children of La Familia, but also accomplished the goals of their mission trip:

The Federated Church mission team purchased new pillows and pillowcases for all of the children and staff. The women of the Federated Church also hand made quilts for each.

Lighthouse UMC delivered $1,200 US dollars to Juan Francisco and Silvia to purchase gifts for the children and volunteers at La Familia.

The children sent the photograph below to Lighthouse UMC as a thank-you for the money they donated that made it possible for them to have gifts under their tree on Christmas morning.

Marshall Sansbury and a mission team from Acton UMC in Fort Worth just returned from a week at La Familia. The team reported the following accomplishments during their visit:

• Purchased material and made curtains for the home.
• Repaired the microwave ovens.
• Painted the bathrooms both upstairs and downstairs.
• Bathroom mirrors for the upstairs are to be delivered this week.
• The water filtration system is scheduled to be delivered and installed next week.
• Purchased more chairs for the expanding church attendance on Sunday mornings and Thursday evenings.

Juan Francisco and Silvia are doing everything in their power to get a visa to make a visit to the US. They are hoping to travel in the last half of April 2016. I will keep everyone up to date as their travel plans develop.

On Juan Francisco’s project list for capital expenditures in 2016 are the following items:

• Complete the perimeter wall.
• Install gates for the front of the home to allow the directors to secure the building.
• The old blue pickup truck is on its last leg. The transmission is giving them a lot of trouble. They really need a new pickup truck or small car to help them conserve gasoline.

Juan Francisco is putting together a budget for these items and I will pass them on to all “Friends of La Familia” as soon as I receive it.

More news that mission team leaders need to be aware of is that Estrella de Roja bus service between the MEX Airport in Mexico City and CAPU in Puebla has been discontinued. It is (temporarily, we hope) now necessary to take a bus from MEX Airport to Estrella de Roja’s bus station at 4 Poniente in Puebla and take taxis over to CAPU to catch a bus to Tecamachalco.

Marshall reports that all of the children at La Familia are in good health and the home is in excellent physical condition.