Casa Hogar La Familia

Over all, everything is going very nicely at Casa Hogar La Familia. At the present time, we have 31 children, two directors and three volunteers.

Like the rest of the world, the directors are spending much of their time dealing with safety protocols in an attempt to protect the children and staff from the coronavirus pandemic. Silvia says that no private hospitals are taking any coronavirus cases, so all government hospitals are bulging at the seams with cases related to the pandemic.

The church that meets on the second floor has discontinued holding Sunday and Thursday evening worship services, choosing to meet in individual small groups for prayer and worship.

Two of the long time members of the church Juan Francisco pastors have passed away as a result of complications from the coronavirus. A father and his son both died last week.

As is to be expected, all mission teams have canceled their visits to La Familia for the remainder of the year. They miss the mission teams and the mission teams miss their time with the children, but we are all trying to make the safest decisions we can.

Almost 20 years ago, the mission team leader at Signal Crest United Methodist Church in Signal Mountain, TN, Charlie Spencer, was out for his morning run in Ciudad Serdan when he stumbled across a fellow gringo getting in his morning run. The two men introduced themselves and Charlie explained his church’s ministry at Casa Hogar La Familia. The fellow gringo’s name was Dr. Pearse Lyons, a native of Ireland who had brought his family to the US with a dream to use his expertise as a bio chemist to have a positive impact on animals, consumers and the environment. Dr. Lyons visited La Familia and soon became a good friend and over the years supported the casa hogar in many ways.

Unrelated to the coronavirus, Dr. Lyons, owner of Alltec, a high-tech company that had a location in the town where La Familia was founded, passed away several months ago. After his death, his wife made a special trip to visit La Familia and explained to the directors what a large spot in the owner’s heart La Familia occupied. She also told the directors that the owner left instructions for her to determine what capital expenditures were needed on the property La Familia occupies and make that money available.

As a result of the owner’s generosity, the perimeter wall has been extended to the end of the property and large gates installed. Railings were installed on the balconies just off the upstairs bedrooms that faced the front of the main building.

Terra cotta colored pavers now cover the parking and laundry area to the left of the main building as you face the building from the front. Plans are also underway to install artificial turf on the soccer field to the right of the main building as you face the building from the front. These gifts have been a real blessing to La Familia.

Our hat is off to Dr. Lyons who built locations in over 100 countries around the world. He was widely regarded as an inspirational leader and communicator. He lived his life with passion and purpose — rising before dawn to begin communicating with colleagues around the world. He built Alltech into the fastest growing company in the global animal health and nutrition industry through innovative technology and strong branding.

I believe most of you who have traveled to Mexico will remember Isabel Urbina, the oldest of five Urbina children who grew up at La Familia. Isabel is the oldest, followed by Jazmin, Juan Carlos, Alicia, and the youngest is Maria Fernanda. Isabel is now married to Gabriel Cortes Castillo who graduated this year with a degree in accounting. She and Gabriel were hired as volunteers at a casa hogan in Colima to give them a place to live while they were at the university. Isabel is now 28 years of age and has some great news. On July 4 of 2020, Isabel gave birth to a baby boy, and on the same day, July 4th, Isabel’s first son, Josué, celebrated his13th birthday, as well.

Please keep the children and staff in your prayers. With the pandemic heating up in Mexico, we are all in uncharted waters.

Written by Bill Lee of Embrace the Dream Foundation, Inc.,
PO Box 5558, Greenville, SC 29606.
864-303-836

Embrace the Dream Foundation, Inc.
PO Box 5558
Greenville, SC 29606

On March 3, I returned from an eight-day trip to Casa Hogar La Familia. I traveled to La Familia with a mission team from the Federated Church in Kingfisher, OK. We had a terrific trip, and I don’t believe I have ever found everything at the home with the children and staff to be so absolutely outstanding.

Our team worked hard this trip. We arrived in Teka on Tuesday night, February 25, and our first day at the children’s home was on Wednesday morning following a terrific breakfast at Sandy’s in Quecholac.

When we arrived at La Familia, we were blown away by the installation of beautiful terra cotta colored pavers on the entire area where we park the La Familia vehicles. From the front gate to the back wall and from the basketball court wall to the exterior wall was 100% covered with the pavers. The clotheslines are now made of iron posts and cemented in place.

La Familia now has 31 children, which brings the home to near full capacity if not at full capacity. Currently, we only have three volunteers, Chuy, Damaly and Karen, so we could certainly use another volunteer if anyone has a Spanish-speaking young adult in their church who might be interested in serving in this capacity.

Among the activities we enjoyed with the children were continuous games of four-square, soccer, and volleyball outside and inside, we played a lot of board games. We also hosted all of the children at the waterpark and enjoyed a picnic made up of rotisserie chicken, beans, tortillas and a homemade beverage.

The Federated team worked along side Chuy and several of the boys from the home to repair and put all of the toilets in working order, replace all of the shower curtains in the boy’s and girl’s bathrooms, and finally to install LED lighting in the kitchen, dormitories and dining room. We are using fewer lights, so we should save some money on our electricity bill while substantially increasing the brightness of the home.

My personal objective for the visit was to take individual photographs of each child and staff person along with a photograph of each family present in the home. We accomplished this objective thanks to a lot of help from the Federated team. Be sure to look at the photographs on the www.embracethedream.com website.

Many of you will remember Josue and Rodolfo, both of whom have been a part of La Familia for most of their lives. Both boys are outstanding students and have firm plans to further their education by entering a university this fall. Both boys hope to qualify for visas to allow them to attend college in either the US or Germany.

The most popular child at La Familia is without a doubt “Luca,” the new little boy belonging to Damaly and Chuy. Be sure to take a look at the photograph of this “muy guapo” young man.

Our thanks go out to James Schreiber of Sacramento, CA, for organizing the photographs and for doing such a terrific job each month of publishing the La Familia newsletter. We could never pull this off with James’ assistance.

I have some terrific news from three ladies who grew up at La Familia.

1. Damaly gave birth to a little boy this month. She and Chuy named him Luca. Damaly and Chuy are working as volunteers at La Familia.

2. Alicia (sister of Isabel, Jazmin, Juan Carlos and Mafer (Fernanda) also had a little girl this month. They named her Ainhera (pronounced Ah e ner ah). Alicia and her husband live on a farm near La Familia. Alicia attends church on most Sundays at La Familia.

3. And today, I received a message from Isabel that she is 3-1/2-months pregnant with a little girl. Isabel is attending the university in Colima. She and her husband, Gabriel, are both working as volunteers at Casa Matrix, a casa hogar in Colima.

I will be visiting La Familia in February with a team from Kingfisher, OK. I will be sure to come home with a lot of photographs of the many new additions to the casa.

Bill Lee
President
Embrace the Dream Foundation, Inc.
PO Box 5558
Greenville, SC 29606

I am happy to report that all is going extremely well at Casa Hogar La Familia. The children are busy decorating the casa for Christmas. We were blessed this year to receive two very nice donations to help the directors pay for the cost of decorations, gifts and special food for the Christmas Season.

Silvia communicated with me today and told me that with the change of the seasons some of the children have been sick, but nothing serious. With the exception of a few bad colds, all of the children and the staff are doing great.

Tomorrow, all of the children have been invited to travel to Ciudad Serdan to visit Alltech, the company there that has been so very generous with La Familia. Silvia says the children are extremely excited and happy to be going back to Serdan for the day.

More good news: Silvia’s Uncle Sergio has once again made a gift to the casa. On December 19, Uncle Sergio is paying for all of the children to visit Six Flags in Mexico City.

The directors thank all of those who have once again in 2019 supported the Casa Hogar with your donations, your visits with mission teams and most of all for your prayers. Everyone at the casa feels extremely blessed to have so many people in the United States who find the time and money to share with Casa Hogar La Familia.

On behalf of Embrace the Dream Foundation and the directors and staff at La Familia, we wish you all a joyous and blessed Christmas Season.

Bill Lee
Embrace the Dream Foundation, Inc.

I received a telephone call from Pastor Nahum Gutierrez, our contact in Colima who oversees the students who are attending both the university there as well as one young man who is attending high school in Colima.

Jazmin Urbina — Jazmin is in her last year of nursing school. As a part of her on the job training, she has been assigned to work at a large hospital in Tlaxcala, the capitol of the State of Tlaxcala, only about an hour’s drive from the City of Puebla. She will be flying from Colima to Tlaxcala.

Maria Isabel — Isabel was the first girl I met when I made my first trip to La Familia in the year 2000. She has overcome a lot of adversity since then and is now a student studying accounting at the university in Colima. She is married to Gabriel and she is the mother of Josué.

Gabriel de Cortez — Gabriel is also a student at the university in Colima and is also studying accounting. Everyone keep their fingers crossed, because if Gabriel keeps up his current pace, he will graduate in December of 2019. Gabriel and Isabel are full-time volunteers at a Casa Hogar by the name of Casa Leonel in Colima.

Juan Carlos — Nahum has been an excellent mentor to Juan Carlos who had lost an interest in finishing high school in Quecholac. Juan Carlos moved to Colima for a change of scenery and to be near his sisters, Isabel and Jazmin. Juan Carlos is scheduled to graduate from high school in November.

Daniel — Daniel is the youngest son of Juan Francisco and Silvia. He began his university education in Colima this fall and has decided to major in International Business.

Our thanks to all of the donors who support the work Embrace the Dream is doing in Mexico. Thanks to each of you for your donations to this Christ-centered orphanage ministry because your donations to Embrace the Dream allow us to pay for 100% if the tuition, food and housing costs of any child who can gain admission to either the university or a technical school and maintain a C Average.

Embrace the Dream Foundation, Inc., PO Box 5558, Greenville, SC 29606
Federal Tax ID# 26-0680710
www.EmbraceTheDream.com