Over 250 special guests were in attendance at the wedding of Damaly and Chuy with Juan Francisco officiating. The wedding theme was the 1980s.
Juan Francisco escorted his only daughter and oldest child to the wedding venue in Tecamachalco in a 1985 Ford Crown Victoria. The moment the father and daughter stepped out of the huge Ford, it was apparent that this was going to be a beautiful wedding.
Damaly’s dress was simply stunning and Juan Francisco was wearing a sport outfit from the ‘80s.
Arriving in Tecamachalco on Tuesday, February 28 and departing on Monday, March 6, a mission team from Kingfisher, Oklahoma visited La Familia. Joining this team were Ardita Roci currently living in Downers Grove, IL and Bill Lee from Greenville, SC.
This team was greeted by 12 new residents of Casa Hogar La Familia, which included two infants: Hadasa who is eight months old and Alejandra, who is 11 months old.
During our visit, we learned that Jazmin is doing well in nursing school at the University of Colima. Her grades are excellent, as well.
Among the projects the Oklahoma team completed during their visit was to have two concrete columns built and construct and paint a gate to enclose the residential property of a new member of the Groupo Amor Church that holds worship services on the second floor of La Familia. The owner of the property has lost her sight due to diabetes.
Two of the men on the team also installed new screen wire in the old screen frames. This was a big job, but much needed to prevent flies from coming into the home.
We also took a trip to Puebla to purchase items to aid in the construction project that were unavailable in the city of Tecamachalco.
On another evening, Ardita Roci prepared for all of the staff, children and mission team members, an Italian dish of Italian cheese pasta served with tomato and cucumber brochette.
The buzz in the air during this visit to La Familia was the upcoming April 15th wedding of the directors’ daughter, Damaly Hernandez Arias, and Jesus GuzmanBeristain (Chuy). On our trip to the City of Puebla, the team donated money for the directors to purchase wedding clothes for the children of La Familia.
There are currently a grand total of 26 children, five volunteers and two directors at Casa Hogar La Familia.
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.
In addition, they have two new children arriving this weekend from a small town near Quecholac.
And finally, they have two more new children arriving this weekend from a different small town nearby.
On Tuesday, February 28, I will be leading a mission team to La Familia from the Federated Church in Kingfisher, OK. I will be sure to get photographs of the new children and make sure I have the correct names to go along with the photographs.
Bill Lee
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.
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)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
