12 days. In a mere 12 days we drove our suburban just over 1,300 miles down to Vicente Guerrero in Baja, Mexico (over the course of 3 days), visited for the week of Christmas, and then made the long journey back up to Trout Lake again. I continue to be amazed at how well our kids do with this trip. Sure, we let them use devices way more than they would get to if we were at home, but still....
The week did not go quite as we had hoped due to several kids getting a flu virus one after another, after another, etc during that time. However, despite the illness that tried unsuccessfully to steal our joy, we chose to make the most of every moment and not focus too much on the negatives. One of the first things that we were able to do was deliver 3 large boxes of books to the school principal to be added to the library. There were just over 180 books, plus several Bibles that we were able to donate. The principal had so much fun looking through all of those books for the school. Thanks again to everyone who helped us in our book drive. We will be continuing to accept books until we move down there this summer, so if you wanted to purchase some for the orphanage and never got around to it, it is not too late.
In the mere 6 months that we have been back in the States, much has changed at the orphanage. One of the long time volunteers down there has transitioned to the role of mission director, with the previous director moving closer to Tijuana. A fair number of kids have been adopted or have been placed with family members and have left the orphanage, and a few new children have been brought there. Some of the houses have new/different houseparents. There are a few new volunteers serving. But one thing hasn't changed...there is still no family providing the same type of ministry to the girls as we were. We still feel like we are needed down there to model what a healthy family (and especially what a godly man) looks like.
With various kids that were sick over the course of our vacation, we weren't quite able to do all the things we had originally hoped, but we still made good use of our time there. Gabe and I took turns staying at home with the sick ones while the rest of the family did activities with the kids interned at the orphanage. We were able to have a movie/popcorn night with one of the casas at our duplex, and spent another evening eating pizza and playing games with another casa. We made a LOT of cookies to share with everyone. I planned ahead and brought cookie cutters so I could make sugar cookie cutouts for kids to decorate.
Gabe and I also decided to add an additional girl to the kids we personally sponsor. "A" is a 13 yr old girl that we hung out with a lot during our year in Mexico and she has always been special to us, so it was wonderful to officially sponsor her. We gave each of our sponsored girls a Christmas stocking on Christmas day and it was so much fun watching their excitement as they opened them up. There were no expensive gifts in any of them, just small things that we thought they would enjoy. But a couple of them expressed to us that their stocking from us was their favorite gift they had received during Christmas. I believe this was simply because they knew it came from us...and it brought them joy in the knowledge that we were thinking of them. We also celebrated the birthdays of two of our girls!
This trip was made possible by the people who continue to generously support us financially, as we could not have afforded it otherwise. It was hard to leave after a mere week's visit, but we left feeling affirmed in our belief that the orphanage is where God wants us to return to after this school year. The girls at the home will be our primary ministry, but we are also looking at other ways that we can get involved in the community and our church down there as well. There are many details that Gabe and I still need to work through before this summer, but we are trusting God with all of them.
At this time, we are beginning to focus more time and attention on support raising. Our support raising is being done directly through FFHM now, which means that 100% of donations given to us actually get to us (Cord Ministries took a nominal percentage of our donations to cover their costs, so going through FFHM is definitely better). Please consider supporting our ministry down there. We are going down as volunteers and are not getting paid for our work there. We rely on donations from others to cover our costs. Our goal is to raise a little over $3,000 in monthly support. This amount covers things from ministry expenses, housing/utilities, vehicle maintenance, home school supplies, etc. We want to be as transparent as possible with your donations, so I would be happy to share with anyone our proposed budget for your review (just send me a message and I will attach it in an email). Although we are currently stateside, please consider supporting us even now, as we will be needing funds to cover moving costs, vehicle insurance, tourist visas, etc. You can click on the link below to access our donation page. If you do feel God calling you to join our team financially, please take a moment and reach out to us and let us know. This will help us determine how close we are to meeting our monthly support goal. Thank you to everyone who has contributed in the past or will contribute in the future. Your gifts, whether big or small, are ALL appreciated!
