Big blessings from a small short-term missions group!

Hello friends,

Just wanted to take a few minutes and blog about some exciting things that just occured here at the orphanage. A short term missions group from two churches in Georgia just came to Chiapas, Mexico for about 8 or 9 days. One part of the group (most of the men and male youth) came to the orphanage this past Monday to not only play with the kids but to do a whole lot of work as well...such as building a big tire swing, unloading a bunch of tires to help reinforce the soccer field, install some plywood in the upstairs rooms of the cabana (we were only able to haul the plywood upstairs as we ran into some problems) and help make two walkways of gravel! And let me tell you, the thing I was most excited about was the walkways, because if they had not made all those trips with the wheel barrel, guess who would have had to have done it?

Then on Friday the second part of the group came (the women and the female youth) to not only play with the kids, but to do crafts, hand out all kids of gifts and clothes and candy, and sing some songs.

And one other very important thing that happened was that this group has been praying for one of the orphans named Orlando (he needs a third surgery to open up his eyes so that he can see better, as he was born with his eyes fully closed). And not only have they been praying but they have been taking up donations at their churches. Praise the Lord that they were able to give a very sizeable love offering to help start the process of Orlando getting his eyes worked on. Oh how good is our God!

Some pics of their visit:

Pastor Andrew (left) and "part-time" missionary Steve presenting the orphanage with their generous love offering...I say part-time because Steve seems to always be down in Chiapas working on the various projects of Chiapas Ministries (the ministry that he heads up)...

Orlando is the child sitting between the ladies with the yellow shirt on...

Putting up the tire swing...

And the final thing...attaching the swing!!!

Then of course came the test rides...

Unloading the plywood and carrying it up to the second floor...

Pouring the gravel walkways...

Went and picked up and carried and bunch of used tires to the soccer field...

BUT it wasn't all work and no play...had a good meal and played some soccer...

What a great day for the kids!!!

The ladies came on Friday and just poured out so much love on the kids...here they are doing crafts...

Then came a BUNCH of goodies...candy and toys and clothes and so much more...

Saying those sad goodbyes...

The whole gang!!!

What a blessing this group of loving brothers and sisters were to us!!!!

And any time you want to bring a group and come down to visit...contact us and we will make it happen!!!!

The Children Are Moved In!!!

"UNLESS THE LORD BUILDS THE HOUSE, THEY LABOR IN VAIN WHO BUILD IT..."
Psalm 127:1

Hello everyone,

Please join us in praising the Lord, for the day we have all been praying and working towards has finally arrived!!! We moved the family and the 15 abandoned/orphaned children (20 people in all) into the new orphan facility about two weeks ago. And boy have the children enjoyed every moment since arriving at the orphanage´s new location.

I will have another blog in the near future with a bunch of photos of the children enjoying their new home but for now you I have shared around 50 pics of all they things that we have been doing since Thanksgiving Day 2007.

I have photos of the inside of the building and photos of the property and of the various structures that we are in the process of constructing. By the way...we still have a long way to go before the new facility is complete (probably another two years of building) but the facility is livable and now has 15 little ones running around.

I will start with the photos showing the structure's and property first...

I thought about not showing the main stucture (eating area/kitchen on bottom floor and dormitory on second floor) until the last few pics, but I thought that everyone might want to see what much of your support over the last 2 1/2 years has porduced thus far!!!!!

Oh, and just a reminder as to where we began back in November 2007...we simply had a vision and direction from the Lord as to what we believe He desires for some needy children in south Mexico (we were standing where the main structure now sits)

The first pic below was taken at the south east corner of the property looking back toward the main structure and the second photo was taken from the north west corner looking back toward the main building...as you can see, we have been blessed with soooo many trees that it is hard to see many of the structures.

Taken from the road leading up to the entrance of our property on the left

The entrance to the orphanage. That little wooden building on the right is a guard shack that we built so that the police will have a place to "hang out" when they come by to check on the orphanage (which is what we requested)

Better pics of the building...

Parking lot across from the guard shack

The next thing you see as you make your way up the driveway is a treehouse that we started for the kids (but has been put on hold as we try to finish up more pressing things)\

Looking back down the driveway from the steps of the main structure

The side of the building you see when you drive up (2nd side)...the front of the building faces the only road that goes into and out of Teopisca

Back of the building (3rd side)looking toward the main road that is about 1/3 mile from the property

The other side (4th side) of the main structure

The cabana that will be the office and double as a place for visitors to sleep

Small bathroom which is used mainly by the children as they play outside and also we use this bathroom on Sundays as we now hold church services in the new building

Pics of the soccer field that we made for the children...I know...it needs a little help since they don't play soccer on the beach!

Area we use for cooking out and singing songs around the campfire

Newly planted gardens

Someone donated about 35 adult chickens to the orphanage so we built this good size chicken coop

Recently started the construction on the laundromat that will be used a whole bunch!!!

That blue "tank" is our baptistry. Took this photo from the most southern part of the property looking back at the entire breadth of the property (you can see the baptistry, soccer field, cabana, the small outside bathroom, the laundromat, and the main structure)

And last but not least...this is one of the most important spots on the property!! Just trying to entice anyone that wants a good nap to come on down!!

And now for the indside of the main structure

Downstairs: going around the entire downstairs eating area/kitchen starting at the door on the east side and going around 360 degrees

Moving up the stairs

The upstairs living area at the top of the stairs

These doors lead out to one of the balconies and they slide to the right!!!

View from one of the balconies

Various views from the upstairs living area

Two upstairs bathrooms

The 7 girls sleep in this room

One pic of the master bedroom

And 10 of the boys live in this room...told you that laundromat would come in handy!!!!!

One of the first breakfasts in the new facility...can you spot the little gringo who thinks he is one of the gang?

This pic shows it all...all the love that each and every child has for our little Joshua (and Caleb as well)

Thanks for hanging in there and finishing up the blog...will post more pics of the children soon!!!

But please remember...we have moved in but still have tons more to do on the facility.

Blessings to all,

Lance, Sarita, Joshua and Caleb