Give Hope 2 Kids Blog

Our "Families"

We wanted to let you see the kids in our Children's Home in their "family" context.  

Our first house parents are Will & Sinndya.  They have two kids of their own, José (7) and Dana (1), and then five more kids that have been with them since January.  There's a sibling group of three -- Carolina (9), Javier (7), and Fernando (4) -- and two more 4-year-olds, Carlitos and Lilian.  This group of kids abound in energy and enthusiasm!  After being together for 4 months, we feel we're really see positive long-term growth in the kids and that they are bonding well as a family unit.

 

 

(top) Dana, Will, Sinndya, Carolina;  (bottom) Fernando, Javier, Lilian,  José, Carlitos

Our other house parents, Oscar & Belkis, have been working with us for about 9 months now, but just recently came to live here as house parents.  They have three, very helpful daughters of their own, Irlen, Tanya, and Pamela and then the five newest kids.  These kids are all related to each other and all came from the same foster home before being placed with us.  We have two sibling groups here: Eugenio (9) and José Antonio (3) are one, and Jared (5) and Juvana (3) are the other.  The last little guy is Junior (5).  We're really enjoying getting to know this group of kids.

(top) Oscar, Irlen, Tanya, Belkis;  (middle) Eugenio, Pamela, Jared; 

(bottom) Junior, José Antonio, Juvana

New Kids Have Arrived!!

We wanted to let everyone meet the five new kids that have moved in to the Give Hope 2 Kids Children's Home.  We are so excited that they're finally here and feel blessed that we can provide them with a good home.

First of all, let us introduce you to the new family on our staff.  Over the past few years we've gotten to know this family from our village of Urraco.  We met the girls through our Library Program and English classes, then met their Mom, Belkis, through church activities, and finally their Dad, Oscar, when he joined our construction team.  We've been very impressed with their whole family and are so excited to have them working in our Children's Home.  They already feel like family.

On Tuesday we brought up five new kids to live in their home.  These kids are transitioning here really well, probably because they're all either siblings and/or cousins to each other, and because they all came from the same foster home.  Still though, please pray for their adjustment, as this type of change is never easy on a kid.

This group of kids is  such a contrast to our last bunch that came.  The previous group is all made up of kids bursting with energy and vivid personalities.  This group is much quieter.  The older ones are really into their studies and we can barely get the younger ones to talk!  It's fun to be widening our group and the personalities that make it up.  

Please consider sponsoring one of these kids.  Our sponsorship program starts at $35/month and will help provide these kids with a good education, a great home, and a loving family.   Right now only 2 of our 10 kids are fully sponsored, so we need your help!  For more details, please click to visit our sponsorship page. 

Fun Times with the Kids

As the kids in our Children's Home have adjusted to our place, we've tried to teach them to expect a balance of work and play in life.   Along with their schoolwork, they're learning to help with chores around our property, from picking cocoa, to feeding the pigs, to collecting eggs.  Since they're kids though, life is mostly play now.

For fun things around home, the kids get to go swimming in the creek, watch a movie, or walk up to the village for a pepsi.  Occasionally though, we like to send them out for a bigger adventure.  

A couple of weeks ago most of the Give Hope 2 Kids crew took the kids on a jungle hike to visit the place where David, our property manager, grew up.  Everyone had a great day of swimming in the mountain streams and having a picnic.  Maybe the biggest adventure of the day though was when one of the kids spotted an iguana, which the men chased, caught, cooked, and everyone ate!  

We're now starting the hottest, driest time of the year in our part of Honduras.  This is "summer" here and the favorite time to head to the beach or the rivers.  So, to celebrate our Semana Santa (Holy Week) Honduras-style, we took the kids to the beach.  

Our first house parents are from a beach town and they wanted to introduce the kids to their family and neighborhood and treat them to a fun day in a new place.  People where we live rarely get to the city, let alone to the ocean, even though it's only 25 miles away.   For some in our group, it was their first trip to the ocean!

Once we hit the beach, the kids couldn’t get in the water fast enough.  They loved the waves and the salty water, but their favorite part was making new friends in the tidal pool.

While we enjoyed the fun the kids had, these trips have been great for unifying our group.  We're creating a big-family culture at our place and we're loving it.  

Plus, there's one more thing that excites us about these trips:  We've invited a particular family from our village to go along on these adventures and become a part of our "family."  They've spent a lot of time helping our current house parents and doing other projects for the ministry.   And now, just last week, they agreed to be our second set of house parents.  With their family, we will be able to open a 2nd house for kids in the near future!

Using Education to Broaden Horizons

School has been back in session in Honduras for about a month now.  This makes life quite a bit busier around here.  It's been fun watching our new kids head off to the village school in their little uniforms.  So far, they've done really well with their schoolwork and have made a bunch of new friends from the community. 

We're proud to say that we have our English classes up and running again this school year.  These classes will give a good head start for the kids who go on to high school.  Monica and Erin are our English teachers for the 3rd-6th graders at the school.  The teachers are enjoying the extra time with the kids in the community and the kids love practicing their English, so everybody is having a good time.   

Since school started for the older kids, we've started preschool for the three 4-year-olds living with us.  Twice a week Lilian, Carlitos, and Fernando all head up to the Library with their backpacks and notebooks to practice shapes, counting, and coloring.  We spend time playing outside and reading books.  This has proved to be an great way to get them excited about learning and prepared for school.

In January we started new classes as a part of our Library Program.  The most faithful Library attendees had the choice of computer classes or music lessons for our first round of these classes.  It's been so fun to see the kids get excited about this.  Most have never had the opportunity to learn an instrument before and they see the computer classes as a way to have a head start when they get to computers in high school.  One of the things we're really enjoying about these new classes, is that the teachers are local young people.  So not only are we furthering the education of our village kids, but we're also giving work to young people from our area.  

Now that we've finished the addition on the Library and reorganized everything, we've discovered a mountain of great resources to use with the kids.  Previously we had so many kids and supplies squished into such a small space, it was hard to get creative.  We're really enjoying having more room now and we know it's helping us improve our Library Program. 

It's been a great few months of launching new educational programs.  We see that this is such a great way to broaden the horizons of the kids in our area and we're excited to see where a love of learning will take them in life.

Five New Kids in the Children's Home!

We are excited to announce that we have five new kids living with us.  

On January 5th we brought in a sibling group of three -- Carolina: 9, Javier: 7, & Fernando: 4 -- along with two more 4-year-olds, Carlos and Lilian.  

This bunch of kids is so full of personality and energy that they're hard to keep up with!  We're so thankful that we have the Activity Center and Playground so the kids have a place to burn off their energy.  The kids are thriving on our property, with so much room to run around on and so much to do, like learning how to take care of the chickens.  

All of these kids desperately need sponsors.  With all the extra mouths to feed we're really feeling the strain on our budget.  Please consider sponsoring one of our children.  For only $35/month you can help sponsor and care for one of these kids.  For more information click here.

Our Graduates

November is graduation month for schools in Honduras and we've been partying with lots of graduating students.

First we celebrated with Ruby and Ronald at Instituto El Rey's graduation.  These two were part of a class of twenty-one students that graduated with a Bachillerato (a degree that lets them go on to university) and a technical degree in computers.  These were the first students Jason taught as 7th graders back in 2006.  

We are so proud of this whole class, but especially of these two that have lived at our place for the last couple years.  We know how hard they've worked.  Both Ruby and Ronald have overcome a lot to be were they are today and they're the first ever in their families to graduate from high school.  They also both received a special award for their proficiency in the English language.  

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We were also invited to celebrate with the graduating 6th grade class at our elementary school in Urraco. They asked Jason to be the padrino (sponsor/guest of honor) for the graduating class.  This was to honor Give Hope 2 Kids and what we've offered the kids of the community through English classes and Lee's Library.

One of Ruby's younger sisters, Jenny, graduated with this class.  Here's a picture of Jason presenting her with an award for academic excellence.  We are excited that she and her next older sister, Areli, will be entering Instituto El Rey as 7th graders in February.

Celebrating Five Years of Ministry

We are celebrating five years of ministry!  God has blessed us with a very productive season and we are thrilled as we look back and see how far we've come in our quest to care for children who desperately need help.  

To celebrate these years we put together a memory book summarizing the time.  These pictures show how we prepared to, and now are caring for abadoned children, and how we've reached out to our community.  Click on this link, choose to make it full-screen from the bottom right hand corner, and enjoy watching a ministry be born!

http://www.blurb.com/books/2356454

Please feel free to share your comments with us

and share the link on your facebook page!

 

The Kids Settle In

We wanted to show you all a few photos of the kids as they're settling in.  

Thanks to the West Area Quilters in MN, we gave each of the kids a little handmade quilt of their own.  

We've introduced them to the playground and the Library Program, which they're really enjoying.

We've also taken them down to the Jungle Hospital for a check-up.  

Everybody is settling in and we're getting to know each other better.  It's been an exciting week!

Meet Our Kids!

On Thursday we picked up the first four kids from Social Services in La Ceiba.  We got to know eachother a little bit by taking them out to lunch and to a place to play.  Then we drove them up to our place and introduced them to their new family -- our house-parents and their two kids.  So far it's been going really well and the kids are settling into their new life.

We think the kids will do really well with their home out in the country.  They loved the ride up the mountain and seeing all the farm animals along the road.  Our road follows the river most of the way and one of the little girls was so excited to announce "another river!" every couple of minutes.  Up at our place the kids are thrilled with the playground, especially the swings, and are looking forward to swimming in our creek.

This is what we've been working towards for so many years!  We've finally transitioned over from the "orphanage without kids."  It's so exciting.  

Thanks to everyone who has prayed and given to help us get here.  We appreciate each and every one of you.

If you're interested in sponsoring a child please click here for more information.

Note: Since this post was written two of these kids were adopted and two were claimed by their grandmother.  While we were not anticipating their quick departure, we were able to give them excellent care for the time there were with us.  We treated them for parasites and malnourishment and they left us with a healthy glow.

Ruby: Our Newest Team Member

If you've followed our ministry for long you'll remember hearing about Ruby and her five sisters.  They're a family of girls that we've been helping for the past four years.  Here's a picture of us, the Furrows, with five of the sisters, and their uncle (yes, their uncle), when we first got to know them.

Well, we're thrilled to announce that Ruby is now a part of our staff.  She's been working with our Library Program after school for awhile and now she will be doing that and helping in the Children's Home.  Since her five sisters are now under her guardianship, they are all living up on our property now with Ruby.  This is the culmination of what we've hoped and prayed for for a long time.  We are excited to have them all so close to us where we can invest more in their lives.