What a busy and rewarding third quarter we had here at Promise Home Honduras. Our director, Joana Castro Flores, gave birth to a little girl, and we all celebrated with her and Armin. We want our supporters to know our wonderful staff and will be telling their personal stories in the future. Today I am including Joana’s story in her own words.
“My name is Joana Castro Flores. I am a Christian, and I attend the Central American Evangelical Church in El Progresso. I graduated from college as an Industrial Engineer. For 13 years, I worked with 3 to 18 year old children of low economic resources and social risk in CDI El Camino, a ministry our church had in partnership with Compassion International. I worked as an accountant, programs coordinator and finally as the project director. At the end of my studies at the University, I also worked in a factory for 1 year 7 months and afterwards as a high school teacher in a technical school.
In September 2017, Bill Hayden and Kirk Andrews invited the leaders of our church to support him in strengthening the after-school program of the Promise Home Organization. At that time my husband and I supported as volunteers in the survey and support in program processes. In October, 2017, Bill asked the church pastor for support with finding an Administrative Director for the Home. At that time God called me and my husband Armin Sibrián to join this ministry. We prayed for a month before giving an answer to the proposal. At that time I was supporting as a volunteer, I knew the internal processes and I loved working with the babies. I found many reasons to join this beautiful ministry. God led me to see the need to give and receive love and attention from babies, I was challenged to make arrangements for the early stimulation of children and to implement some changes. Bill and his team have been supporting the projects and, thank God, several achievements in children’s development have been achieved. We continue in the learning process. Each stage of babies is a new opportunity to make changes and seek their welfare. I am convinced that God prepares the chosen.”
We are so very blessed that God sent Joana and her precious family to us to manage the daily operations of Promise Home. Please pray for Joana and Armin and their two children, Jeremy and Grace.
Our first team this quarter was from Branson, Missouri, led by Seth Koscheski. This team completed work on our hen house by enclosing the entire area so our chickens are protected from the varmints that would harm them. We are all ready for chickens!!!!
Seth’s team also spent some time completing the painting of the newest casita. All the walls are now finished and ready for shelving in anticipation of children in the future. Currently this portion of the casita can serve as housing for small visiting teams who come to work for us. It is in the works for Seth to bring an additional team down next spring or summer. We certainly appreciate them and their hard work.
Our second visiting team was from Carrolton, Texas and was led by Cecilie Anders. These ladies and their older children spent time teaching and training our tías concerning nutrition needs of the children and methods available to stimulate our children’s brains. They taught the tías games and activities to develop the minds and the motor skills of our children. They also had planned to take the children to the beach, but due to protests of Honduran people, we were unable to make that trip. However, they made up for it with a “water park” day for the children, proving that kids everywhere are alike.
Even Bill got in on the splash day fun.
This team also spent some time at an El Progresso church teaching the community mothers about the importance of nutrition for brain development in young children. The team made a variety of snacks from vegetables. Most of the women did not want to even try the snacks but were really quite surprised at how good they tasted. The team also provided the mothers with the healthy snack recipes.
Cecilie’s team:
This month we had two teams here doing a variety of projects. The first team was from Agape Love Global Ministries from Illinois and was led by Jim Murphy. This team had a four day dental ministry for the children in our area and for our children as well. This is a great ministry because no one in our village can afford to go to the dentist. In order to put the children at ease with their dental work, the team did some face painting for them.
This team also brought down educational materials to use with the children. Jennifer was able to spend her time training the tías and teaching our children. The education and development of our children are of upmost importance.
On Sunday, the Agape Love team handed out over two hundred pounds of beans and two hundred pounds of rice to the members of our little church. On another day, they were able to bless more families with beans and rice and lots of prayers with our villagers. Some of the men were able to build a lean-to for the fish business.
Our second team in October was from the Heights Church in Richardson, Texas, led by Kevin Sievert. The Heights team came loaded with extra boxes and suitcases filled with clothes and a large selection of educational materials for our children. We are always so thankful for teams that work together in the States to coordinate delivery of supplies and materials for the children. One team in Texas had sewed clothes and gathered materials that the Heights team could then bring down. This assures that the collected supplies are delivered to us safely and completely.
The Heights team also worked for three days to wrap our hatchery in plastic to prepare it for the cooler months ahead. This was especially difficult since it rained all day for two of those three days. A couple of their guys were even able to repair our backhoe and complete the lean-to that the Agape Love team had started.
Both October teams were able to install two pilas in the homes of our villagers. This is such a blessing to these families to insure that they have clean water to use in cooking and cleaning their homes.
Things are always busy here at Promise Home Honduras. We are so grateful for the teams who visit us and contribute their time and talents to our ministry. But there is also a ministry for those who cannot make the physical trip to Honduras. We have monthly expenses in caring for and feeding the children and staff here. We are especially thankful for those of you who contribute financially to our ministry. Please prayerfully consider Promise Home Honduras and your financial gift as you participate in the work of Jesus and His saving grace.
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