Visitation Day

Sundays are visitation days for the children in the children's home. These days can be difficult for a variety of reasons. It is a day when family members can come and visit for a few hours. They are highly monitored and supervised visits. If a child does not receive a visit, it is confirmation that they are forgotten or not important. Sometimes, even when a child receives a visit, there is tention involved as it just isn't normal for families to have to live this way.

Yesterday, a mom came to visit her 3 children. She is not allowed to take the children out of the home because she has not proven that she can protect them. In fact, these children are placed with us because of her history of neglect and abuse with them. I noticed right away when I saw her that she had scratches on her face and looked like she had been in a fight. I took a picture of her face with my phone as evidence. (Really I didn't tell her why I wanted her pic. I just said we were taking family photos that day.) She later confirmed to the kids that her boyfriend had beat her. The kids later told us.

I want all of our kids to grow up and know that men and women don't treat each other like this. I want them to know what real love is most of all. Unfortunately, they don't see it very often from the situations that bring them to live in the children's home.

Rainy Monday....

Today, was a very rainy day. Around noon, a young mom came into the children's home with her 2 young children. They came in with just the clothes on their backs and she told us they had no where to go or stay. The kids were very well behaved. They just sat there and stared. The mom went on to tell us that she had spent 8 years in a government children's home and had only finished junior high. The 2 chilkdren were by 2 different men that she had relationships with but never married. She wanted to know if she could leave her kids with us.

The reality is we are full. We have no way to help them right now. They left after we fed them a hot meal. Where they are tonight, I don't know. Nobody told us this was easy. It's not even pretty. The hard part is that it happens almost every week. These days don't drag us down though. They actually motivate us to do more.

Hope For Tomorrow in Rio 3 - Thanks Lifepoint Vineyard Church!

Lalo

                                                         Wendy

                                                          Kelly

               Home of 31 year old single mom and her 5 children ages 15 yrs. to 2 months

One of the things that we have wanted to do for some time now is offer the teenagers of Rio 3 a real "Hope for tomorrow." We have seen that for teens growing up in poverty, there is not much hope for breaking the cycle of poverty in this country. Many times these teens drop out of school and become parents themselves by the time they are 15.

This past Christmas, Lifepoint Vineyard Church from Monroe, Ohio helped give us that "Hope." They collected a year end offering of more than $9,000 that will be used to help 5 of these teenagers achieve a higher education. Thank you Lifepoint Vineyard Church! The future is going to be different for these teenagers because you cared enough to do something!

God's ways are not our ways!

This is a recent picture of Daniela. If you have been following her story in our blog you know that she woke up paralyzed one morning in late November. She has slowly but steadily been gaining strength over the last several months. I have always felt that God allowed this to happen for a purpose. I can see how God is working in Daniela's life during her recuperation.

I took this picture on a Sunday afternoon. I was walking across the campus of the children's home when someone hollered "Jim! Look!" And there was Daniela standing alone on her feet while leaning against a wall. You can see the huge smile on her face as she knows this was a big accomplishment! The part that I find especially interesting is the lady to the left in the picture. This lady is Daniela's biological mother! She left Daniela over 9 years ago as a 3 year old girl in the children's home. When this paralysis happened to Daniela, one of the first people we contacted was her biological mother. Daniela's relationship with her mom has been a strained one for several years. It is complicated by the guilt that her mom has had over the years. But her mom has come several times a week and has been a big part of the recuperating proccess.

I don't know if you can see it in the photo, but Daniela's mom has a smile as big as her daughter's! She has her hand over her mouth trying to hide it. I could tell her mom was close to crying. God has allowed this orphan girl's mother to be an eyewitness to her daughter's recovery! He has allowed the one who left her in the children's home over 9 years ago to have a front row seat as HE heals Daniela and makes her whole again! God's ways are not our ways! They are so much better! I know He has a purpose in all of this!

Why are they in a children's home?

This is the home of one of our teenage girls at Casa Hogar Douglas. Not the 2 story home on the left nor the white home on the right. Her home is the home that is covered in tarps in the middle. Before she came to the children's home, she lived in this home with her 7 siblings. 2 of them are already parents themselves. Her 15 year old sister has her newborn baby there along with her boyfriend. Their single mom is seldom there and her 3 younger siblings have missed 2 years of school due to neglect. No one is sending them to school! They are part of the 26,000 school age kids in this state that are not enrolled in school that I blogged about a couple of weeks ago.

Ruth - a story of God's faithfulness!

The young lady in the center of the back row in the grey sweatshirt is Ruth. 12 years ago, she was a young girl in Casa Hogar Douglas. A year ago, she had a tumor and feared she might die. She even asked Beth if she could help her to find someone to take care of her 2 young daughters after her death. But thanks to the help of a generous donor, Ruth was able to have an operation to remove her tumor! Her joy and thankfulness for what God has done for her led her to want to serve God with her life!

This past weekend, Ruth came to become our newest caregiver at the same children's home that she grew up in! I took this picture today of some of the girls she is taking care of this week. You could make a Hallmark Film of each of these girls' lives. They all are testimonies of God's Love and Mercy! As I watched them play today, I could tell that the girls love Ruth. And Ruth is loving them.

Witnessing all of this is a true blessing!

26,000

I read a statistic the other day in the local paper. There are an estimated 26,000 kids in our state, ages 4 - 14, that are not going to school! Where are they? In the streets? Abandoned? We call them street orphans. There are more of them in the state of Nuevo Leon, the most modern state in all of Central America, than there are abandoned children in our children's homes! We're not running out of work yet!

It's mind boggling to think about but let's not get bogged down by the numbers. Like the starfish on the sea shore, let's make a difference for the ONE! Jesus didn't entrust us with the results. That is His responsibility. He just said "LOVE THEM!"

That's what we're gonna do!

First 2 Months' Updates

In addition to our new office, the first 2 months have brought alot of changes to our children's home.

1. Daniela, who ended 2012 in a wheelchair has been improving and just last week walked across the room with someone helping her. She can eat by herself and is expected to return to the classroom by April on her way to a complete recovery by summer!

2. We were able to have 3 siblings who had been placed in protective custody with the government, returned to us. All I can say about that is that was a sweet day!

3. A little over a week ago, 3 sisters who have been in the process of being adopted for over 3 years, saw their case finalized. On Monday, they got on a plane for the first time in their lives and flew off with their official mom and dad! That brought tears to our eyes!

4. In a little over 30 days, we received 17 new kids! I can't tell you their stories but I can say almost all of them are hard ones. Kids with incredible pasts but all of them are sweet! I mean "take home in your suitcase" sweet kids! I sometimes ask "why us God?" I don't know the answer, but I know we are going to love them all!

New Office!

Over Christmas break we moved into our new office in the children's home. The last 2 months have been awesome for our administration team. We have almost 4 times the space that we had previously. We have been working to have a professional appearance and this is a big part of that!
We pray that 2013 will bring even more great improvements as we seek to "raise the bar" on how we care for the children God has entrusted to us! Our ideal budget would be almost $20,000 US dollars per month to fulfill the 5 part Child Development Model that we have for the children. That would enable us to meet not only the physical needs but also the emotional, spiritual, educational and social needs of the 68 kids that call our children's home their home. That might sound like alot but it is really less than $300 per month per child. If you have 4 kids in your household, could you take care of them on $1,200 per month?
We want to thank all of you who support us! We plan on having alot of great stories to share with you this year! You are a HUGE part of each of these kids lives!

Update on Daniela

To give everyone an update on Daniela, we are happy to report that she has had a restful week at the children's home as she has been recovering. We have hired a full-time nurse to help take care of her because she still has paralysis in her legs and arms. She is glad to be close to friends and family however and soon we will begin more extensive physical therapy. The doctors have informed us that 100% recovery could take several months so we appreciate your prayers during this time!

We give God all the glory for the things He is doing in the life of Daniela!

Christmas Reflections

This morning (Christmas morning) I was sitting on my porch here in Monterrey and reflecting. It has now been 7 years since I last spent Christmas morning with my family in Cincinnati. Many things have changed since then. Some, like my mom, have passed away and are no longer with us. Others, like my grandchildren, are new to the family and I have yet to spend a Christmas morning with them. I could be filled with sadness as I think about such things. But I am not. Don't get me wrong. I miss my family and I love them dearly! They are a real blessing to me! But God has given me a blessing the last 6 Christmas' that has been a blessing as well!

You see, for each of those years, we have been able to spend Christmas with kids here in Monterrey who have had no one to spend Christmas with. Each year the names and the stories of those who have joined us for Christmas have been different. But each Christmas has been special. This morning, on my porch I was thinking that the world I live in here is a war zone. Not just a place where guns and violence exist, but a place where spiritual battles are fought everyday. As a Christian, I may have to connect with my family via Skype on Christmas day, but I get to wake up in the battlefield in the morning! And the only real place to celebrate God's Victory is in His battlefield.

I want to share with you a friend's Facebook post today, "There could be no peace on Christmas unless the first Christmas was an act of war. The world was invaded by a child who would defeat evil without a sword!" Another friend put it "Jesus left the Shalom of eternity to enter my chaos...and changed my life forever!" If we really want to follow Jesus, don't we really want to be doing the same? We need to be unafraid to leave "peace" to experience "victory!"

It has often been said that it is greater to give than to receive. Most of us would agree with that. I want those of you who are supporting us with your prayers, finances and friendship to experience that joy. You may not be here to share in the victories with us on Christmas morning or many other mornings for that matter. But I want you to know that as crazy as it was for the God of the universe to send his only begotten Son to a war zone, that that same Jesus is bringing peace to the broken lives of forgotten sons today!

We love you all and pray that God will continue to bless each of you and your families as He is ours!
Merry Christmas!

Christmas Blessings!

I wanted to take a moment to share with you some of the blessings we have received in the last 4 months. We have been able to cultivate from local groups some very good donations to help us care for the 60+ kids in the children's home. The result is that this Christmas, our pantries our full. Just take a look at the pictures below.

The picture below shows some of the 200 gallons of milk we receive each month from a local distributor.

We have 2 storage rooms that are 10' square each and have storage shelves from the floor to the ceiling on all 4 walls.

We have cereal, pancake mix, tuna, oil, beans, rice, pasta, canned vegetables, salt, sugar and more!

And finally, we have 3 chest freezers FULL with beef, chicken and fish!

Praying for Daniela

We have a specific prayer request this Christmas. Daniela is a 13 year old 7th grader in our children's home. Last wednesday she woke up and could not walk. By the afternoon, her arms were feeling weak and we took her to the emergency room. She was diagnosed with a rare syndrome that they believe was triggered by her auto immune system that was fighting an infection. Within hours she was almost completely paralyzed and suffering quite a bit of pain.

Today, a week later, she is beginning to show signs of improvement. Last night she was just a little uncomfortable but for the most part resting pain free! We want to thank you all that have been praying and ask you to continue to pray that God would continue to move in her life. Daniela has lived at Casa Hogar Douglas since she was 3 years old. She may have anywhere from 1 - 3 more weeks in the hospital but we are expecting a full and complete recovery. We also expect God to use this to touch Daniela's heart and reveal to her how much He loves her! Please pray that those of us that love her and care for her can guide her in allowing God to speak to her through this.

More and more God is showing me that it is NOT us or Back2Back that is working in the lives of the kids we serve. God and only God can bring change to broken hearts. All that any of us can do is be faithful. Faithful in loving others as Christ loved them first by laying down His life for them. Never once have I read in scripture where I was called to "change" someone's heart. But over and over I feel called to love as Christ first loved us, and through that GOD can turn hearts toward Him. I truely believe God will use this to lead not only Daniela but possibly others closer to Him. And that is ALL He wants!

A Landmark is Destroyed

I mentioned about spiritual warfare in my post about Holloween. To state things correctly, ALL of the work that we are involved in at the children's home is spiritual! Sometimes it might appear that we are working with discipline or finances or education or food. The truth is that we are really battling Satan in all of these areas for the very souls of these children!

For a number of years now, we have sensed that there was a building on the children's home campus that was associated with something evil. I have heard numerous testimonies from adults who were former children interned in the children's home that this building in particular was a reminder of sadness and abuse. I have also had groups in the past 3 years who have prayed over our campus and more than one has said they sensed something evil associated with it. This building was a 14'x14' three story water tower. It's origin dates back over 50 years when the property was a rural quinta. Our campus library is less than 4' from this mammoth concrete structure which made demolition very difficult.

This week though, we hired a group of guys to tear this building down and remove all the rubble. To be honest, it feels like a great victory! I have numerous times stood on the highest point in the valley where we are located, next to our chapel, and prayed over our campus. I always ask God to fill every square inch of our property and to send away anything that is not of Him. I believe that would include spirits, people or even buildings! This week I believe God answered this prayer by removing a symbol of something evil! I can not explain everything, but I feel we are cleaner in more ways than one with this building destroyed!

Kids with identity

This is Lilliana and Rubi. They play in their school's band. We are very proud of them! I want to thank all of you who support us in any way because your support enables us to make this possible for these two girls.

7 Schools for 61 Kids

One of the things that we have been working on this year is to develop an identity for each of the kids in the children's home. I hope to give you more updates in the near future of specific cases where kids have the opportunity to be individuals. We have kids playing on soccer teams, participating in the band at school, developing a love for reading novels, learning dance, cooking and art. We are constantly looking for ways to give them more of their own identity.

Three years ago, all of our kids were enrolled in 2 schools. One school for elementary and one jr. high. If the child was having trouble in their school we had few options to help them. In addition, we learned that it was not really healthy to have so many kids from a children's home enrolled in the same public school. When the teacher had a problem in her class, it was very likely that "one of those children's home kids was to blame!" That was not the identity we were looking for them to have! So we did something about it. Today, we have our kids spread out over 7 schools. Some students attend a special education school that is designed to help them catch up to the grade level they should be at. Some go to schools where no one knows they live in a children's home. Yesterday, one of our oldest boys played guitar in church for the first time ever. Many are beginning to participate in extra carricular activities and we believe they are beginning to know who they are in Christ.

Much of this is made possible because many of you are supporting what we do. Our budget for gasolene is $50 per day. During the week we have vans moving kids almost all day long. But we believe it is worth it. Thank you for your support!

Milk Donation!

We recently worked out a monthly donation from a local milk distributor here in Monterrey. They agreed to donate 200 gallons of milk each month to the children's home. We give them a tax deductible receipt for their donation. Normally, we have been purchasing about 1/2 this amount each month at an expense of about $300 U S dollars. This donation not only saves us that money but it makes it possible for the kids to drink twice the amount of milk each day. If we use the money we were spending on milk to buy fruit, the kids could all have smoothies as a bed-time snack!

A New Day in the Children's Home

I wanted to show you a new staff photo for the children's home Casa Hogar Douglas. One of the real blessings this year is that we have 5 staff that are Back2Back staff that raise their own support! We are working to raise the level of care that we offer for the children. At Back2Back, we have developed a 5 part Child Development Model that we use to define our work with these kids. It not only addresses physical development but emotional, social, spiritual and educational development as well. We have big  hopes for the coming year and we ask that you keep this staff team in your prayers as we minister to the  61 kids that call Casa Hogar Douglas home.

Holloween

Years ago, I didn't see much harm in Holloween. It seemed like harmless fun. I don't want to be critical of anyone who celebrates trick or treating with kids. But I have also come to realize in my 6 years of living here in Mexico that the spiritual world is very real. Most of the work that we do here in the children's home is not so much physical but spiritual. Satan has had his way with families here for generations. The result is thousands of kids that are abused and abandoned. There are real live witches that live within walking distance of our children's home. Some of them have been so bold as to ask for our children or they will put a spell on us!
This year, in the children's home, we are spending Oct 30 & 31 in the evenings praising God in worship.

Medical Outreach in Rio 3

We recently hosted a medical outreach team at Rio 3. They were able to serve this very poor community from the inside of the church that we have been constructing for 4 years now. The building is a huge blessing to the church as they serve this community in practical ways. This medical team was an added blessing because they not only provided medical treatment but also brought groceries to stock Olga's soup kitchen pantry.