What's going on at Dulce Refugio
I know that many people have passed through this orphanage and left their mark at Dulce Refugio. I want to keep all of you informed about what is going on with the kids and the construction process. Please remember to keep us in your thoughts and prayers; I hope you continue to help us out here at Casa Hogar Dulce Refugio. Gracias amigos!
A new year has begun and we're off to a great start. In January, we made many advancements in the construction and our girls in the transition home are choosing to seek a deeper relationship with God, no matter the "cost."
We celebrated Ariana's 18th birthday. Her actual birthday is December 26th but because I was out of town and people had stuff going on for the holidays we celebrated a lil late. She invited some of her friends to "Jump Jump," a place with trampolines everywhere and afterwards we went out for tacos. It was a really fun day.
The church had a youth camp and both of our girls decided to go. It cost $300 pesos each (about $15 US), which isn't cheap for them, so they saved up their money to be able to buy tickets. I wanted to see if their hearts were really in it so I waited to see if they would spend their own money to go. After seeing them sacrifice their savings, I reimbursed them the costs. It was a spiritual test and they passed. I'm proud of them and was happy that they had a great time.
In the construction...
We prepared the water cistern at our church site. We are going to have a water storage tank under the floor because in the town where we are building, the water gets shut off frequently. We installed the plumbing and the wooden forms so we can now pour the concrete floor over it. At one point in the process, we dropped some material into the hole. We had to grab one of the girls who attends the feeding program at the church and lower her down to grab it because it was a tight space and none of us would've fit. Luckily we got it all back.
We finished pouring the last 2 sections of the floor and the driveway/ramp. This completes the floor and now it's time to raise up the walls!
I ordered and paid for all of the blocks for our church project. They brought the 1st of 2 shipments so we can now start raising up the walls. A guy in the church gets a special contractor rate, so he went with me to order the blocks and we got a pretty good discount. Praise God!
At the orphanage...
We said goodbye to Coco. Coco was one of our older girls and is the sister of Elvira, one of the girls in our transition home. There were some disciplinary issues so they transferred her to a rehabilitation center where her other sister is currently living. It will be good that she is with family there. I wish her well.
We welcomed 4 new kids this month:
Lizet, Abril & Daniela are sisters and all sweethearts. Lizet, the youngest, loves to be picked up and won't take no for an answer. I joke with Abril, the middle sister, because her name means "April." I was calling her "Enero (January)" all month and told her next month she would be called "Febrero (February)." And Daniela, the oldest, is very smart. She is in my English class and learns things very quickly. She's already one of the best students. Welcome to Dulce Refugio girls!
Fernando is now our oldest boy. He came at the very end of the month but I can already tell he is a kind young man. He is very smart and and fitting in nicely.
And to end on a personal note, I want to give a quick testimony of how good God is. As we were pouring the last section of the floor, I had to smooth it out with an "avion" (airplane). The avion is a tool used for giving concrete a nice finish and it has a very long handle...about 20 feet (there is a picture of it in the segment above). As I lifted it up to clean the bottom of the part that smooths the concrete, the handle touched the high voltage power lines above. I felt that I had bumped something and as I looked up there were sparks shooting out everywhere. I immediately dropped the tool on the floor and my heart was racing. Many people have told me to be careful of those power lines because they can kill you. Well the electricity burned holes in the avion handle but I made it out ok...not even the slightest shock! I was very thankful because at that moment I was gripping the metal handle with both hands and the electricity can cause your muscles to freeze and not be able to let go of what you are holding. None of that happened to me and I know that it was God's protection!
AND it was interesting because just before I went to smooth out the concrete, my friend from church who was volunteering that day was talking about a movie that he had seen about some missionaries that went to India and many things happened to them while they were there but God protected them every step of the way. Not even 2 minutes later God was present protecting His missionary in Aguascalientes, Mexico. Thank you LORD!!
"The Lord will keep you from all harm-
he will watch over your life"
-Psalm 121:7
