In mid March, Brenda and Jennifer, founders of Hope For Tomorrow Children’s Home, were here in Guatemala visiting.  For Brenda, who hadn’t been here for almost a year, it was especially wonderful because she was able to meet for the first time so many of our new children.  Here are some pictures from there trip.  Enjoy!

Remember, once you click on an image and it enlarges, you can navigate to the next image by clicking on the right side of the image (a “NEXT” button appears) or return to the previous picture by clicking the left side of the image (a “PREV” button appears). When you are done, click the “CLOSE” button or click outside of the picture. 

We are always looking for unique ways for people to support our ministry and with the help of a few friends (Susie, Christy, and Mary Louise), we have come up with the best yet: our Online Gift Catalog.  If you are looking for a unique way to give a gift to a friend or loved one, look no further than our gift catalog.  Our gift catalog has multiple gifts at different prices that all benefit the children of Hope For Tomorrow.  It’s a perfect way to give a gift that will not only bring a genuine smile to the recipient’s face but also impacts the lives of orphaned children in Guatemala.  Not to mention it saves you the time and trouble of searching for something he or she probably already has.  It’s a win win!

After choosing your gift, you also have the option of personalizing a card that explains the impact their gift has on our ministry.  It’s easy to email or print and is the perfect complement to the gift you have given.

To see our gift catalog, just click here or go to www.hope4tomorrow.net/gifts/

Of course, you can always continue to make an online donation or sponsor a child.  Our online gift catalog is just one more way  for you to support our children.

One final idea is to combine a Hope Birthday with our Online Gift Catalog.   The next time you have a birthday or anniversary party, instead of requesting gifts, point people to our online gift catalog and have them purchase their gifts for you there.  A Hope Birthday and our Online Gift Catalog is a match made in heaven!

After driving more than 3000 miles over two weeks, I am back, and what an incredible trip. Over the entirety of my travels I saw the Lord answering the prayer requests I had asked people to be lifting up. I had wonderful travels to and from the States and even as I drove from State to State, I saw God’d protection. Each visit with the churches and small groups that had been lined up went off wonderfully and it was a pleasure to share with them about our ministry and children. Honestly, things couldn’t have gone better. And despite the long trip, the late nights and early mornings, and being away from my beautiful wife for an extended time, I returned from the US refreshed and rested. Thank you all for your prayers and support during this trip. Thank you for helping to set up the numerous meetings and speaking engagements. Thank you to all the host families that allowed me to stay the night in their homes. Finally, thank you to all the churches that gave me time to share about our ministry. God bless you all!

See a recap of my travels, photos, and even an interactive map.

Most people don’t look very forward to their 50^th birthday. I was certainly one of those people. However, my 50^th birthday turned out to be a red letter day for me. Co-Founder of Hope for Tomorrow, Brenda Riddle worked with my family and friends to throw me a surprise party that I will long remember. Around 50 of my family, friends, and co-workers surprised me at the Alumni House at the University of Kentucky on April 28^th. We had wonderful hors devours, birthday cake, and a special slide show developed by my “longest” friend, Rita Rector. The biggest surprise of the evening was a special performance by my second family; the children of Hope for Tomorrow. They sang “Happy Birthday” to me in both Spanish and English. The children prepared a choreographed dance for me and each child introduced him or herself to my friends in Lexington. I felt so blessed to share this important day with my entire family. In honor of the occasion, Brenda asked that attendees make a donation to Hope for Tomorrow in lieu of birthday gifts. I am excited to report that my HOPE Birthday party raised nearly $2,000 for the children’s home.

This was not the first HOPE Birthday party in my family. When our son Kendall turned 11, he decided to forego gifts and asks friends to make a donation in his honor to Hope for Tomorrow. With the help of party-planner and steering committee member Diane Haynes, we had a carnival at my sister’s farm and invited his entire 5^th grade class. The children played “roulette”, corn hole, and other carnival games. In return for their success at the games, children earned tickets that they could “cash in” at the store we set up. There they could “buy” candy, toys, and trinkets with their tickets. At Kendall’s party, $400 was raised.

If you are looking for a creative way to celebrate someone’s special birthday, consider a Hope Birthday Party. It is a wonderful way to honor someone’s commitment to children in a way they will never forget. Please contact any of us on the steering committee if you need ideas!

Jennifer's 50th Birthday Invitation

Kendall's HOPE Birthday Party

This past Saturday, Kristina, a college student from UK, came to Guatemala to start a month long journey with us at Hope For Tomorrow Children’s Home.  After a trip here in 2008 with her church, she felt called to come back and serve over a longer period of time.  In just the few days she has been here she has already been an important part of the team.  With the addition of 5 new children in less than past 2 months, having her extra hands and presence has made caring and loving on the children easier for us all.  We are so thankful to have Kristina with us and look forward to seeing how the Lord uses her among our children.

In the meantime, I have asked Kristina to share a little about her story and what she expects over the next month:

For the past three years, I been praying about returning to the Children’s Home in Guatemala.  I went with a team in 2008 and have wanted to return ever since.  I have been waiting for the right time and have been praying about the children and my return.  I fell in love with the children and learned so much from them.  The experience really impacted the decisions I have made since, for example, my decision in wanting a career in teaching and missions.  I knew that those were my passions prior to the trip but the experiences in Guatemala helped me to find the path I wanted to take to merge these two passions together.

The memories from my previous trip combined with the impact the children had on my life, made me want to return.  I strongly believe in what the organization is doing for the children that are under their care.  The workers there truly excel when it comes to caring for the children, and all of this, along with some anxieties, were on my mind, as I traveled to the airport.

I did not know what to expect upon my return.  I knew that many of the children were still there from my previous visit, and I was really looking forward to seeing them again.  I knew, however that this time it was not going to be as simple.  The last time I came to the Children’s Home, I came with a group and the trip was only for one week.  This time I would be traveling alone, and staying for one month.  I would also be staying there 24/7, spending all my time with the children.

I hope to gain a lot from this experience.  I feel that there is so much I can do during my stay.  I would like to think that the children will gain a lot by my spending time with them.  This is at least my goal.  However, I will probably gain more than they will.  I feel like I learned so much about myself the first time I went.  I will never be the same after my first experience with the children.  They will forever be a part of my past and future.  They have inspired me to do so many things and I want so much to be able to give to them as well.

I will be staying at the orphanage for the month that I am there helping with the children in their daily routine.  I am honored to accompany the women that work at the Children’s Home in their daily activities.  The children have the upmost respect for them and they are all amazing women.  I believe strongly in this organization, and am proud to be a small part of it for a while.  I know that each one of the employees are working to enrich the lives of the children, and during my stay here, I will too.

Kristina

It has been a few months in the making, but our new website is finally done. It’s not that our old website was bad, but we were looking for something a little fresher, more user friendly, and a way to more clearly communicate who we are and what we are doing. We think it turned out pretty nice. Besides a new overall look and feel, there are a lot of interesting aspects that we want to draw your attention to.

1. Featured Information on the Home Page – When you visit our home page, the first area you’ll see is our featured information section.  Through big visual images we can highlight various important aspects of our ministry.  As of today, those areas are: Get Involved, Sponsor, Volunteer, Missions, and Donate.  However, as special events,  fundraisers, prayer requests, immediate needs, and other important items come up, we’ll be able to feature them prominently on our website.
2. A Newly Designed Children Area – Our ministry is about children and we want to make it easy to learn about each one of them.  When you got to “The Children” you’ll see our children nicely laid out with some brief information on each one of them.  From here it’s easy to learn more about them, their individual stories, and see pictures.  Also on this main page, you’ll notice that when a child has a birthday in the current month, a “birthday ribbon” will pop up and highlight his or her birthday (you’ll have to wait until August when Edwin has his birthday to see this in action.)
3. Write to the Children – As you learn more about each child, you’ll see there is a “Write Me” button.  Click the button and you’ll be able to send that child a message.  It’s a fast and fun way to communicate with our children!
4. Get Involved – Now it’s even easier to see the ways you can get involved with Hope For Tomorrow.  By going to the Get Involved area of our website, you’ll see the main ways you can participate with information about each one.
5. Volunteer – We’re very excited to announce that we are actively accepting applications for volunteers that want to come down and serve with us.  It could be for a month or a year (or anything in between of course) and all the information about how to do it is on the website.  You can also download our Volunteer Application Form and fill it out on your computer.
6. Photos – We’ve redesigned the photos page so that it is always up to date with our latest Flickr photos.  But we’ve also included a section called Children’s Albums where you can see all the photos where a specific child appears!  Very cool!  And as always, you can click on a photo to see it bigger and then from there flip through the other pictures in the albums.

So those are a few of the improvements we’ve made to the website that we wanted to highlight.  Of course there is a lot more, especially a lot going on in the background, but that’s all geeky technical stuff that we won’t bore you with.

As with all new designs, there may be kinks we still have to work out.  If you find a broken link, or something doesn’t look quite right, please email me to let me know.  We want to make sure our website is the best experience for everyone.

We hope you enjoy our new website.  Please share it with others and leave a comment below to let us know your thoughts.

The 3rd annual Southern Illinois fundraiser for special donors to Hope for Tomorrow was held June 18 at the home of Marty and Deb McMorrow hosted by board member Lori Kubes and Deb.  Music by Blue Afternoon entertained the guests.  Each year in attendance we have several families who had adopted children from Guatemala or other countries and understand the need to support children in orphanages.  Deb was able to share photos and stories from her visit to Hope for Tomorrow in February with founders Brenda Riddle and Jennifer Grisham Brown.  ”In order to support the remarkable commitment of these two women and the beautiful bright children served by Hope for Tomorrow, we need to continue our fundraising efforts. Having some hand in helping to preserve a child’s future is a priceless gift,” said Deb.  Guests at the fundraiser were impressed by the great staff, home environment and the “family” ties that each child has with one another.  This was especially timely to be able to talk about now the 2 new children welcomed into the family.

Another fundraiser is in the planning for the fall in Southern Illinois to be held at one of the many local wineries.

We were having so much fun we forgot to take the picture until the very end when we were cleaning up

Deb McMorrow, fundraiser organizer, with Carlos during her February trip to Hope For Tomorrow