Once again this year we had the privilege of having the youth ministry from Asbury United Methodist Church in Tulsa, OK serve at our children’s home.  This is the 4th year they have been here.  In previous years they put on a new roof over our patio, did an incredible mural, and repainted the entire home.   This year, we had some different projects lined up for them.

Storage Shed

First up was a new storage shed that we needed to be build on the second floor to hold our our tools, paint, and other maintenance items.  Our good friend Joe Brauer put together a wonderful design and in a few short days, put together the perfect storage shed, complete with a light, outlet, shelving, and hooks for everything you can imagine.

Joe with the completed tool shed

Laundry Room Shelves

We also had to tackle the installation of new shelving in our laundry room.  Some of the shelving was a cinch to put up since we were going through metal prefabricated walls.  But others were incredibly hard as we had to drill through what seemed to be drill-proof concrete.  It took two batteries, three concrete bits, and a lot of sweat and muscle to get those things in there.  Thankfully, man prevailed this time and the new shelves look incredible and will be very helpful to our staff.

Bunk Bed

The third project was the construction of a new bunk bed for the girls room.  The idea of the bunk beds have always been to give the kids more space in their rooms and not necessarily being able to take in more children.  But with the addition of Pamela and Joshua (who came while the team was here), a bunk bed became necessary.

One of the groups of students that help build the bunk bed

With a great group of guys and girls, we worked for the entire week on building this bed out of raw lumber.  No IKEA stuff here.  We found a beautiful design online, modified it to make it stronger, and then the team worked hard to bring it to life.  After 4 days of cutting, sanding, painting, sanding, painting, and some more sanding and painting, the bed was done and turned out beautifully.  I had always thought this would be a fun “weekend” project to do by myself, but after this week, I see it would have been virtually impossible to do this without their help.

The finished bunk bed

Extreme Room Makeover

The final but most important and involved project we had was the Extreme Home Makeovers we wanted to do in the children’s rooms.  Of course we wanted to do themes so a few monts back we had decided upon a girly theme for the girls room, a forest theme for the younger boys, a space theme for the older boys, and a sophisticated sports theme for Miguel’s room.  We gave the group complete creative freedom and what they came up with is simply breathtaking.

However these makeovers are about so much more than just a pretty room.  We had some very specific goals in mind with the design:

Individuality: In so many orphanages children become lost in the crowd.  ”Who am I?”  They have shared clothing and shared toys and really don’t have the opportunity to discover who they are.  But we know that each and every child is an incredibly unique creation, a masterpiece designed by God himself.  It’s great to share things, but having objects and spaces that are your own is also important.  We wanted to recreate this in the design with personalized spaces, and individual bookshelves and nightstands.

Importance and Belonging: One of the biggest struggles orphans deal with is abandonment and belonging.  ”If my family, the one group of people in the world that should love me, left me, then where do I belong?  Am I disposable?”  Of course, our children’s home is structured to combat these feelings by giving our children and family like environment.  But we wanted to bring this concept into their rooms as well.  Before the team came down they painted wood letters to make up each child’s name and then we placed these names on the walls.  Ideally, we wanted to place them by their beds, but because of lack of wall space, that wasn’t always possible.  However the idea remains.  Every child is important (even Joshua and Pamela, the newest children got their names as well) and they have a place to belong to.

Encouraging: As we thought of the designs, we wanted to encourage the children and give them places to show off their artwork, school work, letters, or whatever.  So we placed bulletin boards by each bed so they have an area they can “show off” their individual accomplishments and be reminded of how talented each person is.

Reading: We also wanted to design the space to encourage reading.  With shelves and night lights, the children can place their favorite books next to their bed and read them.  The more access they have to being able to read, the more likely they will actually do it.

Fun: Finally, we wanted the rooms to be fun.  We wanted them to wake up in the morning with a smile of their face.  When they look at the ceiling and see the planets floating, or when they open their eyes and see pink puff balls, or when Miguel throws the ball at his miniature basketball hoop from the comfort of his bed, we want it to bring a smile to their faces.

What makes Extreme Home Makeover on TV so watchable and lovable is that the show isn’t really about the house.  Sure they make it huge, and beautiful, and it meets the family’s needs, but it is never about just that.  It is always about the family, and how the house gives the family hope, peace, joy, happiness.  It connects with them on an intimate level.  The house is as much personalized to their emotional needs as it is to their physical ones.  That is why the show is so popular.  The human connection.  And this is exactly what Asbury achieved here.  They have connected with our children on an emotional level and through tangible items like paint and curtains have brought smiles to all their faces.  We are eternally grateful.

Finally, a special thanks to Fufi, Joe, Cindy, Chris, and Todd for making this all possible. God bless you all!

Here are some panoramic shots of each of the rooms to give a better idea of how they turned out.  You can move around and zoom in and out of each one.  I’ll be posting all the pictures late on.

Note: Having the panoramas embedded here was causing problems with certain people. We’ve replaced them with images that link to the actual panoramas.  Click them to see the panoramas on your computer, iPhone, or iPad.  

The Girl’s Room – Pink Girly Theme

The Young Boy’s Room – Forest Theme

The Older Boy’s Room – Space Theme

Miguel’s Room - Sophisticated Sports Theme

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.

As I mentioned before, last week we had students from Asbury Methodist Church that came and spent time at our Children’s Home. Well once again we were blessed to have one of our good friends, Ruthie, come and visit us with the team and take pictures of our children. Last year she got some wonderful shots of our kids and this year we repeated the activity and took the children to the park. She got some great pictures of our children and I have put them below for all to see. 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. Finally don’t forget to view the next page of photos by clicking the “NEXT PAGE” link below the pictures.

Last week 100 students and adults (yes, you read that right…100) came to Guatemala from Tulsa OK to serve at various ministries around the city and we had the privileged of hosting part of the group each day. This youth ministry from Asbury Methodist Church has been a huge part of our ministry since the beginning. Just a few months after Diana and I came to Hope For Tomorrow in 2009 they sent a group to our home to put a beautiful roof over the patio area. Last year the students painted the entire home a new, fresher color and also did an incredible mural in the patio area. And this year, each day a group of 12-13 spent time repainting the home brightening it up again (it’s amazing how dirty a home can get when you have 8 children living in it!!).

However, more importantly the group spent time loving on the children. Angel got hours and hours of attention as the students and adults took turn holding and feeding him his bottle. Miguel and Amelia felt special because everyday some of the kids helped them out with their English homework. Each day, the students not only worked hard fixing up our home, but also made sure that they connected with the children.

It was a privilege for us to have received this group once again this year and we look forward to having them return in 2012.

Before they left, I had some of the students give me the pictures they took while they were at the home. Here a some of those pictures to visually show how they worked and played throughout the week.

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. Finally don’t forget to view the next page of photos by clicking the “NEXT PAGE” link below the pictures.

Two weeks ago, Brenda and Jennifer (the founders of Hope For Tomorrow Children’s Home) came to visit the children over a few days.  They were accompanied by Brenda’s long time friend, Deb.  Together we spent 4 days hanging with the children, evaluating Baby Angel, and discussing future plans.  Every time they come down it seems that we never have enough time to talk about everything, and this trip was no different.  From the start we were busy and the trip ended that way too.  But of course we had time for pictures, so here are some photos from their visit.

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.  Finally don’t forget to view the next page of photos by clicking the “NEXT PAGE” link below the pictures.

This October we had the special priviledge of having Jennifer’s home church come down and work with our children for a week.  This mighty team worked in the morning doing some minor (and in some cases, major) repair work.  The afternoons were spent taking the children to the retreat center where the team was staying and hosting a Vacation Bible School with them.  Originally the team was going to be headed by Mark, the man that was described to me as single handedly building a Habitat for Humanity house, and he had been the point man on a lot of the repair work.  But an unfortunate medical problem kept him from coming, and the team was without their fearless leader.  However this small team brushed aside any notion of this being a set back and decided to work as hard as possible to complete the project list we had for them.  And work they did!  Paul, Jennifer’s husband, stepped up and fixed everything from some broken lights to holes in the doors.  The rest of the team distributed themselves and painted the younger and older boys rooms as well as fixed the outside wall that was falling apart due to all the rain we had.

In all the entire week was incredible and this team worked extremely hard morning till night.  The children loved the VBS they did and I they all learned a little bit more about the amazing God we serve.

Here are some pictures we took during the week.

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.

Below are the pictures we took during the fun day we had.  We took them to Mixco Viejo, some ruins about an hour and a half outside of Guatemala City, and then went to Antigua Guatemala.

Brenda and Jennifer came down towards the end of September mostly to see the children, but they like to say that it’s to plan and meet!!  Sure, we did a lot of planning and meeting and talking, but we also spent a lot of time with the children.  One of the activities that the children always love is swimming and every time Brenda and Jennifer come they always ask if we’re going swimming!  It’s like that aunt or grandparent that always buys you ice cream every time you see them.  Anyway, here are some pictures from the few days they were here.

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.