Our letter to Family and Friends

Dear Family & Friends~

Shawn and I have some exciting news that we wanted to share with you and ask for your prayers!
We will be traveling to Guatemala this year to share the love of Christ with the children there. We will be leaving September 25th and returning home on October 2nd. Here are some of the things we will be doing while we are there…
~ We will get to meet our two sponsored children in Guatemala and their families and see the work World Vision has done.
~ We will get to visit a Teen Girls Home and a Teen Boys home in the city. Many of the teens there are kids that I have known for a few years from the orphanage and are now in a better place.
~ We will also be looking for two siblings who have been taken out of the orphanage by their abusive mother and try to get them placed in a home. On my trip last summer, I was able to find the boy Wilber, but the mother would not tell us where his sister Reyna was. Reyna was very badly abused in many ways by her mother and we are praying that we can help her out of the situation she is in.
~ There are two orphanages in a town called Xela that we will visit as well. One of them is called Hogar Temporal (Temporary Home) the place that I adopted my son Diego out of and the other one is called a S.O.S home where children have to be on a waiting list to get in there because the care is so much better.
The reason why Shawn and I both feel so strongly about going to see these kids is because they have nobody else. Can you image for those of you who have your own children, them never being hugged or showed affection? When Diego came home, he told me that the caretakers that he was raised by, never once hugged him. Or imagine your children being sick or scared, hungry, sad, alone, and them not having anyone to comfort them or just show them love? Most of the kids that we will be visiting have been abused in some way or another and have never been shown love. That breaks my heart. When God took me there for the first time in 2004 and even the second, I had no idea what good I was for them or what I had to offer. Then I realized that God is love and if all I can give these kids is unconditional love year after year, then that is what God called me to do.
Shawn has the same heart to help those in need and to give hope to the hopeless and that is why we are going. To serve them, love them, help them, and tell them about our wonderful God. That is what they need most is to know there is hope in Jesus Christ and that they are very much loved by Him.
This letter is to ask for your help in any way that you can. We need to raise $3000 for the trip and are doing fundraisers throughout the entire summer. We have a carwash scheduled almost every weekend so if you are interested in helping out just let us know. If you feel led to give financially at all, everything is a huge help and very appreciated no matter the amount. And most of all, prayer! Please pray for us while we are planning the trip that we are following God at all times and pray for our safety on the trip as well and for God to use us to help the kids in Guatemala.