Blog Archives

Investing in Students

4/26/2011

During our time living and working in Honduras we've seen how much education changes lives for the better. Without education, people have few options in life and often end up trapped in poverty. There are almost no jobs where we live and if people move to the city without resources they often end up in the roughest neighborhoods with drugs and gangs. But education changes things. We know kids that are in medical school that come from families where the parents only went part way through grade school. We really believe that education means more options and opportunity for a better life.

One of the main ways that we help students is by giving them work. Every year we give at least a dozen kids part-time work so they can cover the expenses of studying at Instituto El Rey (the school where we volunteered for a year-and-a-half). We have about six students that work year round for us, helping with the library, construction projects, and property maintenance.

Ronald is a student that's lived with us for close to a year-and-a-half now. As an older student (he's a 23-year-old 12th grader) he's had to fight to stay in school. When he lived with his family, they expected him to be up at 4am to help with the cattle and then he worked for us after school to pay for all his school and living expenses. Ronald was thinking of dropping out of school until we offered him a place to live. He still works after school, but now he has the time he needs to study and he's looking forward to graduating from high school this November.

When we started our library program a year-and-a-half ago, Alma was asked to help. She has grown into running the day-to-day program and has discovered that she is a natural teacher. We've enjoyed seeing her grow in confidence and ability as she works with the kids.

Many of you remember Ruby and her five younger sisters that we've helped through the years. While we're not as involved with all six girls as we used to be, we still try to spend time with them and encourage their studies. When the new school year started in February, we outfitted them all with the new uniforms and school supplies they needed. We're amazed at how much they've grown up since we've known them. The youngest, Abi, was only two when we started helping them and now she's in 2nd grade!

We still spend quite a bit of time with Ruby and Roxana, the oldest two from this family. Last year Ruby lived up at our place for much of the school year. She and Roxana still come and stay over often. They work in the library and do other projects to help pay for school expenses and practice their English with us. In this photo, Roxana is in her school uniform (she's now in 10th grade) and Ruby is dressed to head out to her internship.

This week Ruby, Alma, and Ronald are all down in La Ceiba, starting their 12th grade internship. In Honduras, students are required to do a month long internship as a part of their last year of school. For all their work in the library, we are providing Ruby and Alma with a place to stay for this month. We are certain that this experience of living and working in the city will help prepare them for their transition to university studies next year.

Another student that we're investing in is José. José is in 11th grade at Instituto El Rey this year. He is a kid with a great heart and an amazing musical ability. With very little help, he's taught himself guitar, piano, and trumpet and he now helps with the music at three churches and his school every week. He often comes over to our place to hang out and practice on our piano. Jason is starting to teach him to edit music and video on the computer and I (Sarah) ended up giving him an impromptu voice lesson last week.

As we look towards the future with these young people we are excited about helping them fulfill their dreams. Next year we'd like to send José to La Ceiba every week for music lessons from the biggest name group in Spanish praise and worship. Ruby will be off to university next year and Give Hope 2 Kids has committed to help her study. We hope that in the future we can provide scholarships to more students. This is just the first wave of kids heading out into the wider world that Give Hope 2 Kids has touched.

We are passionate about continuing to invest in the education of young lives, to give them a future with greater possibilities. We want to say our thanks to so many of you who enable us to be a blessing to these young people.

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Help Roof the Volunteer House

4/26/2011

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As we’re getting closer to opening the Kid’s Home we need to free up the houses we’ve been using for other purposes. Right now we (Jason & Sarah) live in one of the homes for kids and volunteers, groups, and other visitors also bunk up in the kid’s homes when they’re here.

In January, we began work on our personal home on the property and we’re continuing the work on the Volunteer House. We hope to finish these houses in the next several months so we can free up houses for kids.

During the second week of May we have a group coming down that hopes to put a roof on the two new houses and wire them for electricity. Our problem is that right now we lack the necessary funds to purchase the roof materials for the Volunteer House. This is the only chance we have to get this house wired for a long time and we need the roof on first. We want to offer you the opportunity to help. The estimated cost of this roof is: $4000. If this is a project you would like to donate towards, please contact us.

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Update on Agricultural Projects

4/17/2011

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In the last few months we've seen a lot of growth in our agricultural projects, both figuratively and literally. We're starting to see the results from years of planning and planting. The orchards are beginning to flower and fruit and we've now acquired the animals we need to help provide food for the future.

Our sheep are prospering. They are grazing underneath our mahogany trees, keeping other vegetation down. Their population has already grown by seven new lambs in just a few months and we’re expecting more lambs soon. One ewe even had triplets, but because a ewe can only feed two lambs, the third one moved up to David and Olga’s house for bottle-feeding. This lamb is named Chepito and he wanders around the yard munching grass, hanging out with the dogs, and bleating. He's decided that he is a dog and now comes running down to eat dog food when we call for his canine companions.

Just the other day we got our first chickens. We've started with two dozen and will purchase more when we finish our chicken coop. So far, the roosters haven’t kept us up at night with their crowing, thankfully. (Roosters tend to start announcing the upcoming dawn at about 3am.) David’s wife Olga really enjoys looking after chickens and she is excited to care for these ones. We are looking forward to the eggs.

The other day we harvested our first taste of honey from our bees. The bees are close to filling seven panels with honey and we already had to expand their hive, in just 3 months! This is faster than any honey production we’ve read about. We stole one panel of honey just a little early and wow was it good!

We’re already teaching Josiah all about farming so he’s ready to work in a couple years. He is studying “The Encyclopedia of Country Living,” which is THE book for what we’re trying to do with agriculture.

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Construction Update

4/8/2011

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In January we started construction again up at our place. Our current project is building the long-term home for us the directors, Jason & Sarah. For the last couple of years we have been living in one of the homes for kids. Now that we're about to take in kids, we want to free up that home and move into our own.

Our construction crew has been working at an amazing speed the last couple months. The walls are already up and the guys are applying the stucco and putting together the roof structure.

In the next few of months we will be finishing up this house and the volunteer house. Both need stucco, a roof, and then the floors poured. We hope to have these houses finished this summer so we can free up the kid's homes for kids.

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Ready, Set, Wait...

4/8/2011

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Desperate for House Moms

We're are getting SO close to taking in kids. We have made a lot of progress the last few months with the Honduran Social Services. Awhile back we turned in our application and operational plan to be a Kid's Home. They've sent things back for editing a couple times, but we're almost, almost done with this legal process.

So far we've undergone two Social Services inspections of our place and both have gone well. The first was from the national headquarters, who will approve us a Kid's Home. This inspection ended up happening the day our son Josiah was born and we missed it! But even though we weren't there, our board member Gerald and right-hand-man David did an excellent job of showing our place and explaining our vision. Then in March we had a second inspection from a regional branch of Social Services. With this inspection we will be able to receive kids from the government home in San Pedro Sula.

Now we're down to needing House Moms. We feel that the role these House Moms play will be so crucial in the lives of our kids that we don't want to hire anyone haphazardly. We feel it is a serious responsibility of ours to find the right people. Jason recently traveled around Honduras making connections with seminaries and community leaders looking for people. This weekend we will be interviewing two potential women and a couple. Please pray with us that we find the RIGHT people to care for the kids from the start.

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Baby Josiah Paul Furrow

4/4/2011

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Well, we haven't managed to blog much recently, due to a wonderful new distraction in our lives. He goes by the name of Josiah Paul Furrow. He was born on February 16th at 6 lbs, 18 in.

We can't believe that Josiah is already 7 weeks old. He has been such a joy!

This is a picture of Josiah wearing one of daddy's old outfits when he was a baby.

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Give Hope 2 Kids

Investing in Students

Help Roof the Volunteer House

Update on Agricultural Projects

Construction Update

Ready, Set, Wait...

Desperate for House Moms

Baby Josiah Paul Furrow

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