We just wanted to let you in on the secret that our grand opening is coming soon!  We hope to bring in the first kids into the Give Hope 2 Kids Home by the end of June.  In the past few weeks we've been meeting with lots of house parent possibilities, as well as social services.  The pieces are finally starting to fall into place.  Please, please pray with us that God goes before us and everything comes together exactly as it should.

If you're interested in being a part of our Sponsorship Program, please email us at: [email protected].  We will be releasing information for our Sponsorship Program soon.  

In the middle of October we attended the  Project Honduras   Conference.  This is an annual conference to bring together those who are working for a better Honduras.  It's a great place to gain a broader view of the work being done in here, to connect with others working in Honduras, and to share ideas and resources.

Jason presented for a few minutes about  Give Hope 2 Kids  and the work that we're doing.  We talked about all the various things that we're working on, as there aren't very many ministries that work on their own project, in their community, and with agriculture to support themselves.  We especially emphasized the idea of bringing volunteers to work inside the public elementary schools, as this has been an effective tool at building community relationships and benefiting the local kids.  We are proud of all that we have accomplished -- with God's grace -- in the past few years.

The President of Honduras, President Lobo also came to the event.  He came for a few hours to listen to some of the presentations and ideas of the aid workers and to share some of his own thoughts.  What an honor! 

As many of you know, it has been a long process to get permission to take in kids here in Honduras.  For a year and a half now we have waited for  Give Hope 2 Kids  to be recognized as a Honduran non-profit.  Our papers would slowly move from one desk to another, always waiting for the next signature.  For about a year our papers pretty much sat in one spot, due to the unstable political climate here in 2009.  Well after all that, we want to announce that we are finally a Honduran non-profit! 

So, where to next?  Now we will be working with the social services here to open our Children's Home.  We have to travel to the capital of Honduras and submit our full plan for the operation of the Children's Home.  They will review our plan, most likely ask for changes, and then they will review our facilities, and possibly ask for changes there too.  Depending on what they require, this process could go very quickly or take several months.  We certainly hope this final step will move along rapidly and smoothly, as we are very excited to take in the first kids.

The other crucial step at this time is finding the right houseparents to care for the kids.  Many people have advised us to go to a particular part of Honduras to find houseparents, which is an area where we have few connections.  So this search for houseparents will be an adventure in itself.  It is so important to find the right people from the start.  We want our kids to have consistent and good caretakers in their lives from the beginning, so they can grow up in an environment that closely models normal family life.

Please keep us in your prayers as we move closer and closer to opening  Give Hope 2 Kids'  Children's Home.

We are excited to have such a strong group of visionary leaders behind us and we appreciate the time they gave to come and walk our property with their own two feet. 

We received huge help came from the local department of transportation recently.  They had big machinery working on a road near us and they said that for only the price of fuel, they would help us level land for more buildings and a road.  In only a couple hours and for only $50, we leveled out what would have taken months to do by shovel.  We made space for a dorm building for groups and volunteers, a place for the future home of the Furrow family, and the start of the road to get to them.

Just this past week we were able to purchase a storage unit, which will be another big help.  Right now our "office" is really the storage building for all the things that have been donated to care for children.  We were thinking about all the volunteers and groups coming this year, wondering where they would be sleeping, when this new storage option became available.  Jason certainly likes to tease me (Sarah) about my love of storage, but it comes in handy.

This 3rd house has come up fastest by far, with the walls shooting up in a matter of weeks.  Even though we have fewer construction workers at the moment, they've been more focused on a single project, and we've really seen the results.  We are so excited to see things coming together this fast.
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We are reminded again of how soon these homes will be filled with children. 

We couldn’t have done all this painting without help though, so we want to say a big thanks to all the friends from Minnesota and Canada that worked so hard painting.  Now our houses are looking bright and cheery, which is perfect for a Children’s Home.  

People down here love everything painted in a bright, bold colors.  The normal color choices for US houses would be classified as boring here.  Here you see houses painted in every color and shade.  It’s fun and cheerful and very Honduran.