It's been such a fun season here at Give Hope 2 Kids!  

We started out before Christmas with a big gift for all the kids to share: a big trampoline!    We set it up at night and the kids were surprised to find it outside their homes in the morning.    This trampoline is busy nearly all the time.

Then we  crammed all 47 of us into our bus and went on a 15-hour Christmas excursion day!    We started at our favorite thrift store and each kid got to pick out several things for themselves.    Since  our kids normally don't get to choose many of their own clothes or shoes, this was a BIG DEAL.

  Next we took a picnic lunch of Honduras' favorite food -- fried chicken --  and went to  a  little zoo and park.    The kids loved playing and seeing all our local animals there.    

Then we  visited La Ceiba's big pier to take in the sites and enjoy another playground, dinner, and icecream.    We all got a little soaked in an unexpected downpour, climbed back into our bus, and drove the 1 1/2  bumpy hours home into the mountains.    It was  an exhausting day, but oh so much fun!

For Christmas  the ladies of our property made nearly 300 tamales and the kids baked Christmas cookies.  We then enjoyed  a HUGE dinner with the tamales, bbq pork chops, fried rice and more.    (It's amazing how much food some of our kids can put away!)      Then the kids got  a present of socks and underwear and a couple small fun things.    It was such a joy watching our new kids open  their gifts -- it definitely seemed like a first for them and their eyes lit up with each little item.

For New Year's Eve we brought pizzas from town, roasted marshmallows over a bonfire, and enjoyed some fireworks.

We've packed  so much fun into the last few weeks!   But even after all the holiday fun fades into memories, these kids still have a wonderful gift that goes on: they were abandoned or abused, and now they have a stable and loving family .    We will be a family for these kids for as long as they need us.

Thanks to Joel Haler and Brian  Hughes and their friends and family for helping to make this a wonderful Christmas for our kids!    We've enjoyed sharing these special weeks with you.

 But one week of care isn't our goal.   We're in this for the long-haul.    If we can reunite a child with family, that is obviously our ideal,  but for most of our kids that's just not possible.    For as long as a child is here, we are raising them in the best family-environment that we can.   We will educate them and prepare them to  support themselves as independent adults, and not let them go until they're ready to fly.     We want to be their forever-family.

Seven sisters are now living with Grandma Gladys.   We will be their home and family for as long as they need it.    

Will you help us do this?    We were already  needing sponsors and adding  in 7 more kids makes our need for sponsors that much more urgent!    Be a blessing to these kids.    Help us a make a difference in their lives!

This year has been a year of adding finishing touches to our myriad of building projects from the past 8 years.  Too often when we urgently need to get to the next project, we've rushed past the finishing touches our spaces need.  So this year we've painted walls that have never seen a coat of paint before, trimmed windows, and added on a much needed storage shed.  We've finished off our community areas better too, which makes things run smoother for our Friday Night Youth Group.  Currently we're finishing a road for better access to our agricultural projects and we're expanding and improving housing for our pigs.

As I share photos from this month's fun parties, let me tell you part of our story:

​A decade ago, when we (Jason & Sarah Furrow) moved to Honduras, we spent time visiting Children’s Homes and learning from their leaders.    Everybody told us to start slow and to create our culture.  Once we had a good culture going, they said, new kids would shape themselves into our mold, instead of causing chaos.   From our vantage point then, this seemed like such an undefined, daunting task.   We prayed that God would give us wisdom and guidance.

​Fast forward to now:  When we get the whole group of kids together, the atmosphere is incredible.  Every single time I end up reflecting on how much these kids have grown and changed through the years.

They came through our gates as orphans: insecure, unloved, unhealthy, and either too quiet or too noisy.   Now they know they are part of a family – and it shows.   Most of our kids have been with us for 4½ years! 

This is home.    This is family.   This is our culture.

Next up in June, our second group of the year came from Destiny Church in Alabama.  One of their main projects while here was helping with a house addition for a growing missionary family down the road.  Since this group tends to excel at painting, we saved them various painting projects: the Furrow’s front porch, a volunteer apartment, and a (beautiful) mural in the Library.  They also added wooden trim around the windows in many of our homes, among other projects.  We really enjoyed this team!  We were blessed by their work and meaningful friendships. ​

For July we hosted a group from Cloverhill Church in Virginia.  This was their leader Rachel’s 7th annual trip here!  They helped dig the foundation for a new car port, extended our fence along the road, organized our office and school supplies, and visited local schools with donations of medical and school supplies and food staples for school lunches.  One highlight from this week was taking all the kids to the river near Rio Viejo, where they swam, collected special rocks, and found several freshwater prawns.  This group was very productive and fun to host!
 
Thank you for everyone who came or helped to make these trips possible!  We always get such a boost in our construction projects through groups and we really enjoy the friendships we’ve built with these special people throughout the years.

After our crazy storm, we decided it was the perfect time to take our kids on a fun outing.   For this trip we went to El Porvenir, a beautiful beach town just outside La Ceiba.

​We were excited and ready to go early in the morning!   Even our guys were excited!

The day was spent with laughs, races, and fun discoveries!   And what would any GH2K fun-day be without a game of soccer?

Saturday also happened to be Grisel's birthday, so we celebrated with cake!   It was delicious-- just ask Grisel!   (It's tradition in Honduras to try and get cake on  the birthday girl or boy's face.)

We had such a wonderful day!   

We recently survived one of the biggest storms of the decade here at  GiveHope2Kids.    The river rose to crazy heights and washed out all three of our water systems, as well as the power lines and internet cables.   We're happy to share that everyone-- including our livestock-- is unharmed!

​On the right is the flooded river and on the left is the river after it returned to normal.

Our awesome team of guys were able to repair one of the water lines so we had enough water for the basics, like washing dishes and flushing toilets.   For drinking water we used rainwater and our Berkey filters.   Amazingly enough, our power was repaired in only 1 1/2 days. 

​While several houses flooded in Urraco, we believe that no one was seriously injured. The road however was another story!  It was badly damaged between here and La Ceiba.   The road at Rio Viejo (where our kids attend Instituto El Rey) was washed away, and the kids were out of school for a whole week!  (They weren't too concerned however and enjoyed basketball in the cancha and watching movies.)

​What was truly incredible though, was what happened to one of the village buses when it tried to ford a place where a little water normally flows over the road.   It's back wheels were washed right off the road!   Luckily, no one was harmed.

We are so grateful that everyone is safe and that we had enough food and water to make it through the week!

We're now celebrating  10 years of ministry in Honduras!

We  want to thank all of you who have joined with our mission throughout the years.   Thank you for  encouraging us to continue in what God has called us to.   Since our start, 31 young people have called GiveHope2Kids their home.    Several of these children were reintegrated into their families or adopted, but for the time that they needed us, we were there for them.    Right now we're  a home for  15 amazing kids and we're excited to help them grow  to adulthood here in the GH2K family.

To celebrate our 10 years of ministry, we've put together a magazine, thanking God for our past successes and looking to the future.   If you'd like to see the magazine online, you can scroll through the document below.   To download the full resolution document, you can click on the link at the bottom.

 Thanks for being a part of our lives and our story!  

School is in session here at GiveHope2Kids.    For the 2016 year, our 14 elementary students will attend homeschool every day here on the property.   They start at 7:00am every morning by singing the Honduran anthem and then off to classes they go!   In the mornings they're studying their main subjects and then after lunch, they have electives.  

The kids' favorite new  class is called "Oficios," which is kind of like  shop class.   It's really the kick-off of our Trade School dreams.   Twice a week our kids get to work on a new skill, which we hope will help them to develop into independent adults. The kids have responded so well and are constantly asking: “Clase de oficios hoy?”   That means: “Trade School class today?”   (If you would like to come and teach in our Trade School, please do! You can learn more about coming down for a short-term trip here.)

​We really feel that our teachers are going to do such a great job this year.    Both of our house-moms are helping to teach, along with  two of our university scholarship students, Katy and Doris, and our volunteers David, Amy, and Josiah.      Our teachers are so excited to have a brand new curriculum to teach from.   (Thank you to those who donated to make this happen!)   Ms. Sharon, our long term mentor from our IER days, has been helping us prepare for what will be our best year yet.   We are so excited to see how our kids continue to learn and grow.

We now have 7 students going to Instituto El Rey every morning.   We were very excited to have 3 new 7th graders starting there from GH2K.   We’re so proud of all these kids and we believe that they have an incredible year of learning ahead of them!  

The desks up in Urraco are quite literally falling apart. Termites have completely destroyed the desks to a point where each classroom has a pile of broken desks in the corner. We’re tackling this project of constructing 40 new desks as the first project in our Trade School!   Each afternoon our older kids came to work alongside the adults, learning about welding, carpentry, and more.

ECC also brought two ladies who shared a passion for jam making.  Using our locally grown fruit, they experimented with making some incredible new jams: Guanabana-blackberry, passion fruit, star fruit, sapote, and  kumquat marmalade.  The results were amazing—and delicious!  And the best part was that they shared this experience and knowledge with our teenage girls as another Trade School class.
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This is what we hope for our Trade School: Bringing passionate, skilled individuals to teach our young people new skills.   Thank you so much ECC for joining with GiveHope2Kids in this vision and getting our Trade School up and running!   We loved having you!