Mexico Orphanage

What if a 5 year old girl knocked at your door at 10:00 in the evening on a cold night? You open the door and she just laid down on the door step looking up at you in fear. What would you do? Would you close the door and go back to your TV program because you were too busy?

Priorities change when we are touched with the reality of real people in real hurt. Sure we can’t help them all, but the ones we can help sure are thankful.  The little girl that was wandering alone in the high mountains of Mexico at 40# in a tattered summer dress and scared to talk or see people at 7 years old now is 70# and in her second year of school with a big smile on her face.  Is that worth it? Yes and Yes. That’s why I raft and ride for The Heart of Jesus.  His heart for the orphans of Mexico.

Nestled in the high desert of central Mexico at 8000 ft., is the Sierra Assistance Mission’s – Children’s Home.  Ten years ago Josephina (now the director) was going to a Christmas dinner when an auto accident claimed all in her family including her two children. She alone was left. Her mother died 2 days later and her father 3 weeks after that. Her father left her with a sawmill that burned to the ground 2 weeks after that. To say she is familiar with hard times is an understatement from our perspective. She started taking care of a couple of children in her home. It soon grew to be the Children’s Home with around 30 children at a time in care. It is far more than just care. It is life training in the real life of Jesus. The older children function more like adults with responsibility and accountability.  The older girls go to one town and hold church services for the people there, while the boys go to a different town. Oh yes, THEY built the church also. Read some of the stories below. Each one, changed by the love of Jesus.

Lydia: 7-8 years old at the time, was found foraging on her own by villagers. Mother’s new boyfriend didn’t want children so she was abandoned to the grandparents who had died. She was stealing to support herself and nobody knew her language. Now at the Children’s Home she is going to school and loved.

Crystal (9) was sexually abused by the mothers boyfriend. Crystal’s little brother was left in an oven to be killed by the boyfriend. He went to prison. The brother and Crystal are now at the Children’s Home. Crystal is very outgoing and has a wonderful personality. She is somewhat still scarred. She won’t even look near any truck that looks like the boyfriend’s truck.

Everett (13) and Elizabeth (12) were some of the first children when the home was opened. They had been abandoned. After they had been nurtured in Jesus, and the care of Josephina, the unthinkable happened. Their mother showed up, and demanded them back.  Now she wanted to put Everett to work for her and Elizabeth to prostitution. They were now profitable economic units to her.  However she had a surprise she was not expecting. Elizabeth refused to do prostitution because “Jesus wouldn’t want it”. In a huff the mother returned the children to the Children’s Home and said “you’ve ruined them”. God had His hand on them. Children are sold for $100 all the time.

Alvaro (9), Rosalea (6), and Caesar (4) were referred to the home by public officials that said they were in a bad situation. The problem was getting to them. It was a 3 hour trip over dry creek beds and rugged roads, only to go door to door in the village they were supposed to be in, just to find them. They got a tip from one of the homes and soon pulled up at the place they were staying. Grandpa (90 years old) was their caregiver. He was failing in health and was overjoyed for someone to take them. He knew he could not take care of them anymore. Alvaro on hearing the news that he got to go to the home, jumped over the side of the bed of the truck and just grinned. “I get to go”. It was 40 degree weather in the high mountains but Rosalea only had on a thin tattered cotton dress. One of the kids from the home was in the truck and took off his jacket and gave it to her, while one of the other kids in the truck shared his jacket with the one that gave his away. That’s what kind of children they have become.

One of the church building crews.

Building the Children’s Home form lumber cut from local timber. No hardware store here. Gravel and sand from the riverbed hand shoveled and mixed after hours on the gravel roads to get to the material.

How did we get involved?

Some home groups focus on themselves. Not this one. Duane Anderson knew a pastor in Mexico that could use help building a church.  The Home group decided they would take on the task.  Next year they went down and built another, and another.  Meanwhile Duane, an Orthopedic surgeon, went to Ethiopia to develop a Hospital there. Now they run a growing hospital in Ethiopia but the Mexico Mission goes on.

What happened in Mexico?

First it was a pastors home, then a church, and another, another church…then the Children’s Home.  Lives that went to give, were changed forever.  Some construction people used their talents and build, others supported the team, while others sent resources.   We have been raising funds from our White Water Rafting in summers to build and support this effort.  This was once a drug culture town where even local outsiders would not survive if they went in. This was changed by the love of Jesus to heal a land where joy and hope abound.

What is your legacy of change?

1)Ask God to show you what your purpose is and start your own ministry (well, really it needs to be His)

2) Give 10% of your time using your professional skills helping those that can’t return the favor.

3) Sponsor a raft trip of 6 or more to fund a child

4) Sponsor the August 27 – 100 Mile Bike Challenge (pick an amount per mile)

Contact for information:

Steve Kagarice 509 993-9026

Jim Kenas (208) 664-8820