Fitto and Daniela
Christmas Day

Casa de Esperanza Newsletter

Casa de Esperanza
Making a difference
One child at a time
P.O. Box 9222
Columbus, MS 39705
cdehonduras.org
Amigos de Casa,
We at Casa de Esperanza hope you had a blessed Christmas. We did.
Thank you to each person that donated for the kids' Christmas. Karen had
a fun time shopping for them.
At this writing, all the children are well. Praise the Lord.
We have completed the bunk bed project. We wish to thank all churches
and individuals for helping with this project: The following churches or
individuals gave enough for at least one bunk bed:
Ladies class Borger Church of Christ, Borger, Texas, Central Church of
Christ, Topeka, Kansas, Belpre Church of Christ, Belpre, Ohio, Linda
Morsher. Several other individuals gave smaller donations which, when
combined, was enough for one bunk bed. We greatly appreciate every
donation for the bunk beds. The kids are enjoying have their own private
space.
A special thanks to Fairview Heights Church of Christ, Fairview Heights,
Illinois for their gift to buy bunk beds to completely furnish the new
cottage.
And speaking of the new cottage, it has been completed except for paint and
a few other minor details. After the inspections are done, we will be ready
to start taking more kids. We hope this cottage is full of rescued children
soon.
Rayner, one of the AIM students, is now working with Rosita teaching her
sign language. Rayner is working with Rosita a couple of mornings each
week. Andrea, another AIM student, is doing some arts and crafts with the
kids, also a couple of times each week.
All of the paperwork has been completed for Pamela's surgery. We hope to
have that scheduled soon.
November saw the end of school. We had three kindergarten graduates,
Daniela, Monica, and Fernando. They will be starting to first grade in
February. Everyone will be advancing to the next grade. A couple of them
just squeaked by, but they will be advancing.
Looking back on 2008, we had tragedy and triumph. We saw Yovani,
Marvin, Mario, Francisco and Antonio leave Casa de Esperanza and return
to live with their parents. We also welcomed Doris, Jackson, Sisi, and
Rosita in the Casa de Esperanza family. We opened the Casa store which
has been more successful in its first year than we ever dared to hope.
We want to thank each person that has given financially to keep Casa de
Esperanza open. Thanks to each person that helped with school uniforms,
with our Thanksgiving, and the kids Christmas, and to those that gave
monthly and yearly. We could not keep going without each and every one
of you. Thank you for your prayers and encouragement. Please continue to
remember us in your prayers.
Please feel free to share this newsletter with anyone you feel is interested in
Casa de Esperanza and let me know if you would like to be added to our
mailing list.
We hope you have a blessed 2009.
Terri Tindall

Katty Katty

Christmas boxes

Healing hands sent a container with Christmas boxes for all of the kiddos in the area churches here in the area of Teguc. Well the ones for Santa Ana were delivered and the kids from Casa de Esperanza went and helped hand out the boxes to those in the community! Here they are lined up before headed out to hand them out.

How good it feels to give!

christmas dinner

Rosita
The Santa Ana Church Christmas dinner

Monica

Brenda and Cindy

Maryuri and Katty

Opening Presents!

Pamela

Brayan

Fitto

Merry Christmas to all

We wish you a Merry Christmas.....................
Today was a fun filled day, a little stressful with everything going on but the kids loved it!
Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!
No luck right now with getting pictures up, I have been trying for over an hour and no luck! I will keep trying!

Maryuri with her hand full of good ole sticky marshmallow!

Sisi

Sisi at the campfire

Ready....

The excitement is in the air here. The kids are ready for Christmas to be here! They are all anxiously awaiting tom morning! They all keep asking when and how and how many more hours and the list of questions goes on..........
Thank you to all of you who gave to help us out this year with Christmas!
I will try to post some picture of tom, but we still continue to have problems with the internet, so we will see if I get lucky tom!

I want to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas. May you be blessed with the time you spend this holiday season with friends and family! In the coming year I pray that abundant of blessings are poured out upon you and your family and may God always be honored!!!

Mexican Train

The older kids are always borrowing the game from me, they have found a new love for it! I am going to have to invest and get them one too! :)

Cindy

Cindy

Judge Not

A good friend sent this to me and it is something to think about:

I was shocked, confused, bewildered
As I entered Heaven's door,
Not by the beauty of it all,
Nor the lights or its decor.

But it was the folks in Heaven
Who made me sputter and gasp--
The thieves, the liars, the sinners,
The alcoholics and the trash.

There stood the kid from seventh grade..
Who swiped my lunch money twice.
Next to him was my old neighbor
Who never said anything nice.

Herb, who I always thought
Was rotting away in hell,
Was sitting pretty on cloud nine,
Looking incredibly well.

I nudged Jesus, 'What's the deal?
I would love to hear Your take.
How'd all these sinners get up here?
God must've made a mistake.

'And why's everyone so quiet,
So somber - give me a clue.'
'Hush, child,' He said, 'they're all in shock.
No one thought they'd be seeing you.'



JUDGE NOT.
Remember...Just going to church doesn't make you a Christian
any more than standing in your garage makes you a car.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours........

Thank you!

This year for our Casa de Esperanza Christmas cards Kippa Norsworthy donated her time and did a very cute design for us with all of the kiddos pictures! I want to thank her for doing this for us. Her work is beautifully done! Check her out......... http://www.kipscreations.com/

Thanks Kippa!

Honoring

"If your life honors the name of Jesus, He will honor you"

2Thes. 1:12

campfire

Kiddos at a campfire we had the other night roasting hotdogs with Rayner (AIM intern) helping them out

doris

~Happy Birthday Doris~

Today is Doris's b~day. I am pretty sure this girl has never celebrated her b~day. They do not even know how old she is or when she was born. We can't let those miss out just because they do not have b~days. So we make a b~day for them and celebrate!!
I walked in this morning to wake the girls up for devo and I began yelling at Doris that today was her b~day and sure enough she shot right out of bed. For those of you that know her, she is not a morning person and she is usually the last to get out of bed most mornings.
She has been so proud of herself that today is her b~day. She just feels so special!! She had received $1.00 to go spend at the casa store for her b~day. She came to the store and filled up with goodies and just giggled and laughed!
Then this evening we celebrated with cake!! She laughed and giggled and giggled some more! She loved every minute of it!!!!
I will try once again to upload photos from today but not too sure I will have much luck!

Jackson

Johny to Jackson...............

Several of you have asked who the new kid is (Jackson). Well it is Johny! He has just had a name change. He was brought here by the judicial system they told us his name was Johny Alexander Bangas Zuniga. All of the paper work the judicial system gave us says his name is Johny, but they were just going by what "Johny" h had told them. They judicial system had found him on the streets and picked him up. They have no other information to go by other than what the child told them at first until they do a further investigation.
Last month I found out from the judicial system that Johny's name is Jackson. Which that would explain why we could not find his birth certificate in the Honduras registry. They said that he was not registered and they could not find him under the name Johny. Well when we gave them his new name Jackson Onasis Jiminez they were able to find his birth certificate. He will be 7years old on the 11th of Jan.
We do not know why he lied and said his name was Johny. Maybe it was because he was never told what his real name was or he was told to lie about it his name.
So I hope to have cleared up the confusion for many of you wondering who "Jackson" is.

Love

Remember, those who deserve love least, need it the most.

judging

I read this the other day from one of my friends blogs and it stuck with me and thought that I would share and pass it along. http://lnorsworthy.blogspot.com/

One would be short-sighted as well as unrealistic if they were to assume to never incorporate someone’s past in the way they view their present. It’s humanly impossible to forget someone’s past mistakes, but just remembering isn’t judging.
When we assume one’s final chapter has already been penned and we don’t leave open the possibility for change we judge. When we judge others we remove the potential for others to allow God to work in their life.

uploading

Still trying to get pictures to upload. Not having so much luck. Stay tuned!

Nov. Update

Nov. 08

Dorian and I began the month by spending some time in Nicaragua visiting with Dorian's family. This was important to me as it had been a year and a half since I had last been there. Please pray for his mother as she raises two grandsons.
The children here at Casa wrapped up their school year and are now on break until mid February. Monica, Fernando and Daniela have graduated kindergarten and are moving on to first grade!
The rain stopped finally it has been cold here. It gets in the low 50's sometimes at night. Sounds kind of balmy until you realize that there is constant wind chill, no insulation and no heat of any kind. We here at Casa are blessed to have a sturdy home and plenty of clothing and covers; things that many here do without.
We have been so blessed this month by having many of you blessing us with funds towards expenses of Dorian's surgery. Thank you so much for all your donations, they are deeply appreciated and valued. I know times are tough and uncertain in the States but our God continues to see us through any obstacle.
Hopefully many of you received a Christmas card from Casa with pictures of all the children. This was donated by Kippa Norsworthy at kipscreations.com. Thank you Kippa!!
Each Thanksgiving, Jen and I would purchase and prepare a traditional Thanksgiving meal for Casa staff and children. With Jen serving another ministry and Dorian and myself being short of funds, we thought we would have to downscale this year. But thanks to "BJ's Buddies" a small group from Belpre and Terri Tindall's mom we were able to continue the tradition. I think the staff enjoys it almost more than the children! This year we served about 45 people as we all thanked our Father for his blessings.
As we get ready for Christmas any of you wanting to send money for the kids Christmas can send that money to Casa de Esperanza PO BOX 9222 Columbus, Mississippi 39705. Be sure to make a note that it is for Christmas. Thank you to so many of you who have come together and sent money for the kids new beds for Christmas! :)
Dorian continues to feel better each week and we continue to be honored to have the privilege of serving God's people in Honduras.

~Blessings~

pursuing........

"Pursue the things over which Christ presides."

~ Col. 3:1 ~

Surgery

Today we finally got the surgery authorized for Pamela's foot. Still no date set right now but we have got the letter from the Judge giving us premission. It was not an easy task but at last we have it and we will probably get it scheduled this coming week. I will keep you updated on to when it will be. As for now keep her in your prayers as she is a little antsy to get this done!

Telton and Manos Felizes

So it looks as if we are going to get help for Monica and Doris's learning disabilities. We are in the process of getting them accepted in Telton to start there next year. It is a lot like Easter Seals.
One of the good things is that they even get to go there for free. Telton will work with each of them individually and see what areas they need work in the most and give a diganosis for each child. They also have pyschologist and doctors there for the children which is part of their education. So I am excited about this journey ahead for both of them. With the special education they will receive to meet each of their own personal needs to help them grown into a better person.
Also we are going to start Rosita back at Manos Felizes (Happy Hands). She was going to school there before she lived with us. She attented some where between 2 to 3 years there. We are going to try to get her back into school there so she can learn sign language to the fullest extent that she can. She has already learned a lot but forgets it since she does not use it daily. We know some sign lanuage here but not by any means what she needs to learn. She has started two times a week also here at the house recieving classes from one of the AIM interns. She is fluent in sign lanuage and is giving classes to Rosita.
I am thankful for these open doors for these children with special needs. I pray that these places are truly a blessing to Monica, Doris, and Rosita.