Wednesday, 08 May 2013
-
Please check out the Children of Hope blog site for my latest updates:
Wednesday, 20 March 2013
-
As I talked about in my last newsletter, I will not be using this blog site anymore since Children of Hope has started a blog on their website. So to increase traffic to this site I recommend that you check out the following link. Enjoy!http://childrenofhope.info/columbus-ohio-team-visiting-dulce-refugio/
Wednesday, 20 February 2013
-
Well it has been a while since I updated the blog. Since we haven't had any teams since December 3rd things have been a little quiet around here. But here goes an update anyways......!On February 10 was Duane's birthday so Maribel planned a surprise party for him. It is always fun to get together and share a meal with everyone.The infamous cake biting ritual....yours truly had the honors!! Perla got a little scared when she saw her Daddy get his face pushed into the cake.
It was decided that we would modify the front entrance to the boys' dorm. We are making it into one door instead of two partly to save money and partly because two doors isn't really needed.
Martin Luna has been making the window protections.... only 50 more to go and a quarter ton of rebar to cut!!
We have been busy the last couple of months tiling the bedrooms and bathrooms. Aaron and his Mother, who came to visit for 10 days, were helping with some grouting.
Duane is getting everything ready for when Brian Heppner will arrive so they can cut the glass for the windows in the boys' dorm. Most of the 82 window frames have been installed, now just the glass. We have 24 full size pieces of glass to get cut to size.The plastering project continues to go well. About 75% of the building has been finished. The Mexican plaster guy who we hired at the beginning of January has now finished. He completed three dorm rooms and bathrooms, a suite and the ceiling of the storage room adjacent to the boys' dorm.
The storage room by the boys' dorm all complete...now we just have to buy the sliding door.
So how many kids do you think can fit into one of our 15 passenger vans? 30!
Dulce Refugio was approved by Herbalife for $30,000 USD. The majority of these funds will be going to making the freezer and cold room...finally and a water purification system for the orphanage. We look forward to having these projects completed in the near future. We are looking forward to the arrival of the Columbus, Ohio team on March 8th. We have lots of work cut out for them!
Friday, 25 January 2013
-
I would like to start this update with thanking Martinrea International Inc. for coming to visit Dulce Refugio today, Friday January 25. Four representatives of the company which has a plant in the town of Silao, about an hour and a half from Aguascalientes, came to visit and to drop off a cheque. It means a lot to us to be able to show our donors what Dulce Refugio is all about and to see first hand the work that is going on here. Thank you very much for the $60,000 peso donation for construction and general fund needs. It is a huge help.
This past weekend two carpenters arrived from Ontario, Canada. Gary Aikema, who was here with a team in the beginning of December, and Pete Kamstra came for a week to work on building and installing eight cabinet units in the boys' dorm. They will be returning to Canada tomorrow (Saturday 25th) after a very successful week. They made the eight units and put the wood trim on six units. This is a huge help for us! We just have to sand the units and put some vanish on the wood and they will be completed. Thank you!!!
Dulce Refugio has a new video surveillance system to keep an eye on the facility. The Social Services donated the funds for this system. A total of ten cameras were installed, some in the girls' dorm facility, the dinning room, and strategic locations around the property.
We have been busy with tiling a number of dorm rooms on the second floor of the boys' dorm. We have almost completed all four on that floor. We have also been working on finishing the tiling in two of the dorm bathrooms and starting in the remaining two on that floor.
We have also hired another plaster crew to help complete the inside of the building faster. We hope to have the whole building plastered by the beginning of April. Almost all the eight dorm rooms and adjacent bathrooms are completed. Marcos has started to plaster the suite on the top floor of the boys' dorm (Jesse and family's future home).
Walter Byl, from the Lower Mainland, has been helping with the electrical in the building.
Martin Luna, Dulce Refugio professional welder, has been busy making steel door protections and installing the wire fence between the girls and boys dorm.
Here are some faces of the newest children who call Dulce Refugio home.
Thanks for taking the time to read this post. Have a great day!
Tuesday, 08 January 2013
-
Happy 2013 to you all!!! I hope you had a great time bringing in the new year. The children at Dulce Refugio did! They enjoyed a great time of fellowship praising God for all the blessings of the past year as they look forward to a new year under God's grace and provision. They also enjoyed some delicious posole (a corn soup), which Marce made. The Children even got to stay up till past midnight...those that could anyways!
In Mexico, January 6 is celebrated as the Day of the Kings (Dia de Los Reyes) in reference to the magi giving gifts to Jesus. Since the children got so spoiled for Christmas, Dulce Refugio hosted a party for the neighbourhood children with the Samaritan's Purse Christmas boxes from the Operation Christmas Child program. 150 tickets were handed out and 200 people showed up...not a surprise really when the word gets out. When Dulce Refugio hosts one of these events we make sure that there is alot of control factors set up. For instance, the parents aren't allowed on the property but can see from outside the fence. Only 30 to 50 children are allowed to enter at a time, and there are five stations set up.
The first station is where the children listen to a bible story taught by two of the children and an adult overseeing them. This is the primary reason for this event to spread the gospel message with those who come to the event. (Do you notice the child in bare feet?)
The second station is the song station where the children learn a Chrisitan children's song with lots of actions! The children have lots of fun at this station, and the child that knows the actions best by the end of the song wins a price!
The third station is a snack and juice station. Everyone got a piece of Roskas de Reyes (or bread of the kings), a sandwich and a cup of juice.
After the snack station there is the goodie bag station. Dulce Refugio gets hundreds of bag of candy at christmas, which is too much for the orphanage so we gladly give it away!
The final station was the Samaritan's Purse gift boxes station. Each child that had a ticket received a box. There were boxes for children aged 2 to 9. So if you ever were wondering if these boxes actually arrived at their destination and used, while here is the proof. Samaritan's Purse has a very good program in place to make sure that these boxes are used to their full potential. Marce will have to send a report to the Samaritan's Purse representative in Mexico of how she used the boxes along with some pictures. Marce also plans to go to the local Hidelgo hospital to give these boxes to the children in the cancer ward. So a big THANK YOU goes to all those who filled one of these boxes this year! 
Here are some other pictures for your enjoymentMartin Luna, our volunteer welder, making a steel door for Marce....not bad eh from scratch!!The last of the stuccoing getting completed.
Some family time with Ana's dad over the holidays...
childrenofhope
-
- Name: Jeremy
- Location: Abbotsford, Canada
- Birthday: 11/1/1978
- Gender: Male
- Member Since: 2/26/2006
