Update From The Orphanage!

Dear friends, family and supporters.  I wanted to take a moment to update you on what’s going on down here at the orphanage in light of this Global Pandemic.  Like all of you, we are having to change the very way of doing life, our routines, etc.  With so many unknowns and uncertainties, we are VERY thankful for your faithful support and prayers.  We ask that you would please continue to pray for our staff, team, the children and our community. We are definitely praying for you all and the world as well.  Fortunately Mexico has not experienced a high number of cases of COVID-19.  We are praying fervently that this remains this way, especially for very poor and rural areas, like Bachiniva, who don’t have the resources, supplies, etc to handle a massive outbreak.

On March 14th, Mexico announced that they would be closing ALL schools from March 20th until April 20th.  We began receiving calls from some of the mothers of our kiddos as to what the plan was during this time.  Some of them expressed they would rather keep their kids with them rather than have them be here.  This is what we were initially hoping for as we tried to figure out ways to fully run the orphanage during the CONVID-19.   After much prayer and talking as a board, we felt it would be best to give the moms and families of our kids the option of what they would like to do.  They all understood and agreed to keep their children with them as long as they could.

So, we basically “shut down” the orphanage on Monday March 16th.  There are 2 girls, Natalia and Carolina, who have moved into our house.  Natalia’s mom is not able to care for here.  Carolina’s mom and grandparents live in the Sierra Madres, about 6 hours away.  Due to lack of food, money and poor living conditions up in the mountains, Carolina will stay with us.  The other 10 children are currently with their families.

The orphanage has never been more quiet OR clean.

Even though most of the kids are not with us now, we are working closely with their famililes in ways that we can continue to help and support them. This past Monday Kim (our administrator) and her husband, Pastor Luis, took clothes, money, food and school packets to all the families. They had a chance to visit with the moms, check in on the kids and let them know we are praying for them and are here to help in any way that we can. Some of the moms are already worried that they will lose their jobs as the government of Chihuahua has begun to close down restaurants, factories, businesses, etc.  Kim has been doing a fantastic job of staying in touch with these women through calls and text messages to encourage them.  We are praying that this will be an even greater way to show the Love of God to them.

We had a great staff meeting with our team last week as well to give an update of whats going on.  Some of them expressed a concern for their jobs and if they would continue to get paid during this time.  I reassured them that we would continue to pay them for as long as we can during this time.  Unemployment does not exist in a town like this, or really in Mexico … and it would be all the more difficult if we had to start laying off employees.  God has SO FAITHFULLY provided every peso/dollar that we have ever needed AND even more.  We are fully expecting that He will continue to do so.

Please continue to check out our facebook and instagram accounts for updates and pictures as well as look for additional email updates.

Praying for you all!

Jason