FAIR Blog

In Honduras, Fellowship International missionary, Melodie Francis serves at Casa Hogar, a children’s home for vulnerable children and youth. This winter, FAIR launched Growing Home, an initiative helping to expand the care and support that the staff at Casa Hogar can provide to youth.

To help you get to know the staff and youth at Casa Hogar, here is the first in our series of stories that we will be sharing this winter.

“Jonathan* arrived to Casa Hogar when he was about two years old. He was in a state of severe malnutrition, and very sick. After many hospital visits and extensive care from the workers at Casa Hogar, Jonathan began to recuperate and became a very energetic and playful boy. He grew up at Casa Hogar, but not without challenges. His severe malnutrition affected him in many ways, including his ability to focus, and process and retain information. Academics were always difficult for him and he just survived his years through school. His mother would come to visit his sister once in a while, but she showed little affection towards him and he always suffered from her rejection. Jonathan struggled in his teen years when he began a path of self-destruction and had difficulty dealing with authority both at Casa Hogar and in school. Spiritually, he remained involved in a local church and was being discipled in the church community. When Jonathan became an adult, he left to live with one of the church leaders who would help him make the transition to independence.

"Now, Jonathan is currently working, and for the past year has been taking care of his mother (yes, the one that rejected him when he was a child). He has gotten very involved in his church community and was baptized this year. He is an honest young man with a good heart.

"When he moved away, he left on difficult terms but we are all grateful for how our relationship with him has been restored. Lately, he told me that everything good about his life, he learned from Casa Hogar, and even though he didn’t value it while he was living with us, he now values it a lot. With the perspective and healing he has experienced, he now has a positive and healthy relationship with us and expresses himself with a lot of gratitude. I am so proud of the man he is becoming. Jonathan might not be in university and he is still searching for his path in life, but I do consider his story a success story. God has been faithful and has continued to work in his life. Jonathan continues to heal, forgive, and grow spiritually. I am proud of this kid and the path he is on.”

*Name changed for privacy

To learn more about Casa Hogar and the opportunity to help more children and youth like Jonathan, please go to www.fellowship.ca/GrowingHome