FAIR Blog

The Fellowship oversees five child sponsorship ministries around the world. This spring, FAIR will be highlighting each of the child sponsorship ministries.

This month, we are focusing on the ministry of Casa Hogar in Honduras, where Fellowship International missionary Melodie Francis serves. This ministry has two representatives based in Canada who assist in highlighting the needs and focus of this ministry within Canada: Ena Ward and Lise Francis. Ena and her husband Rick travel to Honduras each year for several months to assist with the ministry. We are excited to share the following update from Ena.

October 2021 was an exciting month as we arrived back in Honduras for our fourth (yes, fourth!) winter. The kids were as excited to see us as we were to see them. We quickly got back into a routine, Rick with garbage runs, five-gallon water bottle refills, mountain trips for wood and vegetables, biweekly market runs, and small projects with the kids. These projects included sanding down the bunk beds, doing maintenance on all the bicycles, and rebuilding five bikes from just an old frame. For me, Ena, it was back to helping the bilingual students with schooling on the mornings that Melodie was not there, and doing “manualidades” (crafts) with the Spanish students who finished their school year the beginning of November. I also stayed at the home every Wednesday evening.

We were able to get a few projects off the ground for clotheslines and three new clothes closets. The clotheslines are done and the new closets are almost finished. There is also a pump house being built for the well, road repairs and culverts, and a pad for a chicken coop being worked on.

December was exciting with the kids coming over to our house in groups of three or four each time. The second time each group of kids came over, we took them to the lake about 40 minutes away for a fried fish or chicken dinner before returning to our home for movies. Tina, the director of Casa Hogar, did most of the Christmas shopping thanks to the many financial donations; Rick cooked a few special meals, and I spent a few extra nights at Casa Hogar. And then Melodie surprised us all (and of course herself) with the birth of her son Oliver! He was born a month early so I was much busier than expected trying to help the bilingual students with their English.

January was back to school after a nice two-week break for the bilingual students. This time around I (Ena) found it difficult to spend so much time tutoring and I was missing my time with the other children. The reality and joke is that I failed Grade 5 English Grammar yet am now on my fourth time teaching it! One day, during a break in a difficult day, I went for a walk around the “cancha” or cement sports field, as this has become my place to go for a walk, spend some time in prayer, and enjoy the warm weather. It is interesting how the kids will find me there for an opportunity for one-on-one discussions. One day, before I knew it, one of the kids who was on recess, was with me and we started going through his math tables as we walked. Later that morning during the next recess I was out again and another child came up to me and we talked about him going to one of the Tia’s (aunt's) houses for Father’s Day, and that I should make sure that I make a card for Rick. The other day during a five-minute recess one of them said, “Come on, Ena, let’s go walk on the cancha.” We talked about the story that he had to write for English. I went back and typed up what he had shared before we forgot. Side note: they love to watch me type as I can look at them and not the keys! “It is magic,” they say as they look from my face to the screen.

In January I (Ena) started doing the devotion with seven of the older girls when I stayed overnight on Wednesday evenings. We are going through the Discovery Bible Series of Creation to Christ, looking at the different passages and identifying what the passage says about God, about us, and what should we do or change in our life after reading it. Honestly, I am trusting in God’s guidance and divine intervention here as I struggle with the Spanish language and understanding what the girls are saying at times.

March has arrived and the Spanish school kids have been doing online classes at Casa Hogar for a month now. This week some of the schools are opening up to in-person classes and the bilingual students have end-of-semester exams, some of which are in person. This means that Rick will be doing a lot of shuttling kids back and forth. We are really hoping that next week more of the Spanish school children will have in-person classes and then the little “busito” will be bringing them to school. After two years of virtual learning, the children are ready to go back!

Even though I have it all
A poem by Paola | Inspired by the Bible and other works unknown

Even if I have all the money in the world
Although I have the meadows,
The most valuable jewels, a life
Full of love, but….
If I don't have God, I have nothing.

All the joy He has given me
Look at how great it has become
Maybe you don't know that I get up for Him
That I go everywhere to know His world.

He sleeps with the light on
But I can't sleep without knowing that He is my God
It's difficult but not impossible
He is the master of my life.

If the world freezes
His love and shine unfreezes it
If the world is against You
I am against the world.

Thank you, Ena and Paola, for the update and poem from Casa Hogar.

If you would like to support the work of the Casa Hogar, you can sponsor a child in the program.