Hacienda Of Hope

This is a picture of Hugo Sandoval, one of our house parents. He is making a public PowerPoint presentation at San Jose Chico, the small pueblo on the mountain just above the Hacienda de Esperanza. Hugo obtained permission from the President of the community to present information about how to have a better marriage, better family and a better home. He has been working for weeks preparing 210 slides for the four hour presentation. Besides this 4 hour presentation, he was the pulpit preacher and also taught the adult bible hour class ...all in the same day yesterday! The community turned out with a nice crowd yesterday afternoon even though it was cool and rainy. Hugo explained all about the Hacienda de Esperanza and mentioned that plans were being laid to start a new congregation of the church of Christ in the near future. Hugo is a very vivacious speaker who makes Bible stories animated with lively illustrations for the children each day during our devotional period between 5:30 and 6:00 P.M.

Kevin & Laura, our youngest son and daughter-in-law have been richly blessed with the birth of their first child ...a boy. Benjamin Garen Snyder was born at 12:39 A.M. November 10th. He weighed in at 8lbs. & 9 ozs. and was 20 3/4" long. It is great to finally see the precious little bundle we have been praying for so long! He raises the count of grandchildren to number six in North America and the number to 21 including all those who call us Grandparents in South America! Pat was blessed to have made it in time to witness this landmark event of our family. We express our sincere gratitude to all who have prayed for God's guidance of this blessed event and for Pat's long, safe journey! We rejoice with Kevin & Laura for God granting them the untold happiness of baby "Benjamin" ...to God be the Glory!

After years of being told by doctors they could not have other children, Martin & Lorena share their excitement in having God answer their prayers for another child. In this picture, Martin, Lorena along with Pat & I break the news to the Twickenham group here last week! The happy news was short lived however as Lorena suffered unusual pain in her side sending them to the doctor last Friday. The doctor warned it could be a "tubule pregnancy" and scheduled more test on Tuesday (this morning). Everyone who knew of this extremely dangerous situation was in serious prayer for the life of Lorena as well as the baby all weekend! I tried to brace myself for the bad news and spent time with Martin in prayer on Sunday and Monday. Today, the doctor was able to confirm that the baby and Lorena were both doing excellent and even gave us pictures of the healthy baby! He did warn Lorena to "slow down" and not be lifting heavy things which caused the pain in her side last week. What a relief for all of us ...we all cried for joy as we very thankfully prayed to God for this wonderful news! My heart is much lighter tonight as I proudly publish this wonderful announcement! The Lord willing, the baby will be arriving in it's loving home with lots of anxious family in June, 2006!

Fourteen people from the Twickenham congregation arrived here at the Hacienda of Hope on October 29 and stayed until yesterday, November 5th. It was lots of fun for the kids to meet new friends and remember some of the people they had met before. It has given them more of the feeling of being part of a big family that shows lots of love. Coming from a background of knowing very little to no love at all, our children just soak up these times of receiving special attention. A birthday party dinner on October 31st was a highlight to them as a new story was told and fun games unfolded into a grand evening ...just for them! Having family devotional in the new prayer dome was also exciting to them as the group of Americans sang their devo. songs in English! Lorena & Jenny receive hand made quilts from the children (and parents) of Twickenham in the picture. The adults enjoy playing late night Monopoly with the house parents in another picture.

As construction of the first casa, corner apartment, and many property improvements came to a close, God (through Jerry) began challenging the Hacienda supporting congregations with raising some substantial funds for the 2006-2007 timeframe. In discussions with the leadership of both Twickenham and Northridge after the fact, there was concern that the challenge was too great a stretch. However, when the dollars and commitments were tallied, God provided a 30% increase over the goal of $330K for a total of $420K. Praise God, and thank you for your kind hearts and giving spirits!