Hope House Welcomes Lupita and Her Children!

I would like to introduce you to Lupita and her children Diego, Ruby and Brenda (the baby). They will be moving into Hope House this week and be our first resident family. Lupita is 19 years old and a "widow". When she was 15, she met Francisco, who was 42 at the time. She became pregnant and while she was expecting, they began to attend La Sombra, a church pastored by some missionary friends of ours - Rich and Lori Barcelona. They accepted Christ and began attending church regularly. Unfortunately, Francisco was still married to his first wife and had children in another part of Mexico who were older than Lupita. They wanted to get married, but circumstances made that difficult and they were unwilling to separate, so they left La Sombra and began attending another church that embraced them and their unwed status. This last fall, I believe in September, Francisco had a series of heart attacks and then died, leaving Lupita and her children alone and with no means to support herself. Some neighbors gave her a house to use and she found some work here and there to feed her kids, but it has been tough. Then this past week, the family asked her to move out within 10 days. When Lori Barcelona heard about this, she called me to find out if Hope House was ready. I was elated to say "YES" and we would love to invite Lupita to live there!

Some of you may remember that Lupita was one of the first young ladies that we mentioned when we were first beginning to plan for Hope House. Today, I went to pick her up and bring her over to see Hope House. She is very happy that God has provided this for her and her children. She will most likely be moving there this coming Wednesday.

God is going to fill Hope House with those He chooses and we are waiting for Him to lead and guide us. All the details are not ironed out yet and there are still a few projects that need to be completed, but we are very excited to be able to help Lupita!

We still have some needs and we also need monthly support to begin to take care of the added expenses of getting Hope House running and filled with women, children and teen girls. We are estimating that our minimum costs will be about $2,000 per month more than we currently have coming in for Hope House. That would cover 4 or 5 teen girls and 3 moms with their children - about 15 people. Please pray with us that God will move on hearts to provide the funds to support Hope House!

Here is a current list of needs:
Washer and dryer
Shelving for storage areas
Bi-fold door for storage area
Windows/glass (currently there is only plexiglass in the windows)
Parts to repair evaporative cooler (before it gets too hot)
Exterior lighting
Walls and/or fence around property
Small playground for children
Shed to house washer and dryer
Plywood or T111 to block back fence
Bookshelves
Books in Spanish and English

If you would like to donate any items or send funds to provide any of these items, please feel free to email me at dolphinplus@juno.com.

Also, we are having a Giant Yard Sale in Yuma, AZ this coming Saturday, April 12th, in order to raise funds for Hope House. I am specifically hoping to raise about $500 to purchase the Bible curriculum in Spanish and English that we are planning to use in Hope House. If you are in the area and would like to help, contact me. I could use all the help, and prayers, possible!