By Lisa Steele
FLM Executive Director

En Español

The world over it has been a year of wearing masks, social distancing, no travel, unemployment for many and sadly for some, loss of health and/or life. Honduras was not an exception. Already the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, Honduras has suffered greatly during the COVID-19 pandemic. And then came the hurricanes. Another unprecedented event—two back-to-back massive hurricanes hit Honduras and other Central American countries causing loss of homes, lives, and jobs.

But God.

Through it all, God has been ever-present and faithful. Even with a pandemic that closed many doors this year, so many were opened as well! We placed our fifth foster child with a loving, Christian family this week. DINAF (Honduras Children’s Services) certified Family Life Missions as a qualified organization for the provision of services for vulnerable children in an Institutional Residential setting giving us the maximum score required according to the national standard. To get this certification, we underwent a series of external evaluations and compliance checks with a scale of standards of 160 criteria grouped into six components: 1) Legal Status 2) Human Resources 3) Financial Structure 4) Institutional organization 5) Infrastructure and equipment and 6) Quality services of Child Care and Protection. We are thankful for our dedicated staff in Honduras and USA, our Board of Directors, our donors, Red Viva Honduras, network of volunteers, local churches, the community and support from other nonprofit organization friends and co-workers. Together we are joining forces to provide quality care to vulnerable children in Honduras.

 

We built two homes for families in our Family Preservation program so that their family can have the opportunity to reunite under the care and oversight of our staff.

We see God’s provisional hand as our children and staff have been kept safe and healthy this past year. Although all recreational activities outside of our PLN village were canceled, our creative staff kept our children active and engaged. We were blessed to open our new Creative Arts Center with music and art classes for our students. Our multi-use building was finished so that the children could play volleyball, basketball, and other sports under the cover of a secure roof during the very long rainy season this fall. We began teaching our older students how to cut hair to prepare them for jobs in the future. Our staff found ways to serve the community by helping to distribute food.

And we are teaching our children the importance of giving thanks and of giving back to the community. Our staff and children entered a contest and won food that was given to those in need. Check out the video below to see the always creative Karla Ponce working with students to prepare their award-winning dish! And every December our PLN children and staff bake cookies and beautifully package them to take to our donors and volunteers in Catacamas to thank them for their donations of time and resources.

As we approach the end of 2020, we thank God for His provision. For His faithfulness. And we thank you for your prayers and support. We have been blessed by so many people across the United States who care for our vulnerable children and families in Catacamas.

If you would like to make an end-of-year gift, you can click on the donate button. There are many needs, but without a doubt, we know that God will provide.

He is faithful.