Transformation Tuesdays Blog
By Lisa Steele, FLM Executive Director with Molly Borneman, FLM Social Media Manager
“The end is near! Repent!”
I heard these words as I walked past a man reading from Revelation last Saturday at my town's Farmer’s Market. People walked by him without a glance. He kept loudly proclaiming this truth, yet no one was listening. It made me wonder why he was doing it. He is there every Saturday morning. Yet, he engages no one in conversation. There is no connection—no relationship forming. The words are true, but the action is missing.
I think about Marleny, Belkis, Carlitos, Selvin, Jandy, Wilson, Carolina, and many others who have received blessings from our Family Life Missions volunteers. Whether they are recipients of our programs or serve as FLM staff, they have seen words put into action.
"What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”—James 2:14-17
Our volunteers are living out this verse when they serve the Catacamas community. They are also blessed as they bless others with their words and actions.
“Participating with FLM left me inspired, encouraged, challenged, and stronger in faith. Whether interpreting a Bible story for the school devotionals, or on the Building Dreams worksite, interacting with the FLM staff, or entertaining the children on campus, each experience gave me a wonderful view of Christ’s kingdom lived out in diverse and practical ways.”—Elizabeth, Mission Team Member from Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
by Carmen Solis, Coordinator of Holistic Care and Social Worker
At Family Life Missions, we believe that the reason for hope is: God is Faithful! This assures us that we can trust God to fulfill his promises, as we have seen in human history. This conviction keeps us alert, hopeful, and permanently vigilant as we discover “God with us” in the programs we serve and our environment as He fulfills His promises. For 30 years, as we have been serving the community of Catacamas, we have had the certainty of His support and accompaniment.
Family Life Missions staff focuses daily on doing the work that the Lord our God has entrusted in our hands. The challenge is knowing how to wait tirelessly, creating the conditions to do everything excellently. We are convicted that God has our back in a life of commitment and constant work.
Thinking about the community families we serve through our Family Preservation program, we focus on the fruit of Hope and Joy. It is not that we are moved by a primary emotion or a feeling but by virtue of the Christian life. "Live always joyful, give thanks on every occasion," Paul writes in the letter to the Thessalonians. This is a call for all, without exception, to practice joy in the midst of life's adversities and the changing circumstances that families have to face. Joy is contagious, bears witness to Christian hope, and is acquired solely based on practicing it through faith. This is the case of the Vásquez family, whom we have served since 2017, and this year they had the opportunity to help them have a decent home, filling them with happiness and gratitude while fulfilling a dream they had been asking for in prayer for many years.
by José Chinchilla, Honduras National Director
Unfortunately, around the world, there are many children without families. This is for many reasons: parents who continue using past cycles of abuse and mistreatment and who have decided to live the same cycles with their children, spiritual death, poverty, migration, etc. Many children have not had the opportunity to raise their voices and say, "Mom, I'm hungry," "Daddy, I want to play with you," or "Mom and Dad, can you hug me." Many of these children are going through life without much hope of having a family. Many are being placed in children's homes and orphanages. This is not an unpleasant option, but it's not the best space God provided for a child to grow up and live in a safe place.
It is within a loving, flawless/flawed family, where peace and security reign, that a child needs to live. We see in the Bible the importance that God gives to the concept of family. We can observe entire lineages. The books of Kings and Chronicles are full of offspring. This is a great sign that family is very important to God and has a lot to do with our identity in Jesus. In these 30 years of serving vulnerable children, Family Life Missions has realized that working for the family is what God wants us to do. These children from "hard places," as Dr. Karyn Purvis called them, need a family where they can heal their wounds and trauma. Sadly, they remain the most forgotten population today, with the church forgetting the call to care "... for the youngest of my brothers...". For this reason, we work with the churches of Catacamas to embrace this call so that we can give a family to these children who need it most.
By Lisa Steele, FLM Executive Director
For 30 years, we have cared for vulnerable, abandoned, orphaned, and at-risk children in Honduras. As we have learned new and better ways to care for them, we have expanded our Family Preservation Program and added Foster Care. One way we try to preserve families is to reintegrate children who live at our residential home into their biological families. When a family member is located, our Holistic Care Team meets with them to determine if they have the physical, mental, and spiritual means to care for their child or children. If we see a possibility for reintegration, we begin a long and arduous process that includes supervised meetings on our campus, home visits, parenting classes, and spiritual guidance.
We also provide Foster Care for children under five years of age. A child is placed in a loving, Christian home after that family has undergone an extensive accreditation process where they learn about family dynamics, trauma and receive tools and resources as they welcome a child into their family. As one of two organizations that work with Honduran Children's Services, we are excited to see this work grow within the country. We are honored to be chosen to work with the government to provide training and resources to other organizations.
