Transformation Tuesdays Blog
By Marcio Matamoros, Education Coordinator
The Covid-19 Pandemic, although it sounds paradoxical, has also been an opportunity to make strategic changes. We must think that every crisis has a solution, an expiration date, a life changing experience. At Por Los Niños Bilingual school we have learned to be a lot more organized, punctual, tolerant, and even miss the noisy school environment. We had to make immediate changes and adjustments, urgent alternatives for educational continuity, and seek for the best options as an educational institution, which led to challenges and essential changes to continue giving education to our students.
By Lisa Steele, FLM Executive Director
In Psalm 68, we read that God is “a father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families.” At Family Life Missions, we have taken this Word as our mission: “To partner with God to set the lonely in families.” We began Family Life Missions 29 years ago providing residential homes for abandoned, orphaned, or vulnerable children through our Por Los Ninos Program. Unlike many organizations worldwide, we adopted a family setting as opposed to an institutional orphanage. We believed this was a better way. And it was.
But we have learned that placing children in actual family settings, whether through reintegrating biological parents, reunification with older siblings or other relatives, or through foster care, allows children to thrive and have fewer long-term struggles when living in a home with family. We believe, along with child welfare experts, that this is the best way.
by Karla Ponce
FLM Director of Holistic Care
Earlier this month, the verse in James 1:17 came to my mind: "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." It reminds me that all the services that FLM provides through its three programs come from God. And one of these gifts is that God has allowed us to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Por Los Niños School. And these 20 years have been a great gift! We also celebrate God's faithfulness by experiencing the impact of the lives of many children and families in the community of Catacamas.
As this new year progresses, we continue to grow with God, and we are convinced that God's vision is in the heart of the Por Los Niños school, of reaching generations that honor God and are competently transformed to serve the community, and to generate a transformation in their family and community. This fills me with great joy to know this!
In this new year, we feel challenged to serve our school children of whom many come from single mothers and children under the care of grandmothers (this is a reality within the context of Catacamas). This represents 24% of the population we serve. Several mothers have expressed their joy that their children are receiving a quality bilingual Christian education, where the educational staff are aware not only of the academic part, but of their integral development.
by Lisa Steele
FLM Executive Director
Experts tell us that there are 10 things every child needs to survive and thrive: interaction, loving touches, stable relationships, a safe and healthy environment, self-esteem, quality childcare, communication, play, music, and reading.
As Christians, we know that we must have Christ at the center of all of the above. For many years we have provided these needs for the children under our care at our Por Los Niños residential homes in Catacamas. We have provided loving, Christian caregivers in a nurturing, safe, and caring environment for many vulnerable, abandoned, or orphaned children. Studies have shown that residential home care is far superior to the older standard of “orphanages”. But we also know that placing a child in a home with a loving family is superior to residential home living, if done properly. When possible, we are trying to reintegrate families after months, or even years, of training, home visits with family members, and looking at needed resources. For those children who are able to be reunited with family, or who are old enough to leave our village, we provide monthly follow-up care with our social worker and psychologist to stay true to our mission to “partner with God and set the lonely in families”. (Psalm 68:6)
