Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Door of Faith Orphanage


In the first part of December a group of us from Saddleback Church will be heading down to La Mision, Mexico, for the day, to throw a Christmas Party for the 115 kids who live at the Door of Faith Orphanage.

We’ve partnered with this orphanage several times over the past year and have found that many of the children have been taken in by the orphanage due to abuse/neglect from their family members or their family is simply too impoverished to provide for their children’s everyday needs. It’s fairly rare that children are adopted out of Mexico’s orphanages because of the laws put in place by the Mexican government and the fact that if you adopt one child, then you are required to adopt all of their siblings as well- a task which most adoptive parents aren’t prepared to take on. As a result, these kids typically spend their entire lives in an orphanage.



Door of Faith does an amazing job of making the orphanage as much of a home as possible and providing for a sense of normalcy and hope in these kid’s lives. DOFO’s main focuses are:


Family- to provide a family atmosphere for their kids For example, they have someone act as the Tooth Fairy as the younger kids begin losing their baby teeth. They also ensure that each child has their own cake on their birthdays and as the girls turn 15, they each have a Quinceanera party for them.



Education- each child is placed in school. School is considered a luxury in this part of Mexico and many children grow up with minimal education. Not only does DOFO provide for schooling up to age 18, they have also helped provide financial support for those DOFO ‘graduates’ who are looking to go to college- they currently are financially supporting one of their kids as they go through Law School in Mexico City.



Community- DOFO is committed to providing back to the community they live in. If they ever receive a surplus of supplies or food, they ensure that it is distributed amongst the other orphanages in the area who may not have received as many donations. They also go out into the community and, in a fashion similar to Habitat for Humanity, build homes for those who have no homes.



As you can tell, DOFO is a wonderful organization who is committed to bettering their community, educating the next generation, and, most of all, in words taken from their website:

“The very reason we are here is to serve our Lord Jesus Christ through serving and seeking Him; our ultimate goal here is to raise responsible Christian adults.”

If you have any interest in providing a Christmas gift for one of these children, please go to this blog for instructions on how to do so.


http://www.loveinaction318.blogspot.com/

If you would prefer to provide a monetary donation, please click on this link and all proceeds will go towards helping the Door of Faith Orphanage.

http://www.firstgiving.com/dooroffaith

Thank you and God Bless!

Jul

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