Current Projects

Investment Opportunities

Please consider investing in the Kingdom of God. The things we build together improve the lives of orphans and give jobs to the poor. An investment in the stock market might return something this year. An investment in the Kingdom pays eternal dividends.

New Home Complete with House Parents

We've completed many of the critical projects on the farm. We realize that Paula and I are not sufficient to parent twelve children alone. We need to start saving for and building a home for another family unit. Homes in Honduras are often built in phases as the money comes in. We believe $5000 would be a very good start on a home. Meanwhile, please pray that new parents would be chosen by the Lord to serve the children here.

New Hog Pen

The hogs need more room to root around, graze and frolic. This will help with their health and bring their food bill down. We need to build a wood fence around the pen area to keep them from rooting up the farm.

Retail Site

There is land available right on the highway in front of our neighborhood. This is an excellent retail location and this area is growing like wildfire. It is really an unknown gem. We could eventually put a bakery and restaurant on this land. The owner is asking $6600, but would sell it to the orphanage for $5300. We also know an honest, good cook whom would like to run a bakery.

Small School with Community Kitchen

We've begun schooling some of our boys and would like to help others as well. In addition, we'd like the building to also have a kitchen for lunch for the boys, families and people that work here. The kitchen could also be used to feed groups that visit.

Butchering Facility

We expect to butcher about 70 pigs and hogs this year and a lot more next year. We would also butcher cattle and goats if we had the facilities. We need a place to cleanly and safely handle the meat.

Fence

We need a little more fencing to give the cows a pathway to the front of the property. This would cut down on our lawn care and give the cows easy access to more food.

Cattle Guard

We could use a cattle guard to keep free range animals out (horses, mules, goats etc) and keep our cows in when they graze the front area.

More Goats

We sold our first kid goat this year, but we don't have a lot to replenish the herd. One thing we have not had in 2007 is any goats lost to dogs. This is a huge success over the previous year. Yes, we've "eliminated" some of the straying dogs but we also faithfully house the goats in a protective area at night that is closer to the house. It is time to get ready to open a dairy goat operation. With 20 or more producing dairy goats, we could create a productive job and produce a little income for the home.

Container and Canning Jars

We have an abundance of mora berries. Selling raw berries would not yield much or any profit. Paula makes excellent jam and many of the people we know have asked to buy it. There is profit to be made for the home with jam. Problem is we have nothing to put the jam in. We need canning jars and lots of them (probably wholesale quantities). We've never seen them for sale in Honduras. We also need to get the jars down here along with a lot of the items in our storage area that could help the home. A full container costs about $3600 to get from our home church in Euless, TX to our area in Honduras. We normally share containers with others and believe we would need less than a half container.

Hardware Store - Opened November 2007

Thanks to some generous support by friends including Valley Church in Colorado, our hardware store is stocked and ready to go. Time will tell how the store will help support the children's home. We believe it could help greatly in training the boys for business and financially. There are plenty of local ministries in need of operating funds. Please pray that the store will expand and more locations and opportunities will present themselves. Especially pray that honest, Godly people can be trained and found to manage the stores.

Hog Pens - Completed July 2007

Most of the money was provided by a guest (friend) and his church. As of early July, we were wrapping up the doors and the roof. More pigs arrived July 16. We definitely needed the new rooms! We outgrew our current pig house months before.

Hen House - Completed April 2007

The hen house was completed in middle of the garden with a fence that separates the hens from the garden. We garden one side in the dry season and the other in the rainy season. The hens fertilize the side we are not using. We purchased 22 hens and four roosters when the house was complete. As of June, 27 chicks were hatched and we have enough eggs to keep us cooking! We would like about 40 more hens but we might just wait on the chicks to grow.

Water Well - Completed January 2007

We have been pumping H20 for two months now. Honestly, we feel a little guilty when guests come and we are able to pour our drinks right out of the faucet. It's safe to say that far less than 1% of Honduras can do the same. Still, we want to show the boys how life can be and how they can help their fellow countrymen.

Fences - Completed Summer 2006

We fenced off one of the old corn fields to use as pasture for beef cattle.

Fruit Trees, Pastures and Veggie Gardens - Complete July 2006

We planted about 120 blackberry plants, orange trees, mango trees and avocado trees last year. We've been transplanting some of the little plants that spawned off from the main ones (especially blackberries). We created an irrigation system to keep the plants and trees from withering in the dry season. God increases our understanding daily.