January Newsletter.

Please note info change on donating from U.S. and from Canada. Thanks!

         As we approach the end of January I am amazed. I have been in Guatemala almost 3 years. I am definitely not the same person I was when I first came. I have grown closer to God and tried to follow His plans for me and change to become more the child of God that He wants me to be. Some days I am more successful than others!

         I would like to share with you His calling for me to start a Children’s Home for kids with special needs. I have decided to call it Treasures of God Children’s Home-Casa Hogar Tesoros de Dios, as I want everyone to know how precious these children are to God.

        I continue to volunteer at Rehoboth, but I have the opportunity to start the paperwork process now. In order to start I need 50% of the $5000. USD fee. The whole process to become certified and licensed as a Children’s Home will take approximately one year. A social worker will be facilitating this and has a team of people that work solely on certifying and maintaining certification for children’s homes. He has worked for Rehoboth for many years and is completely trustworthy.

         I am going to start the process as soon as I have the $2500. Please pray about giving. Donations of any size are welcome and appreciated. If you are donating from Canada, you can visit www.ctenc.ca/naomiheye/ to make a donation online. Then choose one-time or continuous giving. On the next page you will be able to enter your country, amount donated, etc. If you are donating from the U.S., visit www.cten.org/giving and do a search for my name. Follow the instructions for giving after that. Please be sure to write me to let me know the money you are sending is specifically for the Home.

         When I was here in Guatemala for a visit in 2006 I met a little girl who had “brittle bone disease”. She had been tied to a chair by her mother and kept in a corner all day sitting in her filth for up to 12 hours a day. It horrified me.

         Here in Guatemala children who are born “different” or have problems are considered a punishment from God or a curse. Babies are often abandoned in the hospitals and the parents are never seen again. Often mothers are told by other family members to just kill “it”. Some kids are thrown on the side of the road and left to die. If the family chooses to keep them, they often never go outside as the family is embarrassed. Public schools won’t allow special needs children to attend. In the out-lying villages there is little education and families feel desperate and without hope.

         God has put a very strong desire in my heart to take special needs children that are unwanted and abandoned and make a new family. I want to take them to the pools and out to the store and down the street for ice cream. I want to provide therapies, medications, specialized surgeries and love.

         I have spent the last 2 years volunteering full time at Rehoboth learning as much about sponsorship, leadership, raising children and administration as I could in preparation for this. Before that I spent 5 months at a home for children with special needs. I learned a lot about the day to day care and needs of some very disabled children.

I am going to do some traveling to small towns with some people who work closely with families with special needs. This will help me get an idea in what geographical area I might be needed, as well as to meet with the families and really get a sense of how I can help them in a broader sense. Is there something I can help with without just taking their child into my care?

         As I near the end of my time at Rehoboth, I ask that pray for all of us. My biggest prayer is that the children don’t feel rejected when I leave. I have already told them I am leaving, as I wanted to give ample time for them to mentally process it. Pray for me. I have become family to these children and the staff there. It will be hard to leave. Pray for the people stepping in to take my place.

                                                                   God bless.                   

                                                                             Naomi Heye