Juan Marcos & siblings

Juan Marcos is recovering well & enjoying the extra TLC he gets at GCH! He & his siblings, David, Alan & Cessiah, are an important part of our home. We thank God for them!

ERIC, our evangelist!

Eric, our middle son (age 7), really gets it! He loves God and he GETS that others need to know about God too. A week ago, Eric came home from school with a smile that stretched from ear to ear and a joy that over-flowed. He exclaimed, "Mom, at school today I told Joel about Jesus!". Eric then told me how he explained to Joel (his classmate) that Jesus was THE ONE who died for our sins, rose from the dead, and is here for us. Eric asked Joel if he wanted to pray to receive Jesus in his heart, and Joel did it! That night for homework Eric wrote in his report about an important event in his life... it was leading Joel to Christ. The next morning Eric couldn't wait to go to school to tell Joel more about HEAVEN.
Have you thought about heaven lately???? Maybe you should... we're ALL either going there or a place where NONE OF US would want to go. If you're not sure about all this, ask Eric... he'll be MORE THAN HAPPY to tell you all about it.
THANK GOD FOR MY ERIC!!!!!!!!!!!

Blessings abound...

Sometimes I can't believe how blessed I am... I have a wonderful family, a miraculous place to work & live in, and incredible kids all around. Some look at the area around us and wonder how we could "give up" all we had to live here. WE feel HONORED and PRIVILEGED to GET to live here and do what we do. That's not to say it's easy... most good things require sacrifice and hard work. But it's sure worth it!
Here's a picture of our youngest, Marcus, with Leo (our first boy to move into GCH). Leo is one of those kids that make life here awesome!!!!

PLUMBERS NEEDED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Education Center is BLAZING along, but we DESPERATELY need plumbers. The exterior will soon be finished by local laborers who know how to do cement/ stucco work. The next step is rough plumbing, then sheetrock. We can't move forward until we get some plumbing work done. DO YOU KNOW SOMEONE WHO CAN HELP? Please let them know we NEED them and have them contact us ASAP.
In the meantime, here's a cool photo on the progress. Thanks to Lionel, our fellow servant in the Lord, things are really moving along here.

Thanksgiving in Mexico

Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday... perhaps because it's my dad's favorite, perhaps because it was the day George proposed to me exactly 16 years ago, or perhaps it's because I reflect of the millions of blessings GOD has POURED on me... even though I don't desevere it. Here is our GCH Thanksgiving celebration. I pray YOU all have had a blessed day of giving thanks to our LORD and SAVIOR. If you missed it, make sure you pay attention to OUR LORD'S birth... it's coming up pretty soon.

Welcome Home Juan Marcos!

After a successful and complicated surgery (and a week of recovery), Juan Marcos finally arrived home on Thanksgiving day. We all had MUCH to give thanks for... especially Juan Marcos. Thank you for your prayers! Did you notice the right angle on his foot?... he didn't have that before.

The Palau Family Photo

Have you ever tried to take a decent photo with your kids? If you have, you know it's a stressful event and it's never what you want it to be. Here's the BEST we could get yesterday. It includes George and I, Marcus (our blond 3 year old), Eric (our middle son age 7, in green) and George (our eldest age 8 , in orange). Hopefully we won't have to do that again anytime soon.

Chinese Food

Tonight, after taking our annual "Christmas photo", we decided everyone looked so good we needed to go out. So we packed all 29 kids in the vans, along with the staff, and went out for Chinese food. When was the last time you had Chinese food in Mexico? Talk about a multi-cultural experience. We were all hungry an hour later...

Update on Juan Marcos

As of yesterday, Juan Marcos is doing well and the surgery appears to have gone well. He's in a lot of pain and is in the hospital recovering. Please keep him in your prayers. It will probably be a long recovery as his bones, hips, spinal cord, muscles, tendons, etc will all need to realign over time. THANKS TO ALL OF YOU WHO HAVE RESPONDED AND PRAYED!

URGENT PRAYER REQUEST

Please pray for Juan Marcos! He is a boy who suffered from polio when younger and it affected his right foot and hand. Since coming to GCH he has learned how to walk well (without falling so much), run and even ride a bike! Now Shriner's hospital has accepted him for a surgery that will allow him to straighten out his foot and leg. With special shoes he will be able to walk with a more normal gate and be able to wear a shoe normally on his foot. He is so excited because for the first time he'll be able to run and play and not have his shoe fall off!
Juan Marcos' surgery is for Wed, Nov. 15th. PLEASE PRAY FOR A SUCCESSFUL SURGERY AND RECOVERY! And please tell all your friends and family to pray for him. This is a pre-surgery photo of Juan Marcos... we'll show you a post-surgery photo when he comes back.

Church Plant at GCH

One of the visions of GCH and Yugo Ministries is to plant a church next to GCH to reach our neighbors for Christ. Recently the Billy Graham organization televised a 3 day program in Mexico where Christians were encouraged to invite their friends and family into their homes to hear the gospel. Working with fellow missionary, Pastor Martin Castro, GCH invited our neighbors into our homes. During the 3 day event many neighbors attended and several gave their hearts to Christ! This group is now the beginning of our new church plant, Grace Bible Church of Santa Fe.
Please pray for this effort and our new brothers and sisters in Christ! Another important need is to purchase the land next to GCH in which to build a church. We still need $60,000 (U.S.) to buy this land. Once the property is bought we hope to build a church/ community center (breakfast feeding programs, indoor sports, outreach programs, etc). We have a lot of work to do!!

Yolanda, Chuyito & Denisse

Recently we said good-bye to 3 more of our children, Yolanda, Chuyito & Denisse (in the photo with our 2 house moms) who were adopted by a local family. We are happy for the 3 (who are biological siblings) because we know their new parents had to work hard to get them and they will take good care of them. It's hard to say good-bye to our kids, but it's good to know they're in the hands of people who will love and take care of them.
In the meantime, we received a new boy, Jose Luis (age 5), and we're expecting a new girl, Flor (age 13), any day. Please pray for our newest additions to GCH!

Updated needs

In an effort to keep you posted of our needs at GCH, here is our updated monthly list. Thanks to all who have helped meet some of these needs in the past!

Grace Children’s Home Current Needs List (updated 11/06)

Gift cards: Costco, Wal-Mart, Home Depot
Funding:
1. To continue construction of the Education Center
2. To finalize land purchase for Baby-Senior Homes and Church/ community center
3. For on-going monthly needs (water, electricity, transportation, medicine, etc)

Food: pinto beans, cooking oil, potatoes & tomatoes, cheese, chicken, hamburger meat, beef for stew, roasts, bacon, sausage, cilantro, fresh fruits & veggies, eggs, ham/ sandwich meat, hot dogs, children’s multi-vitamins, maseca, jello, powdered milk
Cleaning/ Household supplies: laundry soap, Clorox, stain remover for clothes, Ajax, dish soap, pinesol, fabuloso, disinfecting wipes, disinfecting spray, spray bottles, twin size sheet sets, fabric softener sheets
Paper products: TP, paper plates, napkins, Kleenex, paper towels, surgical gloves, gallon size Ziploc bags, plastic spoons, Costco size x-large storage containers (for clothes, etc), lunch bags, large black garbage bags, medium kitchen size garbage bags
HIGH PRIORITY: leak proof water bottles (for school lunches)
Personal Hygiene: shampoo, detangling spray, hair gel, diapers (sizes 5 & 6), diaper wipes, thick diaper ointment, deodorant, feminine hygiene products, disposable razors, hair brushes, purrell,
Clothes: winter PJ’s (boys & girls sizes 3T – 14 youth), shoes (black or athletic, sizes 8 toddler – 5 youth), white or navy turtle neck or long sleeve shirts (boys & girls, sizes 3T – 14 youth),
HIGH PRIORITY: beige boys dockers-style pants (sizes 6-14), navy sweaters & vests (boys & girls sizes 4T – 14 youth)
School supplies: erasers, hard back & CD-Rom Encyclopedias in Spanish for young adults (10+ yr olds), basic English curriculum (w/ workbooks, etc) for teaching 8+yr olds

One twin mattress: new or gently used
Laptop: (Windows) – mainly for email & GCH presentations (power points and CD’s)
Vehicles:
1. Fairly new 15 passenger van – low miles, reliable, good condition, pref. diesel
2. Trailer for intern housing – good condition, electrical/ water working

The Education Center:

The Education Center will contain 3 classrooms (1 of which can be used for medical/dental purposes), a computer lab, a library, administrative offices, dorms for visiting US teams & housing for staff. It will be used to provide supplemental education for the children (Eng. classes, Bible classes, skills training, homework help, computer classes, etc) as well as training for the church & community (foster parent & adoption training, nutrition & health education, Bible studies, Eng. & skills trainings, etc).

Estimated TOTAL COST to complete Education Center: = $100,000 (total)

The Babies & Senior Homes and the Church/ Community Center:

The Babies & Senior Center will house needy & abandoned babies and seniors and provide an environment for them to love on and care for each other. A down payment has been made to secure part of the land, and monthly payments need to be provided. In addition, GCH hopes to secure an adjacent property to provide more space for the babies and seniors, as well as property to plant a church/ community center.

Payments for present land (9 remaining) = $ 1,000 per month
Amount needed to purchase additional land = $65,000 (total)

Tia Helen

Tía Helen is one of the caring individuals who dedicates her time and love full-time to the children of GCH. Helen and her husband Lionel are new additions to GCH staff and it is a great blessing to us to have them on board. Helen has some health concerns, so we ask that you remember her regularly in your prayers. Thank God for people like Tía Helen!!

A Good Day

You know it was a good day when not one boy can stay awake through "movie time". Aren't they cute? Good night, sweet boys.