Update from the Thorpe's (July 6, 2008)

Dear Friends, I just wanted to share that after months of prayer and planning, God did what He does best! He blessed us. We opened our doors to the boys of Hope House. Not in the way we expected, but in God's way and His timing. We had rented a house for the summer to house interns and mission teams. One weekend for a treat for the boys, we prepared it to receive them for a long, fun weekend. It went so well, and the boys were so settled that we as a team decided that we should just keep them and begin working directly with the boys in Ixtlahuacan. A few days after that, we made bid on their permanent housing and we will be closing on that in mid-July! God is so good. This new house is ready to move in with no repairs! We need to purchase a washer and dryer, a large refrigerator and it could use a new stove, but other than that, it is ready.

Of course, these first few weeks have had the expected bumps and learning curve. It is hard work! Rodney and Kina have sacrificed tirelessly and are trailblazing the road for a well-run home for the boys. I am so proud of how they are handling every decision with wisdom. Keep them in your prayers. This is their season to get it all running smoothly, it is the unavoidable, time-consuming task of putting together routine and settling the issues of "how-to-do" everything! But, they are shining in this role.

Rich and I get to take Saturdays for now. We are in the house from 8 am to 8pm or longer. We plan fun, full days. The past two weeks we have taken the boys to a pool at our friend's house. They have loved it. We have worn them out in the sun, then return home to watch a movie in the evening and they fall in to bed tired! We love the boys and they are responding to the language of love, and understanding our Spanish, in spite of many mistakes!

Havilah and Lydia, our interns are pitching in each day doing various duties. Lydia is there most mornings preparing breakfast and working in the kitchen preparing for the main meal of the day; comida. She is doing an outstanding job! She gets along with the boys and does whatever is needed. She is using her Spanish daily and is learning many new things. She is always smiling and willing to go for hikes with the boys, playing with them and having fun. Lydia is growing spiritually and is a great asset to the ministry. Havilah pitches in by doing all the laundry, watching Kina's girls as needed and also helping at the boys home! She has fallen in love with the boys and wants to spend even more time with them. She is a servant at heart in is willing to do whatever is necessary to help. Rich and I are enjoying her being with us in ministry. The girls are painting their casita and will be moving in there to settle down until the next team arrives and displaces them for a week! They are the interns, "that's what they are here for" is their daily mantra!

Forgive me for not communicating so much in the past few months. We have been so busy! The boy's home, hosting our first mission team, caring for the interns and just daily life!

Rich has been handy around the team house. He had to work for two weeks to prepare it for occupancy. Daily he has to go and do repairs. In addition to these duties, in the past months he has filled the pulpit for a pastor friend in Ajijic. He has also begun to teach bi-weekly in our home as we have begun a new cell group in our house for our church. Rich has several men that also keep in contact with him for mentoring and friendship from the church. He does extensive work planning for our short term mission teams and heads up the work project part of the teams. He also functions in the pastoral role for the interns, meeting and praying with them weekly.

I am involved in developing our volunteer program for the Hope House. I am on the Lake Chapala Foundation as one of the officers, representing the Hope House. This is a new organization uniting the non-profits and provides a joint organization for grant writing and fund raising. I am an advocate for inter-agency cooperation and help. With our last mission team we provided medical check-ups for a Catholic -run orphanage. It was a great success! I and others on the Foundation are hoping this fosters goodwill between agencies and a sharing of resources that has not happened in a large scale before. I love getting to know people all around the lakeside, representing the ministry and making the needs of the boy's home known.

Please take a look at the photos of our boys and visit our website: www.casahogarmexico.org

If you would like to help in any way, please drop me an e-mail, or you can call me at 217-391-4575. This is only a toll call from the US. We could really use cash donations for the purchase of the appliances I mentioned. We would like to purchase a front load washer and dryer as soon as possible!

Please spread the word to your friends about the Hope House!

Blessings to you! Meme