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Our Family - click the pic below for more pictures

Our Family - click the pic below for more pictures
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Thursday, May 26, 2011

Updated House Pictures and Updated Needs

We continue to be amazed by the generosity of people in our lives.  We are so very blessed to have friends and family that are so loving and caring and that want to support us.  Yes, this generosity is seen in the donations that we've received, but just as important we are grateful for the people that are praying for us, the people that are encouraging us, the people reading our blog, the parents making room for us, etc etc.  I just can't say thank you enough to everyone that has in any way supported us in this crazy adventure.    

I received an email from Glen (the president of Art For Humanity) and he said the immediate need for the school/farm is a water storage tank that is about $2K.  I'm still trying to get all the details on this, but I believe this is a tank that will store clean water for the students and staff at the school and will be placed on a platform much higher than current storage tanks to provide increased pressure for showers/sinks/faucet.  If this is something that you think you'd like to donate towards, please let me know or go here and donate online!  IF YOU DONATE BEFORE JUNE 1st DONATIONS WILL BE MATCHED!  Awesome opportunity to do double with your donations. 

Also, if you are interested in donating specific items, the school is in need of general school supplies such as, mechanical pencils, notebooks, calculators, paper, etc.  Items can be given to Sarah or I or be sent to Glen in Virginia.  Address here.

Here are 2 pictures of the house that Art For Humanity is building for us.  Looks like there may be a little yard work to be done when we get there. :)

This was about a week and a half ago, and as you can see they are almost complete at this point.  It's very likely they are finished or will be finished this week with the house.  So exciting!

Saturday, May 14, 2011

ONE-WAY PLANE TICKETS

Officially purchased plane tickets last night!  It was a painful process, since I had 15 gift cards to pay and e-booking only allows 8 e-codes per transaction, and you can't book a 3 year old child by herself, and must call to reserve (and pay $25 fee) then link the reservations.  So after about 1 hour of unsuccessfully attempting to get the fee waived because the website is incapable of taking my gift cards, spending an hour on the phone, only dropping the call 3 times, I was finally able to get the tickets!  

After visiting Sarah's family and friends in NY, we will depart LGA airport on Tuesday July 12th at 6am for Tegucigalpa, Honduras.  Very exciting, but it was a little odd purchasing one way tickets, not knowing exactly when we will return.  But it was another step closer to the reality of moving to Honduras.

PS. Thank you Plastic Jungle for the 9% discount on my aa gift cards.  Please increase the value of the gift cards so we don't have to buy so many next time!  

Olivia's Final Thoughts: I'm going to Disneyland and New York.  (Not sure how Disneyland got in there...hopefully she's not too upset when she finds out its not happening...). :) Hi Computer!!!  Hi basketball eating..hehehehe...hey speaker stairs...hehehe..speaker stairs...speaker stairs...I'm just being funny...

Ira's Final Thoughts: What have I created!?!?  

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Update from Art For Humanity


Here is an update from Art For Humanity President, Glen Evans.
Meet Joseph, Hailey and Micah.
joe.jpg

Joseph and Hailey and 14 month old son Micah arrived on campus in late March. They are the first family to serve with us. They live in one of the houses on campus built specifically to house a family volunteering long term. They and their friends raised the money to build it as part of their donation to AFH. They have been teaching and are now taking on more administrative responsibilities. To read more about them, click here.
Opportunity To Double The Good You Do
We have been blessed with a $20,000 matching grant. Each dollar donated for the building project during May will be matched dollar for dollar so as to double your donation. This opportunity allows you to do twice as much good. Please consider donating now. To read more, click here.
An Inside Look
For a student to be accepted at the new Leadership College, she needed to be recommended by someone like the Peace Corps which is involved in Honduras. Some of the students were recommended by Water Missions International which made and posted videos of some of the student families. The videos allow you to see their homes and families which are typical of all our students. To see the videos, click here.
Laptops
If you are thinking of getting a new laptop computer, please consider donating your good used one. We have many, many students needing one. Perhaps you could inquire at work. When they upgrade, we’d love to have the old ones. We do not need any software so feel free to reformat the hard drive. If you don’t, we will.
Promoting Good Health
We took all of our students and workers to the dentist. This photo shows some of the students waiting in line.
Volunteer Opportunities in Honduras

We need many short term volunteers to come and volunteer at the college as tutors for a week or more. Please let us know if you or a group of your friends are interested in coming. Tutoring consists mainly of sharing conversation to help them learn English. To learn more about the college and tutoring situation, click here.
Honduran Embassy
The Honduran Embassy in Washington recently reached out to AFH thanking us for what we are doing in Honduras and offering their help. One of the helpful things they did was provide a document to make it easier for us to get donations through Honduran Customs.
Help Organic Farming 

There is much you could do helping to develop the farm that will eventually support the college. Whether helping with the coffee or bananna trees or with the chickens or on a building project, you will enjoy knowing that you made an important difference.
Chics
You Deserve A Break
Come to relax in the wilderness. To learn more about how to refresh yourself and recharge your life while supporting the college, click here.
Good Used Shoes Wanted
As always, we are asking you to help us find groups who will do a shoe collection. A pair of good used shoes allows someone to go somewhere....like out of poverty to self-sufficiency.

This photo is of some students of Kenmore Middle School and some of our volunteers who worked with them collecting over 400 pairs of shoes.
kenmore.jpg

Airline tickets and School Needs


I spoke with friend that is down in Honduras already and he wrote down a few things that the University and Farm are in need of.  Here is the list:

-mechanical pencils
-pens
-notebooks
-solar panels
-we're trying to raise $2,500 to take the students to Belize


If you are interested in providing some of these materials, you can send them to:

Art For Humanity
635 25th St. South
Arlington, Virginia 22202-2529

If you are interested in donating money for a specific need you can go to artforhumanity.org and donate there.

We are also hoping to purchase our one-way airline tickets to Tegucigalpa today!  Makes it that much more real!

Thanks again for your support.

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Update Letter #1

Hi All,
We’d like to thank all of you for your continued prayer and support for our move to Honduras.  We are about 2 months away from our big move and getting more excited by the day.  We are eager to dive into a different culture as we begin this season of our lives focusing in on pouring out to those who come from a less-privileged background than ourselves.  Here are some updates concerning preparation for our move;

Renting our home: We signed up with a management firm to find and screen a renter as well as take care of our home while we are away.  They put the house on the market on a Monday a few weeks ago and had a confirmed tenant by the next Thursday.  Praise God for quick work.  We also had 3 successful garage sales (yes, 3!).  
Friends/Safety: Some have expressed concern about safety while we are in Honduras, and that probably just means that you care about us.  I think the main assumption is that it’s dangerous if you are not in a “Western Country,” but safe if you are.  Honduras is a 3rd world country, but that certainly doesn’t equate to high crime or danger.  Most of the time, the reason one may get into trouble is because he is somewhere that he shouldn’t be.  The campus is located well outside the city (20 miles) in a fairly remote place where crime is essentially non-existent.  When I was there in November, I never once felt in danger whether in the city or near the campus. 
We also have friends (husband, wife and 1½ year old son) who have been there for a few weeks now and feel very comfortable.  They have been able to “test the waters,” as they say, before we arrive.  If we felt we would be putting ourselves and our children in great risk of danger, we would most likely not be going.
Blog: Though I haven’t updated our blog in a couple weeks, we’d really like to do most of our communication through it once we get closer to moving and getting down there.  Go to our blog website at http://theluciafamily.blogspot.com/. Click “follow” and simply enter your email address, then you will receive an email when we update. You can also create an account for easy access to the blog for comments and following.
Raising support: So far we have raised just over $3000.  That’s about 18% to our goal of $17,000 for the year.  Thank you for showering this opportunity with your blessings! We’d like to be right around 100% to our goal before we leave.  J  If you’d like to donate to our trip, you can mail a check to:
Solid Rock Fellowship Attn: Penny Stady
10500 SW Nimbus Ave. Bldg. T
Portland, OR 97223
Checks can be written to the church (for house building) or directly to us (for travel, insurance costs).  Only checks written to the church are tax deductible.  If you don’t care about a tax deduction, then we’d prefer to have the check written to us.  
In the memo line include “Lucia Honduras Trip”

God Bless,
The Lucia Family

-        You can read more about the Leadership University at this link. http://www.artforhumanity.org/projects/leadership-university/
-        Art for Humanity at this link. http://www.artforhumanity.org/
-        Our blog at this link http://theluciafamily.blogspot.com/   (don’t forget to “follow” us).
-        Please feel free to email/call us with any questions/comments or even concerns!  When we get down there, our best way of communication will probably be through our blog and email.
-        Our emails: irajoe17@hotmail.com or sjlucia@gmail.com