Day 1 – Travel and Orientation

Four-thirty came very early for the Aguascalientes team, as we all met at the Fort Wayne airport! Luggage check-in went smoothly and we circled up for a prayer with the team and family members.

Twenty-one of us boarded the 6:00 flight to Dallas. We transferred to another two-hour flight into Aguascalientes, where we were met by Jeremy and Duane, our hosts for the week. We are all thankful that out travels were smooth and our flights were on time!!!

Upon our arrival at Dulce Refugio, we received the Grand Tour…the facilities here are amazing and very unique, and we are honored to be able to serve here and help the permanent team expand their campus to provide a safe and healthy home for the children here.

Currently, Dulce Refugio is home to 54 children, and the new dorm we will be working on will house approximately fifty more. The office building is nearly complete, and will provide office space for the Director as well as a psychologist, medical staff, and several other workers. Dorm space for work teams are on the ground floor of this building, and are in the process of being finished.

The main children’s dorm was the first building completed, and is home to 24 children on each of the first two floors–six to a room. The third floor is a large rec room that also serves as a school room for some of the kids whose educational needs can’t be met in the public schools.

Children’s homes are frequently pressured to move beds closer together or add bunk beds to house more kids. But the construction planners at Dulce Refugio have been very deliberate in their desire to maintain a very high quality of life for these kids, designing the structure in such a way to ensure the kids have personal space and that they can never be overcrowded.

Our service this week includes helping pour concrete support beams for the future boys’ dorm, but the plan for Dulce Refugio goes much further. The team here is currently in negotiations with the city government to take ownership of a plot of adjacent land, where they plan to build a school, covered gym area, and a greenhouse and vegetable garden. All of these things will further help the kids of Aguascalientes and give them an opportunity to experience Jesus’ love!

The biggest request today is that you please join us in praying that the government will transfer this land to Dulce Refugio! We’ll share more over the coming week about the specific projects that we will be working on!!