At 16 years old, *Paola already knows what she wants out of life – her own restaurant and a successful future for her 3-year-old daughter, *Amelia.

“I want her to see that she can overcome anything, like I did,” Paola said.

From age 8 to 12, Paola lived in a nightmare. Her mother would hit her; her stepfather treated her like a maid.

“I had to cook and clean. If I didn’t, he’d hit me,” she said.

One day, while sitting on the couch, Paola’s stepfather started touching her inappropriately.

“I didn’t like it so I threw the sandals in his face. He got mad. He had three sharp knives and hit me with one of them,” she said. Knives, sticks and cable wires were part of his typical repertoire of power. But soon the violence escalated to include sexual abuse.

For more than four years, Paola was abused every day. Her stepfather would choke her or hit her while he abused her, and would warn her that if she told anyone, he’d kill her mother and sisters.

“I didn’t want to say anything because I loved my mom and sisters. But I think my mom already knew,” she said.

One day, while Paola’s four little sisters and stepfather were in another room, she snuck out and went to her neighbor’s house. They saw her bruises and she told them how she was treated.

“I didn’t know I was pregnant at that time,” Paola said. “My neighbor explained to me what it was because I didn’t know what it meant. I cried because I didn’t want a baby.”

It wasn’t long before her mother found out where she was and came looking for her; Paola felt guilty for leaving and returned back home. That’s when the neighbor called the authorities and explained everything she knew.

When a social worker arrived to Paola’s home, she wouldn’t tell her what happened. So they took her to the judge, where they revealed a diary of all the abuses Paola had endured. Her neighbor’s husband had written down everything Paola had told them.

“I didn’t want to say anything because my mom was there, and I was afraid I would end up back home and they would beat me,” she said. “So they took me upstairs to read the diary from my neighbor. They asked me if it was true, and I said yes to everything. I didn’t know that there were cameras. My mom was watching me, and when I got out she was really mad.”

An examination revealed that Paola had been violently abused for an extended period of time. Doctors were concerned about her well being, as well as the baby’s, but there wasn’t anywhere for her to go. So they sent her to live at a government orphanage for girls.

Two months later, Paola gave birth to her daughter Amelia and the two of them were placed in a Buckner Transition Home.

“At first, I didn’t love my daughter. I would look at her and she reminded me of everything bad that happened. I remembered everything about how she came to be,” Paola said.

Paola would stay awake crying at night, and at first she relied on the house parents to care for her daughter. One day, when Amelia was 9 months old, they told Paola that they would have to take Amelia away from her if she didn’t start being a better mother. That’s when things began to change.

“I never want what happened to me to happen to my little girl,” Paola said.

Paola started caring for Amelia and going to school. Today they are receiving a top-rated education. They each attend a private home school and Paola goes to baking classes where she’s learning how to be a chef.

“I know that God has brought me here,” she said. “This is a great place. They’ve helped me in so many ways. My little girl is learning, too – the kind of learning I wouldn’t be able to give her myself.

“I feel like I’ve overcome everything that’s happened to me now. I’ve learned to let go of my anger. I work on that a lot. One day, I want to go out and tell people my story to let them know that if they’re in this same situation, they can leave it, too.”

To learn more about the ways you can support Buckner Transition Homes around the world, please call Buckner Foundation at 214-758-8050 or email foundation@buckner.org.

*Names have been changed to protect identities

Buckner Opens New Centers in Tegucigalpa, Roatan

By Jenny Pope
Buckner International

Watch video about Buckner Honduras director 

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – Scattered along the river banks of Flor del Campo, women and children cram into tiny, corrugated tin cottages. It’s the only land they can afford to live on, at least until the river swells and they’re forced to move to higher ground.

“The men go to the seashore to collect sand to sell to construction workers; most of the women sell tortillas,” said Karen Medina, Buckner social worker at the new Community Transformation Center in Flor del Campo. “They are very poor, and there is a lot of violence.

Buckner Honduras director Yaneth Contreras conducts media interviews at the CTC opening.

The new Community Transformation Center will provide a centralized location for community services in Flor del Campo, an impoverished neighborhood of Tegucigalpa. In addition to organized sports, computer and English classes, licensed social workers are developing life maps for families in the area. They have already visited 30 families in their homes, Medina said.

“We went to one very small, little box house with 20 people living in it,” she continued. “There was an elderly lady who was not being attended to and kids who were not being fed properly. They had an attitude of hopelessness. If we don’t change the attitudes, we can’t change the community. This is why we’re here.”

Hundreds of families gathered July 7 to celebrate the opening of the new center in Tegucigalpa, which included performances from the national folklorico and marimba band and four national TV stations.

Dr. Albert Reyes, Buckner International president, places a pair of new shoes on a child's feet.

Vice Minister of Health Javier Pastor attended the celebration and affirmed Buckner’s approach at creating sustainable community programs in Honduras.

“By working to improve conditions on the micro level, the whole neighborhood can improve,” Pastor said. “There are a lot of needs – education, jobs, health. Our system is outdated. We are trying to change our approach to make it more purposeful.”

Part of that approach includes partnering with creditable NGOs, like Buckner, who can provide services for children and families while monitoring the effectiveness of the programs, he said.

“The partnership with the community makes is sustainable. By coming to the neighborhood, they have a sense of belonging – it’s theirs. We really appreciate your involvement.”

The new Community Transformation Center in Roatan is centrally located to provide services to many of the islands most needy people.

Buckner opened a second Community Transformation Center July 8 on the island of Roatan, Honduras, with more national media attention and hundreds of islanders in attendance. The center will provide day and night care for children while their mothers attend school. It will also offer English and computer classes to improve education levels.

At the ceremony, Buckner signed an official agreement with Roatan Mayor Julio Galindo, who has donated the use of the building rent free for three years. Galindo said they are facing some serious problems in Roatan due to the migration of hundreds of people to the island following Hurricane Mitch in 1998.

“People are without education, looking for jobs. They don’t have sewer, potable water, roads. Some are living like squatters,” he said. “It’s beyond the capability of the municipality; we don’t have the means to help.”

When Buckner approached Galindo in April about their plans to help the community, Galindo said he started researching the organization.

Buckner president Albert Reyes shakes hands with Roatan mayor Julio Galindo. Galindo has provided the building for the new CTC rent free for three years.

“I looked at the legal status of the organization and found out nothing but good things. I knew that they could do a lot to help. Hopefully I can continue helping them, too,” he said.

Buckner International President Albert Reyes attended both CTC openings and said they were some of the best celebrations he’s been a part of since elected as president in January.

“What Honduras is doing is a model for all of Buckner,” he said. “What I’ve seen around the world is NGOs who do their own services – health, water wells, food. That’s the specialty of the group and so they do this one thing and then they leave. We’re trying to bring a better solution to prevent separation of families. The CTCs have the ability to truly transform communities, and that’s what we’re all about.”

Learn more about Buckner Honduras at www.bucknerhonduras.hn. To help support Buckner CTCs, please call Buckner Foundation at 214-758-8050.

As I hop out of the white van, I pretend not to see her. I’ve been here before; I know her name and she knows mine. It’s a game we play.

So I look about, calling for her, “Sharon?  Sharon?” Of course I see her. She’s standing 10 feet in front of me, grinning, looking at me, and playing our game. The others gather around her, saying, “This one! This one! This is Sharon!” I look left, I look right; I turn around looking for her, still pretending. Behind me I hear her laugh, and then she runs around to plant herself directly in front of me, hands on her hips. “Here I am!” She said. So begins my sixth trip to Kenya and my third visit to the Seed of Hope orphanage in Kitale.

Of all the memories that I collect in Kenya, Sharon’s is one that stays with me. I feel for her hurt and her struggles. And to make the story more tragic, one afternoon, I found out that she is HIV positive.

The social worker told me her story of abandonment, and how she and her siblings were left to fend for themselves in filth and hunger. How the calamity of HIV, the only thing given to her by her mother, was beginning to tear apart her little body. I listened to this tale of loneliness and desperation, and it darkened my vision. It is true that this child is now much better off in the care of Buckner. Seed of Hope clothes her and provides the medicine she needs. She looks healthy and strong. She’s in school and has friends. Still her story remains fixed in place, unchangeable. How does she hide it? Where does her laughter and joy come from?

It wasn’t until we were leaving, as the tears rolled down her face, that I began to understand the other side of her story. She’s scared, I think, and I feel certain she longs for a mother and father. She’s lonely, and uncertain. She wonders: will we come back? Do we love her? Do we care?

Yes, I care. I care more than I can express. I think of her every day. Like others before me, I think of these children and ask God, “Why is this so?” By grace, my faith gives me just enough strength to allow the question to hang unanswered.

For me, perhaps the answer isn’t as important as the fact I care enough to ask—I really don’t know. What I do know is that in the end, having found few answers, I can only fall back on my faith in God and on my knowledge of who God is. I know that as much as I love this girl and desire good things for her, God loves her infinitely, unimaginably more. So I step out in faith and prayer, trusting our Heavenly Father to tend to His wounded daughter. I pray that if I can somehow be an instrument for this task, then please, Lord, use me, tell me what to do.

For now, I do what I can. For me, this means that I go back. I go until I just can’t go anymore. I’ll show her that because God cares. I care. I’ll show her that because God loves her, I love her. I’ll show her that because she matters to God, she matters to me. As long as God’s plans make room for me to go to Kenya, I’ll hop out of that white van, look around, and call her name again and again.

“Sharon?”

Dave Atkins has made six trips to Kenya since December 2005. He has visited the Buckner Seed of Hope Orphanage three times.

Holme Oltrogee consoles his mother, Nguyen Thi Thuan. Oltrogee was among a group of orphans fleeing Vietnam for Buckner Children’s Home in Dallas in 1975. His mother took him to the Cam Ranh City Christian Orphanage during the Vietnam War and the two had not seen each other for 35 years. He was also reunited with this five brothers and a sister he’d never met.

By Scott Collins

Click here to watch video from the reunion trip.

NHA TRANG, Vietnam – Thomas Ho holds his cousin’s right leg and foot in his hands as his wife, Trina sits nearby with a calculator. They are surrounded by a dozen family members from the Quang Nga Province of Vietnam who have made the day-and-a-half journey here by bus.

It’s been seven years since Ho’s cousin has had a new leg and the group is trying to figure out what a new one will cost. It can be purchased in Danang and before he returns to the United States, Thomas promises to provide the money to buy the leg. Everyone’s best guess is $300.

Thomas Ho looks at the prosthetic leg of his cousin, Dong, 52. She lost her leg to a land mine during the Vietnam War when she was 14. The cousins had not seen each other for 35 years, when Ho fled Vietnam for Buckner Children’s Home in Dallas.

When he set up the meeting with his cousin, Ho’s intent was to buy her a wheelchair. And while she is grateful for the offer, the cousin says a new leg is better. Life is too hard for a wheelchair and it would complicate her work making rice cakes.

The leg is a causality of the Vietnam War, lost in 1973 when Ho’s cousin was just 14 and she stepped on a land mine. Two years later, the cousins would lose something else – each other.

For some in the crowded hotel room, this is a reunion with a relative they haven’t seen in 35 years. For others, this is the first time they’ve ever seen Ho.

“I’m very emotional,” he said. “You didn’t see me earlier, but I was crying.”

Thomas was part of a group of orphans returning to Vietnam, many for the first time, since fleeing the country for Buckner Children’s Home in Dallas. It’s a trip that’s been in the making for years and the group timed their return to coincide with their arrival at Buckner 35 years to the day they stepped off busses on June 12, 1975 and filed into Pires Dormitory on the Buckner campus.

Ty (Thang) Cope scoops up dirt from the site of the abandoned Cam Ranh City Christian Orphanage during a reunion of orphans in Vietnam.

The arrival at Buckner ended a harrowing flight that started April 2, 1975, from Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam. The group of 69 orphans, 13 staff members and their 13 children made the trip on land, sea and air, being shot at and stranded in a leaking boat before arriving at the Vietnamese Relocation Center in Fort Chaffee, Ark. From there, they spent several days as guests of West Memorial Baptist Church in Houston before finally arriving at Buckner.

The connection to Buckner came through Jim Gayle, a former Southern Baptist missionary in Vietnam who served as chaplain at the orphanage when he lived nearby. Gayle and his wife Margaret made the June reunion trip with the group.

Gayle, who was raised at Buckner Boys Ranch in the 1950s, called Buckner President R.C. Campbell in 1975 and asked if Buckner Children’s Home in Dallas could take in the group.

And while individual members of the group have made pilgrimages back to Vietnam over the past 35 years, the trip this summer was the first organized return for the orphans of the Cam Ranh City Christian Orphanage. The theme for the trip, emblazoned on T-shirts and caps, was “Get Love, Share Love,” something the orphans say they learned from their Vietnamese leaders and from Buckner.

The trip included family reunions with relatives many of the orphans have never met. A banquet June 12 was hosted by Buckner International. In addition, a group of the Buckner orphans joined Buckner staff visiting orphanages in the north part of Vietnam where Buckner works with government officials to help orphans.

Cam Ranh City Christian Orphans attend the Hoi Thanh Baptist Church during their reunion trip. The church was started in the 1960s by Southern Baptist missionaries.

During their return, the orphans visited the original site of the Cam Ranh City Christian Orphanage, now an elementary school. As they wandered around the grounds, some of the orphans knelt with empty water bottles in hand to scoop up sand from the ground as a souvenir.

Holme Oltrogee, of Frisco, Texas, was overcome with emotion when his mother, whom he had not seen since he was 10, arrived along with his brothers and a sister he’d never met. Now 42, Holme said he is thankful for the way his life has turned out, including his adoption from Buckner by Gene and Alice Oltrogee.

But he admitted a long-standing desire to return to Vietnam and see his long-lost birth mother. “This reunion forced me to come back,” he said. “I needed to come back. I learned more about myself.”

For Kelli St. Germain, who now lives in Hopedale, Mass., the return connected her with a past she never really knew. St. Germain was one of the youngest of the group of 69 orphans fleeing Cam Ranh. She had been placed in the orphanage by an aunt, who took her in after her parents were killed by a land mine explosion while walking through a rice field.

She managed to find the aunt, now 87, who placed her in the orphanage. The aunt still lives in Cam Ranh in the wooden house that’s been her home all her life. It’s also the home St. Germain lived in briefly before going to the orphanage.

“My husband and I have always said that we wanted to learn more about my roots,” she said. “We would eventually like to travel here with our kids to learn more about the culture. We feel it’s important for them to know where they came from.”

Analiz G. Schremmer

SAN JOSE PINULA, Guatemala – Buckner opened a new Community Transformation Center on May 25 to serve people in one of Guatemala’s most impoverished communities — San Jose Pinula.

Many children in the San Jose Pinula community do not go to school, like this child who cares for goats in the streets outside the new center.

“We did a socioeconomic study and found that there was great need,” said Liliana Arcely Pineda, Buckner social worker at the CTC. “We found illiteracy, poor health, and malnutrition among children; that’s why we chose this place.”

The CTC will offer English classes, literacy classes, computer classes, a medical clinic and more in collaboration with several community partners. Licensed social workers will also provide personalized case management for families, all with the goal of keeping families together and preventing children from being abused, neglected and abandoned.

 “There is an orphanage close by and we want to transform the community so that we can stop filling it with children,” said Roberto Tejada, Buckner director of Community Transformation Centers in Guatemala. “By doing our part, we will keep families together by equipping them with the tools they need to be self sufficient and capable of providing for their children.”

According to Unicef, children under the age of 18 compose more than half of Guatemala’s population. About 50 percent of them, 3.7 million girls and boys, live in poverty. About 23 percent of children are part of the labor force, a cycle which prevents children from receiving an education and provides little hope for their future. 

This mother and child eagerly toured the new CTC at San Jose Pinula.

“We hope that in five or 10 years, there will be a difference in these people’s quality of life,” Tejada said. “We’d like to see young people grow up educated, working in the community and preserving their families.”

Jose Mario Lutin Solares Consejal, who spoke on behalf of the city mayor Victor Reyes Pur at the ribbon cutting ceremony, said that the CTC is “part of what our citizens have always dreamed of. Today we recognize this group of people as being sent here by God. Let us educate children and young people so that we won’t have to correct the adults.” The mayor’s office provides 30 percent of the CTC building’s rent.

Buckner operates similar programs for communities in Guatemala, Ethiopia and Mexico. To learn more about the ways you can support Buckner’s work to prevent child abandonment and abuse, visit www.buckner.org or call 214-758-8050.

By Susan Serrano

Families will have an opportunity to celebrate Thanksgiving in a unique way this year by giving thanks for their blessings from God and sharing those gifts with others on Dillon International’s Sharing Heart Mission Trip, slated for November 20-27.

Participants will journey to South Korea and engage in a variety of service projects to bless the women, children and senior citizens served by the programs of Eastern Social Welfare Society (ESWS), Dillon’s sister agency in Seoul. Examples of planned activities include:

•  Delivering lunch to homeless senior citizens and teaching English to after-school children served by the Sodaemun Community Center
• Doing laundry at Anyang Child Welfare Center, a temporary care program for children
• Making meals for pregnant women at Esther’s Home and Sharon’s Home, the shelters for unwed mothers
• Teaching American songs to the preschoolers at Jacob’s Home, an orphanage for children age  6 years and under
• Feeding disabled children at the Eastern Rehabilitation Institute, a facility for abandoned children
• Holding infants at the Eastern Babies’ Home

“Although Dillon International’s mission trips to Korea have historically involved adoptive families of children from South Korea, who were seeking a way to give back to their children’s birth country, the Sharing Heart Mission Trip is open to anyone interested in serving the Korean people while learning more about the country’s culture, history and traditions,” said Dukkyung Um, leader of the mission trip and director of Dillon International’s Korea adoption program.

Past participants have reported that their experiences on the mission trip changed their outlook on life. “They feel a strong bond to the country and people of South Korea and to God,” Um explained.

“The mission trip is such a worthwhile project,” said Kim Lively, an adoptive mother who participated in an earlier service trip to Korea. “Eastern Social Welfare Society really reaches into the community they serve.”

After witnessing the needs of the children firsthand, Lively’s family has sponsored children under the care of ESWS through Dillon International’s child sponsorship program there.

“I was moved by the spirit and energy that these children (at the Anyang facility) possessed in spite of their uncertain fate,” she recalled. “They had such bright smiles. They probably gave us more joy than we gave them.”

The Sharing Heart Mission Trip will be mainly focused on service work; however, there will also be opportunities for sightseeing and cultural experiences. Korean adoptees and their families may also request to have access to information related to their adoption. For more information or to request a tour brochure or packet, families may visit the Dillon website or email tours@dillonadopt.com.

Twenty-five years ago I was adopted by my parents. Little did I know that from that moment on the Lord was molding and teaching me for my first ‘real’ job. I use the term job very loosely because it really has become my heart and life mission helping at-risk children and orphans who aren’t as blessed to have the gift of a loving family like I am.

Growing up, I was in a great little Christian bubble where I knew right from wrong and was blessed not to stray from the truth on many occasions. I was a spoiled little girl who had my daddy wrapped around my finger. Looking back I took so many things for granted in my life, but now I can see why the Lord provided all those blessings.  My Heavenly Father wanted me to grow up walking in His ways so that I would have an understanding of His love, provision, grace, and character to share with others.

Three years ago my life changed from being that spoiled little girl to a woman who is seeking the Lord and wanting to help others who are not as privileged as I.  This change happened when part of my job with Buckner and Shoes for Orphan Souls was to travel to an orphanage in Latvia.  You might be asking where in the world is Latvia? It’s ok. I did the same thing when I was told that I was leading 35 individuals from all over the United States to this very small country on the Baltic Sea in Eastern Europe.  This small country now has a large piece of my heart.

It is so funny how the Lord works because he knew that my Type A personality would be concerned with trying to be the responsible trip leader and making sure that everything was going great. But He also knew I was there for a different reason and my ‘job’ soon changed after seeing the kids in Jurmala Spriditis orphanage. As I walked in, a group of about 40 children were all sitting quietly in chairs waiting on our group. They just stared at us while we brought in boxes of shoes, crafts, and games. Not the reaction that I was looking for or hoping to receive. It really made me question ‘why am I here when the kids don’t really seem to care?’ I asked the director of the orphanage the last time the kids had a group here to visit and play with them. “Last year” she replied. “Most of the children have a parent or relative that comes once a year to check on them and then they leave them behind for the government to take care of.”

I just stood there looking at the children thinking no one deserves to have a quick visit from a loved one and then be tossed to the side. I couldn’t believe that I had just questioned being there. I felt so broken, so helpless. Who would want their child to grow up like this? It made me think of my own life, being adopted and growing up with loving parents all the time. I couldn’t imagine not seeing family, friends or even strangers for that matter, only once a year. I quickly dropped the bags in my hands and went to fill my arms with children, giving each kid a hug or a high five. The room became filled with laughter. Games started to be played, Bible story skits were being acted out, friendships were being made, and children were receiving shoes, all in this little building in a farming community that I didn’t think anyone even knew about.

There were two little boys in the corner, Tomas and Richards (top photo), who quickly caught my eye and we were together the whole time. They even looked like they could have been related to me. That is something that I wasn’t emotionally ready for when I came to Latvia. I was thinking the whole time that I could have been a child like them. If my birth mother hadn’t given me up for adoption and if God hadn’t picked out the Stark family for me to be a part of, then Tomas’ and Richards’ life could have been mine.

I was able to share the love of Christ by playing cars, teaching them about Jesus and fitting them with a new pair of shoes. It was so awesome to see them so happy and so excited about all of these new things, but especially the new shoes. I have always loved shoes and now shoes are my life.  I love to shop for shoes, and I get really excited when I get a new pair, but now I really love to distribute them to children like Tomas and Richards because I get to see that excitement on their faces. These shoes were the first new pair that they had ever received that was their own. Clean. Right size. Ones where Superman light ups when you run. And no sharing! What a great combination.

I have the privilege of working with people all over the United States in collecting new shoes for children like Tomas and Richards. In 2008 when Shoes for Orphan Souls traveled back to Latvia, I was able to lead that trip again. It was amazing. I walked into Jurmala Spriditis and things were different. There weren’t two little boys quietly in the corner, but now three boys who ran to me so excited that someone they spent time with before had come back to visit.  Even though I don’t get to see Tomas and Richards, I pray for them and other children around the world that we can provide a pair of shoes to warm their feet and the gospel of Christ to warm their hearts.

Julia Stark is the program manager for Shoes for Orphan Souls, a ministry of Buckner International. To learn more about Shoes for Orphan Souls or how you can host a shoe drive, collect shoes, or go on a trip, visit www.shoesfororphansouls.org.

Assistant Director of Apartment Life Jimmy Gunn, Resident Director Chris Holloway, sophomores Philip Coleman and Andrew Moore helped the DBU campus collect more than $2,157 for orphans in three months through spare change.

By Jenny Pope
Buckner International

DALLAS – What started as a goal to raise $25 a month in a boys’ dormitory at Dallas Baptist University led to a campus-wide orphan care fundraiser calling for change through the collection of spare change.

Resident Director Chris Holloway, 23, has been on several mission trips with Buckner International, a global nonprofit ministry that helps orphans, vulnerable children and families. As part of the organization’s Voice Council in 2009, he wanted to inspire his dorm to collect just $25 a month to help orphans where he had served.

“I got a five gallon water jug and put a banner on it, it was nothing fancy,” Holloway recalled. He asked resident assistants for help to get the word out among the students. When the first month ended, they had collected $571.68.

It wasn’t long before the rest of the campus’ 1500 students living in dorms and apartments became involved, said Jimmy Gunn, assistant director of apartment life. “We had our maintenance guys go door to door, walking around to the apartments asking for spare change. They saw it as a service to go to them.”

Resident director Chris Holloway initiated the 'Change for Change' project at DBU.

Competition between the dorms and apartments fueled the project, and after three months they had raised more than $2,157 to benefit international orphans through Buckner.

“As we competed, it was the orphans who won,” Holloway said.

Sophomore Phillip Coleman from Longview, Texas said the change project was a “really simple way to get involved. I don’t carry a change purse or anything, and change can be annoying to keep on you. We kept a Gatorade bottle in our room for loose change, and at the end of the month, we’d dump all the change in the jug.”

“It was nice to results,” he continued. “Chris would put up a flyer at the end of the month to show us our success. Our motto was always, ‘Every penny counts.’”

Students found creative ways to get involved, Holloway said. One student would play his guitar and put his case out in front of him to collect “tips,” which he would in turn give to the project.

Holloway said he was overwhelmed at the way students responded to the fundraiser.

“Their hearts have been incredible. Some gave $20 bills. We don’t who they are because they don’t want us to know. It’s for the glory of the Lord.”

Students are DBU are still collecting Change for Change during the spring semester. Holloway hopes the project will continue for many years.

We’re all a piece of the quilt

A year ago last spring, my daughter Jenny asked me to go with her to Guatemala on the mother-daughter mission trip. She wanted me to see first-hand the reason she is so passionate about her work with Buckner. Of course, I had read her articles, heard her stories, and seen her photographs, but I knew deep inside my heart that I wanted to share these life-changing experiences with her.

Upon arrival at the hotel in Guatemala, we met the other mothers and daughters from across the United States, combined all the supplies, personal areas of expertise and God-given talents. Little did we know the depth of the emotions we would share the following days – a roller coaster ride from the highest to the lowest moments.

Our first stop was an orphanage run by the government. We were instructed to wear masks and to not hold the children for too long. We began playing with the children, blew bubbles, bounced balls, drew pictures with sidewalk chalk, held the babies and hugged the toddlers. The time was filled with lots of activity and love, but before long it was time to say good-bye. The children cried when we left and so did we. As we loaded the van, there was no chatter among us – it was perfectly quiet. Our hearts were troubled, and many were wondering how we could possibly make a difference. These children had so little and needed so much. How was God planning to use us?

The next location was a community child-care center. We presented the story of Esther with the help of our wonderful interpreters, learned a Bible verse, helped the children decorate crowns with jewels and stickers, made bracelets of beads and crosses, and had a recreational time of parachuting, beach balls and jump rope. Everyone was so thrilled with the responsiveness of the children and teachers.

While the girls were jumping rope, I realized they only knew how to jump as a group and not with an individual rope. Two of the girls wanted to learn how to jump rope all by themselves. It had been a few years since I had jumped rope, but this was my opportunity to teach these girls how to do it with their new individual jump ropes. I carefully demonstrated the technique, and one of the girls quickly began jumping. I am not sure who was more thrilled – that precious child or me! Perhaps by now her friend has also mastered the skill. After all, I now know there are others who will follow.

With each opportunity and location we visited, whether it was a neighborhood community center, a government orphanage, or a Buckner home, each of us would return to the van with stories of the children and young people and share our observations and experiences. Every mother and every daughter would bond with at least one child, as if God was choosing a special one for us, and us for them.

Buckner has an incredible network of workers and volunteers who will continue to do God’s work and spread hope and love wherever it is needed. Any dollars you contribute are well spent. Once I could get past the depth of the poverty and the lack of resources and education available to the poorest of the poor in Guatemala, I realized I was there to make a difference in the life of at least one or two children each day, just as the other mothers and daughters did along beside me.

Others will follow in my footsteps – perhaps it is now your turn. I am only one piece of the quilt, and we need to keep adding pieces to this quilt of hope and love – doing His work, sharing His word, and loving His children.  “…My hope comes from Him.”

Kay Hartgraves is from Abilene, Texas and traveled on the mother-daughter mission trip with Buckner in July 2009.

Truth in pictures

Sometimes truth comes out in pictures. I’ve always said that I have a hard time remembering things without a photograph. If I didn’t capture it physically – or make a mental photograph in my head – then it’s possible even my life’s greatest moments will flee from my cluttered cerebral. I guess that’s the consequence of growing up with a camera in my hand.

Last summer, I had the privilege of leading a mission trip of mothers and daughters to Guatemala with Buckner. And for the first time, my own mother would come with me to see the ministry I’ve given my heart to for the past five years.

I was excited to share this experience with my mom, but I’d be lying if I told you the whole trip was filled with fuzzy moments. It was stressful at times to organize a group of strangers and deal with the unpredictable mayhem of a foreign culture in a language I can’t understand. But a year later, when I look back at my photographs, I find my memories to be quite profound.

I have a favorite picture from our trip. It was a rainy day at the Remar Orphanage outside Guatemala City. We were scheduled to spend time with girls ages 7-12 and to provide them with ice cream sundaes. But the inclement weather left many of the orphanage’s 500+ children with nothing to do but stand outside the gym where we played, looking longingly inside at our games and ice cream. We invited some of them in, but quickly became overwhelmed by a pack of surly teenage girls.

As I tried to explain (through a translator) that we didn’t have enough for everyone there, my mother asked me to come and take a picture of her playing with a little girl in a pink dress. They were tucked away in the corner of the gym, tossing a beach ball back and forth to one another. They were laughing and smiling, communicating without words. My mother said they had been tossing the ball for a very long time. “She just came up to me and asked me to play with her,” my mom told me. I quickly snapped their picture, obliging my mother’s request, and returned to my role as leader in the elevating chaos.

I didn’t pay much attention at the time, but when I look back at that picture I am struck by the irony of traveling with my mother to serve girls without one. When I see the picture of my mom with this little girl and think of how this child chose my mother that day, I can’t help but feel thankful to God for choosing my mother for me.

And He didn’t give me just any mother, but a mom who has always been there for me. A mom who would drop everything to help me if I asked. A mom who would throw a beach ball back and forth with me for hours, or days even, if I wanted her to. Sharing my mom with this motherless child for 20 minutes – a child who was so eager for my own mother’s love and attention – convicted me of the 28 years I’ve taken her for granted.

And just as I have taken for granted God’s blessing of a wonderful mother and father on earth, I tend to take his ultimate gift for granted to – that while we were still sinners, he died for us. And he will return for us one day. “I will not abandon you as orphans. I will come to you. Soon the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Since I live, you also will live.” John 14:18-19

Pictures may help me remember things  from my past, but I’m most thankful for the photos  – like this one of my mom – which help me grasp truth for the future.

Jenny Pope is from Richardson, Texas and is the associate director of public relations for Buckner.

To learn more about the mother-daughter mission trip with Buckner, click here.

According to Buckner’s Russia staff this morning, international adoptions are continuing without interruption. Andrei Pukhlov, director of the Buckner program, said there “has been no official announcement from the Ministry of Education regarding the suspension of adoptions.”

Numerous stories in the media today announcing the suspension of adoptions quoted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. However, that agency of the Russian government does not oversee the adoption program and according to other sources, does not have the authority to suspend adoptions.

“While we have not received any official word, we are watching the situation closely and we will be in touch with our families waiting to adopt from Russia,” said Felipe Garza, vice president at Buckner.

Buckner began adoptions from Russia in 1995. More than 250 Russian children have been placed with families through Buckner in the past 15 years.

Recent news events surrounding the status of Russian adoption to American families has centered on the case of a 7-year-old boy who was sent back to Moscow alone last week by his adoptive mother in Tennessee. The case of the boy, who was named Artyom in Russia before he was adopted last year, has caused widespread anger here, and Russian officials said new regulations had to be put in place before adoptions by Americans could proceed.

The U.S. State Department in Washington is sending a high-level delegation to Moscow to hold talks on reaching an agreement, and both countries have expressed hope that the matter can be resolved quickly.

Officials at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow said they had not received official notification of a suspension and were seeking more information from their Russian counterparts.

Russia was the third leading source of adoptive children in the United States in 2009, with 1,586, after China and Ethiopia, officials said. More than 50,000 Russian children have been adopted by United States citizens since 1991, according to the United States Embassy.

Artyom, who was named Justin by his adoptive American mother, arrived in Moscow last week after flying by himself from Washington. He presented the authorities with a note from his adoptive mother in which she said she could no longer handle him.

Click here to read an update from the U.S. State Department on this issue.

Watch the WFAA Ch. 8 news story about Russian adoptions and Buckner.

Watch the CBS 11 news story about a Buckner family adopting their second child from Russia.