Beacon of Hope

 

 Cynthia and Les with some of the kids!

I am so excited about the opportunity to be going to Beacon of Hope Orphanage in February!  I would love to tell you all a little bit about it and how it came to be.  Les and Cynthia are members of Kingsfield Church and lived in Laguna Beach, CA.  Cynthia is from the Philippines and immigrated to the US when she was 15.  The couple felt a burden for the children that were being abandoned or sold in her home country and were eventually led by the Lord to begin an orphanage in Cynthia's hometown of Manila.  Having no children of their own they began the orphanage out of Cynthia's mother's home starting with infants.  In the five years since the orphanage's beginning the Lord has blessed them tremendously and they now have 15 children all under the age of 6.  They have also moved operations to a compound outside of Manila in the countryside.  The social services in the country refer to their orphanage as Five Star!  They are for the most part self sustaining as they have their own rice field and a variety of farm animals that the children enjoy helping to take care of.  As the amount of children and work at the orphanage has grown so too has the need for extra hands!  Les and Cynthia have brought on several full time local care takers that live in "The Big House" (they do not use the term orphanage) and help with the children. 

One of the next big steps they would like to take at Beacon of Hope is to start an adoption program!  As you can probably imagine there is a lot of important paper work that goes into just the day to day operations of an orphanage not to mention an adoption program so Cynthia has gone back to school and is currently in a social work program to become the orphanage's full time social worker.  There are many details left to be put in place before an adoption program becomes reality so please be in prayer as they move towards this exciting next step!

Other Fun Facts!

• All the children speak English
• They keep chickens for fresh eggs
• They have three kid friendly dogs at the compound, one is a Les & Cynthia's lab brought from the US
• Much of the children's clothing is provided from from quality donations to our church thrift store in Laguna Beach
• The older children are tutored on site and are just beginning to start school

I hope that gives you all a little background on Beacon of Hope!  If you have any questions I would be more than happy to find answers for them!

If you feel lead to donate to this trip you can make a secure tax deductiable donation online here.  Please select team member travel expenses and add my name in the comment box. 
The children are also in need of shoes! If you would like to help provide them the guidelines are here.