Newsletter

Lantern Hill is located 98 miles from San Diego, CA, Lantern Hill partners with communities in need helping love, care and educate children and families through our various programs, educational opportunities and servant experiences.

Strategies and Tools continued...

Mission (what we want to achieve)

Break the cycle of poverty.

Vision (what success will look like)

Loving, healthy and educated children and families with unlimited opportunities.

Strategy (How we’ll achieve our vision)

Create sustainable, measurable, long-term love, care and education programs that give each person the opportunity to change their present and their future.

•Love: Acts of love and kindness bridge the gap between stranger and friend.
•Care: Feeding the hungry. Providing clean water. Clothing the naked. Building shelter from the cold. Caring for the sick.
•Educate: Offering programs in the following areas: Basic skills and tutoring, Spanish and English, the creative arts, computer learning, athletics, career development and Christian education.

Our Tools: (What we’ll use to support our strategy)

The Lantern Hill Community Campus

Short and Long-Term Volunteers and Staff

Resources from Families, Friends, Groups, Churches, Schools, Governments,Institutions

Eco-Friendly Building & Renewable Energy

Beliefs:

Lantern Hill has it’s roots in the ELCA Lutheran Church, it’s theology and it’s overwhelming care for the Global community. We engage our partner communities and relationships within the framework of the Accompaniment Model. Building healthy relationships, standing beside our servant friends, pursuing peace, social justice and caring for our neighbor with the same love Christ has shown us motivates our work each day. We are always open to the work of the Holy Spirit in our service to EVERYONE regardless of belief, race, socio-economic status, language, or religion. God’s work is in the hands of those serving their neighbor. Micah 6:8 and Matthew 25:31-46 guide Lantern Hill in all it does!

EL ZORILLO cont...

we could see out over the whole valley. This valley, called Cañon Buena Vista, is exactly that, a beautiful view. It is incredible. Tops of houses, concrete, colors, trees and an incredible view of the ocean.

Cañon Buena Vista (view in gallery)

Various people stop us as we walked through the village. One young girl asks if we have a church nearby she could visit. Then she asks if we build houses or could give her any work. Then Abby meets a local bracelet artist. Then children start showing up. It was amazing. I am not sure what God has in store for us in this beautiful valley, but I am convinced it is going to change us forever.

MARIA’S STORY (in her words)

Abby and our friend Jillian Chilcoat listened and compiled this story while sitting, watching Maria weave her bags in the small concrete room she calls home. Lantern Hill is committed to standing beside Maria and Chapi (her grand-daughter) to create opportunities to live a safe, healthy & educated life. Here’s what she said...

That day we filled her house with food and she filled us with hope. Maria never knew her age, in fact she just got her birth certificate which guestimates 1940 as her date of birth. But with a birth certificate, now she is able to have insurance and vote.

She has been weaving for almost 60 years; she was taught by her mother when she was ten years old. This weaving is known as Tejende.

She is originally from a Trique tribe from Oaxaca

She came to Ensenada in 1990. Her brother came here first. Her husband had died, so she came here to work, carrying her baby on her back. She did not speak Spanish when she came here. She was told she had to learn.

She bought the land she lives on in 1990 for 6,000 pesos ($500 dollars) with the help of “people.”She later won 18,000 pesos ($1200 dollars) in a raffle and hired two men to build her current house. She cooks outside because she doesn’t have enough money to buy gas.

Her granddaughter lives with her because her daughter died a year ago. Maria lived in the concrete village community briefly to care for her sick daughter, She said her daughter liked working in the fields, she made 1,000 pesos a week, some times more, some times less. She said she never drank any water, only coke-ate 2 tacos a day and drank 3 cokes a day (Maria thinks perhaps that affected her illness); She had seizures and died of liver and/or kidney problems. She was only 24 years old; she was Maria’s only living child. She had a boy who died very young. Maria said she believes her daughter is in heaven. Maria suffers a lot and is left here on earth crying Her granddaughter did not understand death and tried to wake up her mom the day that she died.

Pastor from local church/mission told her she needed to stop crying so that she could care for her granddaughter. The people at the church laid hands on her to stop the water from her eyes and now she does not cry anymore. She said she doesn’t even want to cry.

Maria spoke of her husband as a man who drank a lot and didn’t eat, but he never hit her. She said her husband was shot and killed by a crazy drunk man, after that she said she never wanted another husband, it was “better to be alone.” She said she has a Trique friend who comes here to see her. Different tribes live here- she says peacefully; some people drink and yell a lot She and her brother can’t talk because he has no phone #. Her Niece is here- Tamasa.

Maria cannot read or write- she writes an X for her signature. Her father insisted girls don’t go to school; he hit her mother when she sent the girls to school. Her father had nothing, didn’t work much, drank a lot, didn’t know Spanish. She says many men work in the fields to buy tequila/beer and they don’t think about their families- they don’t buy food, only tequila. She said her brother doesn’t drink. Her son-in-law still calls her mother-in-law even though he has a girlfriend; he’s a good son-in-law.

Williams Family Adoption Update continued...

However... this is still only the Mexican side of the adoption. We still have to work through the United States process once this Mexican side is all done. Best case scenario is this.. by August all Mexican Adoption Requirements are complete and all 5 children have Mexican Birth Certificates with the names Williams-Forbes on them. Then we go to the American consulate and start the process of american birth certificates, visas and passports for everyone, including Lily!

We have no idea what to expect from the American side of this adoption. We know that we will probably need your support to help us get through the next couple of phases. If you would like to help support us in this process you can donate on the website and include a message that it is for the Williams adoption. Your support is amazing!

We hope that by Christmas of 2012, the Williams family will be able to travel to the United States for the first time.. all together. Experiencing the US for the first time with our children is going to be overwhelming, incredible, eye-opening and educational. It’s our dream to show our kids our country and share in the traditions of the US, just like they have shared with us here in Mexico.

We will keep you updated at things progress!

NEW POST OFFICE BOX

Lantern Hill has changed it’s mailing address for donations and trip payments. Our Board of Directors Treasurer, June Kupstas is located in Lititz, PA and she will be collecting all of our checks at this new address: Please note for your ongoing support and trip payments:

Lantern Hill

PO BOX 713

Lititz, PA 17543

All of our online donation and payment options are always available to you through our website.

SUSANA cont..

Part of my dream of Justice Art is to support different artists while raising money for Lantern Hill and inspiring others. I had been thinking for a while about meeting someone who makes the Mexican bracelets with names on them, but instead using inspirational words and messages. And then Antonia arrived the day we were putting new roofing on Maria’s house. Antonia, a neighbor, asked me to come to her house. She wanted me to see where she lived. She said that they could really use a new roof as well. But I was not prepared for what I’d see that day. We headed up a steep hill, and when I sew her house, I thought, she doesn’t need a new roof, she needs a new house. Antonia lives in a tiny one room house made of wood and plastic with a dirt floor. She lives with her grown daughter Susana and Susana’s three children. Susana’s two teenage children seem to have some mental disabilities, as her son hung onto her like a child and her daughter sat in the corner with her head under a table. They said she was shy. The small room was dark with no windows. There were two single mattresses on the dirt floor for five people, a tiny table with a television on it in the corner and another small table with some tortillas and coca-cola. Outside there were lots of dogs to “protect them because there is no man around.” There were very open and kind.

They told me about the community, their christian church and the lack of work. and then I saw Susana’s name bracelets. And my face lit up. I said, “i’ve been looking for you! Can I make an order?” She said, “yes, I really need work.” So I ordered 100 bracelets, and then her face lit up because that would be a large sum of money!

Susana got to work right away and when i went back a few days later, she had fifty made. And they were beautiful. Exactly as I had imagined them before i even met her. It’s those little miracles that take place here that continue to amaze me. When we are open, God simply puts these people right in our path and says, These are my children, help them. We have lots of ideas about how we can make a difference for this family. We can build them a house and feed them and look for some therapy for the children and they can work with self-respect and know that they are earning a living by doing a craft. We have only been in this new area for a short time and yet sometimes the call is so clear.

When I went back for the bracelets, Susana and I stood on her mountain and looked down over the beautiful valley and she said, my mom thinks you should by that land down there and make your community center. wow. We had just looked at land in that same area and she didn’t even know. Sometimes things are just clear.

To be continued....