Home number 4

Eight years ago, the Fulp family landed in Guatemala to begin working toward the Hope for Homes first group home.  How God has grown and blessed this ministry!

Three years ago God brought home His little Angelita. God used her little life to sculpt my heart. He taught me a love I had not previously known through her.

I will never understand or comprehend His love, nor could I ever possibly hope to repay it. God used Angelita to show me a desperate love for someone who, from a action or deserving perspective, could never earn my love, or do anything for me. An entirely unselfish kind of love; a pure love.

This is a tiny drop of the love my Father God has for me.

I want to know Him, who loves everyone like this; who loves me like this. I want to spend my life coming to know Him, and this love.

The more I learn about my Father, and this love, the more I know that it is impossible to keep from sharing this love. “Anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love.” (1Jn 4:8)

So what does that look like?

I have lived in Guatemala for 4 years now, with some odd (but growth filled) time in the states thrown in. I have lived and worked in Hogar de la Esperanza, the first group home for children with special needs. For a time, I was privileged to travel to remote villages and love families months after month who have children with special needs. More recently I have been able to travel weekly to the birthing center in Esquintla, and assist our midwife Stephanie. In each of these, God has taught me, and shown me His heart for His people in all walks.

So for a long time my heart has been pulled toward these, and many other areas where God uses people to minister to others. Compassion is never a bad thing. But without direction it can be crippling when it is time to move. The fear of choosing wrong risks immobilizing me. So for this four years I prayed that God would show me where he would have me serve Him, and He wanted to told me to be content in not knowing the plan. Further, He wanted me to see that I could so easily be seeking after the ministry, and not after my Father. Flipping burgers while pursuing Christ with my whole being would be a greater use of my life than curing Cancer in the name of a God I don't actually know.

Having said that, God has now settled a peace on my heart to pursue His passion for children with special needs on a intimate and daily level. I am thrilled to announce that I will be opening another home for children with special needs here in Guatemala with Hope for Home. God has already wrecked my heart in loving these kids. It will be hard to move out of daily life with the kids I already love so deeply, but I cannot wait to embrace the children God is now preparing to come into my home.  

Please join me in praying for this home that will come, as well as for the Alvarez family who are already working to open the third home. There are a lot of things that need to happen before home 4 can open, though I trust God to provide. First is finishing my residency. Though I have been in process, this can be a lengthy process, and seems to have some hiccups. Next is locating a suitable home and begin physically preparing it to be handicap accessible and pass inspections. Along with this will be the process of licensing. Then come hiring and paying a Doctor, Social worker, accountant, nannies, and other staff, and purchasing a van and safety seats. Finally, each child who comes will have their own unique medical or physical needs.

There is so much ahead, but I trust in a God who knows the how when I do now, and provides. I trust God to grow this home physically, but I also trust Him to provide for these kids in the areas where I fall short. God will grow them, and by His grace this will be a home of healing. Both for these children and their physical needs, but for all who work with, or witness the love of Christ there. My prayer is that God would use this home, as he does the homes already running, to touch the hearts of many draw them to Him.  

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 

8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 

9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 

10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 

11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

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