Please receive a cordial greeting from each of the children and Elijah Murillo. We are Juan Manuel and Betty Gomez, the house parents. We oversee the home, and we hereby want to share with you great things that God has done in this place. First, we would like to thank you greatly for being such a blessing to the Annabel de Vallejo Children’s Home and for taking the time to pray for us. We feel the love and greatly appreciate it.

This month of July, the Lord has blessed our home with three new girls; their names are Jaquel, Nadia, and Cristyl. Please continue to pray for workers who are willing to come to Mexico and help in the home. Whether it be seasonal, temporary, or even permanent, it would be such a blessing to us. These past two months of June and July have been filled with excitement. For example, it has rained much; we had been praying for rain because we planted some corn. The children are very happy to see the corn growing in the field, and Micol, the youngest of the home who just turned four, asks almost every day if he can have a piece of corn husk. All of the children are excited to get corn this year, and we can’t wait to share some photos with you all!

With the fall quickly approaching, we want to welcome the new school year. This past year was very new for our kids because they attended a private school. We were very concerned about the new school, but it turned out to be very flexible and respectful with education and religion. We are very blessed to have a good relationship with the principal; please help us pray that she would get saved. Despite our concerns with the new school, we saw so much growth and maturity in the kids this year. Several kids had the opportunity to compete academically with several other schools and made it to state! We were so excited for them! On graduation day, their teachers organized a festival in which the children participated. That same day, little Angel and Micol graduated from preschool, and Hector and Roberto graduated from elementary school.

We have two young boys who will be participating in a homeschool program this year; since they are entering middle school, we don’t want them to attend a public school for safety and educational reasons. Betty and I are amazed to see how the Lord provides these kids with the opportunity and ability to, even though they are orphans, have a good education. For that, we are so very grateful.

Our children would not be able to study if it were not for your support. We want to ask you to consider helping a child go back to school. It takes about $110 monthly for each child and $1,100 to send a child for the entire school year. We need a total of $15,000 to put all of the kids in school for this full year of school. This includes uniforms, registration, tuition, and school supplies. Please pray that the Lord would supply this need. Maybe you would like to be a part of this. If it were not for supporters like you, many of these kids would not be able to attend school. The children, my wife, and I pray that God would continue to bless you greatly.

One of the most important things for us in the home is when a child excepts Christ as their Saviour. My wife and I pray every day for the Annabel de Vallejo Children’s Home kids to receive Christ one day. One evening after playing some Christian music, God touched Cristyl’s heart. Our new girl received Christ into her heart, and we are very happy about that. The special thing about this moment is that Elijah Murillo had an opportunity to witness to Cristyl. This is one of our favorite parts to share with you all.

Our teen children got to attend youth meetings almost every Saturday this summer and attended church Youth Camp. We want to thank the Lord for the wonderful church where we congregate. The home is very active, and we appreciate the love and support from our church. We thank the Lord for Pastor Jiminez and his family for caring for the home. The girls got to attend a Ladies’ Missionary Conference where my former pastor’s wife, Mrs. Ruth Walker from Tijuana Baja, California, was the guest speaker. My wife was able to take four guests with her that day. This was such a great encouragement to her and to the girls of the home.

My wife and I would also like to share a little bit about what is taking place legally and with the government. In the past weeks, we have had several audits by the state and the state welfare. We thank the Lord for giving us another opportunity to be in favor with the government. Each year, they come and inspect to see if we can keep the home up and running. There is still some paperwork and some legal matters for which we are waiting, but we know that it is all in God’s timing.

In conclusion, we have several prayer requests and needs that we would like to ask for you to help us pray for and consider helping with.

First: The entrance to the children’s home property desperately needs some repairs. Because it is just dirt and rocks, it was washed down by the rain. This makes it difficult for any type of vehicle to drive up to the house on the property. We need your prayers that we would be able to pave the entrance with cement.

Second: We ask for your prayers since it has now been raining a lot. We are thankful for the rain, but it has become very windy. That strong wind has blown down our new light post. We thank the Lord for keeping our lights on, but we need to repair it or get a new light post.

Third: The home’s ceiling needs repairing. It has not been repaired in several years, and it has been leaking water during the rainfall. We desperately need to repair the ceiling.

Last: The Garlick Home, as you know, is almost ready for the children to move in, but we have some touches that we need to give the home. We need some wall repairs, along with some inside touches like kitchen cabinets, counters, paint, etc. This all must be done before we can call the city to inspect it and give us the okay for children to be living in this home.

Betty and I wanted to share this update about the Annabel de Vallejo Children’s Home with you. God has been so good to us and is with us through the difficult times and the times of change. We just want to thank you for all your support and prayers. The children, my wife, and I pray that God would continue to bless you greatly. Please keep us in your prayers.

Sincerely,

Juan Manuel and Betty Gomez
Philippians 4:13