Celia, Anna and Marcelino are three siblings who used to live at Casa Shalom, but returned to live with their parents a little over a year ago. Celia is remembered by about everyone who meets her as being one of the sweetest girls ever.
Since the three returned home, my friend Matt and my sister-in-law Veronica have made a few trips last year to visit them to see how they were doing. They had been sent to the orphanage due to poverty, and so Yuli and I decided to also go check-up on them. Celia’s going into fourth grade, Anna into second, and Marcelino into first grade this year, and so we got them some backpacks and school supplies to get them ready for school.
We didn’t have a phone number, and they live in a small village, but we headed over a week ago in hope to see them. We were sad to find Anna home alone, and she told us that her mom and the others had been at a coffee plantation working for the past two weeks. They were due to return the following Monday, the same day that school started. We walked with Anna over to another family member’s house and got a phone number to call and made plans to visit again in a week.
Today we hoped to return to see all of them, but no one was answering the phone these past few days. Finally this morning before leaving we got a hold of Celia only to find out that her family had gone to a new coffee plantation, and they would be working at the plantation for about a month.
We are very concerned for Celia, Anna and Marcelino. It looks like their family is really needing money, and this is hard work that doesn’t pay very much at all. We also don’t know if their school will take them so late in the year when they return. Please pray for them: That God would protect them, that He would provide for their needs, and that He would give us wisdom how to best help the family.
