Introducing Casa Hogar Sion

It is hard for me to pen down what exactly Casa Hogar Sion is, and -- even more importantly -- what it means to me. But...if I ever hope to get this thing under way, then I guess that I will have to.

Casa Hogar Sion is an orphanage in Tijuana, Mexico. Mind you, not in Western Tijuana, where the tourists come to Avenida Revolucion and the infamous red-light districts like La Coahuila. Instead, it is in the more neglected Eastern Tijuana. In these parts, the roads are mostly dirt and rarely paved, and the freeway on-ramp acts as the local landfill.

It all started almost eight years ago when Mama Carmen and Papa Jorge noticed a seven-year-old girl at church. She was a ball of energy who loved being there and participating in all of the events. However, Mama Carmen started noticing something odd -- the girl would want to linger around after the events and dreaded going home. As Mama Carmen would find out, the girl's father was an abusive drug dealer who would often "sell" his daughter to men to make a side profit.
It shocked Mama Carmen, and it would change her life. She and her family from then on agreed to open their small home to kids like this girl and other children or orphans who were in poverty, abandoned, being abused, and just plain lost in life.

It began from there. One family, with a kind heart, put everything in the hands of God and opened up their own small house for the orphans of Tijuana.

Soon, people started dropping off their kids in front of the welcome doorstep. Within one house they soon had twenty kids. Within two years, they purchased, with their own money and donations, a small plot of land. Then, they had sixty children all living there. In those tough early days, they often found themselves without sufficient funds. There was often a scarcity of food, and many dark nights went by in order to conserve electricity.
But they survived the struggles, and soon had 100 kids.

Today, they have around 120 kids staying in a facility built by the money of volunteers, and sometimes the labor, too (I have to personally vouch for the labor part). Due to the boom of awareness within the past two years, they have a group of volunteers and visitors from the US probably every weekend, including many who have devoted their lives and come by themselves every weekend. Personally I try to go down every month.
Now, they have raised enough funds to send many of their kids to a great private school off-campus.

It is a true Cinderella story, and it is still bring written. It is Casa Hogar Sion.

Well, what does it mean to me?

That's for another post. But I'll tell you this. Casa Hogar Sion is my calling, I believe. At least for now. It is a second home to me. And there, I do feel home and welcome.
I'll be saying this a lot, but...

You see those kids and you think that they have so little. Yet...in truth, you find out that they have so much more than some of us ever will.

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