Farm of the Child Christmas Cards - ORDER NOW

Dear Friends of the Farm,

Farm of the Child Christmas Cards are COMING SOON! Get your order in now and cards will be shipped as close to Thanksgiving as possible. This year's card (shown here) was desigend by our very own Tim Boatright, board member and graphic artist extraordinaire. The art of on the front of the card is the glass art designed by Tim for the Marian prayer garden built at Farm of the Child in 2009.

Please direct your card orders to Dan Mechenbier at djmech3@aol.com, including the number of cards you would like and the mailing address where your order is to be shipped. As always, we offer these cards as our gift to you, our supporters. Any contributions to help cover to cost of printing and shipping of these cards are welcomed, but by now means required. Please enjoy these cards and help to share Farm of the Child with your family and friends this Christmas season.

Additionally, if you would like to honor your family or friends this Christmas with the gift of an engraved brick placed in the prayer garden at the Farm, please click here http://www.farmofthechild.org/scrapbook_newsletters.php for order instructions.

Peace and many blessings this coming Advent season,

Andrea McMerty-Brummer

Executive Director

Farm of the Child USA

farmofthechild@gmail.com

727-475-4459

Happy Feast Day of St. Therese--Patron Saint of Missionaries

Happy feast day of Santa Teresita, patron saint of missionaries. Welcome to the Farm of the Child family to: Amanda, Betsy, Deirdre, Isaac, Jacob, Jonah, Liliana, Mary Kate, Nils, Phil, Rachel, Ruben and Tami. And happy anniversary to all former Finca volunteers. Thank you for your continued love and prayers for all of the Farm of the Child family!!!

Join Farm of the Child on the Road to Calvary!

February 17, 2010

Dear Friends of the Farm,

Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of one of the most beautiful and spiritually rich times in our liturgical calendar—Lent. Over the next 40 days, we are called to enter in the desert with Jesus, to reflect on His greatest act of sacrifice and love, and to prepare our hearts for his death and ultimate resurrection. This year, the media reminds us daily, in photos of the suffering children and families in Haiti, that many of our brothers and sisters in Christ live a reality of sacrifice and suffering. Here at Farm of the Child, we unite in prayer for all children suffering around the world.

I invite you to join with the Farm of the Child family during these 40 days, to offer your acts of prayer, abstinence and almsgiving to the benefit of children, staff, volunteers and all those served by the various ministries of the Farm. And, in a special way, join the Farm of the Child family in offering prayers for the people of Haiti. All around the world, members of the Farm family will be joining their hearts in prayer, offering the following devotions:

Way of the Cross – This 10 minute video, set to music, is a prayer through the Stations of the Cross, offering powerful reflections through images of the children and families served at Farm of the Child. Please join us in this profound spiritual preparation for Jesus’ walk to Calvary and His ultimate sacrifice and promise of redemption! The video can be viewed at Click here to pray with us now!

Share in the Experience of Holy Week – This 3 minute video, set to music, is a walk through the powerful spiritual and communal experience of Semana Santa –Holy Week—at Farm of the Child. Holy Week for the Farm of the Child family is not only marked by deeply moving liturgical celebrations, but also full of communal and familial events. Join the Farm of the Child family in this amazing celebration! The video can be viewed at Click here to join the celebration!

Almsgiving - Make a TANGIBLE difference in the lives of the children at the Farm of the Child.

We humbly ask you to consider the following offerings of almsgiving to the children and poor families of Honduras served by Farm of the Child.

$25 = Milk for 50 children for 1 month
$100 = Rice & beans rations for the Farm for 1 week
$150 = Meat rations for the entire Farm for 1 month
$250 = A nutritional snack for all school children for 1 month
$500 = Vegetable rations for the entire Farm for 1 month
$1000 = Egg rations for the entire Farm for 6 months
$5,000 = Rice and beans rations for the entire Farm of 1 year
$10,000 = Sponsor 1 family home with food and loving foster
parents for 1 year
$350,000 = Complete funding for the Farm of the Child for 1 year

We are in great need of financial support as worldwide economic turmoil continues to affect charitable giving and food and energy prices continue to rise. We need to raise $175,000 by the end of June to keep orphan homes, education, health care, and pastoral ministry programs operating at full capacity. Your Lenten sacrifice can help us to raise the necessary funds to continue offering loving homes, Catholic education, health care, and spiritual formation to the children and poor of Eastern Honduras! To support the children of the Farm, click Here

Thank you for joining all of us at Farm of the Child in our preparation to accompany our Lord on the road to Calvary. May your heart be filled with the knowledge and peace of His great and eternal love for you through his life, death and resurrection.

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Zulena Pescatore
Founder & President

The Joy of Tamales

A better late than never post...Sorry I did not get this posted before the New Year!

Merry Christmas! I hope this Christmas season finds you well in the company of those you love. While I spent my second consecutive Christmas in Honduras at the Farm this year, I was able to celebrate with my family early as my Mom, Dad, and sister Meghan came down to visit for the week leading up to the 25th. Showing them the Farm was like waiting 3-1/2 years to open a Christmas present, owing to the fact that I´ve looked forward to my family visiting since I first got to know the Farm in 2006.

This year´s celebration of Jesus´ birth at the Farm of the Child was beautiful as ever. The volunteers play Santa Claus for our children as visions of sugar plum fairies dance in their heads on the night of the 23rd (yes, that´s correct, Santa comes one day early here – how else could he hit the whole world on the night of the 24th?). Then on the morning of the 24th, the children wake up early with wonder and surprise to see the little treasures under their decorated, 2-foot artificial Christmas trees.

As the children begin to stir, houseparents and volunteers arise at dawn (some as early as 4:00am) to mill the corn that will make tamales – the only appropriate thing for one to eat in Honduras on the night of the 24th. We spend all day working on the tamales and by the afternoon we realize that once again we´ve made way more than can ever be eaten in just one day.

The true festivities begin in the evening at 5 o´clock when we celebrate the final night of Posadas – a Latin American tradition to reflect on and commemorate Joseph and Mary´s search for a place to stay in the days before the first Christmas in Bethlehem. At 7 o´clock, our most dynamic and charismatic priest from town, Padre Felipe, comes to share Mass with us. Afterwards we join with the entire Farm community and our neighbors to eat the endless supply of tamales. Our young kids present a miniature and lackadaisical Christmas pageant followed by a humorous rendition of the Christmas Carol (featuring Bob Marley) that´s performed by our older kids.

By this time, it´s a little after 10 o´clock and we only have to wait two more hours for the arrival of the 25th when Jesus is born. To fight off the sleepiness that especially hits the little ones, we put on some music and dance. At a few minutes before midnight, we flee from the site of the dance to the soccer field in the middle of the Farm where we wait for the clock to strike twelve. Then, when all is quiet and the hour is right, we join our hands in a prayer led by our Franciscan Sister director – acknowledging the Christmas joy of God with us. We share hugs under the starry night sky and then drift into our respective houses where we will rest well.

In the days that follow, tamales continue to abound. If you stop by a neighbor's house, they'll offer you at least two. Even if we don't step foot out the door, it's likely that someone will arrive to drop some off at our house. But for all of the time and effort that goes into them, it doesn't take long to realize that it was never about eating the tamales.

The joy of tamales is the journey of making them: the process of cooking the corn, running it through the hand-cranked mill, cooking the chicken, wrapping it all in the leaf of a banana tree, and giving it a final boil. And then sharing it.

Earlier this month, we had eleven awesome volunteers return to their home countries after completing 27 valiant months as volunteers. As exciting as it is to watch them branch out into their adult lives with the experience of serving at the Farm, I know that I am not yet ready. I still have a ways to journey, to share with others, and to be remade as a volunteer here at the Farm. The joy is in the journey.

This second year is going well. I feel very called to serve as the Farm's sub-director. The work load is heavy; there is a complex fabric of all of the people who come together to make this project work. Yet the scope and quality of the relationships that I find myself in here continue to amaze me. Things are constantly changing, but this is where I'm supposed to be.

I wish you a happy and healthy and hopeful New Year! Thank you so much for sticking with me on this journey, for staying in touch, and for the many ways you support me!

Peace and Christmas blessings,
Peter

ptooher@gmail.com

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to you from the Finca! After a relatively dry winter, January rains have (finally) arrived in full force, leaving volunteers sloshing around in rain boots, pulling out rarely-used sweatshirts from suitcases under our beds, and avoiding cold showers for days on end (or maybe that’s just me.) I, by the way, am Erin Ramse y, and I am one of the eight bright-eyed souls we call “newbies” who have just weathered our first three months (that’s a fourth of a year!... but who’s counting, right?) at the Finca and lived to tell the tale. Our past month has been chock-full of all the craziness, the absurdity, the grace and laughter and struggle that the Finca deals out daily. We’ve jumped head-first into a Honduran Christmas and New Year, complete with more tamales than any of us would ever really want to eat, plenty of dancing, and a few really beautiful liturgies. Some of us have gotten to experience what life is like in other parts of Honduras as we’ve accompanied our kids on vacations to visit family members or old house parents and inevitably have been offered countless glasses of Coca-Cola, weathered long bus rides with antsy children (no bathroom accidents as of yet!), and entered into the life of the poor in a new way. We've missed our families and friends, felt the giant hole left in our hearts with the departure of the oldies in early December, begun to feel more confident as we've started to fill the large shoes they leave behind, and been blessed with numerous visitors - including the entire Pennino family, the Tooher clan minus two, Kate's sister Emily, and a few long-time friends of the Farm - who always seem to bring us a spark of life, new stories to share around the dinner table, and, if we're lucky, chocolate. We've battled with the rapidly growing rat population in our house (here’s a shout out to Terry Mattoon, whose recently-sent, high-tech rat traps have given us the competitive edge we need on the frontlines), found our clothes molding over from the rains, and continually been graced, blessed and stretched by the challenge of actively loving each other which so deeply permeates this place. It is a difficult call, but we are learning. And it is good that we are here.

I'm not quite sure when the last post was made, or even to what extent we've all been introduced to you, newbies and middies alike... so, because my community mates, my sisters and brothers, are SO amazing, and in the spirit of celebrating their gifts, I'd like to take this edition of the parent letter to shine some light on just who exactly they are and the tiny ways they fill our home with joy, thoughtfulness and laughter daily.

Sheena - amazes all with her homemade Christmas cards; incredibly willing to say YES to all that is asked of her; quickly mastering the art of cooking rice and beans; thoughtful, spirited, and committed

Kate – shares lovely, in-tune guitar music for all to sing along to; pours out LOTS of love on our littlest ones; amazingly patient; is growing leaps in bounds in her mastery of Spanish; provider of granola bars and lice shampoo to all

Alisha – recently named rat-killing team captain; can spew prices for any Honduran meat and cheese off the top of her head; our fearless newest Landcruiser driver; always up for a great conversation; works incredibly hard behind-the-scenes to make sure the Finca doesn't fall to pieces

Keenan – victim of many practical jokes involving live chickens; singlehandedly inserting the word “absolutamente” into Finca vocabulary; putting in long hours in the school to take the Finca's colegio (6th-9th grades) math program by storm; already taking Finca bailes (dance parties) by storm with his highly-sought-after dance moves; friendly, fun-loving, and adored by our children

Kristina – gracefully leaps over cultural boundaries and builds bridges between all sorts of quirky, beautiful characters who live in the areas surrounding the Finca; first newbie to suffer a jellyfish sting and live to tell the tale; lover of dried fruit and dark chocolate; most consistent Thursday mail recipient; always shares her goodies; reflective, compassionate, and deeply generous

Ted – tests out Spanish slang on anyone who will listen; friend to all Finca animals; loves a challenging conversation, a game of chess, or a good book; most sought after community member in case of clogged toilets/car trouble/getting mauled by bears (don't worry, that hasn't actually happened... yet); spends free time learning to windsurf; smart, reliable, and always willing to lend a hand

Francesca – rocks socks with sandals in an effort to avoid mosquitoes; lights up our house with her frequent laughter; building wonderful relationships with our kids; thoughtful, soft-spoken, and considerate

Erin – newest giver of Finca haircuts to any and all brave volunteers willing to hand over a pair of scissors and their precious locks; battles with the fogon while trying to dream up interesting meal ideas for her community; attempts to manage large groups of children with grace and patience; sings in the shower; joyful, determined, and reflective

Peter – continues to weather the storm with two feet planted firmly on the ground as our fearless leader; named most-Honduran-like community member for his acquired taste of massive amounts of salt and manteca (lard) in food and use of Honduran habits; impressive comedic timing; intensely dedicated, perceptive, well-respected and very real

Beth – inspires volunteer running; cooking/baking guru and teacher to eager novice newbies; always available to listen to our health woes and provide smart, helpful counsel; caring, energetic, and thoughtful

Sara – dynamic storyteller who keeps our dinner table lively with all sorts of funny tales; manages the demands of the social work department with grace; always up for a good talk; personable, helpful, and full of life

Ryan – shows unbelievable patience with our littlest ones; keeps us in touch with the outside world with his knowledge of current events; provider of dryer sheets and Febreeze to all volunteers with molding clothing; kind, funny, and incredibly willing to serve

Quinn – shows incredible commitment to the education of our children; keeps our kitchen sparkling-clean (well, sort of, as much as is possible with unfinished wooden counters) and our spice rack organized; loves to sing and play guitar; dedicated, thoughtful, and considerate

Dan – IS Santa Claus, according to each and every Finca child; recently shaved off the beard which has made him the recipient of Honduran grief since August; keeps us laughing, belly-ache style, with tales from home; positive, hilarious, and encouraging

Jennie Maria – provider of fresh veggies and good coffee to all Ceiba visitors; gracefully acts as house-mom to teenage boys; fundraising and donation-managing guru; embodies hospitality; incredibly generous, intentional, and dedicated

Sayda – our lone Honduran community member who shows amazing patience with gringo Spanish; learning to balance her role as Ceiba girls’ house caretaker with university life as she begins classes this month; provider of ice cream and delicious beans to all who stay in her apartment; kind, welcoming, and a wonderful role model to our Finca kids

Beautiful, bizarre, and totally unique, each of them. How blessed I am to be their sister.

In just over a week our community will take a bit of a twist as we welcome into the grace-filled chaos of life at the farm not only a doctor from the United States, who will be joining us for a few months (welcome, Dr. Jeannie!), but also two new long-term volunteers!! With the arrival of Georleny and Scarleth, two Nicaraguan psychologists that have taken the leap to join our crew, we become a more fully bilingual bunch and a truly international volunteer community. Please pray for us as we prepare to welcome them in, and for them as they prepare to leave their homes behind and enter deeply into all that is life at the Farm. It is a difficult call, but we trust that God is with us, leading and guiding us and working within, around, and even through us to give us the grace to carry on, to love each other and our kids well. We miss and love you dearly. Please continue to hold us in your thoughts and prayers, as we hold you in ours, knowing and trusting that they are lifted up over oceans and meet, dancing together, in God, who holds us all together in Love.

with lots of love
from our humble home to yours,

Erin Ramsey

erin.ramsey.1@gmail.com

Merry Christmas from Farm of the Child

Merry Christmas from all of us at Farm of the Child! Wishing you and yours a most blessed Christmas and joyous New Year.

Roasted Marshmallows on the Caribbean

My heart hurts as it overflows with gratitude. The last week and a half has given me the opportunity to celebrate the Day of Thanks (preparing mountains of food to thank all those that collaborate with us in Trujillo) and to take leave of all my little Finca brothers and sisters. Spending a total of a week on-site, I have had the opportunity to swim in the ocean, climb up and through rocks to mountain pools, eat beans and guineos with little children and say “I love you” an almost inordinate number of times.

As we eleven departing volunteers half-circled the monstrance in adoration last Thursday night, I wept from the depths of my soul as each of our children knelt behind and blessed us. In my mind’s eye, I saw each of them as the little children they had been exactly three years prior. I heard my voice from three years ago (when I was new volunteer) stating, “Wow! These departing volunteers have given their hearts to these children. I can’t imagine what that feels like!” Now, three years later, I know what it feels like and I wonder how I blinked my eyes so quickly. During that Holy Hour, the primary emotion that flowed out of my eyes was that of gratitude, gratitude for all the grace that God has gifted: graces to be joyful and sorrowful, to grow and to be broken.

I reflect with you on the last three years, thanking you for being a part of this experience.

What I have lost…
All my original Finca clothes to mold
Healthy skin to the hot, hot sun.All graceful movements to the rocky roads and tree roots
The ability to naively trust others to those who’ve taken advantage of me and/or the children.
A sense of personal space to the Santa Fe bus.
My camera, jeans and some odd number of lempiras to different thieves.
Any affinity toward ants to the welts they’ve imparted to my ankles.
Healthy arteries to the wonders of manteca.
Some unrealistic optimism, to be replaced with idealistic realism.

What I have learned…
How to clean a head chock-full of lice.
That I am VERY very small.
How to use a machete.
That I do not like to dance Punta or listen to reggaeton.
That anything that frustrates me about others is a reflection of frustrations with myself.
That I am grateful to the women of the 1900’s that taught U.S. men that whistling and cat-calling are not appropriate greetings.
That making up Spanish words is functional in Honduras
That love is washing a sick friend’s vomit-covered sheets in the middle of the night.
How to cook from scratch for 30 people.
That a few days without electricity or water is no biggie…more than a few and people get testy.
That I need others.
How to give, to receive, to forgive and to ask for forgiveness.
That I can be a parent, but I will forever be a child.
How to confront problems of rats, bats, snakes, scorpions, cockroaches and tarantulas.
No matter how many times a child convinces you that nances are good, do NOT listen.
That hitchhiking on a muddy road in the middle of nowhere can be normal.

What I (will) treasure..
A child learning how to read through participating in Laudes.
Being lulled to sleep by the lapping Caribbean waves.
Drinking straight from the coconut.
Slapping out tortillas over a hot fire.
Off-key choruses sung in the chapel.
The scars on my leg from House 2’s “friendly dog “Winnie Puh”
Walking/Running on the beach.
A community of people always willing to give/get a back-scratch.
Laughing so hard I cry and coming out of sobbing through laughter.
Being SO close to the earth that I cannot scrub it out of my skin.
Running into the ocean or rivers fully clothed.
Hearing “Ana Banana” shouted across the soccer field.
My last dip in the Carribbean, under a star-filled sky and enjoying the campfire-roasted marshmallows Julitza brought out to be eaten while floating under the moon.
Doing sit-ups with Franciscan sisters.
Little children snuggling into my smelliness and falling asleep.

What I am excited for…
Clean bathrooms and being able to flush toilet paper
Running trails free of cat-calling, whistling men
Yogurt, granola, salsa, apples, cheese, salsa, good coffee, salsa and everything bagels
Free purified water and showering in hot water
Fireplaces, carpets, warm blankets and sweaters
Available forms of communication
Good customer service
A real pine Christmas tree and celebrating the season with my family
Being present and able to thank all those who mean so very much to me in the States.

THANK YOU to each of you for your love and support in the last few years. As we approach this holiday of peace and joy, please continue to remember the needs of our little ones. I encourage you to consider continuing to support the Farm of the Child, an impressive example of the Body of Christ incarnate. Each donation is used well by people very conscious of the importance of being good stewards of every cent given.

If you are interested, please refer to www.farmofthechild.org/donate.php or send a check made out to Farm of the Child to:

Farm of the Child
1616 Nottingham Knoll Drive
Jacksonville, FL 32225

In hope and with much love,
Anne Klinkhammer
annabellelee17@yahoo.com