New House Tour

Of all the projects going on here at Fishers of Men, none are bigger than the new house.  Since the very beginning, Julie’s passion has been for the children of Mexico.  A bigger house would let us fill it with more people!  For the past several years, we’ve been working bit by bit to accomplish this goal.  We’re currently finished with the first floor, but I’ll give more details on the construction process after I first tell you what it is we’re building.

Let’s begin with an overview.  We’re building a two-story house on the Refuge Ranch property big enough to comfortably fit 20-30 kids, plus Julie.  After this is done, we’ll convert the old house into staff housing.  The new house will combine many of the facilities currently scattered through other buildings, including the kitchen, dining room, laundry room, and office.  Those areas will then be made available for other things we need, such as more Crusade storage and guest housing.

FIRST FLOOR

The first floor will contain living spaces.  The front doors open to a large reception area, part of which is open to the second floor surrounding the staircase.  The right side of the house first contains the living room, main bathrooms, creative room, and exercise room.  The living room is a large space housing the TV area, sitting area, small library, and a fire pit.  This’ll be a great room for all the kids to relax, read, and hang out in!  I assume you already know what bathrooms are, so I won’t go into detail on those.  They’ll each contain several stalls to accommodate the hopefully many children living here.  The creative area will contain tables and supplies for any crafts and experiments the kids so desire to perform.  I have a feeling there’ll be plenty of messes to clean up!  Finally, the gym will be populated with various workout contraptions and weights for the kids to use.  In fact, they’ve got some rigged up in the room already!  Tires are an extremely versatile workout tool.

In the back of the first floor will be the nurse’s station and laundry room.  We’ve made space for a medicine closet, recovery room and bed, nurse desk, and storage on the clinic side.  The laundry room will have plenty of washers to clean the (likely literal) tons of clothes dirtied every week, with clotheslines strung out back.  After all, what’s a Mexican home without a few clotheslines?

The left side will house the offices, kitchens, and dining room.  The office space will have two main offices for Julie Claassen and Adrian Tovar, for the Refuge Ranch and Crusade sides, respectively.  There will also be a waiting area and meeting room with a separate door to the outside to help keep work and family life distinct.  The new house will actually have two kitchens, just as our current setup does.  One will be a smaller kitchen for use by the kids in making any snacks, meals, or desserts they wish.  Then, we’ll have a big industrial kitchen for our chef Rosa to work her magic.  That kitchen will conveniently connect to the dining area for easy serving.  Maximum capacity for our dining hall will be 60 people, perfect for hosting guests!

SECOND FLOOR

Now that we’ve walked through the first floor, let’s explore the second.  This conglomeration of rooms will be the bedrooms.  The floor is segmented into pods, all connecting to the central walkway surrounding the stairs.  Five pods will be for the kids, with Julie taking a sixth for her apartment.  One segment replaces a bedroom pod with another living room for the kids to relax in not far from their rooms.  Another side, overlooking the main entrance and opening to a terrace, will be a room dedicated to music.  Most of the kids practice piano, violin, or both, so space for them to hone their skills without annoying their pod-mates was a needed inclusion.  Besides, it provides an inspiring view while practicing.

The bedroom pods are an interesting and ingenuitive design.  Each contains four bedrooms, two containing two beds and two containing one, in order to tailor sleeping arrangement preferences for the wide variety of kids who will be living here.  Each pod also has a bathroom, two showers, and a small living space.  We’ll designate each pod for a specific gender and age group.  One for younger girls, one for older, one for younger boys, one for older, and the fifth will be for infants.

CONCLUSION

Well, there you have it, our new house!  I’m so excited for its completion!  We’re working as quickly as we can, completing each step as the Lord provides funds.  Our next step is the roof of the first floor, which doubles as the floor for the second.  We have all the planning done and are now waiting for funds for our first step.  To build the roof, we will be using prefab concrete trackways that will be placed between the beams.  We’ll then slide in styrofoam beams between those to form the initial roof.  After that, we’ll place the plumbing and wiring and cover it with the concrete floor of the second story.

The first step (the prefab concrete tracks and styrofoam) will only cost us $10,000!  It’s both cheaper and quicker than other methods commonly used here.  We already have $5,500 saved and thus only have $4,500 to raise!  We’re praying to finish this step before the year’s end, and we can do that with your help.

I had the opportunity to be here when we first broke ground on the house years ago, and I’m amazed at how far we’ve come since then.  I would love it if we could go even further.  If you’re interested in giving, you can mail donations to P.O. Box 940, Shelbyville, IN 46176 or email us at fishersofmen@gmail.com.  We’re so excited to share this journey with you!

How to have a Prodigal Child

We all love the story of the prodigal son that Jesus tells in Luke chapter 15!  What a story of rebellion and then redemption!  What a story of hope and happy endings!  Well, life has recently prompted me to ponder a bit more about the prodigal.

Leo and I at one of his games

A few weeks ago, I faced a parenting situation that required wisdom, insight and determination, like most all situations that we face as fathers and mothers!  Two of my teenage boys, Leo, age 17, and Miguel, age 15, also biological siblings, had made some unwise decisions while at a national soccer tournament with their team.  As occurs on many occasions, a bad decision is rarely an isolated decision, but actually just one more bad decision in a rather long line of bad decisions.  There comes a time, along that line of bad decisions, where decisive action must be taken.  That time had arrived. 

As a result of the most recent bad decision, I made the determination to pull them out of soccer, explaining that the development of their integrity and character carried much more weight and importance than the development of their soccer skills.  In fact, the decisions they had been making had the potential to completely ruin their hopes and dreams of moving up in the soccer world, so to protect those dreams and ambitions, this lesson needed to be learned NOW.

Miguel enjoying vacation

Not surprisingly, their perspective of the situation and my perspective did not match.  In reaction to my decision to make them step back from soccer for a time, Leo and Miguel decided to return to their biological mother. 

Leo and Miguel, as well as their three siblings, Fatima, Carolina and David, became my children in February of 2011, when their grandmother, who had raised them up to that point, needed a loving and healthy home where they could be nurtured.  She has remained an important part of their lives and is just as devastated as I regarding their decision.

So, after loving and raising them for over 8 years, since they were 9 and 7 years old, respectively, and within less than 48 hours of making their decision, Leo and Miguel left our home….but never our hearts!

After their leaving, I really wanted to sit down with the Dad of the prodigal son in Luke 15 for a long cup of coffee to share our woes (Look at that family with the obedient and happy teenagers!), our worries (What kind of bad decisions are they going to continue to make?), our wonderings (What should I have done differently?  Anything?  When?). 

So, I did just that, although it was a rather one-sided conversation, with his insights limited to those placed on paper by Luke’s pen.  I’ll let you in on some of the musings that have come out of our time together, prodigal Dad and me.

Soon into the conversation, I realized that what I love about the story….is the ending!  In fact, I began talking about the end of the story first, when prodigal Dad reminded me that every story with an ending had a beginning…and probably a beginning further back than you realize at the moment.

The day that younger son demanded his inheritance, prodigal Dad assured me, was not the first day that conflict had occurred, nor that a hard heart and pride had been present in the home and conversation.  It was simply the day in which Dad determined that it was time to let go…and let God…and let life.

There can no be no ending without a beginning.  There can be no prodigal coming home without a leaving first.

So, the first step in having a prodigal child….is knowing when to let him or her go!

Throughout our conversation, I kept wanting to jump forward to the end.  Let’s get to the happy part!  To the resolved part!  But, prodigal Dad just kept bringing me back to the beginning, which I was coming to realize was really the middle, of the story.  He reminded me that the day his son left home, inheritance in hand, he did not know if he would ever see him again!  At the beginning, in the middle, we don’t know the end!

Only once in my life have I jumped to the end of a novel because I simply could not wait to find out how all the unresolved issues present in the current chapter would find resolution.  That move ruined the book!  I finished it out of sheer determination…and determined to never make that impatient move again!

We might not know the end at the beginning, but trying to jump to the end without going through the middle just won’t work!

In the middle, part of Prodigal is waiting.

Step two in having a prodigal child….The Wait… a waiting that you do not know if or when it will ever end.  You just wait.

So, how do you wait well?

You wait, while preparing for your part in the end.  Certainly, it is an end that you do not know if or when it will ever arrive, but you better start getting ready in case it does! 

A Prodigal Parent’s heart always wants and waits for the Prodigal to come back, but do we prepare for his or her return?

The amount of pain, rebellion, disrespect, blindness, lack of gratitude, selfishness and anger present at the moment of a prodigal’s parting does little to prepare the compassionate heart needed at the time of the return. 

The Waiting can provide the space to begin to heal, forgive and prepare to love anew.

I’ve done “Prodigal returns”.  Leo and Miguel’s younger sister, Carolina, returned to their biological mother in August of 2017.  She came back home this past February.  She is all the essence of Carolina, my constant shadow, the always-informed member of our family, but with a much softer heart and one who now loves hugs!  A true Prodigal return requires repentance on the part of the Prodigal and forgiveness on the part of the Parent.

Carolina and I after her return home :-)

As our conversation continued, I really wanted to know more from Prodigal Dad about the return: his other son, how to guide and parent post-prodigal, how to live out forgiveness on a daily basis….but he had a party to get back to!

Step three in parenting a prodigal…pray for a party!  In faith, and in your heart, prepare for a party!

Before prodigal Dad left for the party, he reminded me of one last Truth:  He is actually my Father and I am the Prodigal.  So, as I love children with the potential of being Prodigals, I am to love them as my Heavenly Father has loved me….full of loving limits and limitless mercy when encountering a repentant heart.

So, with these, Leo and Miguel, we are in step two….The Wait.  Please wait with me as we pray for a party!  May the Lord soften hearts and open eyes to Truth!

Welcome to Mexico, Darrel!

Today's blog post is written by a Godly young man, Darrel Current.  You will be hearing more from Darrel in the coming weeks and months for several reasons.  First of all, he is currently living and serving at Refuge Ranch until the end of July!  We are blessed to have his help in school and especially, like today, with the area of communications.  Secondly, he is also our youngest member of the Fishers of Men Board of Directors.  Since a very young age, Darrel has been involved in Fishers of Men, having already served at the Ranch on mission trips with his family.  Darrel's father, Don Current, is the Fishers of Men treasurer and his mom, Dyan, passionately shares about what God is doing in and through Fishers of Men with anybody who will listen!  I know you will enjoy Darrel's perspective on life with Jesus at Refuge Ranch!

It’s hard to believe I’ve already been here a week!  Although my days have been busy, they’ve been filled with adventure and family, so I’ve enjoyed every day.  Last I left you, I was on my way to Mexico city preparing to begin a whole new adventure.  Well, that adventure has begun and I have much to tell, so sit back and enjoy the tale of my week!


After I landed in Mexico City, I found my way to the curb to be picked up after a bit of people watching.  Especially when there’s traffic, it can be quite the drive from the airport back to the Ranch.  If you’ve ever been to a foreign country (non-first world), you know that driving is always an experience.  Personally, I love it.  Watching the vehicles flow adeptly through the streets so closely together without crashing is always fun for me.


Thursday, my first full day there, was spent relaxing from travel and adjusting to my new life at the Ranch.  My Mexico siblings slowly became more talkative as the day went on, although they still prefer to talk in Spanish rather than use the English they’ve been learning.


The next day I got up and ate breakfast (prepared by the wonderful chef Rosa) before starting a day of blog writing and helping the kids with their school.  I’ve discovered I will be a lot busier than I had thought here, which thrills me.  I didn’t want to be simply a guest here, so I’m glad I have plenty to keep me busy.


Sunday was a fun day.  Most of us kids (other than those who are too young or busy with other events) went to youth group, which takes up most of the day here.  To be fair, that’s partly because the church is anywhere from one to two and a half hours away depending on traffic.  Since only the kids need to be there, Julie (founder of FOM) drops us off at the bus stop to take public transportation.  Talk about fun!  I love riding the busses (whether the big ones or smaller public transports) around and staring out my window at all the shops, cars, and people nearby.

Both youth group and church the next day proved to be excellent opportunities to absorb more of the language, which I’m learning slowly and steadily!  It was fun to hang out with a group of people my age who I can laugh and joke along with even though we don’t speak the same language.

Church on Sunday has to be one of my favorite things about Mexico and other countries in general.  The service was two and a half hours of pure joy.  We sang our hearts out, listened to the pastor give an amazing sermon (which I managed to catch parts of) and partook in communion together.  Words cannot describe how wonderful it is to hear Christ worshipped in another language.  Although you may not understand all the words, the joy is tangible.

Afterward, we share a meal provided by either the worship team or children’s ministry.  I’ve never had food there that I didn’t like and getting another chance to hang out with my Mexico siblings and the other youth is always a great time.  We stayed for a while, so I wandered out of the church compound (most properties in Mexican cities are walled in with a courtyard inside the gate) with some of the kids.  I say kids but really they’re my age.  Can we really be considered kids?  Anyway, we walked around for a bit and I bought some amazing sweet bread called a concha.  It only cost about 20 US cents!  Not bad!  That’s another of my favorite things about Mexico, all the little street shops with any food you can imagine.  I forgot to take pictures of my Sunday this week but in the future, I’ll try to remember to snap a few.

Most evenings here are spent hanging out with the family playing games, telling stories, and laughing a good bit.  So far my time here has been amazing.  Not that I expected anything different.  I’ve always felt much more at home out of the United States than I do in it, although I must admit that I miss my family there.  Aside from that, I’d be fine living in places like this forever, a fact I’ve reminded my mom of on multiple occasions.

While God doesn’t call everyone overseas, I know He’s certainly called me.  There’s so much to do with our time here on earth, and I’d much rather spend it sharing the Joy I’ve found with others than remaining comfortably in a familiar place.  Wherever God has called you to serve, are you doing it?  Are you spending the time God has given you wisely?  Decades from now when I look back at my short trip to Mexico, I pray I will be able to answer those questions well.