My life's mission is to glorify Christ through teaching life skills. My greatest desire is that the Lord would use my one life to eliminate physical and spiritual poverty in the lives of many others. The Lord has given me the vision to be a part of His work to eradicate physical poverty by teaching handcrafting skills such as sewing, jewelry making, and basket weaving to women in impoverished communities and by His grace to be a tool in His hand to eliminate spiritual poverty through teaching God’s Word and how each woman I am blessed to know can apply it in her life. 
On this trip to Guatemala, I had the opportunity to minister with Casa Aleluya (www.casaontherock.org), an orphanage just outside of Guatemala City. This orphanage currently takes care of approximately 450 children, ages ranging from infants to young adults in college. The goal at Casa Aleluya is to help change Guatemala for the next generation. Casa takes in children who have been abandoned and live on the streets as well as many who have been abused. Over 4,000 children have come through the gates since the ministry began in 1989.
Casa has a sewing program where young girls can learn everything from basic to advanced sewing skills; however, they do not currently have a full time instructor. During our stay, we took the opportunity to teach the girls in the program how to read a commercial pattern and how to use the patterns to make garments. 
The directors, Mike and Dottie Clark, shared with us some stories of how children at Casa Aleluya are changing Guatemala for the future. The following is one of the many stories about the children rescued and living in this amazing place: The father of one family killed some men in a bar room brawl and was sentenced to life in prison without ANY possibility of parole. The mother turned to prostitution to support the family and a short time later abandoned the children. The children were brought to Casa Aleluya to live, but the oldest girl hated her father. Shortly after coming to Casa, she accepted Christ as her Savior and asked Mr. Clark if he would take her to see her father in prison. She said, “Please, it is important.” Mr. Clark took her to visit him, and she told her father that she forgave him.
She then talked to her father about Jesus, how He had changed her heart toward him, and God gave her the privilege of leading her father to Christ. His behavior at the prison drastically changed; in fact, he changed so much that the president of Guatemala at that time gave the father a full pardon and released him from prison. That father is now a minister and preaching at a church in Guatemala.
In Exodus 34 the LORD God himself proclaims to Moses that He is merciful and gracious, one who abounds in steadfast love and faithfulness, one who is just and forgives. Moses later writes in Deuteronomy 10 that this same LORD God executes justice for the fatherless and the widow. When the God who executes justice for the fatherless and the widow became flesh to display His justice and forgiveness, He fed the hungry, loved the unloveable, and like healing the man in John 9, met needs that man could not meet for himself. I praise God because He has given me a tool to care for orphans and widows in their affliction (James 1:27), to bring relief to their physical hunger and to show them the only place where there are wells of living water that can bring life to their souls. I would like to thank everyone who has selflessly supported in word and deed the mission the Lord has given me, for being used by God to partner with me, enabling the rescue of women, children, and families from a life of poverty to an everlasting life of joy and peace with the Father.