It has been exactly a year that I met her...a divine appointment that changed two lives; hers and mine. I will never forget the first time I met Concepcion. She was standing in the doorway of a shack that was barley holding up under the weight of the tin roof. She looked tired and overwhelmed with life.

We told her about the Hope Academy and asked if her kids could begin coming. Her breathing was raspy as if she had smoked cigarettes all her life. For her that wasn't't't the case she has to cook with wood inside her shack with no ventilation.

This doesn't make sense to me but I am learning that when you have nothing you just make do. And so she cooks inside, when she has food to feed her four children. I left that day asking myself and Raul how can we help her and I began to pray.

In January I took Steve Horne, Director of THP along with Frank Penley to meet Concepcion. Their reaction was the same, they said "We have to build her a
house" .

Concepcion owed $60.00 on her property but had not been able to pay anything for two years. We knew that we first needed to make sure she had a clear deed before we started construction. So Steve gave her the money to pay off her property and Frank committed to raise funds to build her house.

While we waited for Concepcion to get her deed; Harvey's house blew over in a windstorm, so we went to work on his house first. Now we needed funds to build two houses...a little overwhelming but I knew that God would come through. God is always on time and we began construction on Harvey's house. As most of you know we built his house in stages as funds were received and we completed his house in June.

Concepcion's two week process turned into six months allowing us to complete Harvey's house before starting on hers. My son Joseph along with Ali help lead the project and these two guys leadership helped us finish two days ahead of schedule. I would like to thank everyone who contributed and prayed for us on these projects...you have laid up treasure and one day you will realize its significance.
I asked Concepcion as we neared completion If she knew why we built her a new house, her answer was simple but yet profound she said I asked God to help me because I knew that my house wouldn't stand much longer...He answered my prayer. I couldn't be in better place in my life than serving with The Hope Project and being God's answer to a prayer.