Edinburg Lighthouse Provides Backpacks Filled with School Supplies
How will your Aglow group partner with God in your community?
Edinburg, TX Community Lighthouse, is only 29 miles from the border with Mexico. They see many in need who make the journey to cross the border into the United States.
Sylvia Mejia, President of the Edinburg Lighthouse and her team have partnered with Children’s Haven International (CHI) to provide backpacks and school supplies each year to children who have been taken in by CHI.
Sylvia said that in 1969, Shirley Haigh, one of the founders of Children's Haven International (CHI) came to study at the Rio Grande Bible Institute in Edinburg, Texas, and then studied in Mexico City. At that time, she partnered with a Canadian nurse in an isolated village in Hidalgo, Texas. They taught the native children Bible classes and ran a feeding program and helped with other physical needs.
It was there that Shirley witnessed newborns and infants being abandoned to die by young mothers because the fathers were non-natives and these children wouldn’t be accepted by either side of the family. Horrified, Shirley and her husband Lee, began to take those children in. It was not long before they had 30 kids in their home. From there, through charitable donations the home grew to several buildings and became Refugio Internacional de Ninos after several acres of land were donated.
In 1973, Refugio Internacional de Ninos, was organized as a charitable organization in Mexico and formed a Board of Directors in the US, and registered Children’s Haven International (CHI) as a non-profit organization that provides homes for abandoned children in Reynosa, Mexico. Since its inception, CHI is a home for 73 full-time residents. In addition, CHI has included a school that teaches preschool through sixth grade. It currently has between 160-170 students. These students come from the surrounding community.
Edinburg Aglow Lighthouse receives donations for CHI throughout the year and in turn partner with CHI by providing backpacks and school supplies.
Sylvia says, “Many times we go to be a blessing in our community, but always we are the ones who receive the blessing to know that we can sow to such a worthy organization.”
Thank you, Edinburg Lighthouse, for making a difference in the next generation. The supplies you sow and the prayers you pray open the way for each child to find the love of Christ. Knowing someone cares is important and life-changing.