Pastor Tomasa's Family:

Sponsor:  First Baptist Church, St. Petersburg FL

The picture to the right is of Tomasa Chanta, a local pastor who lives in Buena Vista.   Her and her husband Demesio have 9 children and live in the cornstalk home pictured.

6 of her 9 kids still live at home.  They share one bed, some sleeping on the dirt floor (which is currently a "mud" floor as we are in the middle of the rainy season).  Their fire for cooking and heat is only a few feet away from the bed, leaving a 24hr cloud of smoke in the home.

We are excited to relieve this family from some of their physical suffering, and are looking forward to getting to know them on a deeper level.      

UPDATE:

We celebrated our first 12x12 “complex” of homes – 3 families who live on the same property as neighbors.  It was a big celebration…  so cool to see the entire block of homes transformed. 

We met Pastora Tomasa a long time ago when we celebrated the Marroquin family home.  She had come as their pastor to pray with us over their home.  She was sweet and quiet.  Although she had a very difficult home situation herself, she did not mention that to us at all (which is very unique for the people in this area!) 

You can read more about Tomasa, her daughter’s prophetic dreams, and her general sense of humility in a separate blog HERE.

It wasn’t until a year and a half later after we met that we saw where Tomasa lived.  It was a small, one-room cornstalk home with dirt floors.  With holes and gaps throughout the stalks, rain and cold clearly are challenges for this family.

Through our friends Omar & Bonnie, we received a sponsor for Tomasa’s home, First Baptist Church of St. Petersburg, FL.  When we brought the news to Tomasa she broke down into tears.  A few months later, we started construction on her new home.

During the construction process, we met Tomasa & Demesio’s son and his wife, Wilson and Magda Chanta.  They lived above Tomasa, in a small tin shack.  A young family with 2 kids, we immediately began praying that we could help them as well.  Soon we received a sponsor – David and Ivete Correa from Miami, FL.  We were so excited to tell Wilson & Magda the news, and not too long after that we started their home.

Living next to Wilson’s house is his brother Mynor and his wife Sandra.  With 3 kids, they also lived in an old beaten down house.  We were able to come up with the necessary funds to do a complete renovation for them – replacing their rafters and roof, pouring a concrete floor, and providing a new door and window.  

We have grown very close with these families.  While The mom of the group is a local pastor, certain members of the family appear far from God.  This family has a troubled past full of abuse and addiction.  We feel honored to be used by God to serve and love on this family, and we pray they continue to see his grace through our friendship.