St. Jean Baptiste De La Salle and My Dad

In May of 2011, five months after I started the World Orphan Fund, my father died in Florida. I was at Orphanage Emmanuel at the time, and the first person I told was my oldest Godchild Mersy. She held my hand for most of the day. Who would better understand how I felt?

My Dad Jean Johnson 1934-2011

That day I made a promise to myself: the first building we entirely funded through the World Orphan Fund would be named in his honor. That building is the new special needs house at an orphanage called Rancho Santa Fe. (Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos Honduras), in La Venta Honduras.

I was at the Ranch last week having a conversation with the Deputy National Director for NPH, Ross Egge, and he asked me about naming the house. It's a Catholic Orphanage, so I suggested there must be a St. Jean that we could choose. My Grandfather was reading Les Miserables when my Dad was born, so he was named Jean after Jean Valjean.

Today I received an email from NPH saying they had chosen St. Jean-Baptist de la Salle, the Patron Saint of teachers, to honor my dad. A French Saint, how perfect.

Saint Jean-Baptiste De La Salle

I would be nothing if it were not for for my father. I hope he likes the home we built in his honor. I miss him every day.

My Name is Angel

My daughter Keeley and I been at Orphanage Emmanuel in Honduras since last Thursday with a mission team from Gainesville and Blairsville Georgia. We come here every January together, because the kids are out of school and we have an opportunity to spend lots of quality time with them. It can also be a time where the children get, well, bored. So this year the team devised contests to keep them engaged. The winners won bikes that had been shipped down in December.

The letter below from a boy named Angel David. He won first place in the essay with a picture contest, and it touched our hearts.

The Lost Sheep

My name is Angel David Garcia Obiedo.

I want to talk about my family. Well, my family is very poor and thanks to God in 2013 they helped me find my family. It was a great happiness. I have been at Emmanuel for 12 years, and when they found my family it was 12 years since I had last seen them. I remember all the names of my family and that was something that made me very happy. Thanks to God. 

My father is 65 and my mother 53 and when they came to visit me. I saw them as old people. The truth is I would have loved to have known them when they were younger. They have only come to visit me one time because they are poor. But I love them so much and it doesn't matter what age they are. I will continue loving them and I hope to return to see them if God wills it.

The 12 years that I have spent at Emmanuel have been a great help to me because when I go one day I am going to leave prepared. Here at Emmanuel they have taught me many good things that can help me in my future but all with the help of God. Because if God is not with us in our lives we are nothing.  Likewise if He is with us then we are somebody in life. 

For my future I want to be able to have a profession and be able to bring my family forward to make them happy. That is the goal that I want to achieve and I know very well that I am going to do it if God wills it.  I am a 17 year old young man. I will be asking help from God in my prayers for him to help me finish this goal .

Something that I want to tell everyone from the group I want to thank you very much for having left your family in the US to be able to see each person in Emmanuel.

Also I want to thank you for the activities that you all have made happen with each one of us.

You all are a great blessing to each one at Emmanuel that God has given us.

Many thanks for coming to create new memories with each one of us that you can share with other people in your life.

Something that I want to tell you all is that you all will be in our hearts because you have been a great blessing to each one of us,