Angels of God Children’s Home

Linda Richard’s  grandbaby Fredita, Ana Mia and Armando’s daughter.

Hogar de Ninos Angeles de Dios

We first met Linda Richards, Director of Angels of God Children’s Home and her mother Freda Clifton in 2010.  Freda originally ran a home for children in Matamoros, Mexico when Linda joined her in the work.  Eventually, they moved to their current location out in the country west of Matamoros.

LONG TERM COMMITMENT TO THE CHILDREN

We were impressed with their long-term commitment to raise the children in their care, some of whom were 6-weeks old when they first arrived and are now grown with families of their own.  One has returned with her husband and together they serve as houseparents, even naming their new daughter after her great grandmother Freda Clifton. At least 6 young people have graduated from University.

LONG TERM COMMITMENT TO THE PROPERTY

We also loved Linda’s and Freda’s commitment to their long-term plan to build out the property, laid out by professionals to take advantage of prevailing breezes for the comfort of everyone living on site.

The property included two family-style homes – one for boys and one for girls – which house 12 children each.  An old school house was also on property for elementary children, as well as offices, small homes for Freda and Linda and various outbuildings for storage, shops, and water purification.  The rural campus is situated on about 27 acres and their on-site facilities continue to grow their ability to care for and educate more children.

HERO MAKERS’ COMMITMENT TO HOGAR DE NINOS ANGELES DE DIOS

During one of Rocky’s week-long visits to AoG, he witnessed several young boys being turned away because the boys home was full.  Linda shared that if homes couldn’t be found for them, they would wind up in the streets.  That episode initiated the beginning of the next boys home, now ready for occupancy in 2018.

HERO MAKERS’ COMPLETED PROJECTS since we’ve come alongside to help this ministry:
  • Built a metal 2-room schoolhouse
  • Extended living quarters on both existing homes to include bedrooms for houseparents’ children
  • Extended Freda’s home to include a guest room and laundry area.
  • Added concrete walkways
  • Extended covered porches and parking; supervised building of new patio cover for Linda’s home
  • Built a second home for 12 boys, a suite for houseparents and their children, and a small suite for relief houseparents.  The 4600+ s.f. under roof also includes a screened-in porch and mud-room.
  • Built a Guest Workers Dorm to house short-term missionary teams, with 10 bathrooms and currently sleeps 28 missionaries.
  • Installed an extensive property-wide waste-water system connecting all existing living quarters.
NEXT MAJOR PROJECT BEGINNING FALL 2018
  • Future projects include a new multi-purpose building that will have a major kitchen, meeting area, restrooms, and an attached apartment.  Upon the completion of this building, the sleeping capacity of the Guest Worker Dorm doubles because half of it now is temporarily reserved for team meeting space. The bunk beds are already built for the second side of the dorm; just require assembly.
IMPACT OF HERO MAKERS’ INVESTMENT

When the Guest Workers Dorm was completed, other mission teams unrelated to HERO Makers returned to work with Angels of God because safe, clean, and air-conditioned housing was available right on property.

Here are pictures from Angels of God, or “Angeles De Dios.” Click on any image to see all the photos enlarged.