I am so excited to share some updates with you. This is a neat time to be involved in this work, as we are just starting and so many challenges are present, but so many miracles too!

I hope you are enjoying these updates and learning about what you are helping create as you share, donate, volunteer, and spread the word.

I will start with the problem we are having and then share the solution we hope for:

The Conundrum

My husband, Bill, was away from our family for eight months out of the year last year. 

When we regrouped in Utah for the two weddings in August, we were all together for two beautiful weeks.

And then we drove to Texas without our four oldest kids (technically, all adults): two were now married, one stayed to study and work, and the other stayed to save up some money for his mission. It broke my heart to leave them there. I felt like everything was falling apart all around me.

We knew we couldn’t sustain the lifestyle we had over the last year. It wasn’t healthy for our family to have Bill go to work in the United States most of the time while I lived in Mexico with most of the kids.

He had tried earning money in Mexico by teaching English or working remotely. None of these things panned out. We planned to have a ropes course business, but we could not use the ropes course yet, with the muddy road and mosquito problem (and no money to fix them).

We knew that being apart is necessary for some families, and God helps them through it, but we also knew that it wasn’t necessary for us if we wanted to be together. Bill has a job in Texas that provides for us.

But would we have to give up our dreams of helping orphaned youth in Mexico?

This is the question I have been asking God. I don’t claim to know His mind or His ways. I just know they are higher and better than mine. And I know I can trust Him. I just want to know my part so I can do it.

I know this: He wants our family together AND He has provided so many miracles in Mexico that it is undeniable that His hand was in our going there. So I know He has a way forward prepared for His work to come to be.

The Goal

After some math, the thought I keep having is that when we can gather 200 monthly donors at $25 per month to run and maintain the school and youth home, as well as businesses or investors to help cover the administration costs (around 66,000 per year) to run the organization, we could get back to Mexico, and keep moving forward with this work. 

I believe we can reach this goal by January. I don’t know if this is my wishful thinking or if it is a prompting from God (I think it is the latter), but either way, it is something to work towards that will make all of the difference.

Will you pray for this miracle with us?

We know there is so much we can do for the youth there, who have so few options and have never felt what a loving home feels like. Each has so much potential to do so much good if given the opportunity.

Then What?

After we have reached these goals, we can head to Mexico and build a youth home for boys. We will help these youth who need a loving family and want to learn.

I feel their prayers to God for help almost constantly.

We will prepare them to have their own healthy family and to be successful in making a difference for good in the world.

We have the systems, the people, and the love. We just need the home and the youth.

Next, we will build a second home for girls. 

After the youth homes, we will build a library, classrooms, and a gathering pavilion to expand the school (For now, we are meeting in homes).

Part of our school will be dedicated to helping parents qualify to get their kids back through addiction recovery and parenting classes. We want so much to help reunify families.

Then, we will build two more youth homes.

During all this, we will be beautifying the land and creating a healing place for everyone who comes.

We want to be self-sustaining, grow our own food, and sell what we produce to teach the students the principles of growth and entrepreneurship. 

We have a good foundation in place that we built over the last year. The next phase is to keep gathering people to help us in this work so we can keep going. 

(Joy with a stuffed kitten one of you sent her after you heard her kitten in Mexico died)

How You Can Be Involved:

There are many ways to help us get back to Mexico and keep going. Please consider one or more of the following:

1. Become a monthly donor! Help us reach our goal of 200 monthly donors by January.

2. Become an advocate. Invite others to help us reach this goal by clicking the “fundraise” button after clicking the donate button above.

   There, you can create a team or an individual fundraiser. This will allow you to make and track your own goal (like for a birthday or team challenge) and for us to thank you for your work as an advocate <3

3. Spread the word. Share what we are doing and our goals on Social Media, with your groups or friends.

4. Media. I want to start going on podcasts and other media to spread the word. If you could let me know of podcasters, or let podcasters know of me, that would be helpful. Or if you know of other media sources we could tap into, that would also be so good.

5. If you know of businesses or investors that are open to helping good causes that:

• Help youth get an education so they can make positive change in the world

• Help with immigration issues (because more youth have safe places to be and opportunities to succeed in Mexico)

• Help families be reunited 

• Create entrepreneurs who can improve their community and grow more resources for all. 

I would love to talk to them about what we are doing!

Events:

If you are in the Provo area, please save the date for this event. You can help by doing some Christmas shopping there, donating, or contributing items or food to sell. Some incredible love and effort have been put into putting this together. I thank you for being such beautiful people.

Your Impact:

Courses for BYU Pathways started this month! Our friend "Anthony" (whom you've sponsored) is so excited to be taking university courses. He struggled a little with the tech at first but is now doing fantastic and getting excellent grades on his assignments, even though they are in English. He didn’t think this would be an opportunity he would ever have since he wasn’t able to graduate from Junior High. 

He is so happy to now be able to pursue his dream of becoming a youth counselor. He will be awesome at it!

In addition to this, you have helped us buy trees, books, and supplies. You helped run a summer program for youth in the community and helped us set up a foundation for what is ahead.

Thank you for your contributions! You are making dreams come true. I know there is so much more for Anthony and many others. 

Thank you for being a part of this vital work! 

With Love,

Karen Bates

karen@findyourpathmission.org

P.S. I just got the cutes journal from Joy's Amazon store (Joy is my little girl picture with the stuffed kitten above). It makes me think of how this life is a process of metamorphosis as we learn to fly. You can visit her Amazon store here.