Orchestras & Choirs Serving in God's Love
Update # 23
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Some may notice that we are a bit behind with our updates—this is largely
due to the death of my mom in June and later the death of the husband of
her twin sister.  Most recently Jonathan had a close call with an infection
of his appendix.  While we have been struggling these last few months, we
are not defeated and continue to press on.  In this update you will find
details about our latest trip to Monterrey, (after the hurricane) to again
encourage the groups we have there.  We greatly appreciate even the
smallest prayer if you can take a moment and pray that God will guide and
protect us as we continue on our journeys.
Have I not
commanded you?
Be strong and of
good courage. Do
not be terrified; do
not be discouraged,
for the Lord your
God will be with you
wherever you go.    
Joshua 1:9
Counter
  On our way to Gomez Palacio, Mexico we had another chance to visit the orphanage,
Casa Hogar Douglas.  On our last visit our camper was surrounded by 2 feet of water from
Hurricane Alex. Now things seemed more tranquil.  Our visit had mixed feelings.  We had a
good positive start with many children months earlier, but many distractions combined with
a tight schedule of other activities took its toll and almost all of the children we had started
stopped participating.  When even just 1 adult steps forward to be an encourager it makes a
world of difference but the staff persons were already too burdened.  Different locations
have different obstacles and some are more difficult to overcome than others.  We were
encouraged however, that the violins and other materials we had left were passed on to a
very enthusiastic little group about 15 minutes away.  Still, we didn’t want to remove all
hope of ever having a “symphony of hope” at Casa Hogar Douglas so we left them with a
single violin to work with and continue to try encouraging who we can by phone.  Perhaps
God will yet surprise us with what happens here.
God has blessed us with the opportunity of working with many young people in Monterrey over
the years and it was great to visit them all.  We decided to do a group performance at one of the
city hospitals to encourage the families there.  We combined players from La Fama, Estanzuela,
and our own family to form an orchestra of about 15 people.  We had one day of group practices
and then loaded all of our instruments, chairs, stands and music and headed off to the hospital in
our van.  On the particular day we were playing, families of patients were not allowed to enter so
one of our performances was outside on the street with them.  It was noisy but everyone enjoyed
it.  We hope that the Lord makes it possible for us to have many other such opportunities.
While visiting the Casa Hogar Douglas in Monterrey we again had the chance to
encourage a new little group at the Monte Horeb Church in Estanzuela.  Pedro, the pastor,
and his wife Letty, very much share our vision of providing a unique opportunity for
Christian young person’s to work together in a order to bless their community and very
actively involve their own children as they minister to others in the neighborhood.  They
have been using all of the materials and violins we have sent them and are making great
progress.  We very much enjoyed visiting their congregation and practicing with them and
their young people for an upcoming hospital performance.  Please pray for them as their
church is located in an area that has had numerous drug related violent incidences.
 After working with various groups in Monterrey, Mexico we headed on to Gomez Palacio to
begin work with a congregation of believers there.  The congregation there is very
enthusiastic about various activities that minister and witness to their community so we are
hopeful for the best. We spent several weeks living in our camper next to the Cuevas Family  
and participated in a youth camp that they hosted at their house the weekend we arrived. We
weren't able to stay long enough to complete the activities we had planned but they are  a very
capable family and may start their own youth group there if they find the time. They are
already involved in many outreach areas in their community and church. Maybe someday we
will be able to visit their community again in the future.  God continually shows great kindness
in His mercy to us and we are very thankful.
Noah was able to spend a couple of months with us in Texas while we worked at the
chicken plant, and then a few weeks more as we traveled on to Gomez Palacio in
Mexico. He had been in Wisconsin previously working at the Bible camp there. While in
Wisconsin he was invited to go to Columbia in south America to work with an
organization called Kids Alive. Kids Alive is actually based in England. They are a
Christian organization which helps support smaller Christian schools or other
organizations that work directly with poor children in several countries. The small
school Noah is working with feeds and educates children that would not otherwise be
able to afford an education.
We went with Noah to the airport in Torreon, Mexico to see him off. We drove to a field
to watch his plane take off but it had already gone by the time we fought our way
through traffic to get there. We will miss Noah but we are happy that he is enjoying the
work that he feels led to do. He is teaching violin, English and computer classes, as well
as doing his main job as a sponsorship coordinator. He spends a lot of time writing
reports on children to connect them with a sponsor from a wealthier country. Also he
translates the letters the children write to their sponsors.
 We have wanted to return to Guatemala for some time but Chris's mom has been sick with
cancer for many months so we felt we needed to stay close to the U.S. in case she might
need us. We had plans for a small orchestra starting in Gomez Palacio and were preparing
to meet with the parents and children in the area to make final plans... but a few days
before our first class we got a call from Missouri that Mom had fallen and was now in the
nursing home at Maranatha. We sent Elizabeth by plane to be with her the next day and
began packing up our camper. In just a couple of days we left and began driving
northward. In the mean time her twin sister in Flint and her husband had gotten to Missouri
also. So when we got as far as McAllen we stopped at the chicken plant for a few weeks to
give them time to spend with her and to wait and see if things would get better. Suddenly
her sister and husband had to return to Flint because he wasn't feeling well and they had
driven there in their car. He went to the doctor for some tests and sadly those tests
revealed that he had pancreatic cancer and wasn't expected to live more than a month.
We decided that we needed to go ahead to Missouri and commit to staying for the
remainder of the time that Beverly might live. It seemed that we might be there for several
months. We weren't sure how it would all play out but were prepared to do whatever we
could to enjoy the rest of her time with us.
Symphonies of Hope
Chris & Coleen Anderson
P.O. Box 1061, Pharr, TX  78577
In the U.S. :  608 -  313 - HOPE
Message phone in U.S. :  956-781-5133
Email: chriscoleen@symphoniesofhope.org
Email: chriscoleen@choirsoffaith.org
SymphoniesOfHope.Org
ChoirsOfFaith.Org

SinfoniasDeEsperanza.Org
CorosDeFe.Org
Though this summer has been filled with challenges and with much
sadness and loss we are looking forward to our next journey to
Guatemala. We appreciate all of your prayers. Please keep in touch
with us by email. We love to hear from each and every one of you!

Blessings!

Chris, Coleen, Elizabeth, Sarah, Jonathan, and Samuel
We had several children make drawings
for the T shirt designs we used for the
Casa Hogar Douglas students.
creative in our solution to
dealing with the heat. Chris,
Ed Cuevas, and Elizabeth
worked together to build a
miniature water cooler which
served as our "air
conditioner"  for the duration
of our stay in the desert!