EP 152 She Had 8 Kids & a Calling She Kept Talking Herself Out Of
Resources Mentioned in Episode
I want to tell you about my friend Karen.
Several years ago, she was homeschooling eight kids, running a co-op, and carrying this quiet thought she could not seem to shake. A sense that God was nudging her toward something. That there was more.
But every time it surfaced, she did what most of us do.
She talked herself out of it.
I don't have time. I have eight kids. Surely there's someone better suited for this than me.
Maybe you have said some version of that to yourself.
One afternoon, she was leaving her church's temple, and the thought came back. And something came with it this time. The impression that if Christ was willing to pay the price He paid for her, He must know more about what she is capable of than she does.
That one thought started something.
In this week’s podcast episode, you’ll hear Karen’s incredible story that lead her and her family to open a center for orphaned teens in Mexico and all of the twists and turns along the way.
Here is a little of what you will hear in this episode:
- The moment Karen realized her self-doubt might be something closer to pride, because God knows her better than she knows herself
- How her mother's childhood shaped the way Karen sees every single one of those kids
- What it actually looks like when you say yes to something that seems impossible, and why the obstacles are part of the plan
- The miracles, small and specific, that kept showing up when things felt impossible
- Getting her family and husband onboard with her mission
- The teenagers who have been through more than most of us can imagine, and the light that lives within them
- The eighteen-year-old boy who found her on Facebook years later and said, what do I need to do to come to your school?
- And what it looks like right now, if you feel moved to be part of what she is building
I think a lot of you are going to be moved when you hear this one.
Be sure to subscribe to The Mission Driven Mom Podcast if you haven’t already!
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AI Generated Transcript
Introduction
Audrey: Welcome back to the podcast. I am Audrey R, and today we get to spend a few minutes with Karen Bates. Before we get into our discussion, please go ahead and like, subscribe, and leave a review, share it with a friend. That helps us grow and get the message out about truth making us free.
I know Karen Bates because she was a student in the Mission Driven Mom Academy a few years ago, but then our friendship grew and blossomed. I became involved in the projects that she is involved with, and I went to Mexico with her, and that was amazing, and so we just became better and better friends. The work that she is doing now is vitally important. They are just getting started. And I would love for all of you to know her, to understand better how she got where she is and the work she is going to do moving forward. And then if any of you feel inspired to support her in any way, she will let you know what some of those ways are. Then you can get involved in her mission work. She is an amazing woman. Her story is super inspiring, so I am super excited for her to share it. So, Karen, go about telling your story the way that you would like best to tell it, whether you want to go way back or you want to start with where you are now, and then tell us how you got there.
Karen: Well, thanks for having me, Audrey. This is so fun to be here. I was getting kind of nervous before the podcast, and then just speaking with a friend and a bunch of other friends that I have not met yet, and it is going to be okay.
Audrey: Totally. We are all just struggling through life, trying to figure things out together.
A Defining Moment: The Seed of a Book
Karen: I think I will start with a story because it had such an impact. It is kind of before a lot of this started happening, but I had been writing a blog about just educational principles and things I was learning through homeschooling and reading a lot of books. I started having this thought come to my mind about writing it down in an orderly fashion, like in a book. It would come to me every once in a while, and then I would just kind of dismiss it and think, I do not have time. I am trying to lead this homeschool group, and I have kids. I am homeschooling, and it is just a busy time of life.
Audrey: So this was how long ago?
Karen: About six years ago.
Audrey: And you had how many kids?
Karen: Eight.
Audrey: Nice. And you were homeschooling all of them?
Karen: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Audrey: And leading a homeschool community as well?
Karen: Mm-hmm.
Audrey: Okay. Awesome.
Karen: And so I went to a religious building of our church. We call it a temple. As I was coming out, this thought popped into my head again, and I was like, "Oh, maybe I should take this seriously because it is happening at a time when I am feeling close to God." But I was still thinking about the time. So I got in the car, and I turned on the music, and the song called "Gethsemane" came on. It is just a cello song by Ralph Gardner. It is kind of describing the suffering of Christ. I remember the very distinct thought: if Christ was willing to pay this price for you, he must know more about what you are capable of doing and your potential than you do. That kind of led the way to be able to do a lot of these other things. Like, okay, I must be able to do more because of that suffering than I think I actually can. And so I started getting up early and working on that, and it eventually came to be. That was one of the defining things that started me on this journey.
From Book to Class to Service Trip
Because of that book, I made a class and started teaching it, and I charged for the class. So I started making a little bit of money, and I thought, “What do I want to do with this?” And what I wanted to do more than anything was go on a service trip with my family. A dream I had always had. So that is what we decided to do. That Christmas, for our Christmas present, we were going to go do the service trip in Tijuana and visit an orphanage.
While we were there, I was just so impacted by the kids. They were so ready to serve in any way. I remember asking where I could fill my water bottle, and three young men immediately said, "Oh, let me get that for you.” They were just so anxious to serve and needed love so badly. And I think I was specifically impacted in a deeper way because my mom had been an orphan in Mexico, and so I saw her in each of them. This need to be loved, this desire to belong to a family, this desire to just fit in, and to have someone care about what you are thinking, what you are feeling. I saw that in all of them.
As we were leaving and said goodbye to the kids, I was just so sad. We got in the car and I just cried. I remember another pivotal moment as I prayed. I said, “Father, I am willing to do anything. Just whatever it is that I can do for these kids, help me know what it is and help me just do it.” I want to know what I can do because I cannot just leave and go back to regular life at this point. I was too deeply into this by now.
Letters and a Growing Vision
So we are driving home, and I had a couple of thoughts. One of them was to just let them know. Like, my mom always said, it makes such a difference to know one person cares. There was a leader in her church that started showing interest in her
well-being, and that meant so much to her. She thought, “Okay, maybe I am worth being cared about.”
So I thought, “Okay, I could at least write them each a letter.” On the way home, I started writing each child a letter, just letting them know that I cared about them and sharing some of the gifts I saw in them.
The other thought was, I need to get more people out here. These kids need so much love, and I can only come so often, but if we can get more people coming out, then they can have a lot more of that love that they need. So I thought, “Okay, with this class I am teaching, and with my book, I can turn that into a humanitarian school. We could start doing entrepreneurship projects and different fundraising things and start getting more families out to visit this orphanage. So that is what we started doing. We created this school called Find Your Path Academy and started getting families out. We would do projects and plays and collect money. Families would go out, and we started visiting the kids more often. So we grew in these relationships with them because we just had more and more people coming, and were able to go more often because of that.
Knowing the Kids' Stories
The more we got to know them, we got to know a lot more of their backstories and some of the issues, especially the teenagers face in this environment. It is big dorms, a lot of rules, and a lot of just needing to make sure that you are staying on top of the rules and doing what you are told, because there are not enough caretakers. And a lot of times, as a teenager, as you know, with teenagers, they need to be heard; they need to be listened to. So they struggled a lot with that. And I would come back, and a couple more kids had run away every time. It was rough to not know where they were.
Then a lot of them would start to contact me. They found me on Facebook or something, and they would say, “Hey, I am at this other place now.” One particular kid contacted me, and he said, "I am on the streets. I am not sure what to do. I just know I cannot go back because they will put me in a rehab center, and those places are rough, but I am hungry. I do not know where to go.” And here I am in Utah. I wish I could be there to do something to help him in some way. This kid was only 13, but he was really mature for his age.
Every time we would have a devotional with the kids, we started going in the summers for like a month. We did that for a couple of summers, and we would have these summer programs and do devotions with them. And this young man was really impacted by this. He would always raise his hand and answer questions. He asked if he could memorize a child's prayer. He really would gravitate toward wanting to be good, but he did not feel like he could in that environment because he was often angry at the way he was treated.
He needed help, and I was not sure how to help him. I just tried to give him advice. I said, "Well, you know, the orphanage is better than living on the streets, and what is going to happen if you stay on the streets?” He said, "I am going to turn myself in. There are a lot of cops around where I am at. I am just going to go turn myself in. Hopefully, I can see you again. I will most likely be at this rehab center.” And then that was the last I heard of him. I did hear that he did end up at one of those centers.
But it was more and more kids like this that would contact me. I would find out what they were doing, and I just thought if we could be in Mexico, we could do something for them. What they needed most, I felt, was to be heard, to have opportunities to pursue the interests they had and to make an impact for good. They really, all the ones I met, wanted to make the world better. They wanted to break these cycles. They did not want to be the same kind of people that their parents were. Often, they were in these orphanages because their parents were struggling with addiction and could not take care of them. They wanted something better and different, but often when they would go back out into the world, that was all they knew. So they would go back to these patterns. And I thought in my heart, if we could just live in Mexico.
The Email That Changed Everything
Whenever I would bring it up to my family, they would say, “Well, that is impossible.” You know, my husband's job is in the United States, and he likes it, and he cannot work remotely. He is a therapist. So that is a hands-on thing, and we have a life here. So it just seemed like an impossible thing, but it would come into my mind every once in a while. We could do so much more. We could provide something there. Obviously, we cannot bring them to us, as much as I would like that. I did look into adoption a few times, and that is really difficult for Mexico. And it was not going to make the impact for all of the kids that I wanted to make.
And so I think that drive home, that sincere prayer, just started something. I cannot even explain exactly what it was. Because it was so sincere, something happened that just made the doors start rolling in a direction where this would be possible. As I was looking into options of what to do, I thought maybe we could go sometime in the summer. That is what we started doing: creating different programs, figuring out ways to help these kids. And every once in a while, I would say, "But if we lived in Mexico,” and my family would say, “Okay, you are going again with that.” So I kind of just stopped at that.
And then one day out of nowhere, this was a huge surprise to me. My husband sent me an email, and the subject line said, "It is time to go.” So I started reading it, and he said, “I have been praying about this, and if this is something that means this much to you and that you really want to try, then we should just go and try it as a family. Let us all just go and see what we can do.” That was a huge miracle because it was so unexpected. So he decided to take that leap, and we just sold our home. We sold our stuff, and we went to a couple of internships first. We did an internship in one orphanage in Tijuana, another one in that same orphanage that we often visited. And then we moved to Quintana Roo, which is where we bought land.
Building in Mexico: Miracles and Obstacles
We had bought the land earlier, after deciding to do this and planning to move out there. The house was not finished. There were a lot of things that did not go as planned. It is interesting to see these miracles and to see what happens, but there is also so much opposition and so many things that you are not expecting.
We thought we had such a logical plan. We were going to sell our home. With that money, we had enough to start a ropes course business. Benjamin Allen from Class Ropes Course said he could come and build the ropes course, just donating his time. And he could get the equipment at a lower cost because he builds ropes courses. We said, okay, we can have a ropes course business. They quoted us a price on the house, and then we would still have three months of savings where we could start the ropes course business and have an income for our family as we started to grow this thing.
And then we got to Mexico, and the house was not done. So we found this abandoned restaurant that the owners let us rent. We decided to clean it out and live there while we waited for the house to be finished. Then everything started costing more. By the time we had the house, all these extra expenses had been added on top of it. We had no electricity. We just had the house. And in order to get electricity, because we were so far from the city, we had to buy solar panels, and we were out of money at this point. So we had to use the credit card. We could not just live without electricity.
At this point, my husband started to really worry. He said, "Well, I do not have a job. I do not have savings, and our kids need to eat, and I have credit card debt I need to pay back. I need to go to the United States and work.” And so that is what he decided to do. So, out of this last year, he was gone from home about nine months out of the year while we were in Mexico to get this started. And there were just a lot of little things that kept blocking the process.
The Ropes Course Miracle
Our road got super muddy, so you could not access the property, of course. But there were so many miracles. That was incredible to see because I think for my husband, especially, he needed to see that God's hand was in this in a very real way.
There was a time when Benjamin Allen was coming with the ropes course equipment. He got stuck at the border, and he said, “I actually cannot take any wood across the border. It is against the law unless you have a permit, and it takes about a year to get.” He had all of these poles that he was going to use to build our ropes course. They tried three different times to cross the border, and each time they turned them back. So he said,” I am just going to have to leave the poles and take the rest of the equipment and start looking for trees that we can build the ropes course on.”
So they were driving across Mexico, all the way from Utah, him and my dad in different trucks with all of this ropes course equipment. Meanwhile, we were like, okay, we are going to have to find some trees. The trees on our property were pretty small. We had not seen anything big enough to be safe for a ropes course. So we said, “We are going to have to go look.”
So we went on several different hikes. We got a guy with a machete to guide us through the jungle to go find trees. A couple of Ben's workers showed up before Ben and said, "Well, let us go see what we can find. Maybe we can find a place for a low course at least.” We had this guide with us, and a storm started to come up. He said, " Oh, we better stop. When a storm gets like this, those trees are going to start swaying. You are going to get branches on you. It is dangerous. We should go.”
And I just had this feeling. I remembered seeing a bigger tree on the other side of where we had been. I said, "Can we just go look on this other side? I just want to see it.” He said, " Well, you guys can go, but I am heading home because this is dangerous.” And we were like, okay. But we felt like we were on a time crunch. We could not just take days to find these trees. We had to find something before Ben got there.
So we went around where I remembered seeing that tree. I took a wrong turn. I went before it, and there was another little path, and I thought, I think it is around here. We got into this clearing, and we saw one big tree. It is called a chukum tree, which is the hardest wood you can find, and it is the best kind of wood for a ropes course because it is so hard and so strong. And we kept walking, and we got to this little clearing, and there was this grove of trees just sitting there in the middle of this place. It was amazing. They were perfectly spaced out.
Alex, the guy that was with us, said, “I have never seen anything like this.” These trees are always cut down because their wood is valuable. People come through here all the time chopping down trees. So the fact that they are still here is miraculous. And the fact that they are in a grove like this is extraordinary. They are usually spread far apart. Here they were perfectly spaced for a ropes course.
When Ben got there, he kind of looked at it and just planned out the whole course in his mind with the trees where they were and built it, and it turned out so beautiful. This little jungle ropes course. It is so fun.
Audrey: Wow. You just left the trees where they were and built it right there. That is incredible.
Karen: Yes. And when we saw the trees, we thought, Wait, are these even on our property? We measured, and it looked like half of them were and half of them were not. So Alex said, "I will go to the land records office and see if maybe we can buy that portion of the land.” He goes, and the man who sold us the land happened to be there that very day. And the man said, " Oh, I sold that land. Oh, those trees? Those are on your property. I made the line just past those trees. And so those are all yours.” So that was amazing. Just finding him that day, and the time it would have taken to buy the land otherwise. That was really cool.
Community Support and More Miracles
A friend came to help us. She knows a lot about permaculture. Part of what we want to do with this land is create a kind of immersive experience for the youth, so they are growing their own gardens and having entrepreneurial projects, as well as learning English and having a path toward a career. We have one young man now who started pathways. He had to pass an English proficiency test, and then he could begin working toward a career. He wants to be a counselor.
So Janelle came to help us plan out some permaculture things, and she happened to schedule her flight at the same time a homeschooling group decided to
come. She got there a couple of days before them and was planning things out. Then this homeschool group arrives, all twenty of them. And they said, "Oh, we can do that.” So they started planting the trees and doing all these things that she had planned that would have taken us months to do by ourselves.
Just people coming at the right times in the right order to get the projects done. Another example was this family that showed up out of nowhere. They were visiting Cancun, and they heard about us. There was a KSL news article that came out, and they said, "Oh, we want to come help for a day.” And it happened to be the day that we needed a lot of men to lift these bio-digesters into our property. So they got there and helped us lift them. Just God's hands so often in these little ways to get us to where we needed to be. So along with the things that seemed to be blocking us, there was so much of, you are on the right path, keep going. And I felt like, I am in this with you. That has been really cool to see.
The Mission-Driven Mom Academy's Influence
Another pivotal moment: when I was getting ready to start the school back in Utah, again, it was these thoughts that come to your mind. I am sure everyone is familiar with them. Who are you to think you could do this? You are not trained. You do not have this.
Audrey: Oh yeah. Oh yeah.
Karen: And so that was going through my mind, and I was putting away laundry in the closet and listening to your book, “Mission Driven Life,” and you were saying something about courage. I cannot remember exactly what it was at the time, but this thought hit me: if she could do that, have that much courage, I can certainly start a school. That is nothing compared to what Audrey is doing. And so there are just these little nudges, I think that Heavenly Father sends you at the right times and in the right way when you need to hear them, that propel you to the next little step. Six years ago, deciding to move to Mexico and start a school would have been way out of my thought process. But little by little, it was, this seems like the next step. That is how we got to where we are.
Where They Are Now: The Road to Phase Two
So what we have been doing this last year is just trying to build that foundation. We have our house ready. And we realize that it is not sustainable to have my husband gone so often. It was not good for our family. We had to choose between the cause and being together as a family. We really should choose our family. That is a priority in life. As good as this cause is, we cannot just keep moving forward being separated all the time.
I had two kids getting married in August in Utah. So we flew out of Mexico to Utah for their weddings. And afterwards we drove to Texas. That is where we are now, just deciding, okay, what is the next step? How are we going to proceed with this in a way that aligns with what God would have us do but is also feasible?
Some of the thoughts that came to my head were that I have got to learn how to run a nonprofit organization. We have just been scraping by, asking for donations, and
we need something more functional. I have been reading a lot of books about running nonprofits and getting an idea of how to structure it properly, having a board, and all the things needed to run it well.
Also, we need to figure out how to get enough monthly donors so that it is sustainable. Even just to have enough to have the buildings continue to be maintained during this time, and have the kids be able to be educated. I mean, we were doing a little school with the kids, and it was good, but it was definitely not sufficient. If we were going to all be out there sacrificing this much, we needed to have something that was going to be really transformative for the youth that stay there.
And then we need to talk to the state agency that has the orphaned kids to provide a home for them so that they could come and stay there in a boarding school environment. Get an education and have a real home. So we did find a couple who are amazing and willing to be house parents for our first home. That was a huge miracle in itself, because there are just not a lot of people who would want to take on a bunch of youth they have never met, who have been through the orphanage system, and parent them. That is not normal.
But this couple we met when we moved to Mexico. She started a little school because she was homeschooling her two kids, and she saw this need in the community. In Mexico, if you are hyperactive or have ADD or cannot learn to read fast enough, they are just like, well, you are not keeping up, and they push you out of school. She saw these kids in the streets, and she would ask, "Why are you not in school?” Oh, they kicked me out. I could not learn to read or whatever. She said, " Well, I am doing a homeschool with my two kids. Do you want to come do it with us?” So she talked to their parents, and she started this little school with other people's kids.
When we moved there, I reached out to her right away. How can we help? So we had this school that she started, and it was wonderful. I asked them, when we get a youth home built, we are going to need house parents who can provide a lot of structure. These folks are very loving, but also very good at structure, and they could have a home where the youth feel safe and have devotionals and have this example of a family. I asked if they would be interested, and in my mind I was thinking, this is a huge ask.
But she said, "Oh my goodness. Ever since I was little, I wanted to adopt kids and to do something, to have youth who do not have families feel like they have a family. This is exactly what I have always dreamed of, and I would love to do that.” Her husband said the same thing. “Are you serious? That is exactly what we have both always wanted.” So they are ready to go. The program is ready to go, and the land is ready to go. Now we are just in the process of finding enough monthly donors and donations to start this first home and get things rolling. I think the foundation has been laid with the people and the things, and it is time for phase two.
The Vision: What Phase Two Looks Like
Audrey: That is awesome. So let me try to describe what I understand your next phase goal to be, and you tell me if I have got it right. You have this land in Mexico. How many acres?
Karen: Twelve.
Audrey: You have twelve acres. I know it is not too far from touristy spots as well, so there is potential to bring in visitors. You have this property, you now have a ropes course on it, and you have a functioning home on it. The goal is to build, as phase one, one building for orphaned teens in Mexico that this couple would be the house parents for. Do you already know that the state will let those kids come? What is the process for approval?
Karen: We have talked to a couple of people, and it is just a matter of making sure that it is safe, so they would have to come in and check things and do inspections. That is what they care about.
Audrey: Okay. So you would build this house, get it approved with Mexico, and perhaps even bring people in to do the ropes course and bring in income that way. The kids do not come with any money. The state does not provide it. No money follows them like it does with foster kids in the States. And so if these kids are going to come to you, then you are going to run them through this program. I looked through the first journal. You have been building out a series of journals, an every single day activity with a little bit of reading and answering questions that takes them down a path of connecting better with God, understanding themselves better, increasing their self-knowledge, making them think a little bit differently about the world and about how they could be in the world, and being inspired by the stories of others. Every week you have got a principle that you are focused on. They are introduced to this theme, and then the theme runs throughout the week and they interact with it in different ways. It is very readable. Very easy. Just a few pages a day of reading, so they could get through that and journal in less than half an hour. So logistically, what happens for the rest of their education? Do they go to a school near your property? Do you bring in tutors? Do they need to get some kind of diploma so that college could be a possibility?
Karen: We would have tutors come in. Nan does the Spanish and the math and things like that. Basically, the kids each have their own little desk, and as they have questions, they come up. It is very much like homeschooling. We would have people there to help them through their regular curriculum. The one she chose is an Amish curriculum that keeps God in the subjects, and it is very sweet.
Then we have been teaching choir and English. Especially in this area, because it is very close to a lot of tourist sites, learning English will open up a lot of doors for them. And then there are just a lot of sweet people in the community that we have met who have talents they want to share. There is a guy that wants to do guitar lessons and another lady that wants to do these dances from Israel. They have different talents they want to come and share with the youth.
So we would want to bring in different people, and when volunteer groups come, we would want them to come and share some kind of talent. Also do some theater so
the kids get exposed to great stories and the arts. Then we would start to learn about their interests and get them the resources they need to delve deeper into those interests, whether that be books, or an instrument, or entrepreneurship. They can have a piece of land that they can start growing and making something with. They can start selling those things, seeing what works and what does not.
The curriculum or the program that I wrote is to help them learn how to make and keep inspired goals. They start to be led down this path, and then they start to know, Okay, I am going to try this. And then they are able to more easily start to see what their gifts and talents are and what they want to pursue.
Preparing Youth for College and Careers
Audrey: You mentioned earlier that some of the kids are now doing online college courses. The pathway in there is to pass the GED or to have a transcript or things like that. I am just trying to resolve a few concerns, for those who might think seriously about supporting you financially or otherwise, about whether your program will properly prepare them. Will they really be ready to do college and move on?
Karen: To your point about whether they will be able to get good jobs, what has happened is that because Joanna is a certified teacher, she can certify through elementary and junior high, which has been really helpful. But several of the kids we have met were not able to even get out of elementary school, and they are like seventeen or eighteen. So at that point, we have to say, okay, we cannot really go back and do all of that. There is a program where they can do a two-year packet, kind of like an adult version, to get their diploma. The other option is also to go through BYU Pathways. The young man who is in BYU Pathways now did not graduate from junior high. But he passed the English proficiency test and was able to get into BYU Pathways and start a degree in youth counseling. That is what he wants to do. So there are different ways to navigate having a legal diploma, through programs in the department that you can get that through, but you can also find other avenues depending on what each student needs.
Audrey's Reflection on the Orphanage Visit
Audrey: I want to share a little bit for those listening, because one of the ways Karen and I really got to be better friends was the second year that she returned to the orphanage in Mexico. I had wanted to do a service trip with my family for a long time. It just felt like it was time. It was in the fall, and I wanted to do it at Christmas. It was our year for Christmas, so we were going to have all our kids. I was not sure how we were going to pull that off, and I just started reaching out to people I knew. Do you know of organizations that are trustworthy? Do they do this kind of thing? And Karen replied back, " We are going to Mexico, we have got eleven spots left.” There were ten of us. I said, " We will take them all.” And it just worked out beautifully for us to go and spend the week together there.
One of the things to know about these kids is that, as Karen said, they are not always orphans in the very literal sense of that word. Sometimes they have one or both parents still living. Sometimes they are in contact with them. Sometimes their parents get them back. It is more of a foster system, but much looser and much less regulated. Of course, no money follows each of these kids, and they are often street kids. They are found on the street and taken in based on what the specialty of that particular orphanage happens to be. In the one that we have gone to in Tijuana, they do not take small children. What they do is try to keep family groups together. So the state knows if they have got a group of siblings, that specific orphanage is a good one to contact because they will be more likely to take them. They all have these specialties.
Which is why it may seem kind of strange to those that are listening that Karen could just go down to Mexico, buy some land, build a house, and the state would let her have these kids. It seems so unregulated, but that is kind of the nature of how things work there. As long as they have done their inspections and background checks and feel that this is a safe environment, they will allow those kids to be placed with Karen. And she will get to capacity, whatever that is. And I am sure, Karen, that you would like to see that grow, have more kids than just the one house eventually, and have those kids go on and inspire other kids to move forward in their lives as well.
In the orphanage that we have gone to, they have buildings in the back for the older kids. Once they have graduated out of the traditional K through twelve school system, there is a place where they can still have a place to live and some food to eat while they explore college classes. For example, one young man that we connected with wanted to become a barber. My son is a barber. They really connected. He was able to give him a little bit of training. We were able to help him figure out how to do that. And those little small opportunities come up quite a bit, especially if you can help these kids key into something that is going to help them go beyond a minimum wage situation and give them an actual skill, a marketable skill, and some tools. In the case of this young man, the ability to get clients and to keep a clientele. Then they really can build a different life for themselves, and they can learn from the poor circumstances of their upbringing, the hard things that fell upon their family, whatever that circumstance might have been. They can try to use what they have been given to build something else.
It may seem strange to some of you that Karen would just go down there and kind of maverick this. But it really is the case that she legally, it is all very realistic to expect to happen. And it is also something that she knows pretty intimately, how things look and feel for these kids. She has been down there for years, in multiple orphanages, spending countless hours talking to these young men and women. I have spent just a bit of time. We have been down a few more times to this particular orphanage ourselves. Karen has really been immersed in it.
You touched on your mom's experience in one of the journals. You tell her story in a little more detail, that she was actually on the streets. And so you have, in your immediate family, a very personal experience in what your mom went through. You know just how hopeless this circumstance can feel and just how much these children need. It is such a beautiful story coming full circle, from your mom through you and back into Mexico. You have been uniquely prepared to know what needs to be done and to have the ability to do what needs to be done.
Karen is still very much at the beginning stages. She is pulling her board together, but she has proven to herself and to the people in the community down there that she is serious about this work and that she is trustworthy and that this can work. She has paid a price for several years now to know what can be done, what cannot be done, how to go about getting those things done, and what the kids actually really need. And clearly, she has a gift of connection with them, because they keep reaching out to her, and they trust her. If these kids from these orphanages are trusting her when they have had just a little bit of connection and time with her, you can just imagine what will happen when they are actually on-site and get to have a real relationship with her and the other people she is training.
A Young Man's Hope
Karen: I had a young man contact me a couple of weeks ago that we met on our very first trip. He was not there the second trip, so we only met him once and for like five days. He was fourteen at the time. He just melted my heart because at first I would look at him and he would just look away. He was so shy, always hiding behind everyone. And towards the end of the trip, he would just follow me. Wherever we were going, he would fall into step with us. I would look at him, and he would smile. He would just beam. You could tell he was just so thirsty for love. He needed it so badly.
When we went the second time, I was looking for him because I wanted to see him, but he had left the orphanage. I was sad. I never heard anything about him. And then a couple of weeks ago, he turned eighteen, so he contacted me on Facebook and said, "Hey, I am just wondering how you are doing.” I was like, " Oh my gosh, I cannot believe you remember.” And he was asking about what we are doing. At the time, we were living in Mexico and trying to do this. He said, "Oh, I want to go to that school.” I said, " Well, we do not have a school yet, but we are working on getting it.” And he said, " Okay, what do I need to do?” I said, " Well, if we had it set up, you would have to save up for a plane ticket. Then I would give you a list of rules that you would need to be willing to follow. And then once we get enough funding, you could come, and we could get you through whatever it is that you want to study.” He said, " Okay, that is so great. I am ready to go.”
And I just see that happening, too. It is this age group. The teenage age group, right where they are. They have ideas. And a lot of these kids are so hardworking, especially because of the culture they grew up in. They have learned to work really hard, and they have often had to look after their siblings. So they are very responsible. They know that they can do great things. They just do not know how to get there. They are very clever because they have had to be resourceful. But when I see them, I am just like, Wow, there is this light and potential in these kids, and it just needs a little direction to guide them.
And I think that is another thing my mom taught me. I see her now, and I am sure that as she was begging on the streets, people could probably walk by her and just assume she has no future. But she taught school for many years. She raised kids in this beautiful way. We all just know we are loved so deeply, and we have all been successful in different ways. Her confidence now is so much better. She has learned to grow
through so many things. So I see her and who she has become, and I know each one of these kids has a divine potential, and each one of them can do incredible things for the world with just a little bit of guidance.
Audrey: From the perspective of the kids, it is one thing for you to say, "I believe in you and you can do this.” It is a whole other thing for you to say, " My mom was you,” and for them to just be blown away that she has, from their vantage point, such a successful life and that they could raise a child like you someday, that they could overcome in the way that your mom did. It is so beautiful.
Karen: Her story has always inspired me, just being what she has been able to do. I can just see how much hope it would bring the kids.
How to Support Find Your Path Mission
Audrey: So, as far as next steps and where people can help, what does that look like?
Karen: Like I said, we need to just get enough monthly donors to have the ability to provide the program at a basic level. Our goal by January is to have two hundred monthly donors. We are at twenty-seven right now. We figure if they average twenty-five dollars a month, some will be able to pay more and some less, but if that is the average, that is what we would need for a base-level program. So two hundred families at twenty- five dollars a month.
And then we are hoping to find, as organizations like Child's Hope and several other places have found, corporate donors or individuals who have the ability to fund the administrative costs, so they can keep the program running and every other donation goes straight to the program. That is another thing we are praying for, specifically, to find someone or a few people like that who want to help in that way.
Audrey: What do you need in terms of administrative costs?
Karen: When we looked at the people we would need to pay for, the costs are not as high in Mexico because the cost of living is lower. What we figured out was that fifty thousand dollars a year would cover that.
Audrey: Is it possible for people to come down and volunteer at any point? And can you tell us the URL to go to and other ways people can engage?
Karen: The URL is FindYourPathMission.org. You can find service trips listed there under the top tab. There are some service trips available that you can sign up for. If you have a group, like a group that is coming outside of the scheduled times, we can work around them and schedule their own service work. For people coming with groups, they do not have to sign up in those particular times, but if you have a family, those times are available to sign up for.
We also need people who are willing to work from home in social media and events and things like that to help get the word out about what we are doing. Then it would be really wonderful to have people be able to come out and serve in different ways. We would love someone into cinematography, for instance, or just to get some good videos out about what we are doing. With the service trips, we would have the day be: get up, do some kind of work project, then teach the kids for a couple of hours, then have dinner and a ropes course experience or some kind of excursion or activity in the evenings, and then a debrief at the end of the day.
Audrey: How much is it per person for the service trip?
Karen: Six hundred fifty dollars for five days.
Audrey: Is there a tab there to do the monthly donation?
Karen: Yes, at the top of the screen, there is a donate button. Click on that, and it will say “one-time” or “monthly” and you can pick. And they can sign up for the service trip there, too.
Audrey: What if they just want to be helpful from home and donate an hour or two a week? How do they get hold of you?
Karen: We have an events team. We meet every week or every other week for an hour and just plan the next event and decide what we want to do. That would be one way to help, whether that is having booths at farmers' markets where we share information or being willing to take a booth somewhere. We have everything ready for the booth. They can take it and share information in different areas. There is also a volunteer from home tab on the website. And then we will have a social media and marketing team. So that is another way you could be involved. We meet every week for an hour and just start to make plans. This is all just getting started, and we are figuring things out as we go.
Closing Reflections
Audrey: Well, that is wonderful. I could not commend you more highly. I want anyone listening to know it is pretty amazing to have had this image, this vision of what if moms could uplevel their relationship with God and gain all this self-discovery and learn to understand and live by principles. And then what if they went out in the community and served and made an impact. I have actually had quite a few women who have been through the academy reach out to me recently, working together in a myriad of ways because they are out there doing things. Founding schools, working with nonprofit organizations, serving on school boards, or in your case, starting this foundation in Mexico. It is really beautiful to watch that journey. They were already the kind of women who would do those kinds of things.
Karen: I cannot overstate the impact that your work has had. The program and the podcast and just this constant dose of, you can do this, you have courage, God is with you, it is life changing. It has been transformative. So it is a joy to be on the journey alongside you.
Audrey: When you were telling that story at the beginning about your experience, about how Christ suffered, and so he must know your potential, I had an experience quite similar to that. The basic message that God sent to me was that it was a little bit arrogant of me to be self-limiting, because I do not actually know myself nearly as well as he knows me. When I say, I feel right about doing this thing, I know it keeps coming back to my mind, I know that whatever those impressions are, but I just cannot do it for
X, Y, Z reason. I can still fall back into that and have doubts. But he really tried to put a stop to that and let me know, "Look, I just know you way better than you know yourself. And I can open all kinds of doors that you do not have the power to open. So if you will just take the step, I will just keep opening the doors. You do not have to be amazing or perfect or have it all figured out. You just have to be willing to take the next step and trust that together we can pull this off.”
That is how I feel about the work that you are doing in Mexico. You are the one who is just willing to take the steps. One of the things I used to say to myself was, "There is somebody better suited to do this. There is somebody with a better education or more life experience, or who is smarter than me.” There is certainly somebody better to do it. But that does not matter at all. The Lord is just going to take whoever steps forward. It really is all about being willing to be the person who accepts the call. That is what you have done. You have given your life to him and told him that you will accept the call. And so it is pretty bumpy. You are back in Texas, and you have suffered a lot being away from your husband. But that testing and determination will bring beautiful fruits eventually. I feel like sometimes those obstacles come so we can learn to trust him in all the little small things, so that we can trust him in the bigger things too.
Karen: It has been a very refining experience. I think that is why it had to have some obstacles. If it was easy, we would not be prepared for the next step.
Audrey: Well, thank you, Karen. It is a joy to call you my friend, and I am so grateful for the work that you are doing. I know you love these kids, and they need what you are creating. I hope that as many people as possible will get behind the work and support it any way they can. Thank you for talking to me and for doing this. I really appreciate you.
To learn more or to donate, visit FindYourPathMission.org.
