Christmas in Acapulco
“Mama” and “ Papa” Marsh have made a Christian home for 70 Mexican orphans at the Orfanatorio Latino Americano in Acapulco.
By Norman B. Rohrer and where girls learn the skillful arts of homemaking under the loving care of “Mama Alicia” and her two as sistants, Margaret Klassen, school teacher, and Bemiece Albers, secre tary. Most of the children have ac cepted the Lord as their Saviour and have become missionaries to the neighbors. “ The Happy Home” is more than a home. It is a school. Along the palm- lined Mexico City highway leading out of Acapulco which runs by the ranch is a 200-foot-long brick school building which is always filled to its 150-student capacity. Its teacher, Miss Klassen, was bom in Russia of Ger man parents who migrated to Mexico in 1926. She possesses a school marm’s meticulous care for details, ruling with the proverbial iron, yet kindly, hand over her pupils and teaching them the Word of God. The Christian school is a corporation registered with the state, and offers a bonafide cur riculum with which newcomers us ually cannot keep pace without mak ing up back work. Out of the orphan age’s nine seniors who went on to high school in Acapulco, five were on the honor roll last year. Three of the school’s graduates are now teaching at the orphans’ school. Each year when new registrants are accepted, many more students apply than can possibly be accepted. News of the school’s top-quality education passes quickly from village to village.
A capulco , that enchanted, hotel- studded land of sun, sea and tourists, has been described as Mex ico’s welcome mat to the world — an island of pleasure in a mountainous wilderness. But not everything in the balmy city exists for the comfort and excite ment of foreign tourists. Unseen by most visitors to the fashionable beach city is a 425-acre dairy-poultry ranch nestled in the surrounding mountains which has become home for some 70 Mexican orphans. It is Mexico’s larg est Protestant orphanage whose profits are not measured in pesos but in the changed lives of children — the little forgoten people of Mexico w h o .have been caught in the despair of poverty, the scourge of disease and the handi cap of having no education. Parents to this ever-growing family of youngsters are dedicated middle- aged “ Papa” and “Mama” Marsh, Arizona-born Chester a n d A l i c e Marsh 12 years ago gave up a comfortable home in California to minister to Mexico’s needy by becom ing mother and dad to those who had none. Officially, the Marshes’ ranch is the “ Orfanatorio Latino Americano,” but neighbors call it “ The Happy Home.” It is a place where children who have never known the joys of homelife now run and play — and work. Where boys leam to be gentlemen like the tall, balding American they call Papa,
Parents from as far away as 45 miles have brought their children to Miss Klassen’s school. “The Happy Home” is also a farm. Its fields, a land-grant from a Mexi can Army general, supply food for a dairy herd of 65 cattle, as well as com, beans, cucumbers, melons and squash for the family of children. There are also chickens for fresh eggs, cows for fresh milk, bees, fruit and plenty of tortillas for everyone. Nearly every day, the unwritten drama of young lives on the mend un folds before the dedicated workers of Orfanatorio Latino Americano. Children come to the orphanage in many ways. Usually they are brought by a sympathetic relative, or by a distraught parent who cannot care for a son or daughter alone. One evening at dusk, the Marshes
Everyone works. Here a couple of Mexican orphan hoys do the evening milking chores.
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THE KING'S BUSINESS
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