Ted and Jo with Larry and Paula Neff the founders of the Lighthouse Childrens' Homes.
Purpose
The Lighthouse Children’s Homes are Christian homes providing quality Christian training for wayward, needy, unloved, and homeless children. We seek to provide a channel through which local churches, interested groups and concerned individuals can extend a helping hand to these children. The Homes seek to prepare these children for a life of serving Christ and being productive citizens in their own country and communities. Therefore, it is our purpose to see that each child comes to a personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is our desire to see each child grow spiritually, academically and socially. The Homes provide an environment where an encounter with God’s Word produces a lasting change.
Financing
The Lighthouse Children’s Homes do not receive funds from local, state or federal government. Each home is a non-profit ministry entirely supported by churches, groups and individuals who are concerned about needy children. Every gift for the homes in Mississippi, Costa Rica and India is gratefully received and conscientiously recorded, receipted and used where designated. All donations or memorial gifts are tax deductible and may be mailed to our central office address at the bottom of this page.
Costa Rica
The Lighthouse Children’s Home of Costa Rica. Founded in 1989 by Sally McWatters, the Lighthouse seeks to provide a Christ centered home for orphaned or abandoned children who need a permanent place to grow up.
Originally from El Paso, Texas, Sally came to Costa Rica as a missionary in 1985 to teach in a seminary. Four years later, she along with Patricia Neff, a Costa Rican, stepped out by faith. A few years later they met Bro. Larry Neff, the director of The Lighthouse Children’s Homes Ministry. He had already been praying about starting a children’s home in Costa Rica. At that time they began to work together and a couple years later the present facility was completed.
In 2008 Sally married Terry Sanders, the blind Evangelist. Terry had lost his sight at age 12 as a result of glaucoma. He has been a full-time Evangelist since 1984. He met Sally on a mission trip to Costa Rica and about two years later they were married.
India
Rev. Matthew Henry, a veteran missionary, is the Director of the Lighthouse in India which was founded in November 2000. Brother Henry is a native Indian who received his Bible college training at Tri-State Baptist College in the United States. His work includes overseeing 100 churches, two Bible Institutes, and a printing ministry. Brother Henry’s vision is to have 100 children in the home as God provides the funds for dormitories and other needed facilities.
Panama
Missionary Alex Taylor and his wife, Mirta, are the Directors of the Lighthouse in Panama which opened its doors In May 2010. The Taylors are natives of Costa Rica, and Brother Taylor pastored for many years in Costa Rica before moving to northern Panama to work with the Guayme Indians.
He has several churches on the reservation and a Bible Institute.
Mexico
Rev. Jonathan and Laura Bryan, church-planting missionaries, are the Directors of the Lighthouse in Mexico. Jonathan is a graduate of Heritage Baptist University in Indiana. Since 2005, the Bryans have started two churches in the state of Zacatecas. They have a distribution ministry which has given out thousands of Bibles and tracts in the area. Founded in 2010, the Lighthouse Mexico offers homeless and abandoned children a Christian home environment, a sound education, and the opportunity to know a loving God and His gospel.
Phillipines
Christopher and Victoria Hunter are the Directors of the Lighthouse in the Philippines. The Hunters met while in the Baptist Bible College in Cebu City, Philippines. After graduating and getting married, the Lord has allowed them to plant five Churches, start a K-12 Christian School, and a Bible College.
The Lord placed Brother Hunter and Brother Neff together in June of 2017. Brother Hunter told how he had been praying for 10 years for the Lord to allow him to start a children’s home near his Church. After some prayer, the Lighthouse’s 7th Home was opened in November of 2017. The property for the Home was donated by Mrs. Hunter and the renovation work was done by some of the College Students. We opened the door to four forgotten children and soon added a fifth.
The children that call the Lighthouse home are among the 1.2 million homeless and abandoned children in the Philippines. The boys and girls that are in the home arrived with no family, education, love, or clothes except what they had on. At the Home, they have found not only a place of safety but a loving family and God. The children are all in school making up for lost years and have trusted the Lord as their Saviour.
Thailand
Tim and Maureen Searles are the Directors of the Lighthouse in Thailand. The Searles have been in Thailand since 1978 and now oversee four churches in rural northeastern Thailand.
The Lighthouse Children’s Home in Thailand was started in 2015. The Home is located in the residence of a former missionary who has gone home to be with Lord. The building has been remodeled to house both boys and girls.
The boys that call the Lighthouse home have literally been thrown away by their families. They came to the Home dirty, malnourished, and not knowing what true love is. They were behind in school and had no hope. Since coming to the Home, they are receiving an education, a safe place to live, and a family that points them to the Lord.
The boys have grown physically and spiritually since the Lord led them to the Home. They enjoy helping on the property learning to take care of plants and the many banana trees. The boys were instrumental in inviting other boys and girls from their school to the Home for English classes. Brother Tim has used these classes to present the Gospel using the Bible as their text books. Several children have prayed to receive the Lord as their Saviour.
The Lighthouse Children’s Homes were founded in 1978 by Larry and Paula Neff. Larry had been orphaned at the age of three and was placed in the Franklin Indiana orphanage where he stayed until the age of seventeen. After serving in the military Larry married his high school sweetheart, Paula Dillman. In 1969 Larry and Paula attended a revival and were saved on the closing day of the meeting. From that day God had burdened them to start a Christian children’s home. After graduating from Baptist Bible College in Springfield Missouri in 1973, the couple founded and pastored an independent Baptist Church in metropolitan Boston. In 1977 he entered full-time evangelism and began plans for the home. In 1978 the Lighthouse Children’s Home became a reality as the doors were opened and the first little girl entered the home. There are now homes in Mississippi, Costa Rica, India, Mexico and Panama that are “rescuing storm-tossed lives for Christ”.
Larry & Paula Neff
Lighthouse Children’s Homes
P.O. Box 730
Kosckiusko, MS 39090-0730
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Shipping Address for Ground Delivery:
2339 Attala Rd. 3111 • West, MS 39192
Phone: (662) 289-9629 Fax: (662) 289-4892
Email: office@lighthousechildren.com
www.lighthousechildren.com