Turn For The Judges... You're Pageant News Source

TFTJ News Links

Login / Register

News Room

Announcements

Winner's Court

Pageant Calendar

OP/ED

Features

TFTJ Polls

Submit News

Notice: Undefined variable: today in /optA/home/tftj/www.tftj.com/adcount/view.php on line 12

Notice: Undefined variable: today in /optA/home/tftj/www.tftj.com/adcount/view.php on line 12

Notice: Undefined variable: connect in /optA/home/tftj/www.tftj.com/adcount/view.php on line 13

Warning: mysqli_query() expects parameter 1 to be mysqli, null given in /optA/home/tftj/www.tftj.com/adcount/view.php on line 13

Warning: mysqli_num_rows() expects parameter 1 to be mysqli_result, null given in /optA/home/tftj/www.tftj.com/adcount/view.php on line 15

Notice: Undefined variable: connect in /optA/home/tftj/www.tftj.com/adcount/view.php on line 18

Warning: mysqli_query() expects parameter 1 to be mysqli, null given in /optA/home/tftj/www.tftj.com/adcount/view.php on line 18

Warning: mysqli_fetch_array() expects parameter 1 to be mysqli_result, null given in /optA/home/tftj/www.tftj.com/adcount/view.php on line 20

Notice: Undefined variable: connect in /optA/home/tftj/www.tftj.com/adcount/view.php on line 41

Warning: mysqli_query() expects parameter 1 to be mysqli, null given in /optA/home/tftj/www.tftj.com/adcount/view.php on line 41

Warning: mysqli_fetch_array() expects parameter 1 to be mysqli_result, null given in /optA/home/tftj/www.tftj.com/adcount/view.php on line 42

Warning: mysqli_num_rows() expects parameter 1 to be mysqli_result, null given in /optA/home/tftj/www.tftj.com/adcount/view.php on line 43

Notice: Undefined variable: connect in /optA/home/tftj/www.tftj.com/adcount/view.php on line 45

Warning: mysqli_query() expects parameter 1 to be mysqli, null given in /optA/home/tftj/www.tftj.com/adcount/view.php on line 45

Calendar Items

Current Polls

There are no open polls at this time.

Education to Bring Hope to La Carpia and YOU CAN HELP

Terri Jaggers, Mrs. Texas United States 2005 visits La Carpia, Costa Rica

After including 23 foster children into their lives and adopting 5 of them, Terri Jaggers, Mrs. Texas United States 2005, is determined to continue her work with underprivileged and/or abused children.

Terri says, “I live by the biblical principle that ‘to whom much is given, much is required’. I have been given so much and I feel a great responsibility to share my experience and knowledge regarding foster and adoptive care wherever God leads me.” For the past 20 years, Terri and her husband Pat have been active on a National level in educating and recruiting potential foster and adoptive families.

La Carpia, Costa Rica

In January 2005, their church’s Foreign Missions Pastor made a plea for people to volunteer a week to go to La Carpia, Costa Rica in May 2005 and help put in a concrete floor in a shack structure that could be used as a recreation center. They also needed assistance with some projects at the orphanage there. Terri said she KNEW she was going, although she didn’t know at the time that she would have to be selected to be a part of an exclusive 22 person team from 400 applicants, without any knowledge of Spanish or construction. “Sometimes you just KNOW what you are supposed to do and that no matter what, you have to have the faith in what you believe you know” says Terri.

Soon after arriving in La Carpia, Terri began to understand the reason for her being selected a part of the team. Hundreds of children in La Carpia filled the streets as the “Americans” walked down the dusty, dirt road to their destination. Trying to keep all the kids occupied while the team began construction would be no small task as the kids safety was a primary concern. La Carpia has no running water, no paved streets, the homes are remnants of corrugated tin and the children mostly have only the clothes on their back. They beg for water, candy, gum, anything we might have.

Terri entertains children so construction on a recreational center can take place safely.

As the days went by, materials of water, concrete, sand and gravel had to be carried down the dirt road and mixed by hand. With so many young children, Terri went into gear and began to teach school to the kids. “We learned Spanish and English together, we used crayons and color sheets I had printed at the hotel, and I bought balloons and strung large rubber bands together to make jump-ropes. Each day I tried to find simple resources and create an entire day of activities to keep the kids busy and safe from the construction site.

I knew I was there for the children, but I began to understand a very real problem that in MY opinion was more important than the recreation center floor… that was the fact that half of the kids in La Carpia do not go to school”. The knowledge that these children have no hope of leaving La Carpia and having the ability to support themselves one day was haunting Terri. Without an education, the social understandings of society that school provides or the ability to read and write, bound these kids to a future no different than their present.

La Carpia Villager who could benefit from attending school.

That’s when Terri asked the hard question, “Why don’t these kids attend school each day?” and to her surprise the answer was simple. The children of La Carpia are all required to have school uniforms in order to attend. After further research it was determined that many of the kids wouldn’t or couldn’t attend school even if they had uniforms because their parents require them to stay in the village and care for their preschool sibling while they are at work. But 45 children have been identified as willing and able to attend school, if only they had the uniforms to do so.

“With an education, these kids not only have hope for themselves, but they bring hope to their families and all of the village of La Carpia. I knew I was supposed to be in La Carpia with the Mission team, I just never knew that the reason was more about what God would need me to do AFTER the team left.”

The uniform requirements for La Carpia are navy blue pants/skirts and white button down shirt/blouses with black shoes. These uniforms can be purchased all over the United States as most school districts have the same requirements. Most all of us have a neighborhood school that has a “Lost and Found”, maybe they haven’t donated those uniforms yet to a charity and some of us can intercept them for these kids. Each child requires 5 uniforms and a pair of shoes. “I have learned that $50 will provide one child the complete week’s worth of uniforms and shoes needed if purchased in Costa Rica” says Terri.

Help Terri help these children attend school buy supporting her uniform drive.

Terri will be collecting uniforms (most of the girls and boys are sizes 6X – 12), as well as any donations through the month of August so that they can be delivered to the families in need by the end of August. The need is great, but simple… surely the pageant community has a few ladies who are looking for something worthwhile and hopeful they themselves can do in the life of a child and will be willing to share in this pursuit.

“There are many times in my life that I have thought I have learned important lessons, but no lesson has affected me as profoundly as the lessons I have learned the week I spent in La Carpia. There are times that I don’t ever want to go back… I am afraid that I cannot help bring enough hope and I will only see the continuation of despair… yet, I know and I promised the kids that I will be back, my journey with these children has just begun.”