La Luciernaga (The Firefly)

Last year the sales from Tienda de Esperanza (the Casa de Esperanza store) far surpassed our hopes and dreams for the first year of operation. Karen and I began much sooner this year to plan and buy items to have in the store when those April groups come. One thing we both wanted in the store was candles. We did not have a clue where we were going to find candles, but that was our desire.

Many times in the last couple of weeks we have heard about a candle shop in Tegucigalpa that is operated by victims of domestic violence. We had to go see this place.

Karen's mom and a friend are here from Ohio. After we went to the dump and fed people, our goal was the candle shop. Marc said if you are coming down El Hatillo, where the green dumpster use to be that was our landmark to turn left, you go straight there instead of turning. Only someone from Mississippi or Honduras could understand those directions, but I knew exactly what he meant.

When we walked in and saw the candles, I think my first reaction was, "oh, my!" I have never seen so many candles. Beautiful candles. They were in all shapes, sizes and colors. And they will do anything for us that we can dream up and describe to them. As we were asking for first one thing and then another, one of the ladies took us to the back, into the workroom and storeroom. No one was currently working, but we saw the molds, the huge propane stove and the work table.

The lady asked us why we were so interested in stars. We explained about Casa de Esperanza, the starfish story, and making a difference one child at a time. She then explained that La Luciernaga was also a nongovernmental organization started by a group of Menonites to rescue women who were victims of domestic abuse. They wanted to teach the women to do something to earn some money. They chose to make candles because they wanted the light from the candle to be symbolic of the hope they had after being rescued from the desperate situations from which they had come.

We were also told the women do not live at the shop, just work there. The place they live has to be more private so no one can find the shelter or the women.

While our main goal with the store is to raise money for Casa de Esperanza and our children, we were more than happy to be able to help other people that have been rescued from, what at one time seemed hopeless situations.

We are very pleased to offer candles in our store this summer.

Terri