The CROWN Reunion with HRTWAM

Dusti Fishing in Alaska in 1983

Dusti and Deanne Howell served on a missions trip to teach English, Technology and Bible classes at Legacy Institute in Thailand back in 2008. For eight months, they went on a sabbatical from Emporia State University, in Kansas, USA, where they both teach classes. This trip was such a fantastic experience for their family that they prayed for another sabbatical. For the next 9 years, they prayed that God would open up an opportunity for the family to teach at an orphanage that was connected to a school. The Howell's teach technology courses in the Teachers College. In order to get an approval for another sabbatical, the orphanage would have to be connected to a school.

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In August of 2016, just weeks before the deadline to apply for a sabbatical Dusti Howell read an article in the Sabbath Sentinel (go to pages 19 and 20 for full article) that discussed a missionary trip to Costa Rica. The article referred to an outreach by HRTWAM to an orphanage. Dusti recognized Mark Roth as someone he has fished with 33 years earlier in Alaska. He tracked Mark down and asked about the orphanage. HRTWAM had been doing an outreach to the orphanage for 5 years. Dusti asked if the orphanage in question was connected to a school. Mark said yes it was. Mark added that the orphanage director had just asked if Mark could do anything to help out with the education of these kids. Most of the 101 kids at this orphanage are orphans because their parents had abused them to the extent that the government had to remove them from the home. Not only that, but when the kids turned 18, they were leaving the orphanage and returning to 'the sins of their fathers' with some of them making the same bad choice that their parents made years earlier. The half a day of public education offered to the students appeared only to qualify them to pick bananas in the banana fields or make beds in the hotels. The director asked Mark if there was anything he could do to help supplement the education of these kids, particularly in English and Technology. Educational improvement in these two areas would greatly improve their chances of getting a great education. Dusti's call to Mark happened shortly after this conversation. Fast forward to Sukkot 2017 in Costa Rica. The Howell's sabbatical had been approved by the SOS orphanage and Emporia State University to take place from January to August of 2018. During the feast, a meeting at the orphanage was set up to help jump start the project. Joel Sanchez, with Crucified Life Ministries, was on our team and served as translator. Joel had been working with the orphanage and HRTWAM for years and had been in contact with the Howell's from the very beginning. Mark Roth, Dusti and Deanne Howell met with three senior administrators from the orphanage. The meeting began with an ice breaking question to Dusti Howell who was asked "What do you want to teach?" Dusti thought this was an odd question because paper work had already been signed by both institutions for the Howell's to teach English and Technology. So Dusti felt inspired to answer the question by truthfully answering that he wanted to teach 'English, Technology and Bible' classes, just as he had done in Thailand nearly a decade ago. Joel Sanchez translated this answer to the SOS administrators. Then there was a long pause. Costa Rica is a very Catholic country. Since we are not Catholic, we could be blocked from this type of teaching. However, it was felt by all that Christ was in the room at the time. After a short discussion with her collegue, one administrator stated, "If you don't address the spiritual side of these kids, nothing good can happen." PRAISE GOD!