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Renee Boyd
| Email: |
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renee@casaontherock.org |
| Duties: |
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Seamstress, Librarian, resident Grandma,
Home economics teacher |
| Arrived at Casa: |
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March 2001 |
| Birthday: |
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28 November |
| Family: |
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8 children
17 grandchildren |
| Sending Church: |
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Fox Valley Baptist Church
Dundee, Illinois |
Though the road to Christ for many is a battle, Renee's actually occurred during a real battle
- World War II to be exact. In September 1939, the government of England ordered all children in larger cities to be sent to the country for safety. Renee and her two sisters left their parents and London home not knowing what the future would bring.
After a couple of short stays with various people, Renee and her younger sister landed together with a gentleman farmer and his wife. They knew no love during that time. The couple had a crippled granddaughter, trained as a teacher, and she became their personal tutor. Each evening, the two young girls were packed off to bed at an early hour. Renee would spend the evening hours of their confinement reading the Bible and praying with her sister. Having never been spoken to about God, she thought she had
'found her own special secret' in the words she read in the Bible. Her nightly vigils continued throughout the war and beyond.
When the war was over, she and her sisters were reunited with their parents. As a teen, she recalls seeing a man preaching on the roadside and was shocked to know that others knew of her secret. When she told her parents, they laughed and their relationship with God, as a family, began to grow from there.
Renee's journey to Casa Aleluya was no less a battle. She first learned of the orphanages of Guatemala from employees that worked for her in her Chicago-based catering business. Her own experiences as a child gave her a special understanding for orphans, and she still feels as though she has the sympathies of a child.
As she neared retirement, she toyed with the idea of joining the Peace Corps. A son suggested that she come to Guatemala with him, which she did. At an orphanage in San Miguel, she stayed for 3 months. There she met Steve and Shyrel Osborn again, Steve having worked for her in Chicago years before.
Renee returned home to raise funds and got a job in a library.
She also had an incredible dream - Renee wanted to purchase
an old school bus and fill it with supplies and bedding and
she was planning to drive it to Guatemala herself!
During this busy time, the orphanage in San Miguel shut down
and she lost contact with the Osborns. Still determined to
go and serve the children, Renee found an orphanage in Antigua
where she would serve for three years. As soon as Renee arrived
in Antigua, she regained contact with the Osborns, trusting
that God's timing had placed her where she was, but disappointed
that she was not at CPNA. At the end of three years, a change
in directorship and having a feeling that her work was 'too
easy', she made the decision to move to CPNA.
She has filled a definite niche that she is uniquely trained
to fill. In the years following the war, she was a dressmakers
apprentice; she worked in a library to raise funds prior to
moving to Guatemala. As for her experience in being called
Abuela (grandmother), well with eight children of her own
and 17 grandchildren, she has more training than most ever
dream of.
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