From the Edge of Starvation to a Future Full of Light — Celenia & Aliana's Story

Celenia and Aliana are twin sisters from the neighborhoods around Comayagua, Honduras. When they were three months old, their mother, crushed under the weight of extreme poverty, abandoned them. She was not able to feed one baby, let alone two.

A neighbor found the girls and did the one thing that would change the course of their lives: she brought them to the City of Refuge.

The twins who arrived that day were in desperate condition. They were severely malnourished, underweight, and listless, and the staff who received them understood the truth plainly: these babies were on the verge of dying. There was no time for anything but immediate, round-the-clock care.

That care came. Teresa, Tom, and the City of Refuge staff poured themselves into the two tiny girls, feeding them, holding them, praying over them, and watching them day and night. Slowly, the twins began to gain weight. Slowly, the listlessness gave way to alertness, and the alertness to smiles. The recovery the staff witnessed they credit first to God’s healing power, and to the professional, devoted team He worked through.

Fifteen years have passed since a neighbor carried two starving infants through the gates. Today, Celenia and Aliana are healthy teenagers, and anyone who meets them meets two of the most cheerful jokesters at the City of Refuge. They are athletic, they are musical, and they fill whatever room they are in with laughter that once seemed impossible.

The girls who were once too weak to cry now sing, run, and dream. Their future is bright and full of potential, and their story is the reason the City of Refuge exists: no child brought to its gates is ever beyond hope.