Mon, 17 Aug 2026 03:51:41 -0500WeeblyThu, 14 May 2026 15:48:32 GMThttps://www.jacksonhousetx.com/blog/how-it-all-got-startedHow Jackson House Lodging came into existence is an intricate tale of God working in the life of a person at a time and in a way that God and His plan became specifically knowable. The year was 1996. As a United Airlines B-767 First Officer, I was on a layover in Guatemala City. There are many fine restaurants near the hotel in which we were staying and I had just finished a great steak dinner at one of them. A beautiful night had fallen (one that makes you understand the origin of Guatemala's other name, "Land of the Eternal Spring." I was walking back to the hotel thinking how fortunate I was to have this great career that paid me so well and took me to so many beautiful places. That was when the pivotal moment occurred. Two small children, a boy and a girl, about the age of 7 or 8 approached me, begging. I gave them some money and went on my way. 

Reasons are unknown for this but I began to think seriously about the plight of poor children in Guatemala - forced to beg for food in the darkness of night when they should be safely at home in bed. When I say I began to think seriously, really I should say I was fantasizing because for the number and timing of things I was thinking about to actually come together in less than a decade, or perhaps ever, was totally out of the realm of rational and statistical probability. 

My thoughts (fantasies) were that, since I was spending so much time in Guatemala (double 24 hour layovers each trip) perhaps I could find somebody to partner with that:
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1. Was a native Guatemalan.
2. Was a Christian.
3. Was strongly focused on feeding children of the destitute poor.
4 That spoke good English

Fairly well satisfied that the above conditions would not be met in my lifetime, I put all of that more or less on the back burner--until my next trip to Guatemala. We were midway through the flight from Los Angeles when a flight attendant came to the cockpit. It was the middle of the night and the passengers were pretty much all asleep so she was just there to visit. 

She asked if any of us had taken a tour in Guatemala. I said that I had not but that I would like to. She said, "I went on one last time and it was great." I asked her how she arranged for it and she handed me a business card that said: "Pastor Jose Alvarez, Licensed Tour Guide". She said, "This guy speaks great English."

Well, that was three out of my four conditions, all in the span of less than ten minutes. So when we got to the hotel, after my nap, I called the pastor. He came immediately to the hotel. I think Jose was 29 at the time, big for a Guatemalan. He had lots of energy--seemed to have his own gravitational force field. He said to me, "We are just getting started with our ministry feeding some of the poorest children in Guatemala City." Ka-ching!! My fourth and last condition just fell into place. 

It was about a 20 minute trip to the location of his ministry. We had entered an extremely poor section of Guatemala City with dwellings of corrugated metal and tar paper. Adjacent to that a two story brick building was in the process of being finished. We went in and Jose gave me a tour. I said, "Jose, this looks more like a house than a ministry. It has 4 bedrooms, two living areas, a kitchen and a garage. He said, "It is a house. It's my father's house. But he is giving it to the ministry. ---- He doesn't know it yet, but he is."

The truth of that bold statement came to pass and Jose's father did give his house to the ministry. It's not as if Fernando Alvarez was a rich man. He was a foreman in a milk plant. He made good money but not the kind that inspires a person to  give their house away. And that is the story of how Renee and I began to follow and support Jose's ministry. And that started a three decade and counting life of supporting missions to children in distress. 

The Jackson House was started in 2007 to help support that work so funds you spend or donate here are targeted to support that objective. At this time, we are focusing on distressed children in the womb--the most dangerous place a child can be in our society, and trafficked children, a whole world of which were introduced to this country by an open borders policy.  

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