Dear friends:
Life changes so quickly in the teenage world! We think about young people making the transition from being children to becoming “adults”, and we call this group “teens.” The transition is so hard for many of them! Who can forget the follies, mistakes, and “sins” of the teenage years? No wonder David says,
Ps 25:7 Remember not the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways; according to your love remember me, for you are good, O LORD.
It is difficult to move from a life where someone else makes the decisions for you to a life where you begin to make responsible decisions. It is difficult to move from a life of being self-centered (its all about me!) to a life that is centered on seeking the good of other people.
Phil 2:1-4 If you've gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care — then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don't push your way to the front; don't sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don't be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.
This is something that requires “mature” thinking– something the teens think they have, but usually not. And, of course it causes stress, frustration, and probably some other feelings in the adults who are trying to help their teens succeed in making it through to responsible independence.
Our ministers face these problems constantly with our girls at Casa. Add to that all of our other administrative issues at Casa, like keeping up with grades, dealing with the Children & Families Dept. (DIF) of the government, dealing with building regulations, a local government that is trying to tax us for our “valuable property”, meeting our financial needs, and on and on.
This is why we have started “Prayer Tuesdays ” for Casa, so we can pray for our girls, pray for our staff, pray about our needs, pray for wisdom and divine guidance, pray for financial blessings not only for Casa, but also for all of our supporters. We invite you to keep Casa in your mind on Tuesdays each week, and as you think about it, please pray for us!
This last month, we had 3 of our girls, Briza, Cielo, and Vicky, move in with William and Margarita in El Paso for their college education, beginning with English fluency. Yesenia is studying hard to graduate from high school this Spring and move on to college in the Fall. We had one girl, Daniela, who turned 18 a few months ago, decide to leave us and go live with her boyfriend, much to our sorrow. This leaves us with 8 girls in Casa right now. DIF has promised to fill us back up with more girls in the next week or two. We will travel to Chihuahua next week to talk with them. In addition, Betty, our amazing housemother of the past 5 years, got married last month, and resigned as our house mother/Director. This is a huge loss for us, but we are grateful that she is going to stay on with us for awhile dealing with administrative things that have been neglected because no one had time to do them. Ana and Gracie have agreed to step up and act as Co-Directors (housemothers) of Casa, and they are doing a great job of filling the vacuum. All of our girls have finally started back to school after having over a month off for Winter break.
So, you can see that with all of these things going on, we need prayer for wisdom, protection, more of the Holy Spirit, discernment to deal with “teen” issues with our girls, and on and on. Please keep our girls and staff in your prayers.
The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace.
Every month we go to Palomas knowing that God has a perfect plan for the community and children, but I know that we need to ask for His continuous support. Please help us pray for guidance, we need Him to lead us on every project we start, on every visit to Palomas. It is my desire that we would be used to inspire the children and youth of Palomas. Our hope is that our students would begin to believe in themselves, that they would believe that they can reach their goals and that their future can be much more than the status quo. We, the group of volunteers, are in Palomas once a month. Our time with them is minimal compared to everything that happens in their lives during the month. This is why I ask for your support in prayer for God to protect them, guide them and open doors for them.
During our January visit, we learned that Edgar Alexis’ mom passed away on December 31st. He has been in our program since 2015, always excelling in all of his classes and participation during our meetings. He showed up to our meeting on January 12th, as he wanted to comply with our attendance requirement, but he was heartbroken. We prayed for him and promised to keep supporting him. He kept crying telling us that he needed to be strong for his father and siblings and that he was going to continue to excel in school. We want to be there for Edgar Alexis. We want to see him excel in school and in his relationship with God. Your support to Alas de Amor will make this possible. It is a blessing for us when we have youth groups coming from other towns or cities to help us with the program for the students. In January, approximately 40 volunteers from church Juan 3:16 from Cd. Juarez, came to share with the students. They are an enthusiastic and energetic youth group. They shared about how important it is to be born again.
John 3:3Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.
We know that every month a seed is planted in the students’ hearts. One day we will get to see the fruit of the hard work of all the volunteers and your financial investment in them.
Please consider Casa de Amor for your 2019 giving! All gifts are tax- deductible!