We would greatly appreciate it if you would keep our house Director at Casa in your prayers! Ana Montoya, primary “mom” for the girls at Casa, has been very sick for the past 2 weeks, and they are trying to figure out what is wrong. She is in fragile health anyway, due to a number of things, including a kidney transplant. Please pray for a miracle!
Secondly, Valeria Valenzuela, one of the students from Palomas that we have supported for school at NMSU, and who recently obtained her Bachelor’s degree, has been offered a job in an allergy treatment company in Santa Fe. However, NMSU was not very helpful in preparing her to get her work permit, and she is struggling to get that done and approved by Homeland Security. They will only hold the job for her until March 1. She needs prayer that the paperwork will come through in time.
Additionally, we have a new church we have been sponsoring in the Alas program, Principe de Paz, Pastor Jesús Román Gutiérrez Sánchez. We have learned that he has a daughter, Cynthia Karina Labastida Guzmán, who recently graduated from high school and wants to go to college, and a niece living with him, Jocelyn Itzel Dávila Hernandez, who just started her last year of high school. Normally, we do not take kids into our program who are that old. However, since this is a new church with us, and they are the Pastor’s family, we would like to find sponsors for them. Cynthia wants to earn a degree in psychology. She would start school in the fall. Cost of sponsoring a college student usually runs about $100 per month (starting in August). Cost of sponsoring a high school student for her last semester of high school (now) is $220, which you can make in payments. Please let us know if you are interested in sponsoring either of these girls.
You should have all received your donation certificates from Pat by now, either by e-mail or regular mail. If you did not, please let her know.
Imagine if you were in an intimate relationship with the LORD (perhaps you are!). What might this look like? Would God speak to you everyday? Would He tell you how to spend your day? Would he send you on misson? Would he point out people for you to talk to as you go through your day? Would he tell you what to say to have the most impact on them? Would he instruct you to lay your hands on people to pray for a miracle? Would he perform that miracle? Would your life always be filled with joy because of God’s constant presence?
I have always been amazed by the clarity God used in talking to Moses. Consider Numbers 12:3-9:
Now the man Moses was a quietly humble man, more so than anyone living on Earth. GOD broke in suddenly on Moses and Aaron and Miriam saying, "Come out, you three, to the Tent of Meeting." The three went out. GOD descended in a Pillar of Cloud and stood at the entrance to the Tent. He called Aaron and Miriam to him. When they stepped out, he said, Listen carefully to what I'm telling you. If there is a prophet of GOD among you, I make myself known to him in visions, I speak to him in dreams. But I don't do it that way with my servant Moses; he has the run of my entire house; I speak to him intimately, in person, in plain talk without riddles: He ponders the very form of GOD.
(from THE MESSAGE)
Is it possible for us to have that kind of relationship with God? I confess, I do not. God may sometimes give me visions or dreams, like the prophet Joel said would happen (Joel 2:28); Jesus spoke to people in riddles (Matt. 13:10-11), but he explained everything to his disciples (Mark 4:34).Yet, even his disciples saw only in part.
1 Cor 13:12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. NKJV.
Can we get to the level of intimacy with God that Moses had? One of the keys to hearing from God is having great humility. Moses was the most humble man on earth, according to the passage. Was that the key? I think to have great humility, we must think more of others than ourselves. We must understand that our solutions to life-issues may not be God’s answers. We must be willing to seek His face (Is. 55:6). Moses consistently asked God to show Grace to people, to give them another chance. He did not ask God to harm or destroy those who opposed him, rather he interceded for them.
Phil 2:1-8 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 — 2 then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. 3 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. 4 Don't be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. 5 Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. 6 He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. 7 Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! 8 Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death — and the worst kind of death at that: a crucifixion.
(from THE MESSAGE)
So often, we are mostly concerned about ourselves. So often, we think we know what God should do in a situation (make ourselves like God). This is natural. How many times have we asked God for Justice when something wasn’t “fair.” But it would be an interesting experiment if would truly be primarily concerned about putting God and others ahead of ourselves, even at the cost of “justice”. What If we were to give up our resources to help others, to do as Jesus instructed the rich young ruler: Matt 19:21 "If you want to give it all you've got," Jesus replied, "go sell your possessions; give everything to the poor. All your wealth will then be in heaven. Then come follow me." (from THE MESSAGE). Imagine giving up our priorities, our concerns, our wealth, our ideas, emptying ourselves and asking Jesus to fill us with HIS SPIRIT. We will never truly remake ourselves, all we can really do is to ask God to form and shape our hearts to be more like that of Jesus! If we are willing, God can change us to the point where we can be in intimate relationship with Him on a daily basis!
Here are a few Scriptures to encourage us as we seek the kind of intimacy with God that Moses had:
Ezekiel 36:26–And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
Romans 12:2–Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Philippians 1:6–And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
We are praying that all of the families in our Alas program and our girls at Casa will come to the point of surrender to God, complete humility, and that they may be filled with a sense of His presence in their daily lives!—And Lord, if you would do the same with us, we would appreciate it!
May the Lord bless you and keep you, may He make His face to shine upon you, may He be gracious to you and grant you peace!
Jim & Pat
We are missing the good old days more than ever and not just the volunteer team but our scholarship students and their families as well. We have had a difficult journey and we had to accommodate to many changes. The biggest drawback from all of these changes was the fact that we could not have our monthly lessons. Those lessons are our best tool to spread words of wisdom for their daily battles, for their future, and to endure major life struggles that come to all of us. Not having that communication line has been incredibly difficult and has kept us all with a very heavy heart.
It is with the greatest joy and caution that we have announced to all of our students that we will have our first in-person event!
Last month we did a trial run to learn how we could best organize the different groups of students to see them in person while maintaining all the safety protocols. This month we will host our original event but we will separate them in small groups, masks will be required and of course social distance. Please pray for us to ensure that everything goes smoothly. We have prepared and will do everything in our power to make these events as safe and helpful as possible.
As for our common monthly procedures, all our students’ families will continue receiving a food pantry kit.
Next month will also begin distributing the 2021-2022 scholarship applications. We are hoping that more students apply for the incredible opportunity that our sponsors are making possible. As we move along to the end of the year, we ask that you include this organization in your prayers. Your prayers can be for God to continue to give us guidance for the organization of this scholarship program, to determine if you should continue donating your resources to this cause or help us by spreading the word about Alas de Amor.
We are so grateful for your support! We pray that God may continue blessing you and your family.
Berenice