Dear Friends:
Cielo Santellanes is one of the girls we raised at Casa since she was 13 years old! Ever since she became a part of Casa, she expressed a dream to come to the US to study, and so we brought her here in 2019 after she graduated high school. She has been a part of our Alas program during all of her college years. She will be obtaining her Associate’s degree in education on December 10, and in the midst of this, she has found the love of her life, and will marry Danny Reyes on December 18! We are blessed to have been used by God to bring her to this point! Please pray for her and Danny as they start their new life together!
Her twin sister, Briza, is also receiving her Associate’s degree now in December from McLennan Community College. She will now take a few months to work and save money so that she can continue her education in the fall. Her dream is to become a nurse! These are the first girls from Casa to obtain college degrees, and we are so proud of them! We are hoping that we will have many more graduations to celebrate in the coming years!
As I think about this coming Christmas season, this song has been going
through my head---
Oh, holy night! The stars are brightly shining
It is the night of the dear Savior’s birth.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining
Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn!
Fall on your knees! Oh, hear the angel voices
Oh, night divine, Oh, night when Christ was born!
This song captures our anticipation of our comingMessiah, as we look forward to celebrating His birth once more! Incidentally, this song has an interesting origin, as the composer, Adolphe Adams, was Jewish, and the person who set it to music, Placide Cappeau, was an atheist! But isn’t this the true outreach of Christ to all people? We live in a world filled with injustice, poverty, hurt, shame, and fear. This is even more true in the small town of Palomas, Mexico, where poverty is the rule, and the cartels provide an “easy” solution to that problem. As a result, many families suffer and many young people die.
But, in the midst of all of this, we are reminded that a Savior is born! That he can herald in a new and glorious life for us! That we can bow our knees to Him and by making Him our Lord, we can experience break-through in this weary world!
The churches are there to help! There are many churches in Palomas, and it is our goal to work with them to point to the power of Jesus to transform their weary world. Christmas is such an exciting time! Many of you are helping us by writing encouraging letters to the kids you sponsor and providing Christmas gifts for them and for their siblings. It is truly a blessed time in Palomas around Christmas, as people look forward to family time together, eating posole and tamales, celebrating God’s gift, and opening personal gifts. This Christmas, there will be excitement and joy on the faces of many children, as they open the gifts you have sent!
For our Christmas Fiesta, on December 10, we have a youth team coming from Ascension, who will lead the teachings and help us to organize the fun and games, and we will have volunteers from Durango ,El Paso and SantaFe to make signs, prepare the food and set up the events. We will also have our regular team of volunteers who will oversee and make sure things run smoothly. It will be a fun day of activities for the kids of Palomas and their families! And, we will be distributing all of the gifts you send for them to take home for Christmas, along with some extra food for each family!
How can we pray for this time? Let’s pray that the kids will be encouraged, seeing all of our volunteers and all of you sponsors responding to the prompting of Christ to bring the joy of Christmas into their lives! We can pray that the efforts of the devil and especially of the cartels will be exposed and rejected. We can pray that the kids will feel Christ’s presence during this time, and it will encourage them to look to Him for life guidance! We can pray that many will bend their knees to Jesus! We can pray that they will remain committed to getting a good education as a way to provide a good economic future for their families!
We are still waiting to hear from DIF concerning the new girls at Casa, and we could hear from them any time now. I want to remind you that we are planning a general renovation at the orphanage on the weekend of January 13-15, when we can repair furniture, paint, make sure all the toilets, showers, stoves, refrigerators, and furniture are in good order, and the girls rooms are all set up for them! We hope for many volunteers to come again in January to help us do this! Please pray with us that we will hear from DIF soon, and that girls who can benefit most will be selected to come to our orphanage! Also please pray with us that we will be able to obtain a great staff at the Orphanage to “parent” our girls! It is so rewarding to get to know these girls and to see the impact we are making on their lives! Please pray for Ana and Adrian, our “mom and dad” at the orphanage, who have so much to do, keeping up with our girls there and also our kids in the Alas program!
Remember, Somos Vencadores! May you feel the thrill of hope as we celebrate the birth of our Savior this season!
Remember, Somos Vencadores! May you feel the thrill of hope as we celebrate the birth
of our Savior this season!
We know that people often consider end-of the-year giving this time of year, and if you are considering this, we would love for you to consider Casa de Amor! Our Scholarship fund has about run out, and now we are looking at 8 new girls coming to live at our Orphanage, but we do not have enough monthly income to support them! If the Lord lays it on your heart to help these kids, please complete the form below and send it in! You can also contact Pat directly if you want to make a direct deposit. Call (505) 670-5659.
Jim and Pat