Dear Friends:
We have GREAT NEWS! We have sponsors for all of our kids for this school year! Yes, we have about 140 kids sponsored! This is a great start for the year, as we have a lot of new students, and quite a few new sponsors also! Just a quick note to those of you who are new to our program, we run an orphanage for teenage girls in Puerto Palomas, and it is supported by different churches, primarily The Light at Mission Viejo in Santa Fe, and individual sponsors, and out of that orphanage facility, we run our student scholarship program for the children of Palomas, called “Alas de Amor.” Your sponsorship of a child in Alas de Amor also helps us pay a small portion of the orphanage expenses, and all of the expenses for your child, with some additional help in the way of food for his or her family. In recent years, DIF, which is the Mexican counterpart to a Children, Youth, and Families Dept. in the US, has decided to shift its resources away from orphanages and towards foster families. I am not convinced that is such a great idea in Mexico, because I have heard of many horror stories coming from kids who went to foster families in the past, but anyway, that is what is happening, which means we are not getting new girls at Casa, and havent’ gotten any new girls for a couple of years. In short, our orphanage program is currently down to 2 girls living in the orphanage, and our ongoing ministry to the girls who have reached 18 and moved on to college or work in society. We find that our older girls still need parenting help, and that is what we are there for!
In the Alas scholarship program, our goals are to enable and encourage the kids to go to school, to stay in school and to go as far as they can in school. We believe that education is key to overcoming the endemic poverty in Mexico. We believe that modeling and helping them learn to draw near to God is essential for a satisfying and productive life. We are extremely blessed to have Berenice Herrera leading our Alas program: Every month she develops the program for the kids, finds volunteers to give teachings and to help with all of the various activities we do with them, and during the month she and others check up on individual kids who are struggling to encourage and help them. Every month, we have a group of volunteers led by Berenice, Angel & Cecilia Gonzalez, Marco Gonzalez, and others, who spend time talking with and encouraging our college kids via zoom meetings, because they are spread out at a number of different locations for college.
WHAT CAN YOU DO? We ask all of our students from elementary through high school to write letters to their sponsors each month. One thing you can do is to spend a few minutes each month writing a letter to the child or children you are sponsoring. You can send by snail mail to Pat Noble, 1017 E. Tours Rd., West, TX 76691, or you can e-mail it to Pat at Dpatnoble@gmail.com or to me at jamesvpnoble@gmail.com Don’t worry about getting you letter into Spanish if you are not a Spanish speaker. We can find people to translate for the kids, or pretty much all of them know someone who can read English, so it is not a problem. Several of our volunteers have been translating letters for some time now from kids to their sponsors (if you think the translation was lousy, blame me, it was probably my translation!) What I have noticed is that the kids who get letters from their sponsors write a lot more detailed letters, and actually start writing things that will help you to know how to pray for them. Showing a little personal interest can go a long way in motivating them!
It is interesting that last month I felt the Lord telling me that our theme for this year should be SOMOS VENCADORES! We are more than Conquerors through Christ who loves us! In our church in Waco this month, the theme has been how essential it is to draw near to God as the source of everything important in our lives. God is our anchor in the storms of life that hit everyone. We are living in a time when the culture is spinning away from God faster and faster. We are living in a time when it is so easy to get side-tracked and miss God’s best for our lives. We are reminded of Peter’s amazing encounter and revelation with Jesus. Remember when Jesus was with the disciples, and he asked them, Matt 16:13-19 "Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?" So they said, "Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets."
He said to them, "But who do you say that I am ?" Simon Peter answered and said,"You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus answered and said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." NKJV. Let’s remember some things about Peter: He was a fisherman by trade. He was not a Bible scholar, but an ordinary man in an ordinary occupation of his day. What separated him from others was that when Jesus called him to follow, he did! Remember when he was out in the boat with the other disciples in the Sea of Galilee and they saw Jesus walking to them on the water? He was impetuous! Lord, if it is you, call me to come to you! And as long as he kept his eyes on Jesus, he walked on water also. Of course, once he took his eyes off of Jesus, what happened? He sank. He had difficulty understanding Jesus’ parables (Matt 15:15). When Jesus explained he was going to Jerusalem to die, Peter rebuked him. Jesus responded, Matt 16:23 "Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men." I could go on with more examples, but the point is this: The minute Peter took his eyes off Jesus, he was led astray. Every time. Do you suppose God can build his church with people who don’t keep their eyes on him? Could that be part of why the church has struggled so much the last 2000 years? How can you and I be part of the answer to this problem?
God relates to this world through the church, meaning to all who pronounce that Jesus is their Christ, the Son of the Living God! It is critical, crucial, of the greatest importance, that we keep our eyes on Jesus daily in this crazy world we find ourselves living in. To me, that means, spending time in His Word every day, spending time in prayer every day, spending time talking to Him and seeking His response to the situations that confront me through the day. WWJD (What would Jesus do?) is not such a bad question to ask myself as I go through my day. God wants to build his church through us! A strong church is needed now more than ever! Building his church means that we can help help those who have lost their way, it means that we can help those who have never known the way! And, it means we become stronger and stronger because we are acting in His strength, not our own. It means the light will advance against the darkness of this world!
It is crucially important that we be involved in God’s business during this time, showing a lost and broken world that there is a better way, that there is a way to bring restoration, that there is a way to live in light, rather than darkness. And so, we pray that we can impart this important lesson to our kids in Casa and in the Alas program, that they too can be more than Conquerors through Christ who loves them! I pray this will also be helpful to you!
Somos Vencadores!
Jim and Pat
Hello Alas de Amor family!
It is time once again for monthly newsletter, bringing to you all the latest and greatest from our team and their efforts in Palomas, Chihuahua.
August marks the beginning of the school year for Alas, which means a brand new school year with new students. Our first meeting consisted of speaking to all families and children in the program, old and new, of our requirements in order to be sponsored by an Alas sponsor:
• A GPA of 7 (out of 10)
• Regular attendance at church
• Regular attendance at Alas de Amor monthly meetings
Though we wish we could sponsor every single child in Palomas and the state of Chihuahua without any concern, we believe that having these requirements is important to teach concepts of accountability and commitment. We value our sponsors tremendously and always look to use their donations wisely. We require these 3 things of our students (and their families) because these small gestures encourage them to take their academics and their faith seriously.
After talking to our students about our requirements and the general structure of the Alas program, we also welcomed everyone to the new Alas school year with new backpacks filled with school supplies. One of the ways in which our sponsors’ donations are used is purchasing all school supplies needed for the school year.
In addition to their backpacks and supplies, we also took measurements of every student for their dress and shoe sizes. This school year, schools around Palomas confirmed that all classes would be in-person, so we need to be ready to distribute uniforms, gym clothes, sneakers, and dress shoes in the upcoming months.
We wanted to end this month’s newsletter by thanking you, our sponsors, for all that you’ve done for Alas de Amor. Firstly, we thank you all for your prayers, as we see them answered in everything God is doing for this ministry. We also want to thank you for spreading the word of Alas de Amor. Thanks to God and the way he is using every one of you, we have been able to sponsor every single one of our students this school year, which is no small feat. There is no lingering doubt that God is working through each and every one of us so that we can keep working in the Palomas community as well as the surrounding towns.
We’d like to close by asking you all for a very special prayer: Pray for our Alas students as they begin a new school year. Many of them will be starting a new stage in their life, some will be facing challenges in the classroom as well as their homes, and some students are even taking on the challenge of pursuing a college degree. If you can, we encourage each of you to make a personal prayer for the specific student you sponsor, read their letters you receive each month to get an idea of what they are currently dealing with, and pray that God continues to work in their daily lives.
Once again, thank you to every single one of you. Until next time, may God bless you and keep you.
Bere