Dear Friends:
And so, we start a New Year! We trust that you and your loved ones had a great holiday season. We had a great Christmas Fiesta, led by the Youth Group from Pastor Beto’s church in Ascension! Now we are starting a new semester for the kids in our Alas program, and at Casa, we are preparing for a new group of girls!
CALLING ALL VOLUNTEERS! As we prepare for our new group of girls, we need to upgrade a number of things at Casa. Primarily, we need to work on fixing furniture, making sure everything is in good order in the bathrooms, light fixtures replaced, cabinets repaired, getting a refrigerator working, getting the heating system in better working order, there are soffits to fix around the exterior, and pretty much everything needs a new coat of paint! If you can come and help us get the building ready, it would be much appreciated. We plan to work on Friday, January 13, and Saturday, January 14 to try to get things all in good order! If you need transportation, please let me know, and I will work on arranging a van from the Light in Santa Fe. Otherwise, if you can come on Thursday evening, or early in the day on Friday, we can all work on getting this done quickly. If you are planning on coming, please text me at (505)690-8302, so that I know how many to expect and we can make all necessary arrangements. If we get enough volunteers, we can get most of this done all day on Friday, and then prepare for all of the Alas kids who will be coming on Saturday.
We still have not received the final word on girls coming from Cd. Juarez, so your prayers regarding this are appreciated! We will probably have a short time frame to find all of our needed staff for new girls and we are still in need of more finances to provide for their monthly expenses, which come to about $6,000 per month to pay for staff, utilities, and food. We are currently at about ½ of that in monthly income. We did receive some nice end-of-year donations, which were amazing and wonderful to receive, and they gave a boost to our scholarship fund for college kids and start-up funds to bring the orphanage up to speed. If you were one of those supporters, THANK YOU! We are always in awe as our wonderful Lord lays it on people’s hearts to help support the orphans and the poor, and we pray God’s blessings on you for your generous hearts! Please continue to pray with us for the additional monthly support needed! Watch your e-mail for 2022 donation receipts from Pat in the next couple of weeks!
I want to recognize our regular staff of volunteers who are faithful to come to Palomas each month and work with the kids in the Alas program and encourage our girls in the orphanage. They include Angel and Cecilia Gonzalez, Marcos Salazar and his wife, Haydee Gonzalez, Raymundo Minjarez and his grandmother Cuca Reyes, Yesenia Murillo, and Berenice Herrera. All of these people show up faithfully month in and month out to teach the kids in the Alas program, to encourage our girls at Casa, and to help out in whatever is needed around the orphanage. Berenice has led our Alas program for many years (and has done an amazing job!), but she is now working on her doctorate and is going to step back for a season so she can concentrate on all of the things she needs to accomplish. Tom Bates and Dale Giese from Silver City show up frequently to provide support as they are able. Margie and Orlando Roybal from Santa Fe have been regular volunteers for many years, but health problems have prevented them from being regulars recently. We also get additional volunteers from Santa Fe and El Paso who come several times a year. And I don’t want to leave out a prayer warrior, Bea Johnson, who has not been able to come since Covid started, but she is faithful to lift up the ministry in prayer regularly.
Our house mother is Ana Montoya, and she is a team with her husband, Adrian Gonzalez, as they are responsible for taking care of our girls at Casa and now Ana is going to take more of the responsibilities that Berenice had, as she will be administering the day-to-day details also for the Alas program, including keeping up with how the students are doing, their needs, dealing with their monthly financial support, and organizing the monthly week-end meetings. It is a big job, and we are thankful for both of them for their giving hearts as they do all they can to help these young people! Adrian’s mother, Adriana Escajeda watches over the girls at Casa on the week-ends, giving Ana and Adrian a break, and she is a great blessing!
In addition, we get special event volunteer support from a group in Durango, Colorado, led by Gustavo and Margaret Mondragon, and a group in Santa Fe, New Mexico led by Lorraine Aragon from Un Encuentro con Jesús.
As we start off the New Year and a new semester in school for the kids, we will continue with the theme announced in Romans 8:37, “we are more than Conquerors through Him that loved us.” This verse, along with the surrounding verses in the Bible, make it clear that we are all going to go through a lot of difficult and bad things in our lives, but that if we stay close to Christ for comfort, direction, and strengthening, we will succeed in life. How does God measure success in our lives? Certainly, Faithfulness is at the top of the list. We are taught that Abraham was the Father of our faith, because he was faithful to God. See Galatians 3:6-11, which ends by telling us, “the just shall live by faith!” One of the ways our faithfulness is shown is demonstrated by Jesus in the Parable of the Talents beginning in Matt. 25:14. Here, we learn that to be faithful, we must use the gifts and talents He has given us for the advancement of His Kingdom. In other words, whatever our abilities are, our faithfulness is shown by doing the things God shows us to do as best we can!
As we start the New Year, it is important for us to recognize that we should live Intentionally. We should live with Purpose. We should seek to make our lives valuable in God’s purposes for this world. Eph. 5:15-17 tells us, Therefore, see that you walk carefully (living life with honor, purpose, and courage; shunning those who tolerate and enable evil), not as the unwise, but as wise (sensible, intelligent, discerning people), making the very most of your time (on earth, recognizing and taking advantage of each opportunity and using it with wisdom and diligence), because the days are (filled with) evil. Therefore do not be foolish and thoughtless, but understand and firmly grasp what the will of the Lord is.” (Amp.)
What are God’s purposes? To bring ourselves and others close to Him. Since God defines Himself as the author of Love (1 Jn. 4:8, 16), coming close to Him results in an outpouring of love and compassion towards others. What is God laying on your heart to do this coming season in your life? How will you feel His love in your life? How will you share it? As you respond in faith to Him, you will see His power demonstrated in you, setting yourself and others free from all of the things in this world that work to destroy what God wants to build up in our lives!
I am reminded of Habakkuk 2:2-3,
Then the LORD answered me and said:
"Write the vision And make it plain on tablets, That he may run who reads it. 3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time; But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, It will not tarry.” NKJV
It is important for us to keep the vision God gives us out in plain sight, so we do not lose focus!
This month, our seniors in high school will begin filling out applications to attend college. In Mexico, students must take a test, similar to the pre-college tests in the US, and must obtain a certain score in order to be accepted by the school. This is really an important time for them, because the colleges in Mexico are specialized, and so they will apply to business school or psychology school, or school of education, or another school that prepares them to receive a bachelor’s degree in a particular profession. Typically, they really know very little about whether the school they choose for a particular profession is really a profession they are well-suited to move into, and so prayers are needed for them to choose wisely. They will take the admission tests in March, and then they will learn whether or not they have been accepted in early summer.
May the Lord bless you and keep you, may He make His face to shine upon you, and grant you peace!