Dear Friends:
Our next ministry meeting at Casa will be March 11. We will travel to Palomas on March 10, and some will return on the evening of March 11, and others on March 12. Might God be tugging on your heart to come and see what He is doing in Palomas? Those looking for a ride, we will leave from The Light on Friday afternoon, as early as we can get away, and return late Saturday night. If you want to go, please call Jim (505) 690-8302, or Pat (505)670-5659, or Emiliano, (505) 795-3074 and we will talk to you about it.
Last month we had 2 new volunteers come to help us at Casa, and it was such a blessing to get some young people involved! We are praying that more and more people will start coming!
For the past several months, our theme for teaching with our students and parents has been centered on Rom 8:37 in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
There are so many ways in life for us to feel like we are defeated rather than overcomers. Usually, it is because we focus more on physical worldly pleasures rather then God. Think how we, and especially teens, get bombarded with social media. And the social media they look at shows them the perfect girl, or the perfect boy, doing something fun or interesting. It makes them feel flawed because they judge themselves and their lives by the world’s standards of what is “cool” or “beautiful” or “fun”. Studies indicated that kids who use social media on their cell phones are up to 65% more likely to be depressed than those who don’t. Social media can affect not only kids, it can affect us adults. How many people have you met who are mad at God, or who have decided to ignore God, or who simply don’t take God into account in their lives? So many people have a wrong concept of God.
If we think about the life that Jesus lived, it was not a life of pleasure, nor was it self-centered in any way. It was a life of self-sacrifice, something our human nature doesn’t like. Once the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit, as we see in Acts 2, they lived in the same way as Jesus. The apostle James tells us: James 1:2-5 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. NIV
The entire Bible is filled with stories of flawed people whose lives were dramatically changed by their Creator-God, but none of them escaped hardship, trials, and bad things happening. The joy one gets in life through Jesus is a joy that comes from knowing that all of these worldly things are just temporary, and that by seeking and accepting Holy Spirit in our lives, we can find joy and happiness in the middle of pain and suffering. And of course, ultimately, when we escape these earthly bodies, we will be reunited with Jesus in heaven, (see John 14:1-6), and we know that is a place where there is no more sorrow or pain or suffering (Rev. 21:4).
So, we have the power to be more than conquerors of all of these problems and issues that beset us in this life, but will we truly draw near to God so that we can live in victory? And, importantly, can we help our young people to do this?
We recently watched the movie Jesus Revolution. If you have not seen it, please take the opportunity. The Holy Spirit experience that those people experienced in the 1970’s is exactly what we hope and pray for ourselves and our young people today!
This month, we will be meeting with Pastors to begin preparing our program for the coming school year. Please pray with us that we can prepare a great program for the kids in the coming school year!
Please note that our monthly support will be changing beginning in August, as follows:
Support an elementary student: $35/mo.
Support a Jr. high student: $45/mo.
Support a high school student: $55/mo.
Support a college student with full support: $100/mo. People may provide partial support and we will put sponsors together to reach full support. We have 5 new students considering college right now.
May the Lord bless you and keep you, may He make His face to shine upon you, and grant you peace!