Dear Friends:
Meet Agustin & Luzma. They are considering becoming our new houseparents at Casa de Amor. If they agree, then we will prepare everything and work to get our new girls at the orphanage during Christmas break, which lasts about a month in Mexico for elementary and Jr. High kids. We will try to get as many younger girls as we can. Because it gives us more years to have a positive impact on their lives. Agustin & Luzma have an interesting story. He is from Equatorial Guinea (just north of South Africa). A number of years ago, she went there on a mission trip from her church in Mexico City. They met, and eventually fell in love and married. In Equatorial Guinea, they speak Fang (native) and French, with some Spanish. So, Agustin had to polish up on his Spanish, but now, after 11 years of living in Mexico, he is quite fluent. They both have higher education and their love for children was immediately apparent as they worked with us in the Alas program. They are both natural teachers! So, we are praying with them that they will hear what the Lord is saying.
That reminds me of a poster we were shown at our local church in Texas, Antioch Waco, which summarizes well ideas that we are trying to imprint in our students’ minds in the Alas program:
WE ARE MADE TO BE A WITNESS
1. I have a purpose
2. My purpose is to be a witness
3. I will not be satisfied until I fulfill that purpose
4. That purpose is best accomplished with a team
5. I must do it today for I do not know what tomorrow holds
Have you ever thought of life that way? It is really true. God has plans for our lives that He created even before we were born (See Jer. 11:29). But, so often, we want to fulfill our plans for our lives, not God’s plans. We see this all the time, when we start asking ourselves and others what our/their short-term and long-term goals are. Most of us never check with God to seek to fulfill His plans. This gets us into all kinds of trouble, and often leads to fear, frustration, and futility. But God tells us that we are more than Conquerors in spite of all of the bad things that try to destroy our path of faith (Rom. 8:37). Did you know that the Command that God gives us more than any other command in the Bible is “Do not fear…”? For example, our theme verse in our program this year is Deut 31:6 “Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you." NKJV
Our biggest problems in life, the mountains in our lives, always relate to those things that seek to destroy our relationship with Jesus. They do not want us to succeed in fulfilling God’s purposes for our lives. And what or who are those things? Eph 6:12 tells us “For we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against those mighty powers of darkness who rule this world, and against wicked spirits in the heavenly realms.” NLT
They also include our own selfish nature. Even Jesus had to battle this: Luke 22:41-43 "Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will, not mine." NLT Romans 8:5-17 reminds us that if we are controlled by our fleshly desires, it only leads to death.
So, our goals need to always be focused on what the Lord is telling us, and John 10:27-28 reminds us that Yes, if we will only spend time listening, we will hear Jesus’ voice as he lets us in on His plans for our lives.
So, What are your God-given purposes? Are you fulfilling them? Let us pray for one another that we will be led by the Holy Spirit daily, hourly, minute by minute, and that we will have no fear as we follow…
Our next trip to Palomas will be the weekend of October 11th-13th. A van will leave from The Light at Mission Viejo at 6 pm on Friday the 11th. If we have enough volunteers wanting to go, we can also take a van earlier in the day. We hope many of you will plan to join us. You won’t regret it! We will be taking pictures of students and their younger siblings for Christmas presents. I can’t believe it is already time to start planning Christmas. The Pastors are planning a feast for the Fiesta. They will buy and cook a whole pig for tacos, posole and other delicacies! If you can’t join us in October, please consider making the trip in December. That will be the weekend of December 14th. As always, please contact us so we can know how many to prepare for and how we can bless you as you reach out to others!
The LORD bless you and keep you; The LORD make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you; The LORD lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.
Jim and Pat