Dear Friends:
It is almost time for our big Mother’s Day celebration at Casa! All of our students and their families will come to hold a day of celebration with us as we honor not only mothers, but families in general. This requires a big effort on our part, and a lot of volunteers! We must prepare the facility for around 300 people to attend, borrowing tables and chairs from the Pink Store, and we will be organizing games and fun activities for everyone. We plan to provide gifts of food and treats, along with prizes that the moms can win. Prizes will include everything from microwave ovens to personal care products for moms! Would you like to come and volunteer to help? We need people to set up and break down, to run games, to prepare food, to take pictures of kids, and just to help out wherever a helping hand is needed! Would you like to donate a prize for the moms? Please bring it by The Light at Mission Viejo by Thursday, May 11, or make arrangements to give it to Jim or Pat. The party will occur on Saturday, May 13, and we will begin setting up early in the morning. It is a great opportunity for you to come and help out if you have never helped in this ministry before. You will be rewarded with many smiles and words of thanks!
Also, please note that our ministry weekend in June is going to be June 3, because of conflicts for our ministry team on the normal ministry weekend. June is also a big month for us, as we will be holding a graduation ceremony for all of our kids who successfully complete the school year with us! So, if you can’t come in May, maybe you can plan for June!
Looking ahead, in July, we will hold an end of school year bash for the kids on July 8, as we rent a local swimming pool and have a great fun day of contests, worship, and encouragement for the kids. We will also be preparing our final list of students for the coming school year. Right now, it looks like we will have about 160 kids, an increase of about 20 kids over the current school year.
For the next 3 months, we will also be seeking additional sponsors for our new kids in the program!
If you would like to come with us for any of these trips, or if you know of anyone who might like to sponsor a new child, please let us know! Please call or text Jim (505) 690-8302, or Pat (505)670-5659, or Emiliano, (505) 795-3074 and we will talk to you about it.
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. We will be continuing with that theme through the remainder of the school year, as we explore how Jesus overcame the world, and how we can practically apply his example in our own lives!
So often, it seems like we say we believe and trust God, and we want to, but it seems like He is far from us! Often we say we want to live godly lives, but we find that we constantly fail. Sometimes it is almost a big surprise when we recognize the God has just done something amazing! We have a hard time seeing ourselves as Overcomers. Paul struggled with that also. In Romans 6, he talks about how easy it is to lie to ourselves and say “well, I will just keep doing the thing that I want, even though I know God doesn’t approve, because then I can see His Grace even more!” But then he reminds us that we should never allow sin to dominate our lives. Rom 6:1-2 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?
He reminds us that our old nature was supposed to have died with Christ’s death, that we can take on our nature of eternal life in Him! But, it is a constant war between our old selves that want to place ourselves on the throne, and our new selves, that want to put Jesus on the throne. He says, there is only one answer:
Rom 7:21-25 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. 22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 I thank God — through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So, we must recognize that our new selves, our Spirit that has been reborn in us, is going to be constantly at war with the old person who wants physical rewards and pleasures of this world more than the Spiritual rewards of God’s Kingdom. We will only overcome by drawing as close as we can to Jesus Christ our Lord!
We are reminded in Hebrews 10:22-25 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, 25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.
Understanding the relationship God wants with us is even harder for young people, who have a difficult time relating the spiritual side of life to the physical. It is much easier to relate to what they can see, taste, smell, touch, than it is so invisible spiritual things. But God tells us to teach the stories of His involvement in human affairs to our children, and to raise them up pointed in the right direction, and it will be their strength as they get older. We pray that many of our young people will develop that God-connection now and in the near future!
May the Lord bless you and keep you, may He make His face to shine upon you, and grant you peace!
Jim and Pat