Dear Friends:
Last month, we had a great time celebrating moms and the family at Casa! A group from Encounter with Jesus church in Santa Fe came and put on a great puppet show. They included José, the leader, and the muppet volunteers, Nimsy, Limry, Haydee, Daniela, and Andrea. We had about 300 people come, and everyone had a good time playing games, eating together, and spending time talking with one another!
On June 3, we will hold a graduation ceremony for all of the kids in our program. Most of them don’t actually finish school until the end of June, but this is a recognition that they have completed another year in our program! In order to get to this point, they must stay involved in their church, they must keep their grades up, they must attend our monthly meetings, and they have to write letters to you, their sponsors! It has been interesting to see how relationships have developed with those of you who write back! It is clear to us that the interaction with you pays off with greater interest and an expansion of their world as they connect with a person or family that is interested in them, is praying for them, and is supporting them in their academic pursuits.
If you would like to come and see your student “graduate”, please plan to come this coming Saturday! The celebration will begin at 2:00 p.m.
In July, we will be holding a summer vacation celebration at a swimming pool, where the kids will spend time in worship, devotionals, and fun, games, and food! It is one of their favorite times with us, and a way of rewarding them for their discipline through the year. That will be on July 8, if you would like to come and have fun with them!
We will have 40 new students in our program for the coming school year, and so we will be contacting you to see whether you will continue to sponsor a child or not, and if you would like to sponsor a new child, or if you know anyone who might like to sponsor a child, please let us know! You can contact any of our volunteers, including Pat, Marco, Haydee, Ceci, Berenice, Anita, Margie, Jim, or whoever you have worked with in the past!
We are busy praying about how God wants to shape the program for the coming year, and we will be meeting with the Pastors in our program on June 3 to pray and plan. We are also looking for more volunteers! There are opportunities to help in so many ways, from administration to teaching to translating letters, to food prep, to set up and clean up! And, of course, opportunities to personally encourage any students you are sponsoring! We are praying that God will speak to many people to become personally involved this coming school year!
The writer of Hebrews reminds us, Heb 10:23-25 Without wavering, let us hold tightly to the hope we say we have, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. Think of ways to encourage one another to outbursts of love and good deeds. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage and warn each other, especially now that the day of his coming back again is drawing near. NLT
I often think that about how we are on mission together to bring God into our world. He uses each of us in many ways to bring truth, to bring hope, to bring joy, to bring the knowledge of Him and a desire to follow Him in a lost and dying world. It is important for us to spend time in fellowship with God’s people, worshiping together, stirring one another up to take on Christ’s nature and reject our old human nature, and strengthening one another to be involved in the Lord’s business! As we do these things, and as we encourage the families in our program to do these things, we will all be built up as the body of Christ, and that will give us the power to resist the evil of the world that is constantly at the door trying to pull us away.
Even so, we pray, “return quickly to establish your rule on the earth, Lord Jesus!” Until He returns, may He protect you, hold you close, and minister to you at your point of need, equipping you as His hands and His feet!
Jim and Pat