Mother's Day

I just wanted to express how thankful I am that I get to be a mother to quite a few kids, both here in the US and in Mexico.  I couldn't ask for a sweeter son than my Noah.  He has such a sensitive heart for God, and he's always my #1 little man, and he so willingly shares my love with so many other kids who call me "Mom."  I am so grateful that God has opened up our world and our hearts to include all of them.  My heart is full of blessings that each one of the children in my life have brought into my life, and I can't imagine life any other way.

Our Orange County kids fill our home with joy and have added many girls to our lives, which is a wonderful addition, and I love my God-given daughters so very much.  They make me laugh, and they brighten my life and my weekends.

All the little (and big) ones that God has brought into my life through the work of Una Esperanza fill my heart with love and hope for them, that they will have a better future because they are coming to know Christ as their hope.  God has given Brad and I the privilege of unique positions as the father and mother of so many children who know no other love or parenting.  

I'm also so thankful to God for my own mom.  Hopefully she'll forgive my using this picture from our past.  She has taught me and continues to teach me much about living by faith and loving God.  I'm so proud of the legacy of faith that my mom has given me, and I want to always pass that on to my children - God is good, and He is faithful, and He can be trusted with anything and everything.  Thank you God, and thank you, Mom.

Fruit That Will Remain...

One of the tasks the Iowa State team took on when they came to see us over Easter was to paint the interior of the ministry center, and as I look at the pictures that we have on the photo gallery (*shameless attempt to get you to go view them*), I'm reminded of a verse in John 15 that God kind of highlighted to me back in October of last year. Verse 16 of John 15 says, "You did not choose me, but I chose you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He may give to you." We've long talked with Patsy about how we all wanted to have scripture and art work on the walls where the children can learn the significance and apply it to their lives, so were all excited when Hunter and his crew jumped right in to bring our dreams to life.

The first day they spent a lot of time cleaning the junk off the walls and masking out the line between the "earth" and "sky" that we wanted painted, then they laid the foundation of the blue sky and the green grass. There was a lot of detail work and more than once, someone had to clean a little paint off the windows that had errantly found its way onto the glass. That day's work kind of reminded me of how we've been laying a foundation with these kids at Una Esperanza, establishing relationships in the community, "cleaning the junk off", if you will, and laying a firm foundation for the Word of God to take hold of them.

The second day the painters started sketching out the trees and envisioning the details of what the scene would entail, where would the trees be, what scripture would be painted on the wall, what types of trees, etc. This reminds me of the visions that God has put before us as a goal -plans and ideas of ways to reach these Tarahumara Indians for Christ. Just as there were adjustments to the planned artwork to make it more beautiful, God has also brought about adjustments and tweaks to the plans we've begun, altering them slightly to give God alone the glory and to make the outcome more fruitful.

Finally, as the tree trunks were in place and the scriptures were posted on a banner across the trees (in Spanish and in English), the leaves were sponged onto the landscape, creating a lush background for the fruit that would be added at a later time (pictures of our kids, in this case). As I saw all the foliage on the trees, I was so excited. God had promised us fruit that would remain, and I was seeing so much room for all that fruit! It's such a visual reminder of all that God has promised to do through Una Esperanza, and we look so forward to the trees being full of fruit that will remain in Him and grow to full maturity.

She's Back!

(Lesli here...)What an awesome day this has been. We've had a great week with the Navigators group from Iowa State. They were such a blessing to us and to our kids. More about that in a moment.

When we arrived at the ministry center this morning, we were greeted by a familiar face - Mariquita (Alicia) arrived back at Kilometer 33 last night and we were so thrilled to see her beautiful smile and give her lots of hugs. It truly felt like that blessing was more than we could even imagine to top off this week. It felt like God was giving us an extra special gift to have her back.


As I mentioned in the beginning, we've had a marvelous time with these young men and women from Iowa State. We were blessed in so many ways by them as they served and loved on our kids. We've never had our kids so impacted by people that have come to Una Esperanza. They were truly examples of servant leadership and were such amazing examples of Christ's love, and we're confident that the investment they made this week will have wonderful eternal results.


We are so grateful for their willingness to serve in any way that was needed - they renovated our playground set using their engineering and ingenuity skills, they painted the interior of our ministry center with a wonderful new mural, they told Bible stories and acted out skits that wonderfully engaged the kids, they gave countless "caballo" rides on their backs, they led the kids in music and worship, helped the kids with crafts, and just loved the kids in any every way they could.



Please keep them in your prayers as they will be driving back the 20-something hours to Iowa in the next two days. We thank God for bringing them into our lives and to the children of Una Esperanza. Brian, thanks so much for listening to the prompting of the Holy Spirit and bringing your crew to Juarez. God bless you guys and we love you all!

Kingdom Flight Update

Easter 2007 at Una Esperanza


The grand opening of the Tienda de Una Esperanza store was held last Friday. Our purpose for this particular project is to promote self-sustainability for the people of Kilometer 33, and a percentage of the proceeds will go towards providing for our daily feeding and ministry program at the Una Esperanza ministry center. We’re already seeing results, and Monday we were able to feed the children for the first time in weeks. This has been a welcome blessing, especially during this difficult time where the need has far outgrown our current resources! Please join us in prayer for this “Store of Hope” addition to the Una Esperanza ministry center.


We’re getting ready for our annual Easter trip to Una Esperanza and looking forward to celebrating Easter with the children of Kilometer 33. We have a team of 21 from Iowa State University joining us for the week and we're looking forward to making much about Jesus!


We’ll be flying out this Saturday March 15th and returning Monday March 24th and we would appreciate your prayers. Please pray that many would come to know Christ through our efforts and that God would bless this trip abundantly!

Ministry Update

We are praising God that our second annual Easter mission trip has been confirmed. A team of 21 from Iowa State University will be visiting Una Esperanza March 16-21. They will also be sponsoring fundraising events at two separate churches in Iowa for Kingdom Flight this Sunday, March 9th. Please join us in prayer for God’s blessing on their efforts!

We were hoping to be able to travel to Una Esperanza this week for the grand opening of the Una Esperanza store scheduled for this Friday, but unfortunately, we just don’t have the funds to do so. Una Esperanza also remains closed for the fourth week in a row for this same reason. We are still waiting on God’s provision, and we know that this is something that only He can fix. Please pray for the children of Una Esperanza and for us during this difficult season. We may not always see God at work through our circumstances, but we do know that He is faithful.

One Week To Go...

Well, things are coming together for the store at Una Esperanza. The above picture shows progress that's been made in the last few weeks - the exterior is being covered with stucco and will soon be painted to match our ministry center, and we have roll-up security doors to cover the doors and windows (which we learned the hard way are a necessity in Mexico...).

Texas State SIFE (Students In Free Enterprise) has been working with us on this project and has so generously given so much to make this project a reality. It's so encouraging to interact with people who seek to help out in Kilometer 33, among the people of Una Esperanza, and in such a tangible way. It is our prayer that this store and the financial proceeds that it brings will help the people of Una Esperanza and also help to fund the ministry center in some way. We have also been brought into relationship (through SIFE) with a ministry in New Mexico that would like to be an ongoing help in supplying food for our feeding program in the future, so we definitely thank God for His divine appointments.


The grand opening of the store is scheduled for next Friday, March 7th, and we are so excited about this. We want to give God thanks publicly for all that He has brought to pass in this project and to dedicate it to His glory, and we would ask you to pray that God would supply the finances for us to go out to Una Esperanza and be part of this celebration. With all the struggles and battles of the past season, we just want to rejoice in what God has done.



Also along that line, we thank God that we were able to have a feeding for some of the children yesterday. It's been a tough few weeks when we haven't had the finances to feed our kids, and we praise God that we could do it yesterday.

We so appreciate the prayers and encouragement we have received from so many people who are standing with us in this season of challenge. We know that God is good and faithful, and we praise Him for bringing people into our lives that are truly people of faith and are led by the Holy Spirit. Please continue to pray for us as and when God leads you to do so.

THE UNA ESPERANZA O. C. KIDS

The Una Esperanza O.C. Kids

In the summer of 2006, I was asked to lead a group of children in our hometown during a church-sponsored Vacation Bible School (VBS). I must say that I really wasn’t all that interested at the time. I already had the physical and spiritual needs of some 150 neglected Indian children in Mexico to keep me busy, and I wasn’t really looking forward to working with the often over-indulged children of South Orange County California. However, I strongly felt that God was calling me to take on this group of children, so I carved out the time.

It turned out that the group of children that I was assigned was the only group of Latino children attending the event, out of some 700 children. Working with these kids was such a wonderful blessing that we established a local ministry (The Una Esperanza O.C. Kids) for these same children. Ministering to these children is a bit different than ministering to the neglected and often abused Tarahumara children of Mexico. Physical poverty is not really the issue for these children, but it soon became clear to us that the spiritual needs were much the same.


This local ministry has since become an integral and rewarding part of the Kingdom Flight ministry, and we’ve seen incredible spiritual growth in several of these children. The Una Esperanza O.C. Kids accompany us to church, we’ve held our own beach Bible studies and VBS events, and when we’re not out spending time with these kids in our local area, they’re often hanging out with us at our home.



I just finished a short video highlighting the Una Esperanza O.C. Kids, which can be accessed from our home page. We’d greatly appreciate your prayers for this local ministry as well as your continued prayers for the children of our Una Esperanza-Juarez ministry center.