Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells

Yes, I know it's still September, but we've begun thinking about Christmas already, and we would love for you to do the same. Our annual Christmas outreach at Kilometer 33 will be held on Saturday, December 15th, and we are in the planning stages for our toy drive.

Over the past five years, we've seen the smiles on thousands of children's faces as they received what was for most of them the only Christmas presents they would be given, and we've also seen the smiles on the thousands of people who have taken part in this exercise of generosity and love to a child in a poverty-stricken environment. I'm truly not sure who is more blessed as a result of this act of kindness, the giver or the recipient.

We've had family after family come up and tell us the joy they experienced in taking the focus off themselves and their children during this season and shopping for someone else as a family, putting feet to their faith and loving the least of these in Christ's name. This is truly a way to underscore to our children that Christmas is about giving, not about getting, and that loving others through giving to them demonstrates the love God showed to us in sending Christ for our salvation.

The concept is simple - we ask people to fill a bag or a shoebox with gifts for a girl or boy in Mexico. The cost doesn't have to be exorbitant, but we do ask that you spend at least $10 on one of the gifts that will be included, reaffirming the message that we teach these kids all year round, that they are of value to God. The box can contain all sorts of little items in addition to this gift - crayons, pencils, toothbrushes and toothpaste, Barbies, action figures, balls, costume jewelry - anything that would bring a smile to a child's face.

We collect these toys for three weekends, November 25th, December 2nd, and December 9th. The toys are then shipped to Juarez, where we spend several days organizing the gifts into age- and gender-appropriate categories, and they are given out as part of our Christmas outreach event on Saturday, December 15th. We have a large group of medical and dental professionals who come along on this trip and provide clinics free of charge for several days surrounding the outreach event, and we provide food, fun and gifts for the kids in the community, but the most important factor of this entire outreach is to share the gospel with these kids and their parents that attend. Each year, we see God move in marvelous ways, and hearts are opened to Him and respond in surrender to His call on their lives.

We want to open up this opportunity on a grass-roots level to anyone that wants to take part in this outreach. If you are interested in presenting this opportunity to your church, small group, Bible study, or even your work place, please let us know and we will be happy to supply you with information that you can pass along. We know that others are blessed as they give, so we make no apology for asking people to be involved in this very hands-on way of being Jesus' hands and feet to others who are in need.

In A Pit With A Lion On A Snowy Day,...or Monkey Poo On Your Shoes!

In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day is the title of an inspiring little book we just finished reading. The book is about a brief but interesting story in 2 Samuel 23:20 about Benaiah, who amongst other fearless acts of bravery, literally chased a lion into a pit on a snowy day and killed him. The overall theme of this book is to take on the lions in our lives with boldness and courage. This book is a godsend to us personally, because over the past couple of months we’ve been surrounded by a whole pack of hungry lions!

After we rescued Mariquita, who was abducted from Kilometer 33 this past July, the Tarahumara Indians have been trying to cause us problems because they believe we overstepped our bounds by getting involved in their private affairs. Others are jealous that their children cannot live at Una Esperanza and are trying to cause us problems. Some are angry because we now close the ministry center early each day so that the girls living there have at least some privacy during the day. Maria and Alicia’s (Mariquita) absent and abusive father is threatening to take them away from Una Esperanza. A few months ago the person who has provided an aircraft for this ministry over the past two-years decided to sell it, so we are currently an aviation ministry without a plane. Our funds are getting dangerously low and we have a ministry center, seven staff members, and a girls home to support! Lions everywhere!

Looking at our current circumstances, I suppose we could chose to live in fear, with doubts, uncertainty and despair, questioning why are we even fighting this battle? After all, we’ve poured out our lives (and a great deal of money) into those we’ve helped over the past five years, and for what? A pack of angry lions trying to tear us to pieces?

In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day is about examining how we as Christians should react to the lions in our lives. We have to make a conscious choice on how we are going to react to these lions. When faced with these ferocious man-eating killers, we can run, cower and live in fear, or we can pick up the sword and go on the offensive! God’s word is this sword as described in Eph 6:17. We can choose to believe what God says about us and our situation, and we’ll be empowered to take on these lions with boldness and confidence knowing that we will be victorious!

We’ve chosen to pick up this sword and go on the offensive! We’re marching on with a boldness like never before in spite of our circumstances. Throughout all of these challenges we truly have peace, joy, courage, contentment and confidence. This ministry belongs to God and He has assured us that it will go forth, and nothing that the enemy can throw at us can stand in the way of victory. After all, the enemy comes to kill, steal, and destroy. He is first and foremost a liar and his fate is sealed.

Lesli describes the recent attacks by the enemy as being similar to going to the zoo and having a monkey throwing poo at you when you walk by his cage. The enemy spends a great deal of time hurling poo at God’s children, hoping that some of it will stick. It makes us laugh because when we choose to stand in God’s truth, it is as if God raises up such a wind that the poo blows right back into the monkey’s face!

We know that the reason the enemy has been throwing so much poo at us lately is because God is getting ready to do something incredible through this ministry, and the enemy hates it. We also know that God will provide all that we need in His timing. He will provide protection for our children at Una Esperanza, the financial resources to continue the ministry, protection from lies, and a new plane. In the meantime He has provided us with a poo-shield to fight off the attacks of the angry monkeys and a sword to slay the ferocious lions. We’re confident in Him and His word and we will be victorious!

Update:

As of today, Maria and Alicia (Mariquita) are still living at Una Esperanza, praise God! Please continue to pray that God would protect them from the threat of being taken away and that they would remain safely at the ministry center.

Pray For Our Girls!

We have another urgent prayer request!
After we rescued Mariquita, who was abducted from Kilometer 33 this past July, we’ve found ourselves at war with some in the Tarahumara Indian community. The Tarahumara do not like anyone getting involved in their affairs and that’s what some of them believe we have done by rescuing Mariquita. They don’t really care about these children, they are just offended that we do care, and some of them have been trying to cause us trouble ever since. We’ve been around the Tarahumara long enough to know that rescuing Mariquita was bound to cause a war, but we also knew that rescuing this precious child was worth everything the enemy (or the Tarahumara) could throw at us. We know that those opposing us are without Jesus, and we really shouldn’t expect them to act any differently.

Maria and Mariquita (who now chooses to go by her given name, Alicia) have lived at Una Esperanza ever since the rescue and both are very happy and adjusting well to the transition. Their father abandoned the family years ago and left them and their mother for another woman. This man has not been in these girls’ lives for years, but he was actually involved in the planning of Mariquita’s abduction. He now lives in Chihuahua City, Mexico and we’ve learned that he is threatening to go to Kilometer 33 and take the girls back to live with him.

Alicia (Mariquita) is only six years old, so we’ve spared her the news of this, but we thought it best to explain the situation to Maria. Maria is terrified at the thought of being forced to leave Una Esperanza to live with a father she doesn’t even know. We know that if he takes them, it will equally traumatize Alicia. We’ve heard stories of how abusive he was when he did live with his family. It’s vital that his plans are thwarted and the girls remain safely at the ministry center.

Please pray for the protection of these precious girls! Pray that this man would have no success in removing these girls from Una Esperanza. Pray that God would send His angels of protection to form a hedge of thorns around them.

I Like This Mindset...

"Truly I prefer by far this life of almost constant trial, if I am only able to roll all my cares upon my Heavenly Father, and thus become increasingly acquainted with Him, to a life of outward peace and quietness, without these constant proofs of His faithfulness, His wisdom, His love, His power, His over-ruling providence, etc." -- George Mueller

Free To Receive...

Well, we've got a prayer request to lay out before you, declaring once again our dependence on God and expecting to see His mighty hand at work in this ministry. Kingdom Flight is without the actual flight part right now. The Kingdom part will always remain. For the past nearly two years, we have been provided with the exclusive use of a Beechcraft Baron through the generosity of a gentleman donating its use for ministry purposes, but the decision was recently made to sell the plane, and so we are without a plane right now. We had known of the probability of this situation for several months, so it was no surprise when it came to pass, but it does put us in the position to see God at work in miraculous ways again.

When we began Kingdom Flight five years ago, we owned a little four-seat, single engine Cessna that was woefully undersized and underpowered for this ministry, and we felt God leading us to sell it to fund this fledgling ministry. We have never regretted that sacrifice, and God has always supplied a plane for us through the generosity of people He has raised up. We were blessed to use a Piper Warrior for several years until it was sold, and now we have been blessed to utilize this Baron as we travel back and forth to the mission field and bring assistance to people in remote areas.

We are praying that God will supply a new plane for this ministry, and we trust that He will bring it to pass. We know that this is a God-sized problem, but we also know that we have a God who loves to work in situations that only He can solve and where He will receive glory. It's been neat to see how God has not only supplied airplanes, but each one has been an "upgrade," so to speak. We know that God is not obligated to go bigger and better each time, but we also know that God gives His best to those who leave the choice up to Him, and we look to Him as our provider.

While the aircraft has never been a focus of our ministry, it is nonetheless an integral part of what we do, and this lack of aircraft could greatly limit what we are able to do as a ministry. We pray that others would not be adversely affected by this deficit right now, and we pray that God would fill this need soon.

We would ask that you would bring this request before God on our behalf as God lays it on your heart. We are encouraged by God's faithfulness and the knowledge that where God guides, He provides, and we also take courage in these words of Hudson Taylor, missionary to China in the late 1800s:

God's work done in God's way will never lack God's supply.

Free To Give...

I thought I'd share today's daily devotional from Henry Blackaby. Sometimes it just makes you laugh when God speaks to your situation directly through others!


"Freely you have received, freely give." (Matthew 10:8b)
There is no room for misers in God’s kingdom. When we begin to struggle in giving what we have to others, we have forgotten where we received our possessions. Every good thing we have ever received has come from God (James 1:17). All that we have acquired has been dependent upon His grace (1 Cor. 4:7). Job accurately summarized our condition: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, / And naked shall I return there. / The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; / Blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21).

We easily assume a sense of ownership of our possessions, as if they were things we earned ourselves, thereby giving us a right to them. Jesus reminds us to be prepared to give our possessions as freely and joyfully as we received them. It should be a pleasure for us to give what we have to others (2 Cor. 9:7). We ought to be a conduit through whom the Lord can pour His blessings, knowing we will disperse them to everyone around us. Sometimes we claim we are trying to be good stewards of our resources when actually we are being selfish.

If you struggle to give freely to others, you have become more attached to the gift than to the Giver. The account of the rich young ruler shows the tragedy of becoming too attached to worldly treasures (Luke 8:18–24). Meditate on all that your Lord has given to you (John 3:16). Resolve to express your gratitude to Him through your giving.