We Are His Hands Reaching Out To The Least Of These...

I've seen Jesus this Christmas.  Much like the dirty, dusty stable where He chose to take on human form over 2000 years ago, He came in human form to another dirty, dusty shelter where the poorest of the poor live, to show His love and to make a way for us to know eternal life through His greatest gift.  This time instead of coming in one human form as God Incarnate, His Spirit filled 18 wonderful people who were His hands and feet to the children of Kilometer 33.

I saw Jesus swing kids around, give them caballito (horsey) rides, polish fingernails, play basketball with boys, hold little girls, feed the hungry ones, hold the crying ones, sing with them, and sit and read the Bible with them.  I saw Him considering others as more important than Himself and serving them with every ounce of His energy.  I would encourage you to follow this link to our photo gallery from our Christmas event and see the love of Jesus in action.  You will be blessed.

We saw God's hand at every turn.  He provided many wonderful toys for the children through people who were prompted by His spirit and obeyed.  We were able to hand out Barbies to each girl that attended the event, in addition to many wonderful baby dolls, many cars and soccer balls to the boys, and each child was given a gift bag of goodies in addition to a large gift.  They heard the real meaning of Christmas, and they were challenged to have hearts of integrity toward God.  They were fed and clothed.  Above all, they were loved.

One of the biggest blessings we received was when some of the children from the shelter performed dances set to praise music for the team.  In a year when there were times we questioned whether the ministry could even survive, we saw the fruit of Una Esperanza, and that it is beginning to grow in depth as well as numbers.  To see our little ones praising God in dance was beautiful.  Several of our teenage girls also prepared some songs and I was brought to tears by God's goodness, knowing that three of these four teenagers had come to know Christ as their Savior in the last two months.   The ladies also showed off their culinary skills for the team with a salsa-making contest, which the team bravely took part in as the taste testers.  No reports of sickness to this point... :)

We just want to say thank you to the many people who held us up in prayer.  We felt the angels all around us.  We knew we were covered, and we are truly appreciative.  We are grateful for the people who enabled us to pull off this event financially.  It's always a very costly event, but God always provides.  We are so grateful for the college students from Iowa State, New Mexico State and Hardin-Simmons University that came and poured themselves out in service and in love, for the families that made this their Christmas and demonstrated the love of God to others in front of their own kids.  We prayed for Jesus to be seen by all, and we believe He was.  We know He showed up in each of the team members that came to Juarez this year, and we believe His presence will continue to change lives as a residual throughout the year.