Peace Be Still...

Many, years ago, I had the privilege and honor of playing with a wonderful Christian artist named Sherri Youngward.  At a time in my life when I was broken and confused, God opened the door for me to join her band and tour all over the country. When you travel and play a lot, you can get tired of certain songs, or, feel like you’ve played it for the thousandth time.  One of those songs in particular was called “Peace.”  It was usually played towards the end of our set and probably the most popular song played.  Night after night, we played and sung these simple words, that often times, I took for granted.

“Peace, be still, lay all your worries down.  Be still, oh my soul, for our God is in control.  And if God is for us, then whom shall I fear.  And our God is for us, so lay down, be still, He is God.  Hallelujah, or God has overcome.  Hallelujah, our Lord, Jesus Christ has won.”

Driving down to Mexico last week, with a missions team from Washington, I had a thousand thoughts racing through my mind.  This is usually the case, as I return from trips, full of meetings and important decisions that have to be made.  Those thoughts mixed with the anticipation of meeting the 5 newest children in our home, began to overwhelm my mind.

Needless to say, I began to stress and worry. "How is this going to work? What decisions should I make? How can we raise more money?" and so on.  The very one fueling those worrisome thoughts was the enemy, doing everything he could to discourage me.  To be honest, I felt as if he was winning, UNTIL, that song I use to be so familiar with, flooded my mind.  Driving through the beautiful mountains of Mexico, the Lord began to remind me and speak to me, through those wonderful words and promises, that I need only be still, because He is God!

What a blessing it has been, getting to know the newest members of our family, Adrianna, Pablo, Myra, Gale and Aaron.  It has also been incredibly hard, as I continue to hear the stories and learn more about these precious children's past.  I’ve never held this many kids before, as they are sobbing, broken, confused, missing their mothers.

The other night, I heard little 2 year old Gale, screaming for his mother.  I went in to his room, picked him up and began to rock him.  As I held him tight in my arms, I thought, this child has never had this before from a father.  So I began to pray and sing over him as he quietly fell asleep.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to meet Aaron’s mom.  She made an unexpected trip and visit to the orphanage, as she is on the run.  Fearing for her life, that has been threatened by her latest boyfriend, she wanted to see her son one more time, before leaving town.  As we sat in my office, listening to her story, tears began to stream from her eyes.  And then the moment came, when little Aaron came into my office.  He began to weep, she began to weep as she held him, and then we all began to cry.

The stories and situations that take place down here are unbelievable.  I can’t fully understand or believe what these 9 children have been through.  However, I do know that they are here, and are safe, and have a God who loves them more then anything.  He is in control, He is for them, and they now have nothing to fear.   Each night, they can now lay their heads down, rest peacefully, and be still and know that He is God.  Hallelujah!

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:6-7).

Fruitful Week...

I had a wonderful time this past week, up in Seattle.  It’s always great being reunited with family, friends and our home church.  The week was packed with meetings, teaching at churches, leading worship and our golf tournament.  Although it was a long and tiring week, it was an incredibly fruitful and productive time. Thank you so much to all those who participated and helped out with our 2nd annual golf invitational.  We had our biggest turnout, 78 players, who joined us for a beautiful day of golf, fellowship and raising money for the orphanage.  When it was all said and done, we were able to raise $5,000 that we would like to put towards the purchase of a bigger van.

Part of the reason we are in great need of a 15 passenger van, is because our family continues to grow down at the orphanage.  In fact, when I left, we had 4 children we’ve been caring for.  When I return tomorrow, with a team of 11 people from Washington, we will have 9 children in the home.  God brought us 5 more children this past week, who we now have the blessed privilege of caring for and ministering to.

Little Aaron has come from the mountains of Naquiachi.  My friend Aaron Wiens and his wife, have been pastoring a church up in the mountains about 3 hours away.  This young 10 year old boy has quickly become a part of their family, spending every waking moment he can with them.  Little Aaron lives with his drunk and abusive uncle.  Both his grandmother and mom are wanting a better life for him, especially now, as it is marijuana picking season.  This is the time when the drug cartels come into towns to lure the youth into their organization.  The temptation of money, drugs, women, etc, is often to great to say no.  As a result of this temptation and offer, many teens (as young as a 10 year old) leave their homes and usually never return.  Aaron and his wife brought little Aaron to Casa de Bendicion last week and he is adjusting well.  What a blessing, knowing that this young boy was snatched out of the grips of the enemy.  Now, we are praying he will be brought into Jesus’ marvelous light!

"But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light" (1 Peter 2:9).

We have been praying on another 4 kids (all siblings)  the past few months, who are in a very difficult home situation.  We were seeking the Lord for the right time for when or if, these children should come into our care.  God made it evident that they were indeed to be in the home and they came in officially this past Sunday night.  Adriana (12) Pablo (9) Mida (7) and Gale (2) have basically been raising and taking care of themselves.  There is no father in the picture and their mother is barely around.  Whether she is out working or cruising the streets, drinking and meeting men, the kids are left at home alone.  Their mother has expressed that she loves her children, which is why she is wanting them to be in a better, healthier, safer environment.

The fab four (as Jackie calls them) came in on Sunday night.  It is a huge adjustment, going from 4 children to 9, but the Lord is showing Himself strong in our midst.  He is giving our team great strength, as well as bigger hearts, to love and care for these children!

We could use your prayers for a number of different things right now…

• Please pray for Aaron, Adrianna, Pablo, Mida and Gale.  Pray that they continue to adjust to their new living situation, as well as have hearts open to Jesus and His love for them.

• Please pray for a 15 passenger van.  We are asking that the Lord provides one soon, as we now have 14 people to transport around.  If you have any insight or know of one available, please let me know.

• Please pray for the team of 11, from South Hill Calvary, who will be serving with us for the next week, helping with VBS, cement work, plumbing and loving on the children.

• Please pray about helping support a child on a monthly basis.  As our family continues to grow, so do the expenses to facilitate and care for the children.  If you feel like you or your family or your church, would like to help support one of our 9 kids, please let me know!

May you all have a blessed day.  Thank you again for your faithful prayers on our behalf!

Where Has The Time Gone?

Where has the time gone?  I’m not sure really.  I can’t believe it has been over a month since I last updated you all on the happenings down in Mexico.  I guess that is mainly because we have entered our busiest season of the year.  June kicked off our summer months full of missions trips, VBS’, lots of traveling and trying to keep the children from going crazy of boredom.  Now I think I know what it must have been like for our mom, when all five of us kids were out of school for the summer.  It takes a lot of work! Music Room…Having played music since I was 12, I absolutely love it.  So naturally, I want to figure out a way that we can integrate music into the lives of the children in the home.  So far so good.  In fact, all 4 of the kids, well 5 including Ayantu, absolutely love music and are wanting to learn how to play and sing.  We began to pray about getting musical instruments for the children and that prayer was answered the first week of June.

Two very dear brothers from Utah, Pastor Joe (Calvary Mountain View) and Ted (one of my good friends) came down for 3 days to see the orphanage, meet the children and bring a wonderful surprise…music equipment.  We now officially have a music room with a sound system, microphones, guitars, piano, ukele and percussion.  The children spend as much time in there as we allow them and are learning very quickly how to play and sing!

SHCC Missions Trip…No sooner had I dropped off Ted and Joe in El Paso to fly home, I was picking up my dad and a missions team from our church, South Hill Calvary.  It just so happened that there was also another team from Sonlit Hills Church in Santa Fe, that came down as well, to help Pastor Luis stucco the church.  Over the weekend we had  visitors working and serving alongside us, both at the orphanage and the church.  What a blessing it was with both groups.  Although missions trips can be a little exhausting…they are very refreshing and encouraging and we were so thankful for all that was accomplished, newly stuccoed church, cemented walkway at the orphanage, new sign for the orphanage and lots of hanging out with the children.

My dad with the boys...

Interest From Mennonites…Not only have we had teams and visitors from the states, but also from the neighboring Mennonite communities.  Some how, well, we know its the Lord doing it, word is getting out and people are coming every week, to visit and see what’s going on at the orphanage.  It has been wonderful meeting new friends, brothers and sisters in Christ, and seeing the children, orphanage and ministry impact peoples lives.  One of those visits was extra special as we had a class field trip from a Mennonite school.  14 children came from to see the facility, meet the children and learn about the ministry and how we run things on a daily basis.  We had a great time with our special visitors and it was neat to see the impact it had on their lives.

Sanchez Vacation…Somehow in June, Jackie, Antu and I were able to cram in a much needed vacation.  We headed up to Bear Lake, in Garden City Utah for our family reunion.  A year ago or so, my siblings and I started talking about how it was probably time to start having our own family reunions.  Since all five of us are married and have kids, we figured it would be good to get together, since it had been over 3 years since the last time.

So, in one giant house, 27 of us (parents, grandparents, spouses and kids) gathered for a week of laughs, world cup, coffee, stories, milkshakes, swimming, badminton, hot tubing, late nights, a bit of fighting and a wonderful time of being together.

Update On Children…Speaking of children, they are all doing great.  We are continual blessed to have the opportunity to invest in the lives of Erasmo, Luis, Jorge and Sandra and watch them learn, grow and desire to know more about God.  Everyone is healthy and doing well.  Of course, now that we are at the end of the school year, there is a lot more time on their hands which can lead to boredom, fighting and mischievous actions.  However, we are keeping them busy with new things they’ve never experienced before.  One of those was swimming.  Aside from Erasmo, I don’t think the other children had ever been swimming before, so this was quite the adventure.  The 3 younger ones were very nervous and skeptical, but quickly saw how much fun everyone else was having and they soon joined in.  The Mennonite pool that we took them to has a large swimming area and then a kiddie pool.  It was a blast starting to teach the children how to swim.  Now that they have experienced it and spent over 3 hours in the water, they ask us almost every day, “when are we going swimming again?”

We also had the chance to take them to the circus.  This is something NON of the children had experienced and was an amazing time.  I was very impressed with the circus although its a lot different then circus' in the states.  I think by the pictures, you will see what I mean!

My nephew Coleman VS the bear...

Another Mission Trip…I’m actually up in El Paso right now, waiting to bring our next missions team down for a week long trip.  Nine brothers and sisters from Immanuel Christian School and Horizon Christian Fellowship, along with my niece, Lucy, from Nashville Tennessee, will be assisting us with a VBS, more cement work, basketball outreach AND, teaching the children.  4 of the 9 team members are teachers and each of them have planned exciting lesson plans to help the kids learn and discover new things.  I’m personally excited for the science experiments and things we will either be destroying or creating.  Please pray for safe travels today as well as a fruitful and productive week.

Golf Tournament…We will be taking the team back next Friday, and then I will be on a plane flying up to Washington for our churches “Golf Invitational.”  Each summer, South Hill Calvary hosts a golf tournament that benefits different non-profit organizations and this will be the 2nd year, the tournament proceeds will support Casa de Bendicion.

I would love to personally invite any and all of you to be involved in this.  Whether you would like to put together a team and play, sponsor a hole, or just pray for this event, we’d love to have you join us.   We are praying that we raise enough money to buy a 15 passenger van, which we are greatly in need of for the orphanage.

I'm so excited that I get to fly home and be a part of it.  While i’m in Seattle, I will also have the opportunity to teach at a few churches and lead worship as well.  Looking forward to a wonderful week.   Please pray and consider being apart of this exciting and fun filled day on Saturday, July 26th.  I have included a link to the website where you can read more information, find out details and even get registered, if you would like to play in it.  Please don't hesitate to contact me if you need any assistance, or call the church office, 253.841-5680.  Thank you so much and I hope to see a lot of you on Saturday, the 26th.

www.southhillcalvary.org/golf

Prayer Request…One more thing to share with you all.  Back in January, when the state DIF, visited our facility and approved the orphanage to receive children, they requested a number of things.  One of those, was a security/perimeter fence, around the building.  Because our property is so large and open, they wanted to ensure the safety of both the children and the staff.

We spent months and months trying to figure out how we are going to build this 1,000 foot long, 8 feet high, fence, find people to come out and build it, as well as have enough funds to make the project happen.  4 months have passed and it is time to take a step of faith and start building.  We found some Mennonites who agreed to build it and they started last week.  The fence is looking wonderful and the project is going extremely fast.  We are trusting the Lord and His faithfulness, that as we continue to build, He will provide the finances for the project.

For those of you who continually ask for different ways to be involved, both prayerfully AND financially, we’ve thought of a way.  The biggest expense to the project is cement.  We have gone through some 300 sacks of cement thus far and need about 100 more.  Each sack costs about $8.  If the Lord stirs upon your heart to want to help, you could purchase a sack or multiple sacks of cement.  Please email me or contact me and let me know and we can arrange that for you.  If you’d like to write a check and send it you our church office in Puyallup WA, please make the check out to “House of Blessing” and earmark it “fence project”.  If you’d like to donate through paypal, via our website, please make note its for the “fence project”.

Well, I told you there was a lot that has happened…and there are more exciting things to come.  Thank you for your continual prayers, encouragement and financial support.

“Greater things have yet to come and greater things are still to be done in Mexico" (God Of This City - Chris Tomlin).