I know there have been a lot of changes recently here in the ministry here in Guadalajara as Tania and I feel called to start an orphanage as we branch off from the youth program that the Enfoque Ciudad team is starting.
Thank you for your encouragement in this transition.
Thank you for your generous financial support.
Thank you for your prayers.
Thank you for believing in this vision to start an orphanage.
Thank you for taking the time to read these blog updates.
There are a lot of different ministries and organizations to support and follow. There are other organizations that have over 100 staff. They have been together for over 10+ years. They have hi-tech websites. Thank you for choosing to support us. We're not a big ministry. In fact we're quite the opposite- we are a team of 2. We don't have hi-tech websites. I'm not the best with my words or at expressing the vision. We're not great and amazing people.
But I can tell you one thing: we desire to be faithful to what God has called us to do-start an orphanage in Guadalajara, Mexico.
I wish I could give you a time-frame and a list of definite answers, but I can't. I don't know fully what it is going to look like or when. But in the meantime we will remain faithful in serving at Kids in Victory Orphanage. We are also participating in an outreach in El Humedo for a very impoverished community of children Saturday afternoons. Tania and I plan to start a class on Saturday mornings for the kids who don't go to school and don't know how to read. As teachers with an organization (INEA) we can teach them and they can earn their elementary and middle school degrees. As we reach out to these communities, we will continue to make connections and contacts here in Mexico to start the orphanage.
A couple of weeks ago we moved to a new house in a safer neighborhood, because unfortunately the old neighborhood has gotten pretty dangerous with a lot of robberies, car thefts, assaults, shootings, etc. Unfortunately that meant moving farther away from the Kids in Victory Orphanage. We still go quite regularly to the orphanage, but for the few days while we moved and got settled into the apartment we didn't get the chance to visit the kids. A few days later we went to the orphanage and were greeted by a million hugs and kisses from the kids. We had previously told the kids that we were going to move, so they understood why we hadn't come in a few days.
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| Coby |
I asked him, "Coby what happened?".
He said in broken Spanish, "You no go home on airplane?"
He thought I was going back "home" to the US forever. It broke my heart. In these kids' lives so many people come and go. They are used to being abandoned and left alone. This is one of the reasons we want to start an orphanage. We want to give these kids stability where they know they are safe and loved in a family. We want to show them through our actions that God is a loving God who does not give up on us. The Jesus Storybook Bible puts is so well:
"You see, Jesus was showing people that God would always love them-with a Never Stopping, Never Giving Up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love.
So they didn't need to hide anymore, or be afraid, or ashamed. They could stop running away from God. And they could run to him instead. As a little child runs into her daddy's arms."The beauty of that quote above is that it doesn't just apply to the orphan kids. It applies to us as well. God's love for us never stops. It is not based on what we do or say. We need not hide or be afraid or be ashamed. We can trust Him and rest in His love and grace.
