Ready, Set, Go!
Building Excitement
The Promise of a Building
May 17, 2007 - Vol 2, Issue 16
This Week at Siempre
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A Solid Foundation... or a great place to skate!

That's $6,000- worth of grading, block work and foundation in the photo at the right. More importantly, that's where we're putting our building Memorial Day Weekend. It's HUGE! We've got our work cut out for us. I hope you're among the 100 or so builders already registered. We're going to need everyone to get the job done in just two days. If you're not coming because you're worthless with a hammer, remember, we're feeding all these people, including all of Siempre and the entire community for a welcoming fiesta Sunday night- preparation, set up and clean up support is crucial. We're hoping to have a mini baseball camp for the kids Saturday and Sunday afternoon- got a kids glove to donate? You can come and play. Painting, everyone can paint, and we paint everything before we put it up- so we need dozens of people painting Saturday morning. Support and loving security- we don't want anyone getting lost or hurt -we try to make sure that everyone's keeping an eye out on each other, but maybe all you can do is get a chair, sit and watch, shout out encouraging words and keep an eye on everything... we need you. In other words- with just one week to go- Ken kept a few rooms empty for late sign ups. Why not join us for an amazing weekend?

Daniella
That's Daniella in the picture to the right and in the picture above with Christina, Vanessa and Bianca. They're each from a different family. They each came to Siempre alone. Each of them are exactly what the sex trade in TJ, paid for by men crossing from the US, is looking for: young girls, abandoned into poverty, children born in heart break, innocent and desperate for care. Today they're safe in the loving promise of Siempre Para Los Ninos. They live clueless to the dangers that could have so quickly swallowed them alive and robbed all hope of a future and a promise. Today, time and love, do their healing work and God's Grace is using our workers to bring smiles and laughter where once there was only fear and hunger. How much is a rescue mission like that worth? What's the price tag we'd put on their dreams of growing up in the promise of Siempre?

Men will put a price tag on the girls of TJ. Memorial Day weekend the city will be filled. Americans will flock to border towns to party: Mexicali, Tecate, TJ, Rosarito and all the way down to Ensenada people will come from the US to "play." Each city has it's own "district" where most in Mexico will never go... but college students- looking for a weekend off, to lonely people hoping to find a friend, to sexual predators... will move silently among the tourists buying blankets and eating tacos at roadside stands. They don't wear a warning sign- but they find their way- and little girls and boys -pay the price as they're exploited by the wealth spilling across the border. At Siempre, we'll be building. At Siempre, Love will be lifted up. At Siempre, we'll open our arms to families falling apart in desperation and when heart break devastates a household, we'll be ready with open arms to welcome little children in. At Siempre, we're building a solution to the problem that's made TJ a center for the ongoing trade in human flesh. Looking at their faces, realizing how great a rescue has been made, I can't think of anything that would keep me away from Siempre come Memorial Day. We're building new dreams.
Debi and the Girls
That's my wife- Debi- in the middle of it all. When it comes to Wednesday afternoons at TJ, she's #1! She only misses if she's deathly ill and she's helped keep me focused on the task at hand, when other work would pull me away, more times then I could count. Most importantly, she loves and knows each of the kids and they all love her and look forward to seeing her. On the odd week that she has to miss for some reason, I have to answer one question over and over: "Donde esta Debi?" "Where's Debi?"

Ready for every occasion- that could be Debi's life motto. It comes in handy around Siempre. She shops for all the birthday presents, picks up the cakes, checks on how things are going with our workers and brings what they need and at every one of our Memorial Day Weekend Building trips she's helped head up the painting- keeping things moving along with a smile, teaching kids how to paint and having fun all the while. Each week there's a nice picture of her looking beautiful, hanging out with kids- she doesn't like me to put them in- but this week I couldn't resist. She's been an integral part of our work at Siempre and personally, I could have never done my part without her. I'm looking forward to a great Memorial Day Weekend just to watch her at work! She makes it fun. Not always my strong point.
Our Final Group Shot on The Slab
Want to make a difference in a kid's life, forever? At Siempre, they're anxiously awaiting exactly that. Tough time for our workers- praise God Bianca's back from her vacation! Watching the construction right outside their windows. New people on the grounds everyday. The prospect of over 100 visitors for an entire weekend... the kid's are so excited they can barely be contained! For nearly 10 children, this will be their first Memorial Day weekend with us. They've never joined us for dinner at the Marriott, eaten Jean's incredible food, or shared in one of our community wide fiesta's. They've heard the other kids talk about it and tell stories... but for them, it's all brand new. One more adventure in their new lives at Siempre. What fun to be a kid! What a challenging time to be one of our workers. That's not to mention that Pastor Israel and his family are still living in a Sunday School class at the church waiting for us to build their new house! Pray for them all in these final days leading up to the big event.

The building will change the entire community: a multi-purpose room and new kitchen to be used as a dining room big enough to feed all the kids in one place for years to come as well as a meeting place for the church and community. A medical and dental clinic, fully equipped and ready to serve not just the children of Siempre but the surrounding community as well with pre-natal and well baby checks, saving the lives of children living in families who remain in poverty as well as giving life saving medical and dental attention. And on top of it all, literally, on the second floor, a new home for Pastor Israel and his family: it's only fair, we tore his old one down to make room for the new building. But the building will be only a beginning. This work will extend our outreach from Siempre further than it's ever gone. Not to mention that after we've trampled the grounds for a weekend with lumber, etc... all new landscaping and fencing will have to go in. Looking forward: where would we be in life if we stopped looking forward. It's something I pray every child at Siempre learns from these weekends. It's something I pray every builder begins to believe as we work together. Looking forward: I know I am. I hope you'll join me in this great work God has given us to do in TJ.

 

A New Feature! The "Money Button." Had my son John, our local computer whiz create it for me. It's an encrypted link to PayPal. Click on the Money Button and it's as secure as your ATM machine and you can give by debit or credit card directly to Siempre. I'm incorporating it into all my updates. To give those of you that have asked about giving- but your only connection to us is online -a quick and easy way to support our work.

If you'd like to give $5,000- or just $5- to help us complete our building- just click on the button and follow the instructions. I tested it with a $5- gift- just like that it pulled it off my debit card and put it in Siempre's Pay Pal Account. You can also use it to pay for your registration for Memorial Day Weekend- BUT you have to register with us first. We're trying our best to catch up to existing technology in order to rescue kids in need just beyond our doorstep. Give it a try and let me know how it works. Hope to spend the weekend with you!

siempre,

 Pastor Eric and Fabian on a Cold Afternoon
Eric Denton
Siempre Para Los Ninos

phone: 1-951-689-5806

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This email was sent to john@centralcommunity.com, by eric@siemprekids.org

Siempre Para Los Ninos | 5623 Arlington Ave | Riverside | CA | 92504