 |
|||
|
|||
 |
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||
That's Aida, on her 14th birthday. Aida
was the first girl to come to Siempre and she's grown
up with us. Those of you that have been part of our
work from the start have grown to know and love her-
she's a fantastic young woman and we're very proud
of who she is and who she's yet to be. Aida can be
kind of quiet and when the younger kids get all the
attention- or with Karla's 15th birthday coming up and
all the planning going into that HUGE celebration, it
would be easy for Aida to withdraw back into the shy
girl she was when she arrived. Instead, she seems to
be loving life, embracing the growth of Siempre and
celebrating Karla's coming party. So it made it a
double joy to celebrate her big day on Wednesday.
The cake was beautiful and Debi had picked out a very
cool Roxy sweatshirt for her that she loved. What fun
watching the kids grow up.
A compelling vision... something that
draws us in and won't let us go. It's easy to forget that
parenting, at it's best, is a compelling vision of loving
and raising our children up to live out their complete
purpose in Christ. Not just to drop in and out of their
lives but to be there for the big days- the good and bad
ones- and to love them through to maturity... to the day
when they can see and embrace a wonderful reason
for living, to experience and share their
own "compelling vision." It begins with the basics:
shelter, food, love, education and continues as we
build a relationship that gives us a voice in their lives-
someone they'll trust - someone they can turn to.
Because of you, the kids of Siempre are stepping
beyond the basics of daily survival and are beginning
to experience the fullness of life with hope- soon they'll
begin to believe that God has a plan, purpose and
vision for their lives and they'll pursue it into adult
hood. Look closely and you can see it in Aida's eyes:
joy, confidence, hope... the beginnings of a great life.
Thanks so much for loving and supporting the
children and teens of Siempre Para Los Ninos.
Together, we're building hope.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||
You must think we're crazy... to
celebrate putting in kitchen cabinets and to put photos
of them in the update. But those cabinets represent
one more step towards completion. We'd just about
run out of money- the guy who'd said he'd build all the
cabinets for one price, doubled it- and we didn't have
the cash. Forced to do what we do best- we got
creative- found these cabinets at an amazingly good
price- less then anything we'd been bid - and that's for
both kitchens, then Ken took Wednesday to install
them all. If you want to see how the kitchen in Israel's
house looks, check out the video at: http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?
vid=628785 or if it will play in your email program,
just double click on the following frame:
Home- Siempre's old dining hall- really
the front room-
will now become a front room. Soon- not long now,
the kids and staff of Siempre will be able to eat
together in the new dining hall. Again, there's more
work to do: Ken's taking down a crew this Saturday,
June 9th, if you'd like to help. But once we're done, the
dining hall and kitchen will easily sit forty kids and staff
at the same time in a family setting. I imagine lots of
laughter, singing, noise and fun in the young lives of
kids who've already known too many tears, too much
heartbreak and not enough joy. It's a gift- the
opportunity to share in all that's happening at Siempre
Para Los Ninos -I hope you'll join me for the long
haul. This isn't about a day, or a weekend, or even a
year- it's about dozens of young lives who represent
millions of children around the world who need help.
We can't reach every child- we can change the lives of
these kids forever. Thanks so much for joining me in
doing what we can, while we can. God is too good.
|
||
|
|
|
|
The People of Central Community, Siempre's founding church, have been faithful to lift up the work of Siempre from day 1. It's such a blessing to share the work with so many other churches, ministries and groups... You each mean so much to our children. But as Pastor of Central Community, just wanted to take this minute to acknowledge these wonderful people and say thanks one more time. Thanks. Without your leadership, Siempre would never be where it is today. Why not join us Sunday afternoon and noon, in Central Community's park, for our 20th all church picnic? I promise, you'll have a great time, your kids will have a blast and at the end of the day you'll know why we feel so blessed to work with such wonderful people. May He richly bless you wherever you worship. Thanks so much for your part in our great work together to love and lift up the kids of Siempre- they need us, now, more than ever. Remember: Siempre always accepts donations of used cars, trucks, vans, etc... Before you take next to nothing on that trade in or let it sit another day without being used, give me a call- we give full IRS allowable deductions and we'll put the car to work with our kids.
siempre,
 Eric Denton
Siempre Para Los Ninos
email:
eric@siemprekids.org
phone:
1-951-689-5806
|
|
