January News

AMANDA IN MEXICO: JANUARY NEWSLETTER Hello from Chihuahua, Mexico!! What a blessing to be able to share with you once again what God has been doing here! This past week, God has given me an unexplainable peace, as if to say "It's ok. We've got this! I see it all and I'm working through this." The first month back to school was stressful, as I decided to make some changes to our schedule. I wasn't quite sure how to start up again. There's so much need and it's been a struggle to give each student the individual attention and love they so much crave. Praise the Lord, 3 ladies stepped up to the challenge to volunteer 1-2 times a week, helping teach math as well as teaching the kids to sew. What a blessing! The girls have been sewing a lot of blankets with one of our volunteers. They also started learning simple algebra and they LOVED it. They are having a blast! Who knew algebra could bring that much joy. In the month of January, we also had the opportunity to do 2 outreaches, helping clean a local church and spending time with the children at the other school. The students have been working extra hard to prepare a drama and some songs. We are planning 3 more outreaches where they will present the program. The kids are very excited and nervous as we are hoping to do our first outreach this month.  I want to share with you a sweet story about one of our students, Fredy. At the beginning of January, God placed it on my heart that I needed to take special time for Fredy, as he often gets overlooked in the business and chaos of all the activities. Fredy has been struggling a lot with his self esteem and needs a lot of love. One day this past week, Fredy asked me if I could read him the dictionary. In the back pages, there are pictures of animals, planets, flags, etc. So we read about the snake, dolphin, volacanoes, and so on. Then he asked me to read him the flags of all the different countries. There was 4 pages, so to make it more interesting, I'd tell him interesting facts about different countries. For example, when we got to the chinese flag, I told him they practice karate there. When we got to India, I told him about the slums and how some people live there. He became sad and said "I know what I will do. When I grow up, I will go get all the people from the slums in India and bring them to Pakistan, so they can eat rice and not be hungry!" (My "interesting fact" about Pakistan was that they eat a lot of rice there...) We kept reading, and when we got to Iran and Iraq, I told him about how Christians get persecuted there. He knew exactly what he was going to do about that: "Later, I am going to pray to God that the people will stop hurting the Christians and that everyone will become a Christian there!" So I asked him if he would like to pray for them right there. He eagerly agreed. We prayed together for Iran and Iraq. Once we finished, he said, "Now I know God will be with them and help them because now I prayed for them." We kept reading the flags and I told him about the wars in Syria, and he right away asked if we could pray for Syria too. So we prayed again. Every time I think about these little moments, I'm just awestruck. Such childlike faith! And it's not just Fredy, I have these moments with all my students where I'm just like "Wow!". I can't help but think of the verse in Luke 10:21 "At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do."   I guess the other reason it leaves me in awe is because these kids have not grown up in a Christian home, or Christian background. They haven't grown up in church. They don't speak "christian" and their home life isn't anywhere close to ideal. These kids have been hurt and lied to by the devil. They've believed the lie that they are of little worth. The teenagers aren't sure who they really are and are searching for their identity. Even so, they are soaking up everything they learn about God, and just simply believe it. God is Amazing and I am so thankful that He allows me to be part of what He is doing here!  In January I had the opportunity to meet with some of the people of Sixteen13 Ministries. They were excited to partner with the ministry here in Chihuahua. They had a pizza fundraiser this past week, and I was so blessed and encouraged by them and the people that were involved. I know people are praying for me and the ministry, but some days it is easy to get discouraged and lonely. I want to thank you so much for all your prayers and support. I know I couldn't be here without it. I want to share a few specific prayer requests I'd love to have you help me pray over. -Pray for more people to step up to invest in these students, so they can all receive the attention and love they need, especially someone who would invest in the boys.  - Pray for the teachers, that God would give us patience and wisdom to lead. - Pray for the drama, that more people will hear the gospel and find hope in Jesus Christ.  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! God bless!! Amanda Wiebe