Construction teams and materials are needed for the coming year to build the new Children's Home in Tijuana.
Please pray about this opportunity and if God leads you to help in some way, please contact us and we will do all we can to make it happen!
CONSTRUCTION TEAMS URGENTLY NEEDED IN MEXICO
To see photos of the children at the orphanage and updates on the other projects,
check out our website: www.artstoneking.com
The church in Colonia La Puerta
Our wonderful friends at La Hermosa church who work with the boys of the Boys Home, have been reaching out to the 4 communities that were hardest hit. In the 4 weeks since the quake, the church has been providing help to these areas. Even the youth of the church have been involved by selling sodas, etc. to raise funds to buy food to give to the people. We count it a privilege to work hand-in-hand with these wonderful people to provide food, water and clothing to the families that are in the most urgent need
On Easter Sunday, a 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck our area of Mexico. While it was tremendous and lasted for more than a minute, we are thankful to be able to report that there was no real damage to either the Children’s Home in Tijuana or the Boys Home in Mexicali.
Our friends in the valley near Mexicali, however, were not as fortunate as we. In this area, there were 4 churches completely destroyed by the earthquake. All of the areas hardest hit were, of course, the poorer areas. Adobe houses all around the churches had collapsed and families in this area are now living outside in tents or under trees and tarps.
Last week, while visiting some of the devastated areas, we pulled up in front of the little church in Cucapah that had been destroyed. To our surprise, we heard singing. Out under the trees beside the fallen church, was a group of adults and children having a service. It was their regular children’s outreach time, and they were not allowing the lack of a church building to rob them of this opportunity. Even though their once-pretty little church building was destroyed, their ministry to the children of the colonia would not be stopped.
We also heard the testimony of a young girl who described the quake in La Puerta. The earthquake had hit the little adobe and wood building while they were having their Easter Sunday service. At the first tremble, the congregation began rushing outside. As the last person stepped through the doorway to the outside, the building collapsed completely. Not a single person was harmed. We thank God for His protection for these beautiful people.
There is so much to do before the rebuilding can begin. The government has not as yet given permission to clear the rubble from the church site as they continue to assess the situation in the colonias. In at least one of the areas, the government is considering relocating the entire colonia due to its close proximity to the epicenter and the tremendous damage.
Please help us pray. We know that often a disaster will cause people to run to God, and we are grateful that the 4 churches whose buildings were destroyed, have not lost heart and are continuing to minister to the families in their colonias. Help us pray for these families and for direction concerning the rebuilding of these churches and these lives.
We have so much to be thankful for concerning the children here in Tijuana. One of our boys, Jesús Ruben, has been chosen to be the scholastic representative from his school to a state contest in Mexicali. In Tijuana, he earned third place in the city-wide scholastic testing. Now each school in the city is sending one representative to the state testing. We are pretty proud of this little boy and his beautiful, humble attitude. We thank God that when his family abandoned him, God did not. This young man that would probably never have been able to go to school without God’s intervention, is excelling and learning and on his way to becoming a mighty man of God.
While Jesús Ruben has a gift for learning, he is not the only talented child that we have. All of our children have special gifts, all so very different. Of course, not all of them have a special love for school and learning, but they all have very special gifts from God. One of our girls loves to sing, another child has a gift for helping and serving, another is blessed with a spirit of generosity. It is so beautiful to see God working in their lives and honing their many and varied gifts. Each child is a gift from God and He has a special and wonderful plan for each of them. Please help us pray for the beautiful children God has placed in our lives.
