Our Saturday Morning

I love the sunrise and as it was rose I was able to sort the womens clothes, of which I am still doing! 

One the sun was up Paulino was able to work on our new wall of what we thought was going to be our community kitchen! Please be praying for this because it appears God may have plans of which we knew not nor consider ourselves worthy of! 

While our kids sleep others do not! Wonderful women come and get clothes for their families not only is it hard to find clothes for some sizes, what we can find can help them to use the money to buy food for their families.

Ezekiel was blessed with a new pair of shoes that will grow with his feet, His older sisters and brothers tried to fit some on their feet but they were too small!

We get water every three days to our town and the young men were happy to come and water their soccer field. Please pray that all the teams that come from near and far will receive Jesus! 

This is a huge praise report. This mother brought her three girls and their kids for clothes and shoes! When he mother was a live she was our local witch and NO ONE in her family was allowed here! Although they would sneak at times! 

We were also able to bless them with food for each family! You can see one of the withches grandaughters is still afraid she is holding her baby up in front of her face and sent her little sister to the store with her son they were not in the photo! God sets the captives free! 

Please pray for Armando out of the 14 men who lived at the dump when we started loving on them 6 years ago he and Jose are the only ones still there. Pedro died there! Armando did come out for a while and Paulino taught him how to lay brick so he could get a good paying job and he stayed clean for a while! But without Jesus it is useless! 

Jose also came with Armando to get his hair cut, he is very shy and so we did not take pictures of him, you will see we have very few photos of him. I praise God I was able to serve them a plate of hot beans and rice with fresh warm tortillas!

Rigo also came in the morning for blankets, he is NO LONGER LIVING IN THE DUMP! Without drugs you realize how cold it is here in the nights! He was happy to have some hot food and we can send him home with rice and beans to cook at his own place. 

We could not do this without your prayers and financial support! Crossing the border for me is almost impossible. We were low on beans and had no rice and no money! We were almost completly out of clothes! For us now that Gianna is in Kindergarden, and for our neighbors school uniforms and supplies use up a lot of cash. 

So receiving two 100 bags of rice from Least of These, and clothes donations even from local people has opened the doors to people we have never blessed! 

Please pray for that wall the north wall of our new addition to our ministry property, and pray for a shower and dressing room as we plan to build our clothing room in the front of our house! 

Please pray for our family Paulino, Christina, Jose and Gianna! And my inlaws! 

Praise God with us for each person who gives and prays for Cruz Alegre Camalu! So many are going through HUGE things right NOW! 

Psalm 113The Message (MSG)

113 1-3 Hallelujah!
You who serve God, praise God!
    Just to speak his name is praise!
Just to remember God is a blessing—
    now and tomorrow and always.
From east to west, from dawn to dusk,
    keep lifting all your praises to God!

4-9 God is higher than anything and anyone,
    outshining everything you can see in the skies.
Who can compare with God, our God,
    so majestically enthroned,
Surveying his magnificent
    heavens and earth?
He picks up the poor from out of the dirt,
    rescues the wretched who’ve been thrown out with the trash,
Seats them among the honored guests,
    a place of honor among the brightest and best.
He gives childless couples a family,
    gives them joy as the parents of children.
Hallelujah!

Band Aid or Key?

Is the only way to free someone from drugs a personal relationship with Jesus?
Yes! Freedom only comes from walking in Truth!
Is the only way to end poverty is having a personal relationship with Jesus?
Yes! Poverty is more spiritual than physical!
Is it worth it to feed 30 plates of food for just one soul!
Yes!
Is it worth it to give 100 large bags of food!
Yes!
Although it may seem like we are putting a band aid on a very bad wound, I believe we are actually using the key we have to unlock doors to very hard to open closets!

Thursday was a very interesting day for us. Starting with a visit from some ministry friends who want to find a permanent solution to helping get the men off drugs and out of the dumps! Then Paulino took a Canadian group to both dumps while I took his sister and a car load of family to the cemetery to place the crosses on this last day of their 10 days of rosarys.
The group then came back to our place and played soccer and hung with our youth. Later they gave away 100 bags of food! 2 of which Paulino took personally to senior citizens who could not walk over to our house and one we took across town today to a family with a 33 year old disabled son whose mom just had her foot cut off! You never know who Facebook will connect you with!
We had given away 96 bags and were just getting ready to pray in the house when someone came over. It was an addict whose son we are thinking is also becoming an addict. Well the father never comes over or talks to us about anything! HOWEVER he really needed food and so he came to ask for a bag of food! Paulino was able to share the love of Jesus with him before blessing him with the bag of food.

Those plates of cooked food that we have been giving out at the dumps for the past 6 years if we added it all up compared to those we know are serving and loving Jesus! Would it balance out? Well only God knows and our reward is in Heaven but when I show you the photo of Paulino praying with two people both former addicts Paulino has known for years and I met at the trash dump!
Yep it is all worth it and shows me that in this desert ministry that may seem dry just like the cactus fruit it is sticky but sweet inside!

If you met these 3 on the streets you would have never thought they would be here praying for deliverance for someone else! 

Flaka at the dump eating her plate of food! 

We can not longer call her Flaka (skinny) now she is Hermana Lydia! 

Praying over her and her grandson on their way south to serve Jesus. She just came to put her daughter in a locked in rehab! 

I must say I was a little concerned since we had not seen her for two and a half years! Had no idea she had left this dump gone to one further south and was now loving Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, until one day she came to my house to give testimony that our prayers had been answered! 

When we were in shock she said, why are you surprised at what God can do?

Psalm 113:7

He lifts the poor from the dust and the needy from the garbage dump.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words! However I have decided not to write a blog today but to steal a post from a youth that accompanied a group to the dump. He lives here so it is in Spanish sorry that Google did not do the greatest job on translating! 

Hi.

I just wanted to share something very interesting and sad at the same time.

I hope I do not offend anyone.

This morning I woke up covered with a blanket, a pillow, and a comfy bed!

I got up, I bathed and had breakfast.

Everything as simple as always,

Only in a "camp"

Where we construct "homes" for those who need it!

Anyway.

The point is that after you have finished with EVERYTHING! With everything that is home,

We accompany some people that every month end, take food to the people who work in the garbage dumps.

And I want to ask you a question ...

Have you noticed how lucky you are?

Have you noticed that you can wake up in a bed, a roof over your head, clothes, shoes, drinking water and food at your table every day?

Have you noticed that?

And yes, you better not have the most expensive clothes, a house of thousands of pesos, some original tennis, the iphone 7.

But ... I'm sure many would kill to have what you own!

Do you know what these people do in the garbage dumps?

Every morning they wake up or go to work, with a strong smell of burnt things (bottles, cartons, wood, and all kinds of garbage), withstand strong heat, and most do not have easy access to drinking water or food.

These people have a difficult life, while you are reading this, in the comfort of your bed or armchair they will have finished a long day of work withstand strong heat, suffering from severe cuts through all glass bottles and possibly sleeping with the stomach empty. (I.e.

I do not want to lengthen this much more.

I just want you to keep in mind and reflect on everything you have and to have that great blessing of having more than what you need. (I.e.

Goodnight!

I'll leave you some photos.

Stolen from Yony Rodriguez facebook page. Youth so see things we do not! 

Lydia

Loving

Yielding

Devoted

Intense

Abiding!

Crying as I write this amazing story! I tried to look at my facebook and find a before picture from 5 years ago and from 3 years ago! But God in His infinite wisdom did not allow it and does not look at our past but holds our today in His hand! 

This amazing woman of God is saved and healed and telling everyone she meets about it! Her whole person radiates Jesus inside and out! She loves Him and well as you know He is crazy about her! I was able to spend the afternoon with her the other day and as she says, why are you surpirsed, did you expect anything less from your prayers! Do you think God did not hear you! 

Although she and Paulino have been friends for years when I met her in the trash dump over 5 years ago I connected with her instantly. She later told me how she had come back from Chicago after her divorce and fell into the life that lead her to be called Flaka which meant skinny. Over 3 years ago when we first moved the trailer near my mother in laws she heard we were leaving and came crying no Jesus needs you in Camalu! She was so elated when I told her we were actually moving here! However I only seen her a few times after that! Later on I was told she was serving God and converted into one of us! 

I praise God there is a church two hours south of here that goes into the trash dump and loves on the people and invites them to come as they are into their church! One day we will go there and say thank you! But their reward is in Heaven as it is for all of those of you who have prayed for her and so many others at the dumps! Ministering to addicts is a very dry harvest but GOD!!!! 

 My sheep recognize my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them real and eternal life. They are protected from the Destroyer for good. No one can steal them from out of my hand. The Father who put them under my care is so much greater than the Destroyer and Thief. No one could ever get them away from him. I and the Father are one heart and mind.”

They Are Teens Now!!

Please pray for all you see in these old photos they are teens now and need your prayers! 

Yesterday I was talking to Marcos one of our junior high students and it just reminded me that this world is a hard place to live! 

A friend gave reminded me of the verse the other day that the poor you will have with you always. Well I am poor so I guess I will always be here lol. 

I do not care about peoples financial status I care about the poverty of heart. The other day we had a class at our house and the instructor asked me why we do it and then another person asked me how we do it. Both of my responses were Jesus! 

Thank you to all of those who give so that we can see lives changed daily! I know God will bless you because His word says it! Paulino and I laughed the other day when I told him the question HOW it truly is amazing all that we do. Yes we may seem to choose to be poor but it is not our choice but our desire to serve Jesus where ever He sends us. 

2 Corinthians 9 10 Now He who provides seed for the sower and bread for food will provide and multiply your seed for sowing [that is, your resources] and increase the harvest of your righteousness [which shows itself in active goodness, kindness, and love]. 11 You will be enriched in every way so that you may be generous, and this [generosity, administered] through us is producing thanksgiving to God [from those who benefit]. 12 For the ministry of this service (offering) is not only supplying the needs of the saints (God’s people), but is also overflowing through many expressions of thanksgiving to God.

HE IS DEAD!

It has been a week and I have not seen a news story or a post about his death! Yes it happened right where the highway in Camalu is so bad! If you are heading south on the right there is a big tree and sometimes people live under there. The day after the rain there were police and yellow tape and many people watching wondering who was it!
Rumors of who it was or why he died have been said.Some say he was sleeping, others say he had epilepsy!   Who was he really! Someone son! Someone who came to Baja for a better life, leaving his state far behind!
If you have parked anywhere on the highway in Camalu or driven down the highway he was hard to miss. Always had a rag in his hand cleaning cars, the whole car not just windows. He did not talk, he was never dressed nice, and he was always there! NOW HE IS NOT THERE, so I am pretty sure it is true it was him that tall skinny man whose name I do not know.
There are so many others like him or just kids trying to make a few dollars! Will it hurt us to give 5 or 10 pesos. If you do not want them touching your car just say Animo! and hand them the money.
trust me it would take at least 200 people a day giving 5 pesos to each person before they could get rich from washing your windows. The children in Camalu still remember when we brought them burritos on December 1, 2011! How sad is that! They were so thankful to have something to eat! If you do not want to give money keep some extra water bottles in your car or some snack bars or a piece of fruit!
How do I know they will not use it for drugs, most will actually. But what about the one that may change!!! Like my husband, that man could have been him 10 years ago! Before he accepted the love of Jesus, he was that man! He always tells me when we see people like that, I was one step from being that mental! BUT he is not that man today and why is that!
Because people loved him, encouraged him and gave him work, even if it was burying a dead dog, or living in a shack at the Pemex in San Quintin! I always love to see people's faces when they see Paulino for the first time since he was on the streets! Usually it is a double take, then a stop and think, then oh my Chapo is that you! Yesterday a woman told him I am so glad God gave you a second chance! I have heard stories not just from Pemex workers but from the addicts themselves as my husband loves them faithfully everyday. Because of my sons illness my husband can not work, but he is always willing to find the time to give a hand up and not a hand out! He cooks and takes food to the men who live in the trash dump and around our area. He teaches them to lay blocks and make real money so they can leave the lifestyle behind. This week he has been taking clothes to those in Camalu that have been flooded and yesterday he took clothes to those in Zapata, today he will take rice and beans and what ever else he can to Zapata where no one is going!
Do I say this to brag! NO!!! Because usually I do not even brag on my husband since we got married on Nov. 13,2011 it is just what he does, It is who he is!!!!
All of this to say if you on the road or at a gas station and someone wants to wash your windows let them, or just keep some change in your dash and say ANIMO! Remember 20 pesos currently is only $1US! Could it change a life! It did my husbands and now he is changing lives!

Jose's Story

So many people have asked me to write Jose's true story. It would be too long to write in one blog but I will try to post the basics and later let him write his own book.

Jose was born to Sonia and Paulino on April 12,1999 two months early, while Sonia was out working in the fields picking strawberries. After about a month she and Paulino were both using drugs and Paulino thought Jose would be better cared for by his mom Maria. Sonia went to her little adobe rental room and passed Jose through the window. Unknown to Paulino, Sonia had already abandoned her three children. About a year later Sonia had moved to a different town and become pregnant this time she decided to move back to her home state far away.
Paulino would go and visit Jose and bring diapers and such as he was working in the fields also. He would also come to the outreaches near his mom's so he could see Jose there they would hear about Jesus and he could spend time with Jose.  After a while the drugs started to gain more and more power Paulino turned to living on the streets and washing windows or scavenging at the trash dumps to make money to buy drugs.
Jose never went to kindergarten or anything else because his grandma thinks school is a waste of time. Sadly she did not know that around 8 years old Jose would start to fall and not be able to walk. Around this time Paulino was taking to jail for annoying the cops with his presence on the streets. In that very stinky cell he promised God if He got him out he would serve God forever!
Well the week was almost over and Rancho de Cristo said they would receive him!!!! In his time at the rehab center he was able to start the reconciliation process with his mom and his son! Jose had just stopped walking and they took him to the clinic at Cristo Por Su Mundo FFHM, and the doctor examined Jose. On the ride back David asked Paulino, Jose's mother's name, and when he told him, David informed him that he has two half brothers in Mefiboset the special needs school and they all have DMD! Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy is usually passed genetically from the mom to her male children. So the boys have an older sister who does not have the symptoms of DMD, however she can be a carrier.
Jose was blessed to be able to join his brothers at Mefiboset! Papa Kate would pick them up each morning in his big bus and give them the love of Jesus all week long. While they also learned practical things they truly learned about Jesus, prayer, and worshiping! They even danced in their chairs! They were all given little red wheelchairs and pushed around wherever they went.
This is where I met them when I came as a visitor for a week in May of 2010. I moved to the orphanage in August of 2010 I was blessed to be able to spend the whole week going out at 6am on the bus to get them and then taking the home in the evenings! Usually you are sent to do different tasks around the orphanage each day but since my heart fell in love with these boys as soon as I met them and no one else asked for Mefiboset, I was able to go. But that is another blog.
After about a year of living at Rancho, Paulino was giving the opportunity to serve in construction at the orphanage, there he also seen the people that would come near his moms and do outreach!

Paulino would begin to bring Jose to stay with him on the weekends. They would go out and do odd jobs to make money until Paulino was able to buy a truck to take Jose around and get work on the weekends to help to take care of Jose. 

By this time Jose was frequently sick, his family did not feed him much so they did not need to carry him to the bathroom. Also he was looked at as the child of the addict, while his cousins were going to school he would just sit home with his grandma as she babysat kids and washed clothes for a living. Patty and Jenny wanted to help Paulino out during the week until he was finished with his construction duties at 5pm. So Jose was able to live with his dad full time at the orphanage. 

During this same time all the boys had been sick, Javier 16, Feliciano 14 and Jose 12. However Javier got pneumonia and went into hospice care at Dirk and Marys house. He was loved and cared for until he walked into the arms of Jesus! Feliciano had been home for a while saying he did not feel good but everyone thought he just missed his brother! However 4 days after Feliciano was walking into the arms of Jesus and most said Jose was soon to follow. 

On the day of Feliciano's funeral Jose was given his first electric wheelchair! Patty knew all of the boys wanted to drive! Wow this was the saddest day and the happiest day of Jose life! 

Although he was so terrified of the speed and power he quickly got over it!  He became a teenager and a real person. Not dependant on waiting for someone to come and push him where he needed to go. Or understanding him, None of the brothers spoke clearly but Jose still today battles with people understanding him. Especially me!!!  When we moved to Camalu we were not sure we liked him having all that independence, we would look for him and he would be out with his friends playing soccer or over at the ranch looking at the animals. Yep he is a teenager.
When my friends started to bless Jose with vitamins he became healthier and now is able to take multiple supplements and knows what each is for and how many to take. Although he has lost all strength in his body he can take his own vitamins and feed himself, it takes him about an hour to eat one plate of food! We praise God that in this cold wet weather Jose is healthy! He has a cough assist and a Bipap and lots of blankets! 

Jose is very creative and has decided to build a robot to push his wheelchair since it will not run. I am not sure how he is going to do it but Gianna wants to play with her brother and I am sure the two of them together will figure something out.