From the Field Friday: ME-929

The next letter in this series comes from project #929 in Mexico. After reading this letter and how difficult life is there, it's amazing how well my young man, Joel, is doing. He has such big plans for his future. I am so proud of him!

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Dear Kayla, 

I am Victor Manuel Ortiz Cruz, pastor of the First Church of the Nazarene and "Benjamin Child Development Center" where we minister to Joel. 

I send you a cordial greeting. Thank you for being the sponsor of Joel. Thanks to your support, and that of the other sponsors, the children at our center receive a better alimentation, a better education, a place where they can spend time with other children, and agreeable moments with people that know our Lord Jesus. This is a great blessing. 

The community we serve has many difficulties and it is a place with many problems where the children stop studying to start working at an early age. This is really sad. In certain zones, there are problems with drug addiction, vandalism, and prostitution. One of the greatest challenges that we hve as a church is to go and look for the children with the most need in the most marginalized zones of the community, and give them a good education, and above all, ensure that they know the love of Christ. Our job is to transform their lives in Jesus's name. 

Our vision as the church and center is to transform generations and transform lives, through the message of salvation of the Lord Jesus and through a good education with the insertion of excellence principles like love, friendship, and good habits. This is so that in the future they are happy people and a blessing to society. 

Progress is seen in the children from the center in that they are more obedient with their parents. Many have improved their grades, some have moved away from gangs, and above all, we are sowing the seeds of the message of salvation in their hearts. This is all because of the holistic development curriculum of Compassion that works on the children in the spiritual, cognitive, socio-emotional, and physical domains. We feeding the children and providing materially, but spiritually they are also very blessed and with a purpose in life. 

The relationship between you as a sponsor and Joel is extremely important and best fostered through the exchange of letters and photos. It is very important because children admire the people who support them. They want to share their stories and progress with their sponsors, who make them feel proud. When the children receive letters they feel loved and cherished and encouraged at the center, at church, and in their lives. 

Finally, I ask you to pray for this center, so that we start to transform the lives of the majority of the children that attend and that God brings the right people to serve in this ministry. Please pray that all that we do is with the fear of God, that He blesses us greatly and that we can be the one of the child development centers of Compassion in Mexico. 

Thank you for allowing God to use you to support Joel. 

Blessings,

Pastor Victor Manuel Ortiz Cruz

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