June 2022 Newsletter
Philippians 1:4-5 In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.
Greetings!
Well, as you all know and have experienced, summer is here and in full swing. We had the opportunity to host the First Reformed Church Youth Group from Sioux Falls for a week. While they were here, we had the pleasure of doing service projects for a couple of the local feeding centers we have worked with over the years. At Cristina’s, we remodeled the Sunday school room by adding a new ceiling, fresh paint, and storage shelves for all of her supplies. The dining room received a coat of fresh paint. The dining tables were repaired and painted, along with the whole dining room cleaned and ready for the kids.
The last part of the week, we moved over to Sylvia’s feeding center. The bathrooms received new toilets and sinks, plus a paint job.The kitchen and dining room were totally transformed. The youth cleaned the kitchen, added a fresh coat of paint, and also organized the place to perfection. The dining room was painted, scrubbed, and prepared for the kids to be fed after school.
We worked for four days and then spent Sunday afternoon at the pool with some of the local families. It was a great week of serving and helping the two centers start the summer season with what looked like brand new facilities. THANK YOU First Reformed youth and your leaders for spending a week with us, and making life a lot easier for our friends in Mexico to serve the kids. All this was made possible by the youth group, raising funds for global missions. A tip of the hat to you all. AMAZING!!
On the last night of the trip before our 2 A.M wake up call, we had a delicious dinner made by our two friends, Memo and Jorge. These two sure know how to please a crowd with their tacos! We also had the honor to have our friends Reuben and Cristina join us, and share their testimonies. Cristina shared that she has never met her parents. She doesn't even know for sure when she was born. She shared how she has changed her last name a couple times because she never knew her real name. But through all the adversity in her life, she serves the Lord with gladness. They both spent time in prison on drug charges, and met the Lord in prison and each other. They committed their life to serving wherever God would call them. They both were released from prison, Reuben serving 8 years of a 20 year sentence for driving a semi loaded with drugs across a checkpoint. He was arrested after being searched. This was totally a God thing to be released from a Mexican prison that early, but God had other plans.They started their ministry under a tree, teaching and helping the families that worked in the local landfill. They now have a church and a feeding center that God has blessed them with. As they struggle to keep it all running on Reuben’s meager salary as a mechanic, they are doing much better, thanks to supporters who can see their vision and step alongside to help them. It was a great evening to end the week. Then it was off to bed for a 2:00 A.M wake up call.
However, yesterday we received some devastating news from Cristina. While she was at the landfill serving the workers in the morning, someone jumped the fence, destroyed the refrigerator, stoves, and turned the water on and flooded the feeding center. This is so heartbreaking, as the work she does there is so important to the many children she ministers to every day. Please keep Cristina, Reuben, and their ministry in your prayers. If you would like to donate to help get her feeding center up and running again, please mail your donations to: Casa Homes of Hope, PO Box 4671, Yuma, AZ 85365 or donate through our website at: christiansinmexico.org.
Our summer has been filled with a couple projects…adding a roof to a family's home, and drywalling and finishing a ceiling at Sylvia’s feeding center.
We continue to raise support for our Casa Student Education program. The students are doing extremely well. Some of our graduates this year are working in their profession they studied for. Others have decided to move on and pursue more education. This is a huge blessing to see these young adults fulfill their dreams. It also brings challenges as to how to pay for the higher tuition costs for higher education. As always, God has been faithful in the past and will continue to be in the future. Over the 12 years ministering to these students, we have always told them to reach for their dreams and goals…don't let anything hold you back. They took every word to heart to pursue who they want to be. Along with fulfilling their dreams, we are watching the cycle of poverty that has plagued their families for generations, being broken. Honestly, we are seeing parents taking a more aggressive role in their family after watching their children pursue their dreams. It has become a win-win situation for all. PLEASE keep us in your prayers as we continue to raise funds for our education program.
After two years away from fundraising, Kelly and I have purchased tickets for a trip back to the Midwest in July. We are looking forward to our time with friends and family. We will be sharing at several places while we are there. We would love to share with anyone who might like to get involved or would like to learn more about what we do. If you have ever desired to send a group from your family, church, or just a group of friends on a mission trip, we would gladly meet with you and share some details. Just contact us and we will make time to meet with you.
Prayer requests:
- Funds for another year of operation
- Ability to meet our budget this year for the students
- Faithfulness that Kelly and I will listen to what the Lord will have us do
- Direction
Love,
Curt and Kelly Van Ekeren