Siempre Update 2.7.09

Central Community Christian Fellowship

The Value of Siempre in 2009

This Week at Siempre

Dear Friend of Siempre,

Every Single Wednesday

Children wait for us... we pull up and they run out to the truck and wash over us... an unstoppable force of love. Doesn't seem to matter how long the drive down took, if the price of gas was high or low, if every seat in the truck is full or if there're just a few of us... We all look forward to Wednesday afternoons and the first few minutes of each week are a bit of a homecoming. Children gather around the back of the truck waiting to help haul in whatever treasures might spill into their waiting hands. Tom's been bringing fresh oranges from trees on his property. Hundreds of beautiful navels- a real treat for everyone. Recently, Becky brought several dozen doughnuts as well...everything had shifted on the drive down and when I opened the hatch a hundred pounds of Riverside's best navels exploded out nearly crushing the doughnuts. You would have thought my car was a pinata. Children squealed, laughing and jumping, snatching up oranges while doing their best to save the pretty pink boxes of doughnuts. In a flash- everything was put back in cases, rushed away to the kitchen or up into a waiting mouth. Mario, a pretty serious 7 year old, and I were left standing in shock. Speaking rapidly, bending down, he grabbed a doughnut off the ground, examined it carefully and threw it into the field. Smiling, proud of himself, looking up for approval, he simply said: "Basura!" (trash) I was laughing inside- he'd done his best to wipe it off but it was a "crumb" doughnut... and all that "dirt" just wouldn't clean up enough to make it past his personal 5 second rule. Every single Wednesday is made up of small moments that touch us in a hundred ways. Every single week we go down it seems we get one more reason to go down again.

Light in the darkness

Hope through their heart break. Every child come's to Siempre because of some combination of death, tragedy, loss, abandonment, desperation, poverty and pain. That's Daniella and her little brother Ricardo in the picture. Their mom left them with us when Ricardo was just an infant... over 4 years ago. A single mom, fighting to survive, she saw no way to keep her kids and we opened our arms. Daniella and Ricardo have been such a blessing to love and know. Their mom, in her early 20's, was brutally murdered last month. Everyone at Siempre had come to know and love her. Some children are left at our doorstep- papers are signed -and no one ever visits again. Leticia, their mom, visited at least once a month. It broke her heart not to have her kids... but she was thankful for Siempre. She has living siblings, even a mother... she didn't trust them with her children... their stories are interwoven with so much of the violence that's held Tijuana captive for the last year. Her death hit the entire household in the gut. Every child at Siempre dreams that someday their mom or dad will come for them... that a different life is waiting. When our leaders told the kids- leaving out the violence -that their mom was dead... that she hadn't forgotten them, but she couldn't visit anymore... it was as if they'd been abandoned for a second time. Little Daniella, just 7, said: "First my dad died, now it's my mom. I'm all alone." Alone, in Spanish it's a simple word we all know: "solo." Daniella cried as if she'd been abandoned on life's stage... solo... alone. Wrapping Daniella richly in arms of love, wiping her tears, holding her face, Vanessa, Pastor Israel's wife, an integral part of Siempre told Daniella: "You're not alone. You have your brother Ricardo who needs you. You have Jesus who loves you. And you have your brother's and sister's at Siempre... your siempre family who will always be here for you." The next day, little Ricardo was waiting for me when we arrived, running to the car, hugging me, talking full speed, Pastor Israel translated his 4 year old thoughts: "My mom's gone to Heaven. She's with Jesus. Someday we'll all be with Jesus. Until then I have my family at Siempre." Daniella wanted me to sit with her, where I hugged her, told her how sorry we were, how much we loved her and Ricardo. Reaching out to Brenda, just 10, Daniella smiled at me and said: "We're sisters. This is my "Siempre" family" I hugged them both and they ran off together to play.

Light in the darkness. Think this is one of the reasons I haven't written an update this month... it's a story I haven't wanted to tell... but silence doesn't make their pain any less real or the need for thousands of children just like Daniella and Ricardo all across Tijuana any less urgent. Our siempre family. Keep each of them- our leaders and our children -in your prayers. Hearts are still very heavy and wounds that won't heal have been ripped open as every child has considered the reason they're at Siempre and wondered about their own family member who never visits. Your loving prayers mean so much. And pray also for us... holding those heart broken children I remembered the first time I stood on that piece of dirt, thought back on the night God placed siempre firmly in my heart, reflected on all the good people- so many of you who have given so much to get us to this day - and quietly thought to myself: "What a mighty God we serve." He knew these moments were out ahead and placed the vision in our hearts, the will to work in our spirits, guided our feet to our little community and continues to make a path for healing - Light in the darkness -where one would never expect to find it. He's too good. May He hold Leticia safely in The Palm of His Hands for all eternity.

Watching each child grow up has been a blessing. Kid's like Fabian, in the little picture on the left and Lupita, in the big photo at the top of the page, have captured the hearts of hundreds of our friends. They're so full of life, love and energy... and they're growing up so well. Our older kids, like Karla, Cinthia and Neftali and others, live out such a wonderful witness of what it takes to succeed in school while leading in the church youth group and helping out with responsibilities around Siempre. They've grown up to be examples the younger ones can look up to and follow if they'd like to find success in their own lives. Each of them have needed the love and support of their Siempre family to do more than just survive but to succeed and show the way for their little "brother's and sister's" who are following in their footsteps. But what if a child never even makes it through our doors? How will little one's, the youngest of children abandoned in poverty- babies -survive, much less ever discover the joys of family and success if we don't open the doors of Siempre Para Los Ninos even wider?

"She was on her own. She could barely figure out how to support herself. A baby was out of the question. Maybe she hoped for a miscarriage. Maybe for a miracle. Her baby was found crying in the waste of a portable toilet in the lettuce field..." (from the San Francisco Chronicle)

The worldwide recession that's costing people's jobs and forcing families out of their homes in the US is profoundly impacting people across Mexico and much of the developing world. Tijuana's social services are overwhelmed with abandoned babies... little children who'll have no hope to see the ages of 4, 7 or 15 without good people stepping in to help. For every child abandoned into the arms of DIF, Mexico's version of Child Protective Services, only God knows how many others are dispatched of in a dumpster, left in a porta potti or set in a shoe box on a door step- a mother who felt like she could offer nothing to the child -running off in tears... praying for someone to rescue her child. Siempre has begun our work to establish a Safe Surrender program. New staff members have been hired- another is on the way. A room is being set up as our first nursery and plans are in the work for our Memorial Day project to be focused on a new building for Siempre's newest family members- those who are being dumped into darkness today... God's blessed us as we've opened our arms and our doors and I know He'll protect and guide us as we take this new step of faith to see that no mother in Tijuana or the surrounding regions feels the need to leave the life of her unborn child to chance... or even worse. Wednesday morning we meet with DIF officials in Tijuana to seek their guidance. The government in Mexico has changed adoption laws- changing the waiting period from 2 years to just 3 months, (for Mexican citizens), in order to do all they can to rescue these babies... even still they can't shelter them all. Siempre can continue to be a solution- we're always for the children. Pray for us as we continue to work together to bring hope and healing to children abandoned into hopelessness. This is our invitation to reach out one more time, in love, and lift up children who would be lost, forever... without us. Every infant deserves the opportunity to live- help us extend the hope of life through our family of hope at Siempre Para Los Ninos.

Siempre Para Los Ninos

phone: 1.951.689.5806