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We are planning a basic outreach and getting to know you in the Km. 33 community this Christmas!
We have already found a handful of volunteers and an industrial two oven kitchen that will all help this project along! Many of the folks in the community don’t bake. Mexican culture is one that doesn’t bake. If someone wants a cookie or sweet bread, they go to the bakery down the street. Km. 33 has no bakery. Most of the folks in this community would be able to afford the treat anyway.
Growing up, this is something my folks always did. They would make home baked sweet bread and give it away as gifts!! My family worked in a different area of Mexico, and with a different social and economic group, but homemade bread speaks to anyone!!!
We went to the community “Kilometro 33″ and visited with the Renteria family. Esmeralda, the girls, and i (kenny) arrived a little early to help get things ready for 30 people to show up. It’s hard to have people just drop in unannounced, especially 30 or more!!
The Renteria’s were caught off gaurd, but there was a sense of excitement as Patty tried to finish some of her tasks before the group arrived and Jesus, her husband, talked about how great it is that believers could gather together anywhere.
Once the group arrived, we had a time of singing and testimonies. We set up an area outside and put Mr. Renteria in a wheelchair and brought him out! He seemed to really enjoy the singing and the testimonies. One of the team members encouraged him to remember that God loves him and that He is teaching him through these trials.
The kids had a good time as well…
I just wanted to ask you all to pray for the Renteria family. This is the family that we have been meeting with on a weekly basis. Mark received a phone call today from Paty Renteria telling him that Lluvia Renteria (age 6) was in the hospital. Mark and I went right away to visit the family. It seems like lluvia was playing outside when a ladder or set of stairs (lost in translation) fell on her abdomen. This happened almost a week ago and it took the family 3 days to find a hospital that would tend to her needs. It is always a little hard to tell exactly what is wrong without hearing it first hand from the doctors, but what the family was able to communicate to us was that she was bleeding internally and had at least bruised her kidney. She had surgery Friday night and is still in recovery. Tomorrow Mark and I are going to spend the day with the family at the hospital. Please keep this family in your prayers!! Paty's husband Chuy also lost his mother this same week to a heart attack. We hope to be an encouragement to them and a source of comfort as they work through these difficult times. Pray with us that they would find thr true source of strength and hope! We will write more about the Renteria family in our coming update and tell you how things are going!
Saludos a todos!!
Through the eyes of the world, Cd. Juarez is a land of inopportunity. It is a hopeless desert painted with sands of corruption, prostitution, drug abuse, and death.
Many Mexican families come to Cd. Juarez with hopes of a better life. Promises of job opportunities are devastated by a work force saturated with uneducated and ill prepared men and women scrounging for temporary and miniscule employment. Minimum wage is $5.00 per day and a meal at the local Burger King will still cost around $4.00
It has been said that 8 out of ten families are run by at least one alcoholic parent. More than 50% of the population is under 18 years old. Catholicism is the majority religion, but humanism is the philosophical Band-Aid of choice.
In a land where one is bitten by the hand that feeds, corruption rules, and deception is considered normal behavior, the only hope is Christ.
We, Mark & Perla Livengood and Ken & Esmeralda Hanna, have felt the Lord tugging at our hearts to minister to the Mexican people sharing the Gospel in different facets of everyday life. We are in the process of starting a ministry called Onnemi International Ministries.
We want to share our plans, hopes, and dreams with you. Our prayer is that God would show you how you too can help share Christ with the people of Cd. Juarez.
