Dear Emmanuel Family,
During this Holiday Season we wanted you to know you are really good and beautiful. YOU are changing lives. YOU are showing Gods love by being His hands and feet. YOU, our Emmanuel Family, are a blessing to our Children at Emmanuel, to our staff and to my family, to this hill in this community of Juarez, to this country of Mexico. First we wanted to way Thank you and wish you blessed and Happy Holidays.
Emmanuel Children’s Home is a refuge up on a hill welcoming children who need the love of God in their life urgently. Mario Joo is one of those children who needed God’s love in his life urgently.
Hello. My name is Mario Jo. I am 9 and I go to 3 rd grade at Isaac Newton. My siblings and I are all babies who were born to a mom who used drugs. Living with mom was hard. Many times we went hungry and cold. Many times we were homeless and walked for hours trying to find a place to stay. Life felt hard having a speech disorder, retardation, hunger, cold, and just afraid, a lot of times I felt overwhelmed and confused, there was so much I did not understand around me.
Last year life changed when we found Emmanuel Children’s Home where they took us in. It is a big yellow building on a hill, by a big mountain in our big city of Juarez. I was very nervous; I knew we were there to see if my brothers and I could get help there. It was a new place; it was all new people, strangers, and kids I had never seen. But the smiles on the kids made me curious, and the way the adults welcomed us made me feel a little better.
Each day I feel better and better. Each day I learn new things and conquer new challenges. It is not easy having a speech disorder and partial retardation. But at Emmanuel I am getting a lot of support and the opportunity to know what love feels like. My teachers are working hard with me when I attend speech therapy classes. I also get special assistance at school so I don’t fall behind. I get counseling and therapy with the psychologist here at Emmanuel. I eat great food everyday that nurtures my body and is helping me be healthy. I am in a process of growth, I am in a process of restoration, I am in a process of healing, I know about God’s love, and I am so grateful to be one of the children at Emmanuel.
For a craft project, we grew a plant in our nutri-kids class. I finally got it!!! I was like that plant. I understood that being at Emmanuel I was being cared for like I took care of my plant. That the food I was eating was making me healthier, that I didn’t need to be afraid of feeling cold or sleeping in strange places, that to take a daily shower and brush my teeth every morning was helping me grow, that knowing how to make my own bed and clean after myself are signs that I am growing tall and big, that going to school can be fun and I can learn things.
Every time my teachers and care givers at Emmanuel tell me God loves me, they tell me they love me, they tell me YOU love me, is like rays of sunshine love for me. I can feel myself growing like my plant, and I feel so happy and grateful. Mario Joo has made great progress. He is making his own bed, learning how to express his emotions in a healthier way, but most importantly Mario Joo is happy and healthy. Mario Joo is only one of the 105 stories we have at Emmanuel. Each story filled with pain, and loss and suffering but also filled with love, hope and restoration with their arrival at the Home. It is because of your love and compassion that we can keep the doors of Emmanuel open for children like Mario Joo and his siblings.
Our prayer is that we can stand together, being Jesus hands and feet and help our children find His love and healing. We are in this together. God has used each and every one of you to provide for His children and show them His love. Your financial support gives us the tools to continue to provide a place of refuge and healing for children in need in Cd. Juarez Mexico.
We need your help to continue to provide our children
a warm place during the cold winter month.
Emmanuel has 50 % of their budget already covered by sponsors and churches that donate monthly, they are the backbone of Emmanuel’s financial stability and we are so grateful. But we need to raise the other 50%. This is a great challenge we face being in financial distress time and time again due to this gap that only you and God’s provision can help us close this donation shortage. Receiving the other 50% is how we can continue to provide the care of 105 other children like Mario Joo.
As you consider you end year giving, please think of the children at Emmanuel and how your end of year donation will help cover our winter expenses for gas and electricity to keep our children warm.
I once asked some of our donors, why do you give? I was expecting an answer like “Because I want to obey God and the Bible says so”. But no, the answer was: “ I give because it makes me feel so good!” So I’m asking you… do you want to feel good this Holiday Season, then GIVE! Give with joy and witness the truth of God’s message “It is more blessed to give than receive.” Acts 20:35
With a heart filled with expectation and gratitude,
Betel Lopez
Executive Director
Emmanuel Ministries
P.S. Our children at Emmanuel love toys and gifts during the Holiday Season, but they need food, and shelter, a warm bed and education, we adults know that, with your End of Year Contribution you give our children the gift that really matters, the opportunity of a future. Please help us be able to pay for our gas and electricity to keep our children warm, and help us close our 50% donation shortage to continue to serve children like Mario Joo. Thank you and may you have a beautiful Holiday Season and Happy New Year of 2019!