Desert into Paradise

It is amazing how God can turn a desert into a paradise. As I spent time with the CROC community I experienced God in a deeper way. To realize my limitations drew me closer to Him. When I first came here I had a desire to solve every problem I faced, and after a bunch of drawbacks I hit the wall. I could only spend a couple of hours with the kids in need. I wanted to take them home with me and help them 24/7, but this was not possible. This led me to reencounter prayer. Prayer led me to solitude and solitude led me to God himself. This experience with God transformed a desert full of people in need into a paradise where God acted everyday in a subtle but meaningful way. And for this I will always be thankful. God let me work with children as they developed new academic habits and together we learned about God.

God knows that one of my heart’s desires was to get married and serve Him with my husband. Not long ago I met a guy and as we got to know each other we discerned that God had brought us together to serve Him as one. Manuel, my fiancée, attends Asbury Theological Seminary and next year he will earn a M.A. in Christian Leadership. In January I will be moving to Wilmore, KY to live with him and in the weekends support a Hispanic Ministry in the Cincinnati, OH area. And for this my heart gets full of thankfulness.

As I get ready to leave the CROC community I am living a sweet and sour experience. The joy that my marriage is bringing sometimes gets overwhelmed by the sadness of leaving my paradise. My biggest concern is not only that I’m leaving the place where I found God but to leave the Club 121 without a director. God’s faithfulness amazed me again as He provided two kind and responsible leaders to fill my role here. Marco and Gris were raised in CROC and have been working with youtfront for five years. They have proved their commitment to God, the community and the children. Both of them have the desire to keep working in Club 121 as they continue to study. Marco is his third year of a five-year program studying Education and Gris is about to start a Psychology program. Amber Booth will be supporting Marco and Gris as they finish their college degrees. And for this I am more than thankful.

This month we had the last field trip of the year. Forty seven kids and the staff went to the art museum in “Parque Fundidora” where the children saw a couple of short films, observed a bunch paints and learned how to make a hat out of a sheet o paper. This has been a busy month as we prepare our Christmas festival. It is refreshing to see how the souls of CROC’s children get nurtured, and for this my soul rejoices with thankfulness. 

As I say goodbye, I´d like to thank everyone who has contributed to the work done in Club 121 and remind you that we still need your support. Because I know that God will provide and sustain Club 121, I leave this place with gratitude in my heart for the time and work God let me invest in the CROC community, my paradise.

Susana Melissa Armendáriz

Club 121 Director

Consejería Pastoral - Pastoral Counselling

Estamos muy contentos de compartir con todos acerca de una visita que recibimos en el mes de Octubre. Se trata del señor Manuel Osorio, originario de Venezuela, es un pastor con una especialidad en consejería, que vino a darnos una capacitación y a observar el ministerio. La visita de Manuel, no solo vino a traer conocimiento en el área de consejería, sino que su sabiduría y entrega fueron una bendición refrescante que trajo claridad en el trabajo que realizamos. El pastor Manuel, también estuvo trabajando más directamente con Humberto y Mirhta Flores, en el área de consejería matrimonial y desarrollo humano de la familia. Le damos muchas gracias a Dios por haber puesto a Manuel entre nosotros.

We are very happy to share with all of you about a guest we had last month. Pastor Manuel Osorio from Venezuela, whose area of specialty is counseling, came to give us three days of training sessions and to observe our ministry. Manuel´s visit didn´t just bring new knowledge about counseling, but his wisdom and dedication where a refreshing blessing that gave us clarity in the work that we do. Pastor Manuel also worked a little closer with Humberto and Mirtha Flores in the ministry with marriage counseling and family´s Human Development. We want to thank God for bringing Manuel among us.

Youthfront México Staff

Jeovani

Jeovani is the youngest of four brothers, and he lives with his mother and stepfather. I met him as a little baby and it´s been great to see him grow up. He hasn´t had the happiest childhood I would say, but he is an amazing kid. His parents work most of the day and he spends a lot of his after school time at Club 121 or hanging out with us Youthfornt Croc staff members. We can say Jeovani is one of our regulars, he comes by often and he´s been showing up at our doors since the day he could walk. I remember one summer when he was about 18 months that he would show up after or during the morning meeting and spend all day hanging out at the staff quarters until his mom would come back from work at 6 p.m.. When he started 1st grade, the troubled kid started showing, he did not listened to the teacher and since he was bigger, stronger and smarter than most of the other kids, he would beat them up if they didn´t do what he wanted. He got kicked out of school for the first time at the end of the year; we manage to get him back in school and finish first grade. He also attended club 121, it was a challenge for all of us teachers. I personally had to take him home  more than a dozen times, and almost every time he would come back to the church and he´d throw rocks at us from the courtyard. But by the end of the year we were able to come to the agreement that, whenever he was upset he could decide to go home on his own. So almost every day he would put away his books and go home before class was over.

      A year later we moved out of the church and rented a house a few houses down Jeovani´s house and he figured it out pretty quickly, so he would show up almost every day to hang out and ask for money. So Jake Taylor (a former staff member) started hanging out with him and soon they became good friends. They would do some carpentry work or bake some banana bread or play board games. One day Jeovani showed up and he asked if we could give him a Bible. Jake told him that if he read a chapter a day and would come to the house and talk about it, he´d get a coke. So he got a Bible and read a chapter (by this time Jeovani was 7 or 8 years old, but he was already a good reader), and the next day, and the day after and so on. They did that for a while, and then Jake left (they keep in touch), and time went by, we still see Jeovani almost every day. 

     So one day I was making a small table for our copy machine and he showed up and we started chatting and then he asked me if I could make a table for him, and I said that we would make it together next week. So he showed up a week later at the time we had set, and we started working on the table. We where using  power tools and I let him use a sander, he was so excited! So he started sanding the wood really well and then suddenly he stops and turns to me and says: "I wish Jake was here to see me". Time sopped at that moment I was enjoying every bit of it. The every day little things that we had been able to share with him over the course of his life, went through my mind in an instant. The time that Jake spent with Jeovani, shaped him and Jake wasn´t there to see it. All the loneliness in Jeovani´s life was defeated by the sense of belonging that comes with community. Jeovani knows he´s difficult, that is why he leaves class on his own, four years later and he still has to put away his books every now and then, and go home; but he knows we´ll take him in the next day. These are the Chronicles of the Exiles that had found their place where nobody wants to be and we accompany each other in this journey of hope.

Pastor Ildefonso - September

Last month, I forgot to mention that we started again the breakfast program for the kids, we serve breakfast to the kids because we there is a need for kids to eat well.

This month we were a little more busy ministering some married couples with counseling, spiritual needs and health problems. We met some of the couples through some of the member of the congregation. We´ve also been committed with a group from “Los Girasoles” (a community near to Croc) and we gather every Thursday. Very similar to what we do in “Parcelas” with Doña Marta where we have a small group gathering every Wednesday. I think that working with Doña Marta is the hardest because her moral needs are bigger than the economical needs.

This month we also finished a tin roof next to the tool room. It was quite the hassle because we had to dig deep to bury the supports and the ground at the property is hard and rocky.

Personaly and spiritually, we are good and tahnks to God, busy.

Pastor Ildefonso Puentes

Buildings Manager

Youthfront Mexico

"Roses and Lilies"

Susana  in class making an art project. Summer 2011

Summer is always an exciting time, and for the CROC community is a time of welcoming our family from the North. Even when we don’t share a family name, we share God’s love for each other and especially for this community. This year the excitement was reduced in quantity of teams we received, from eight to two teams, but enlarged in blessings received from these two teams, the love shown by the summer staff and the unending joy we see in the kids. The words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer come alive in our community during summer when he says, “communal life is the roses and lilies of the Christian life.”

The teams that visited us more than making the daily lives of the people living here more pleasant by doing paint jobs and even building a merry-go-round. They shared with us a new hope to continue doing ministry in this place by giving us words of encouragement and by showing us with their example that those who believe in God shall not fear when helping the neighbor. For me having the summer staff among us was a blast. It was like having four little brothers and one sister with whom I laughed, played, and learned. Even when they were

different in many ways all of them shared a servant heart. The way they used their gifts to bless this community has shaped they way I see ministry in a powerful way.

When I started my journey in ministry to God I never imagined that I would end loving kids the way I do. Even when my academic formation prepared me to work with and for them, God has taught me that He was not kidding when He said that we need to be like a child to enter His Kingdom. When I feel discouraged and ready to give up the smile of a kid changes everything. Suddenly all my tiredness vanishes. I can certainly say that the joy I have received while serving these kids is the best gift I have gotten from my heavenly Father.

The hope, the laughs and the joy I have experienced during this summer have become the roses and lilies of my life.

Susana Melissa Armendariz
Club 121 Director

First of all

We just came back from our yearly trip to the United States and now we are getting ready to start the school year.
It wasn´t just an important visit because of the work we were able to do there, but more than that this trip was important for the part of the journey that it represents as we walk together as a staff, as a community. It is amazing how the interactions we encounter ourselves in make us closer to each other and God.
To some of us, Croc is our home, our comfort zone, the place where we feel comfortable. So this trip along the mid-west, represents a challenge stepping out of our comfort zone. For some of us, is the language or being away from family and even for those who speak the language fluidly, there are some cultural information that is transmitted in language that we do not understand or know, so it still represents a challenge.
The beautiful thing about this uncomfortable position is that it makes us more willing, more sensitive, we listen and pay attention to the happenings in our surroundings. It is in this uncomfortable place that God shows himself to us, it is in this adventurous journey of faith that we become the body of Christ and the Kingdom of God is built on.

We want to thank all the people that hosted us in their homes and the Churches that invited us. You guys are a blessing to our ministry. It was a long exhausting trip, but we were bless by the relationships and community around us.

We are eager to see the kids in class again as we keep working on our new property that still has a lot of work left. There is some heat left this year before the rain brings the fall winds with it.

There are a few important changes this semester as Alain Olivo and Amber Booth, two of our staff members stay in Kansas City to spend some time with the YSF folks. they´ll be back next year with their strength renewed  and ready to keep working in Croc.

Pray for peace and safety for our country.