Outreaches Impact Juarez, Mexico
Over 400 young people and adults from seven states and Canada joined King’s Kids El Paso for our annual Christmas and Spring Break Outreaches. Juarez, Mexico, was the location of both week-long outreaches. Everyone participated in a full program of worship, teaching, evangelism, and practical ministry to the poor and needy.
During Christmas outreach, teams did construction projects at a Christian-run orphanage in the Zaragosa area which takes in mainly children of drug addicts and prostitutes. The needs were great.
During the week the teenagers built a new bathroom for the girls and began construction on a new kitchen, dining room and boys’ dorm. A dentist from Nashville, his assistant and two pediatric nurses who were part of the outreach examined and treated the children. We gave the children a special Christmas party complete with pizza, gifts and lots of games. The teams held another Christmas party, complete with gifts, for children in a very poor colonia out in the desert area off the Casas Grandes Highway.
Other projects included construction on homes for people in various colonias and new buildings at a local church.
Spring Break participants continued work on many of the construction projects begun at Christmas. Young people learned how to mix mortar and cement, lay cinder block, and pour concrete.
Highlights of spring break included tract distribution in several neighborhoods inviting people to local churches and cell groups. Many children came to two big fiestas in the colonias with youth doing dramas, ballooning, handing out gifts, and sharing God’s love with the people. Pastors and missionaries in those communities are doing follow up ministry.
Junior Team News
Twenty-five young people ranging from ages 7 – 12 have given a weekend each month of the school year to reach out to people in need on both sides of the border. At their young ages they are learning that they are a vital part of the church today and that God wants to work in them and through them to make Himself known to the world.
Each weekend focuses on the young person’s relationship with God – what it means and how to live it out in their daily lives. Training on how to share their faith and serve others is followed by an outreach that puts the training into practical application.
Sharing testimonies about what God has done in their lives is one of the main ingredients of the outreaches. The group does performing arts at each program using puppetry, worship, drama and rap to tell others about God.
In December the group ministered at Ysleta Lutheran Mission near the Juarez border where they shared with kids their own age. The program included some Spanish songs which we learned specifically for this outreach.
In January the kids ministered at the Christian Men’s Home. The home is a shelter where men who have had a rough time in their lives, either through substance abuse or circumstances beyond their control, can live and receive biblical teaching as well as have a chance to get their lives in order. In addition to the performing arts program, the kids decorated gift bags with each resident’s name and a Scripture verse. The bags contained gifts and personal needs for the men. It was encouraging to see each man humbly accept the gift as our kids handed them out. From previous outreaches the junior team has done at the home, men had put their bags on the wall of their rooms as a reminder of God’s faithfulness and goodness to them.
In February, the team ministered at the Rescue Mission of El Paso and in March at the Zaragosa Orphanage in Juarez where they did their program in Spanish and handed out gift bags with school supplies to each child in the home. King’s Kids prepared a lunch for the kids and the day ended with the team teaching the Mexican children sign language to “Jesus Loves Me” sung in Spanish.
Members of the Junior Team are Amanda Beachy, Sunny Bishop, Kristin and Julie Carafano, Leah Casteel, Sara Collins, Bailey Etzold, Jimmy Feuille, Lisa Francis, Dustin Giallanza, Sam Gilmore, Kali and Kesia Greathouse, Hannah Juarez, Mary Miller, Jesse Mende, Mary Pfleiger, James and Tahmi Prado, Zachariah Smith, Beth Turner, Daniel Barger, Paul and John Earnest, and Jeffrey Doka.
Senior Team Reaches Out in the Community
Our 35 member Senior Team has been busy with outreaches in the El Paso and Juarez region! During the 1998-99 school year, evangelistic and service opportunities have brought others to Jesus as well as strengthening the team members’ walk with God.
We began the year with several weeks of training, including an Extreme Adventure wilderness challenge campout near Cloudcroft, New Mexico. Following our annual commissioning service at Jesus Chapel West, our first outreach was a GO camp for teenagers from Living Waters Family Ministries near Albuquerque, New Mexico. We joined the local kids for an outdoor evangelistic meeting in a community where serious drug and alcohol problems affect many people.
December was a busy month with evangelistic presentations at Crossroads, a coffeehouse that draws hundreds of lost teenagers, plus a service project helping with the Salvation Army’s annual distribution of groceries to needy families. We also shared the Gospel through music and drama at a Christmas luncheon for several hundred handicapped children and their families.
In January we took a prayer tour of our community and spent a day in prayer and fasting for the many needs and spiritual strongholds of El Paso and Juarez. An especially effective outreach in February was a Saturday at the Schaeffer House, a halfway house for boys who have been convicted of at least three felonies. Our team members shared their faith powerfully and had a great impact on the boys.
Spring Break Outreach in March was another awesome camp. We finished the year’s schedule with an evangelistic meeting in the Eisenhower housing project with young people from the Ysleta Lutheran Mission.
This year’s Senior Team members are Ramon Arreola, Oscar Avalos, Joel Baker, Hallie and JoRae Bishop, Sara Bush, Kim, Kristin and Julie Carafano, Vanyah de Rouen, Robert and Joe Feuille, Amy Giallanza, Laura Gilbert, Kate Gilmore, Emmy Jones, Larry Keithley, George and Ben Lugo, Aryan Marivani, Tasha McGill, Jason Pofahl, Emrys Prochnow, Erin Rankin, Aimee Stallard, Justin Strate, Noah Strohacker, Hilary and Luke Walker, Thomas Walker, Charlene Wasson, Mac Wheatley, Ryan White and Ashley Williams.
Local Team Members Serve God Around the World
Involvement in King’s Kids often opens doors to serving the Lord in far off places. As a part of Kings Kids International, our local team members have many opportunities for outreach, training and service through this worldwide movement. This summer, Lisa Francis (age 11) will go to Nicaragua with Mercy Ships, a branch of Youth With A Mission. Robert Feuille (age 17) is heading for England with an outreach team. Jason Giles recently returned from Scotland, where he completed a 3 month Discipleship Training School before going on outreach to Spain and Morocco.
Paraguay Outreach This Summer
Twenty four young people and ten staff will cross the equator this summer on King’s Kids El Paso’s first outreach to South America. We’ll spend a month in Paraguay with the leaders of Generacion con Proposito, which is the name of King’s Kids there.
This opportunity opened up after a prayer meeting in which most of the Senior Team members independently felt that God was directing our team to South America. At first we pursued an outreach to Peru, but the doors closed for our team. That same day we received an invitation to Paraguay.
This summer Paraguay will host the Americas Cup soccer tournament, which will draw thousands of tourists from all over Latin America to the country. The tournament will bring many opportunities for sharing the Gospel with Spanish speaking people, so we’re doing a lot of language study and will learn new songs in Spanish. Many fund raising projects are scheduled for the next two months!
Teenagers from Virginia, Ohio, Oregon, Missouri and Arizona will join us for the trip. Please keep us in your prayers from June 23-July 23 as we begin our next adventure in serving the Lord.