On New Year's Eve, while were passing out Christmas presents at Dios Me Ve, I was introduced to Griselda. I was asked to pray for her. Her house had been intentionally burned down. It seems that her husband, who struggles with substance abuse, was angry with her and set the house on fire. When he set the fire, he didn't realize that his son Julian was in the house with his mother. It was Julian that was able to convince his mother to get out of the house. His mother, Griselda, thought that it was a trash fire close to the house and wasn't even aware it was her own house that was burning. Julian convinced her just in time to get out. Fortunately, no lives were lost in this fire.
Griselda and her four kids (Julian (11), Sarai (10), Ivan (18) and Irvin (21) were staying at a neighbors because they had lost everything. When I prayed for Griselda, I asked God to provide for her in such a way that she would know that it was the love of God at work and that only God would be thanked. We gave her some food dispensas and I asked her for the sizes of everyone in her family after she made it clear that they had no food or clothing.
I went back home to Door of Faith and asked if they could help me out with some clothes. They were happy to help out and were even able to give us a couple of mattresses to help out Griselda's family.
I returned with Maribel the next day with two mattresses and bags of clothes. I wish I would have taken pictures to show you the hike to get to their property. It's not that it was far, but it was very steep and quite comical to watch us climb the hill with bags of clothes. When we arrived we found the daughter, Sarai very excited to see us. Griselda was happy too. Much to our surprise the neighbors had given up small scraps of wood for them to try and assemble some kind of shelter. Julian was at the top of their very temporary home, nailing a blue tarp over the top where they had no wood for a roof.
When I saw where they were going to be sleeping that night, I could only think about how cold it had already become in the late afternoon. Being New Year's Eve, most of the stores were closed. We were able to find a Calimax grocery store and bought some blankets to take back to them.
You might be thinking at this point that the need is overwhelming. It is, but.....we have God who owns everything, who has children that He talks to about helping others. I haven't even got to the other immediate need I'd like help with. Uniforms for Julian and Sarai are needed to attend school. Not only that, but it would be a great way to help these two kids get their minds focused back on their education.
My concern is that the kids will drop out of school to help bring in income. Uniforms cost a little over $100 per kid. They are required for school. Although it's possible the school might look the other way for a time and let the kids attend school, I'm sure that uniforms would help them move forward instead of constantly being reminded of their loss each day they attend school .
So, would you like to contribute towards uniforms for Julian and Sarai? If this is something you'd like to help with, you can send your check to me here at the orphanage PO Box 6434, Chula Vista, CA 91909, but make the check out to VIDA OUTREACH and write in the memo "uniforms."
You might wonder why I'm asking you to write your checks out to VIDA OUTREACH. VIDA OUTREACH is a non-profit that helps various ministries like Dios Me Ve that don't have a non-profit status. They have been such a blessing to us at Dios Me Ve. VIDA OUTREACH will give you tax credit and 100% of what you send them comes to me at Dios Me Ve. If you can send the dollars, I'm more than glad to purchase the uniforms for these precious kids.
