Wednesday, March 28, 2012

South of the boarder...


The picture above is one that we see every time we cross the boarder to and from Mexico.
It may look silly, but the reality of it is very serious.

Friday we leave to take some students from our youth group across the boarder into Tijuana, Mexico for a short term missions trip.


Although I've been to Tijuana many times, I'm very excited for this particular trip because we are able to go back to the dump to visit some families and hopefully bring some fruit and veggies to their homes.

On a trip to Tijuana in high school, we built a house in a neighborhood that was in the dump. I can remember standing on a pile of trash and looking off into the distance and seeing the tall buildings of San Diego, California. I remember thinking

"How awful to live here, every day of your life, in a dump, and look off into the distance and see American, the "land of opportunities" and maybe never get the chance to move out of the dump."


We're also going to a neighborhood called Zona Norte, the red light district of Tijuana. I've been there once before, and I can't say that I'm 'excited' to go back, but I am hoping for an opportunity to share Christ with the young men and women who work those streets.

Our boys will be going to a juvenile hall and running a small youth group for the boys who are imprisoned. Last year most of our boys said that was one of the most powerful parts of the trips was being able to interact with the inmates.

One thing I'm most excited about is that we'll be visiting some orphanages. Orphanages in Mexico are a nit different than what you think of when you think of an orphanage. Many of the children who live in the orphanage are not 'orphaned' children, but are there simply because their parents can't afford to care for them, or possibly because they're troubled youth, it's much like the foster care system here in the US, only like a giant group home. Some children may actually be orphaned though. The conditions are not ideal at all, the ones we visited in the past do not have water and have no electricity, but lots of children that need love, and need to hear about Jesus.

These children need to be looked after and cared for.

A year ago this trip, God very clearly laid adoption on our hearts, I'm very excited to see how He'll work this week.

If you're someone who prays, would you pray for our team? We leave Friday morning at 4:30am and will return a week later.

If you'd like, follow our Facebook page! Our students will be blogging, and vlogging (this is new to me..) daily about our experiences.

We also have a team of students going to Ecquador the same time! Please pary for them as they travel and then go into the jungel to work on a bible institute for the local people.

Check out our missions blog!

And our Facebook page!


Saturday, March 17, 2012

Need a vacation???


We are constantly being blessed by the generosity of our friends and family, well our friends are our family (and even strangers!) We got a phone call a while back from a couple in our church telling us about a donation they wanted to make to our adoption.

Here it is:


Our friends own a cabin down by world famous Yosemite National Park! They rent this cabin out on a weekly/daily (whatever your needs) basis.

There offer is this:
They would like to donate the money they would get in rental fees to our adoption! Seriously, so blessed.


You can rent a beautiful cabin and at the same time be helping us to bring home our sweet baby!


So, do you want to take a family vacation to a beautiful home?


Maybe your church or business takes retreats and you're looking for a lovely place? This just might be for you.


Here are the specs:

3 bedroom, 2 bath
Sleeps 7 in the beds, 9 if you use the sleeper sofa
It has WIFI
Dish TV
Fireplace

Take a look at the pictures below! It's a beautiful house that will make for a fun time with friends or family and will make lots of memories!!! (I wasn't able to upload all of the pictures, and these few just don't do it justice, so contact me for more pictures and further information)

Check it out and email me if you'd like to know prices and availability! stephlnunes@hotmail.com







We can't say thank you enough to all of you who play such a big part in the story of our family

Friday, March 16, 2012

Would you join me in prayer?

Esther

I would like to invite you to read a story about a sweet little girl who desperately needs a home. There are many, many children in our world who need mommies and daddies, and tonight you'll get to meet this little one. This precious little girl needs a family. She needs to have a family for birthdays, holidays and bedtime stories. This December, she will be moved to the "big kid" orphanage where she will no longer be adoptable. Whether you feel called to adopt or not, I would ask that you pray for this sweet little girl in Uganda.



"Who knows? Maybe you were made queen for a time such as this."
-Esther 4:14

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Yard Sale Blessings

Yesterday was our yard sale day.
We' ve been prepping and planning for months.
And yesterday it paid off.
Our goal for our sale was to make $600.00
By raising $600 we would be able to submit to USCIS, the last step before our dossier is complete.


It was almost like God said, "$600? I know your needs" (it costs $890 to submit to USCIS, with other donations we had the remainder)

Our yard sale was supposed to "open" at 8, but we were ready way before. Thanks to the generous donations of our family, friends and complete stragners we had WAY too much to keep in our garage and store in our house, so we set up for our sale the night before, covered things with sheets (to protect them from the dew) and Justin and a couple high school students stayed up all night protecting all the precious things!

People started showing up at about 6:45, which was great.

By 9am, our goal of $600 was met. (an hour after our sale had "opened".)

The day was great (long) but great. we got to catch up with friends, make new ones and got to share about adoption with people and even met someone who's friend just got their referral from Ethiopia.

The week leading up to the sale was hard and long, with several road blocks along the way.

But God totally blessed this sale.

And through our sale we made $1,967.

Way more than we thought we (and by we I mean all of you! who who've helped along the way near and far :) ) needed, but that's usually how Jesus works, always giving us more.


Thank you doesn't seem like enough to EVERYONE who played a part in this sale.

but

THANK YOU

THANK YOU



THANK YOU!!!