Dear Friend,
Experiencing God’s Gift of Friendship
One of the joys of serving at Rancho 3M is witnessing how God works in the lives of His children. Last summer, I shared in a newsletter that Leydi (pronounced Lady) put her faith in Christ and immediately began telling the Good News to her brother. I’d like to give you a follow-up story of what the Lord has been doing in her life. She is pictured above on the right.
Since Leydi surrendered her life to Jesus, she has been growing by leaps and bounds! Her joyful attitude and willingness to serve in any way she can has been contagious and has been a good influence on the other kids. She has been a particular blessing to Perla (pictured on left), who became a Christian about two years ago, but her spiritual growth has been slow, largely due the trauma she’s experienced in her broken family.
Perla and Leydi have recently become best friends. If you know Perla, you know that she has a alternately sweet and salty personality (a survival method common to children from hard places to keep people at an emotionally “safe” distance) that has made it hard for her to make lasting friendships since she was a little girl. Leydi’s sweet, patient, and dependable character has made her the ideal confidant and sister figure for Perla. We have witnessed the grace of God in Leydi as she has been full of encouraging words to build up Perla as they serve around Rancho 3M together. This has greatly helped Perla in her spiritual growth, and we’ve never seen her so happy. God knew just what she needed, and He graciously provided a true friend for her. It is such a blessing to us as
Leydi has not only been a blessing to Perla, but also to the other children. Through her sweet and Christ-like behavior, Leydi has become one of the kids’ favorites. Before Valentine’s Day we wrapped a big box and put a slot in it for all the kids and staff to insert special notes and candy for each other. We needed one of the older kids to be responsible for carrying it around every day that week. All the kids voted, and they elected Leydi!
Experiencing God’s Provision
Leydi has needed glasses for some time, but since her weekdays are full with school and orchestra practice (she’s learning the violin), we were unable to get her to the eye doctor for a while. But God knew what she needed and took care of the scheduling conflicts. One day when the kids arrived in Juarez for orchestra practice (an hour away from Rancho 3M), they found out it was canceled except for those who were in the choir. Everyone else had to wait several hours until they finished. This was the Lord’s doing. We now had the perfect window of time to bring her in for an eye exam!
Thanks to faithful supporters like you, we were able to buy her a nice pair of glasses. For almost 50 years God has provided for the needs of children like Leydi and Perla. Thank you for allowing God to use you to care for so many at-risk and orphaned children. May God bless you!
By His Grace,
Dean Adamek, E.D. Rancho 3M