A Message of Hope and Comfort

On December 17, 2006, a team of eight people packed up guitars, bongos and musical equipment and headed to a local shelter that houses young people, ages 12-17, who are illegal immigrants. All have been caught in this country without any adult relatives, many of them escaping very difficult or even life threatening situations in their own countries in Central America.

We visit these young people weekly, providing them with Bible classes, but this time we surprised them with a special Christmas Show in which we sang lively Christmas songs in Spanish as they sang and clapped along. We read a message from a power point presentation and an article from Conectate (the Activated magazine in Spanish) and distributed the music CD’s and inspirational magazines donated by Activated Ministries as a present for each of the young people and the staff at the shelter, along with some other presents that one of our friends helped us collect. All of this material helped us to accomplish our goal of supplying these young people with inspirational tools to help them cope during this difficult time in their lives. This shelter holds up to 135 teens and there is a constant turnover, with most staying for two to three months. In that time, though, we lead them to Jesus as their personal savior, and most are baptized with the Holy Spirit. We’re also able to touch on many of the foundation stones of faith to carry with them when they leave. Some of the young people are able to stay here in the USA, but many are sent back to their home countries. In the time that we’ve been visiting the shelter, which has been a little over a year, over 1000 youth have received Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

Our team also brought the Christmas show to the county Juvenile detention center, where each young person received an inspirational book provided by Activated Ministries, a total of 120 books along with a Christmas tract. This detention center houses approximately 120 teens between the ages of 12-17, of whom over 100 have received Jesus as their personal Savior.

The teens stay in this institution for a minimum of three months. We’ve been visiting them twice a week to minister the Word to them, and this Christmas was a culmination of over three months guidance counseling. Many of them want to stay in contact with us when they get out and visit us.

We then distributed hundreds of other books and Conéctate magazines as well as hundreds of tracts at the local prison where we hold weekly Activated and 12 Foundation Stones Bible classes. The men take these tracts back to their respective dorms to pass out and witness. We have a core group of over 20 men who often spend up to six months to a year with us getting consistent Bible classes. They also receive the Activated magazines. Many are active in reaching out to the 2500 men in this prison. We also took the Conéctate magazines in to the dorm where we act as Dorm Pastors. We have over 100 Activated readers in this dorm who hungrily look forward to their new magazine each month.

We were also able to visit a local Ronald McDonald House—which is a “home away from home” for children who are receiving treatment for serious illnesses. Our kids sang Christmas carols and we showed some power-point presentations about Christmas. We prayed with many of the parents and children staying there, and then we presented a collection of Cherub Wings and some Treasure Attic videos to the House for the comfort and entertainment of these critically ill children and their families.

Thank you so much, Activated Ministries, for helping us to touch these lives and change the world!