NEWSLETTER: JANUARY, 2004

"The weather outside is frightful, but inside it's so delightful!" Well, outside isn't really that frightful, after all we're in San Diego, but it is cold, windy and raining this Christmas day.

Yesterday was one big long day in Tijuana and it stayed nice and dry for most of the time. We gave hundreds of pounds of produce to hundreds of adults, more than 300 showers and clothing for children. We distributed seven hundred plus nice new gifts along with blankets and tarps at the six different locations we visited. I came home through the rain and rolled into my garage about eleven at night. I was cold, tired and wet. Christmas day was almost here.

This year our special Christmas Eve team doubled in size. At five PM we all gathered together and planned our strategy for the night. Unfortunately, we couldn't visit the children's jail this special nite. Three days ago two young inmates came down with meningitis and so the complete facility was quarantined and off limits for the week. But needy and lonely dark neighborhoods were everywhere.

Late in the afternoon we loaded our vans and the old yellow bus with the nice new toys you provided and then took off with the slow old bus in the lead. Destination? The darkest and poorest of neighborhoods we could reach. Dirt roads and dangerous communities where Christmas is pretty much spent sitting around burning tires drinking and getting stoned.

On occasions like this, we have an opportunity to enter their neighborhoods of little box-like homes and actually feel what life is like in a one-room make-shift house built of plywood and tarp. Most of the people were surprised but friendly; they called their dogs in and tethered them while we climbed the mud and tire steps to reach the houses. It was dark, cold and there were no outside lights.

The kids had never seen us before and yet there we were, American gringos, inside their houses with gifts. Indeed there was something very special about this Christmas Eve!

In one neighborhood we paused to discuss the dangerous and foul-smelling creek of sewerage that flowed along the bottom of the canyon. The community leader was concerned because the children were always playing in it. You could smell it everywhere.

Oh yes, Joshua, the little burned boy. Did he get his Christmas gift? Of course. When we arrived at his house in the evening he was fast asleep on the bed in his PJ's. According to his mom, he had waited and waited and finally fell asleep. He told her that von was not going to come because he was old and probably had forgotten him. So when we awakened him with his presents he was one happy little boy! His little brothers and sister got presents also. We left their small home with four excited little kids and a very happy mother. Thanks to you folks.

It would take a book to share all the rewarding experiences we had yesterday. Thanks for your help in making yesterday possible. For the next two weeks we will continue distributing gifts.

Like a beautiful wave, the holiday season lifts spirits high. It temporarily washes over the ugly shore with a divine beauty all it's own, then returns leaving the shore just as dry and barren as it was before. In reality nothing has changed. Our mandate continues, our work continues and we hope you will continue to partner with us in reaching kids for Christ this next year. I can't think of a better investment.

Thanks for your help this season in bringing a little joy and a little light to this joyless world of ours. We appreciate you. Have a great New Year!