Awaken Newsletter Spotlight Puentes
— February 2023 —
AWAKEN SPOTLIGHT:
Instead of our traditional newsletter format, we decided to try to focus on one ministry aspect of Awaken Discipleship and Training Center per month. This month, we are focusing on our Puentes ministry to orphanages and children's homes.
You might ask, why is orphan and orphanage ministry such an important part of Awaken DTC's ministry? There are many reasons, but here are a few:
We try to connect many of our short-term Puentes teams with children's homes and orphanages, first, because we know that these children are precious to the Lord. Throughout the Scriptures, we see God represented as a Father seeking his children. Proverbs is full of warnings about mistreating the stranger and the orphan. Psalm 85: 5-6 describes him as father of orphans, defender of widows, it is God in his holy dwelling. God puts the lonely child in families…. The whole character of the Lord is summed up in someone who loves those who cannot have earthly parents and need Him to fill that space.
Second, most of these children are HUNGRY for human interaction, attention, and a glimpse of God's love. Some may have parents who are alive, but unable to care for them, so they are in an institution. Others are true orphans. Regardless, many children in these group homes welcome the teams and welcome the ministry presented to them. They tend to be very receptive to the Gospel and the love of Jesus, and many who have grown up in these institutions pointed to the team visits as the moment they understood how to have a new life in Christ.
“Ministering to these children transforms us.” Rich Kellogg, who oversees Hannah's Helpers, a foster and adoption children's ministry in Downey, CA, regularly leads teams that focus on children's home ministry.
“When you minister in children's and orphan homes, the Lord uses you to be his hands and feet to these precious young people. You are being used to show them that God loves them, that he has a wonderful plan for their lives, and that they can depend on him because he will never leave them or forsake them. Ministering to these young people is living.”
If you would like to know more about how to pray for these ministries or are interested in ministering to children in a children's home, please contact us. We can connect you with some reputable and Godly ministries that expect an expression of God's goodness and Gospel truth.
