153 More

The final homes of 2011 are being dedicated right now in México.  The completion of these homes will mark a grand total of 153 homes for the year. This means 153 families have seen God’s amazing love and provision firsthand.  What is even more encouraging, is that the Gospel was shared and demonstrated 153 times by our staff, pastors, and volunteers!

We are excited about the New Year and what is in store for Casas por Cristo in 2012.  We want you to help us make next year even more life changing for these families living in desperate situations.  Please make your year-end gift right now!  Any amount will make a difference to forward our mission of building homes and sharing the Gospel message. Thank you in advance for your financial support.  We're looking forward to an amazing 2012!

Your giving starts right here, DONATE NOW!

Top FIVE

Here are the top five reasons that we are proud to be a part of this ministry: Watching families experience the love of Christ in a way that they have never known before.   Bringing churches and individuals together across borders, cultures and language barriers. Seeing people’s lives changed forever because they received a home they could not otherwise afford. Knowing that we are changing lives in two different countries and three different cities. Seeing God provide every day and every step of the way. Hopefully this list inspires you to continue to be a part of our work in the lives of the Mexican and Guatemalan people.  There are only a few days left in 2011 and we need your help.  Before we ring in a new year, celebrate what God is doing at Casas por Cristo by making a donation.  It is because of your giving that we are still here changing lives! End the year right – DONATE NOW!

PO BOX 971070 | El Paso, TX 79997 US

Gift of Love

Merry Christmas from all of us at Casas por Cristo!  We hope you had a great holiday, and that you got everything on your wish list!  Most importantly, we hope that you were able to spend Christmas with the ones you love, remembering the birth of our Savior. 

As we reflect on the great things God has done in and through Casas por Cristo in 2011, we want to stop and thank you for your role.  Whether you volunteered, built a home, prayed, or gave financially – thank you!  We would not have been able to build 153 homes this year for families in need without your partnership.

The good news is, the year is not over yet.  You can still pray and you can still donate!  With only a few days left in 2011, your gift is more valuable now than ever.  Would you please consider a donation to Casas por Cristo before 2012 begins?  With a simple click, you can DONATE NOW and in a few seconds your gift will be going to help families living in poverty across the border in México and Guatemala.  And of course, all financial donations are 100% tax deductible.

Thank you for your support of Casas por Cristo in 2011.  We look forward to what God will do in the New Year!

Merry Christmas

Christmas Memories

What do you say about Christmas when you’re just not in the Christmas mood?  It’s hard to get into the Christmas Spirit when Christmas doesn’t look like it is supposed to in your mind.  I live here in the desert southwest, and it doesn’t look like the Christmases from my childhood.  My childhood Christmases were always white, cold and surrounded by family.  My memories are filled with snowball fights, skating on frozen ponds, sledding, making snow forts and watching “It’s a Wonderful Life” for the 447^th time. Now the only thing that seems to be the same is that I’m watching “It’s a Wonderful Life” for the 4,447^th time and I have added “Elf” for the 151^st time to that tradition.

Now if you know me at all, at this point you are saying, “Who are you trying to kid!?”  After all, I grew up in south Texas on the border in the land of 80 degrees for Christmas.  I mean it only snowed three times in Eagle Pass when I was growing up and only once did it ever stick to the ground.  We had tamales instead of sugar plums.  We didn’t even have any other family that lived in Texas.  So just what Christmas memories am I talking about?

Well, being missionaries, Christmas was one of the only times we got to travel back and see my parent’s families.  So most Christmases were spent in Durango, Colorado or the Kansas City, Missouri area.  I grew up with my Christmases being surrounded by countless uncles, aunts, grandparents and more cousins than I can even remember names for.  So, spending my Christmas now in El Paso just seems off and honestly doesn’t feel like Christmas…UNTIL TODAY!!!!

WOW!!!  Can you believe it?  This is the view from my back window.  It is snowing like crazy.  And something else crazy is happening, as the snow keeps falling from the sky, memories of Christmas are beginning to flood my mind…and now tears!  Thank you Jesus for these wonderful memories; memories that had for long been forgotten.

My grandparents have all passed away.  All of us cousins are all grown up now with families of our own, and without grandparents to go back and visit, we haven’t seen each other in years.  My brother and sister’s families are all grown up and have their own Christmas traditions.  The busyness of life has spread us out all over the place.

As I stare out my dining room window, I know that my heart should be breaking because all of this snow means that so many of my neighbors across the border living in shacks are now freezing cold and wet, but somehow today I am thankful for the snow.  I am thankful for the memories that have been restored, refreshed and revisited.

This all makes me think of a seldom visited verse in the Bible, Luke 2:51; “But his(Jesus) mother treasured all these things in her heart.”  We all have memories that we treasure.  I challenge you this Christmas season to build some new memories.  Be intentional!  What can you do this Christmas season to build memories that will last a lifetime?  As for my family (me, my wife and daughter), we are going to go build a house for a family in need in Acuna, Mexico…and in the process build a memory.

Thank you Jesus for the snow!  Thank you Jesus for the memories! 

Merry Christmas!

-David

Last Minute Gifts

Do you need a last minute gift for someone?   Why not give one that will make a difference in the lives of others? Casas por Cristo's gifts that give back Do you need a Christmas gift for the person who has everything? Would you consider giving a gift that gives back to a family in need? Donate to Casas por Cristo as a Christmas gift for someone or ask for this as a present this year.  There are four Printable Christmas Cards below to give to those you love.  Select your favorite card then Click, Print, Donate and Give a gift that keeps giving back.         Merry Christmas. And thank you for your thoughts and prayers this holiday season.      Click Here Click Here Click Here Click Here Click Here To Donate

CNN Young Wonders

For seven years Justin Churchman has been building homes with Casas por Cristo.  At the age of 13 he earned his Eagle Scout Award by organizing his own team to build a home.  His enthusiasm for building homes in Juárez didn't stop there.  As a young man, his goal was to complete his 18th home by his 18th birthday, and he did just that.  It has been remarkable to watch a young local El Pasoan take ownership of such a large undertaking and lead others to serve where so many refuse to go.

This Sunday he is being honored for his work with Casas por Cristo over the years. In collaboration with CNN Heroes, he along with five other recipients have been awarded the title of Young Wonders.  Because of Justin's work, a positive spotlight will be shown in an area where only negative media has come from for so long.  CNN sent a crew out to Juárez, México to capture a Casas por Cristo build and the lives of the families living there.

Although we know that this Young Wonders piece will only be a small part of the CNN Heroes program this Sunday, we hope and pray that it will bring, if only for a moment, a voice to the voiceless and a positive national spotlight on a city that continues to thrive throughout so much adversity.

It was an honor and a privilege to stand in the dirt streets of Juárez, México with CNN; to have them interview Modesta (a mother that makes bread in a small Casas home) and ask her about her life and listen to her story.  Modesta will never see this story aired, but we pray that the right people will.  We hope that this will open the eyes of people around the world to those living in poverty right across the United States border.  We pray that it will encourage others to come and serve the countless families just like Modesta's.  These are the people that we love and serve daily.  We want the world to know them too.

Do Something

You could say I’ve “grown up” in Juárez.  I’m actually from a town outside of Atlanta, Georgia, but I’ve been living on the border for over 10 years now.  I moved here straight out of college, having already served with Casas por Cristo in some capacity previously for two years.  That’s why I say I’ve “grown up” here.  I feel like most of what I’ve learned about loving God and serving and loving others I’ve learned here. 

There have been highs and lows throughout the years.  There have been some years where I’ve spent more nights in Mexican churches than in my bed at home.  There have been other years that I have longed to spend more time across the border serving.  These last three years have also had their share of highs and lows.  As the world knows, Juárez is the “most dangerous city in our hemisphere.”  This is very much sensationalized and exaggerated, but people believe what they believe.  A drug war has raged between cartels for control of drug trafficking into the U.S.  There have been thousands of murders and other crimes committed.  The saddest part of it all is the people affected the most aren’t the ones fighting in this war.  Those suffering the most are the people in the margins; the poor, the neglected, the forgotten, the very people that we are called to served.  They are affected because industries are packing up and moving out, there are no jobs, and the image of their city is scaring away people that help them.

This becomes more and more evident every time we cross the border to build homes.  There are still teams that aren’t afraid to come and heed the call to serve the people of Juárez.  I recently served alongside a crew from First Baptist Church of North Kansas City.  They are a great group of folks, never wavering in their calling to the Mexican people.  What struck me the most about this week was the amount of families that wandered up to the job site asking how they too can receive a home.  I was blown away.  A conservative estimate would be that 15 different families in four days came asking how they can receive the help they need to literally survive.

It really made me think.  Why did God place me where He did?  Why do I have so much and these people have so little in comparison?  Am I more valuable as a person than they are to deserve God’s blessings?  Couldn’t I have just as easily been born in their shoes?

These are legitimate questions, with real answers that have real consequences.  I was placed where I was placed to be a blessing to others, plain and simple.  I am NOT more valuable to God, or anyone else for that matter, just because I’m an “American” born into a life of plenty.  So what does this mean then?  To me, it means there is no other calling on my life than to be grateful for what God has given me, physically and spiritually, and to use that to bring glory to Him by serving others. There is so much need around the world, in Juárez, and in your community.  Do something about it.  You are here to make a difference.  Use the life that you've been given.

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men doing nothing.” – Edmund Burke

“For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.”
  2 Timothy 1:7

15 Years Later...

“For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”  Jeremiah 29:11

Do you believe that promise?  I want to tell you about a young man who not only believes that, but has lived it.  Just a few months ago I received the following email from Juan Manuel Muñoz. 

I found your website on the internet. I am currently a Law student in Tyler Texas. I want to say to you guys how thankful I am with you and with God for having people like you in the world. I was 5 years old when a group from Casas Por Cristo came to our community and built a house for us. My family still has all the pictures from when they came. I remember I got a bag of skittles from a lady that worked on our house. Right now, looking back to those days when we were needy and poor, I feel that God sent those people to help us. They were so kind and generous. I’m writing this e-mail with tears in my eyes. God is my witness. Thank you so much for what you guys did. God bless you. I will donate money soon so that some other family is happy just as mine was all those years ago. Again, thank you.

What an amazing testimony!  This is what happens when you come on a trip with Casas por Cristo.  This is what happens when you invest in the ministry of Casas por Cristo through your generous support and gifts.

This year has been a challenging one at Casas por Cristo.  The economy has been tough on everyone, including us, but we have refused to be ruled by the economy.  This year we have been obedient to God’s call to go into all the world as we have started operations in Guatemala.  We are excited to share this same life-changing ministry that changed Juan’s life with the people of Guatemala as well.

During this holiday season will you help us continue to bring the hope of this world Jesus Christ to other little kids like Juan?  Rest assured that your gift will help change the future for countless families living in México and Guatemala.

Humbly,

David Robertson

Executive Director

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