We are proud to offer
scholarships to teams who need financial support! It’s
strange how life works. Sometimes you
have plenty and other times you have to scrape by. I remember a time when Casas por Cristo (CpC) couldn’t get
enough teams to come build, and as a ministry we had to ask our staff for
voluntary layoffs in order to stay afloat. This greatly affected me personally because my husband and I
felt we were in the best positions to take the layoffs, considering we had just
sold our house and didn’t have any children yet to hold us here.
We recently returned to the ministry and have found that the
pendulum has swung in the opposite direction for CpC. Many of the teams that were scared off by the violence in
México have started to return now that the violence has calmed down. Since we left, CpC has expanded to two
new locations and is about to add a fourth. After not being able to allow more than a few interns per
summer, we were able to accept 19 interns to help us with the influx of summer
builds this year. And this week
alone we have received enough funding for four different houses for teams that
cannot afford to come on their own from Kingdom-minded individuals and
churches. This was not something
that CpC was seeking, but rather something that God dropped in our laps.
A
few of the staff started brainstorming about what could be done with the extra
funds from these individuals and churches. We came up with the idea of starting a scholarship program
for teams. We created a scholarship
application for prospective teams to fill out. Once we review the applications, we are going to select a
few scholarship recipients so that those groups that wouldn’t otherwise get to
be blessed by going on a CpC mission trip will finally have that
opportunity.
You see, we firmly believe that coming as a team member on a
CpC mission trip is a life-changing experience. Spending a week away from the culture and comfort Americans
are used to in order to serve the needs of a family in another country somehow
awakens people to God’s leading and will for their lives. At least, it did for me. I was fourteen years old when I came on
my first mission trip with Casas por Cristo to Juárez, México. God used that week to take hold of my
heart and guide me down the path on which I am still walking. We want to give that same opportunity
to individuals and churches that may not otherwise be able to come on a trip
simply because they struggle with funding. Thanks to God’s provision through the generosity of a few
Kingdom-minded individuals, that is now a possibility.
If you feel that your group or church would benefit from
receiving a CpC scholarship for a mission trip, simply click on the link below
and fill out the application by the August
31, 2014 deadline. CpC will
review all applications and award the recipients by September 30, 2014. If you feel led to give to support
other groups with their funding through the CpC scholarship program, follow the
link to give and write “Scholarship” in the comments section.
-
Roberta
Sanders
