I think this is the first time in my life when I've actually been happy to go back to work after vacation. Don't get me wrong, vacation was WONDERFUL and much needed, but if I hadn't mentioned it before,
I really love Roblealto! :-) Today was the Spiritual Retreat for all the Roblealto personnel. We had a number of special presentations, worshiped together, heard lots of beautiful testimonies of what God has done through Roblealto and kicked off our year-long celebration of Roblealto's 80th anniversary. Yup, the Bible Home, Roblealto's first program, was founded in 1932. It started with 8 children. Now we serve 700 children and adolescents and work closely with their families as well. More about the day, including one of my favorite parts on the blog!
May God fill you with joy in your work this week!
Carrie
Having lunch with some of the instructors from my favorite child care center was really fun, especially when we started confessing our chocolaholism (addiction to chocolate), but that wasn't my other highlight of the day. Jijiji. After lunch, we were split into 3 large groups and went to 3 different stations, one of which was a sort of museum, with lots of pictures of Roblealto past and present (and a bit of Roblealto future too, with the model of the Los Guido Child Care Center we are hoping to build ASAP -please pray for God's $$ provision!!). There, we also watched a little drama of a doctor and his assistant taking care of a girl that came to them in really rough shape.
They gave her an IV of Jesus and gave her the bandages of... oh man I can't remember, but a couple were Limits and Unconditional Love. Then they gave her Prayer cream and some other kind of ointment-it was a beautiful, very creative metaphor of the care that Roblealto provides to the children who come to us.
The children truly do come to us in really rough shape. I have written a handful of entrance reports of suicidal children. Children! I don't even see how suicide could even occur to a child! But I don't understand how neglect could occur to a mother either and abandonment to a father. Sadly, those are both pretty darn rampant. I have started to see just how blessed I have been to grow up in a loving, healthy Christian home, but I know I still have not grasped just how much I have taken for granted. So many things that seem so natural and basic to me are an unknown or only a dream to so many children and families. Having both parents live together, be married and have a good relationship, having parents who care and are involved in their children's lives, having parents who show their love in affirming ways, not having to live in poverty... So, once more I thank God for the wonderful family He has given me and ask for the grace to be able to understand and empathize more with the children and families we serve. Please pray for the children of Roblealto: our child care centers and the Bible Home will officially open again on Monday. We have a lot of new children coming in that need a lot of attention (and we're going to need a lot of new sponsors too!) but we also have hundreds of other children coming back that still need a lot of attention as well. Thanks for your interest in this awesome ministry!
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