Laycee, Jasmine, and Victoria

Jasmine's first time at Youth Alive!

Fun and Gifts

Homes of compassion was rather unusual for me. I did Erica’s dad. First I started off by toilet papering his truck. (This was part of an on-going joke). When he found his truck covered with toilet paper, he came in the house smiling (because I finally did it.) I followed up two days later with bringing a bunch of Mexican bread for the whole family. He was again very receptive, very happy. His attitude toward the girls they care for was even nicer. Both he and his wife were grateful.
-Sis Cynthia Sanchez

Visiting Our Friends

Receiving Baked Goods.

The Need for Compassion

I went down to Manuel Gutierrez’s house with Geraldo, and Eric Gomez. The longer that we stayed, we saw that there was a need. He has a wife that has been fighting cancer, and was in the hospital. We offered compassion spent time with him, letting him talk, and as time went on we decided to bind together with him in prayer. The man was touched, he cried, he was looking for someone to be able to talk to. This opportunity allowed us to spend time with him, and encourage him. We left and went on our way. Pastor David found out what was going on, and we found out the hospital and the room number of Manuel's wife. He said that when we came to his house, he really felt a weight lifted off. We are just asking everyone to keep his wife Marcella in prayer. Visitation is being taken at the hospital, and we're just thanking the Lord for everything that he has done, for giving us the opportunity to reach out to our community.
-Bro. Jack Velasquez

Baked Gifts

I mailed off seven packages of homemade cookies. We made chocolate chip on Wednesday, we made peanut butter on Thursday and then Friday I was gone all day, and was tired and came home and made oatmeal, and they were flat, in the pan, a whole double batch of oatmeal-raisin cookies. And so, I was tired, it took me two hours to mix them, and I didn’t get mad or anything, I just thought, oh well, I’m not doing them. I'll just go with the chocolate chip and the peanut butter. And then Phil came over and said, “I’m not gonna wait for this cookie batch!” He just started pouring flour into it, he even took it to Ana the baker, and she said “I don’t know what to do with it.” So Phil kept pouring flour in and it fixed them. So we made eighty raisin cookies on Friday, and they were all for my family. So Homes of Compassion went really well this week. I got all seven packages to mail out on Monday.
-Susan Muller

Friends Invited to Youth Alive

Laurie's friend, Annie.

Caring For Neighbors

We made empanadas to take over to the lady across the street, but there was no answer when we got there. I left her a note with my name and number on it. She called and said “Thank you, God bless you guys!” She and her husband said that they want to come to church.
-Valerie

A Heart of Compassion

Having a heart of compassion, doing something I’ve never done before, I would have thought that I should have felt a lot of fear. A feeling of boldness has grabbed a hold of me; A desire to want to do something for the kingdom of God.
As we started thinking of what to make, the ideas started to come to us. We thought that we could extend Homes of Compassion outside of once a month. The idea of making pillows with the older girls cutting and sewing, and the younger girls stuffing and making the ribbons fell into play. One lady gave a huge amount of fabric and said she would give more, others e-mailed saying they have more fabric to give. When she heard what the fabric was going to be used for, she said that taking time from her own schedule to make something for someone else, to show them that you really care; speaks louder than knocking on a door and asking if they would like a Bible study.
We see our children working better together- they are showing the willingness to put others before themselves- we have more unity as a family. We noticed that in the mist of chaos if we work on Homes of Compassion it will bring peace to the situation. This is showing us that this is the will of God and that He is in it.
- Randy and Angie Stuart