6 Days to 28

In just 6 days I will be 28 years old. Its a bit frightening really as it is just 2 years from 30 which always seemed so old to me and now is the age of most of my friends. God has blessed me a ton in my 27 years 359 days... so I thought i'd share a few of those things here:
1. Salvation
2. Great family
3. Fun friends in Houston
4. Amazing roommates
5. I've been mostly healthy my whole life
6. I got to live in SPAIN for 2 years!
7. I love my job
8. I've seen several students place their faith in Christ
9. Getting to bring a friend home from Spain and speak with her at winter conference 2003
10. Travelling to 8 countries in the world so far
11. Being a part of CM2007 in South Korea
12. Getting to go to Baylor University
13. Graduating from college without any debt
14. Having a normal/healthy childhood
15. God's given me a love for music and outlets to express it
16. experiencing life change through the power of the Holy Spirit

Day of Outreach Article

So last week for the Dallas Winter Conference, I helped organize some outreach activites for the students in West Dallas. One of the students came home and wrote an article about it for her school newspaper and I've pasted the article below. Praise God for all that happened during those 2 days!

Students on crusade for kids
West Dallas area benefits from annual outing
By: Veronica Gonzalez

http://www.utpa.edu/dept/panamerican/dsp_article.cfm?articleID=338

Veronica Gonzalez/The Pan American
A Little lovin’ - (From left) Nicole Morales, Yesenia Martinez and Albert Aleman, members of Campus Crusade for Christ, spend time with the children of West Dallas.

Endless road stretched before them as they made their way to Dallas. It would be the farthest any of those in attendance would have traveled, but even now they say it was worth the trek.

With high spirits, the Campus Crusade for Christ chapter at The University of Texas-Pan American shared their expectations of the event that lay before them—the Dallas Winter Conference.

“The day of outreach is one of my favorite parts about DWC because it really pushes us out of our comfort zones to reach out to the Dallas community,” said Charity Bowen, president of UTPA Cru. “We get to work with other students that aren’t from our campus, and talk to people we’ve never met before.”

The day of outreach gives more than 1,000 students from Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Oklahoma opportunities to exercise their faith in new ways each year. Bowen, along with the other members of the UTPA organization, would be assigned to work in the 11th poorest area of the nation—West Dallas. The UTPA organization went straight to work.

With 2,000 school-supply packs and 2,500 gospel bracelets to make, UTPA Cru members along with 300 other Texas college students had their work cut out for them. The students spent the entire afternoon Jan. 4 getting everything set.

After getting neighborhood assignments the next day, UTPA Cru was ready to meet the residents. It didn’t take long for the group to find people to talk to. The neighborhood was filled with children running around in their hand-me-down clothes; parents screaming at the ones misbehaving.

Bowen and the others stuck out like a sore thumb in the predominantly black neighborhood. It didn’t take long for them to be noticed.

“There were so many kids. I didn’t know who to talk to first,” Bowen said. “It was a little intimidating to really feel like a minority.”

The children immediately came up to them, asking about the packs in their hands.
The members took the opportunity to give each child a Gospel bracelet and share the story of Jesus Christ. The bracelets had six colorful beads, each one telling a different part of the story.
It looked like story time in kindergarten, as each child stared attentively to what was said, with the exception of that one precocious child that couldn’t keep her hand down. She had one too many questions.

The parents just watched from the doors and windows, wondering what it was that these white people could possibly want with their children. Eventually, they did warm up to the group and came out talk.
“I was surprised that parents didn’t keep their children from playing with us. I was expecting them to be guarded about people randomly coming in to talk to their kids, especially about religious things,” Bowen said. “But these parents were like, ‘hey you all can play with them, whatever you want to do.’ They were very open to us coming in.”

Bowen was able to talk to a few of the parents, and realized they were so excited to see their children getting the attention they needed. It was a good change to see them all playing together instead of ignoring one another, one parent told her.
“These kids are just longing for the attention because they’re apart of huge families with five or eight kids,” she said. “You know that the parents probably have to work so much that they’re not able to give them the attention they need. It was great for our group to be able to come in and provide that, even if it was for a few hours.”

Bowen and the others had to admit that they were scared about going into the area, since it is popularly known for its high rate of drug abuse and gang activities.
“I was pretty confident going in, but one of the leaders started talking to us right before we went out and I started getting nervous,” Bowen said. “He started telling us to be guarded and careful.”

With the day almost done the jump-roping, football-throwing and piggy-back riding had to come to an end. The group said their final goodbyes. As they walked away, the group could only hope that they somehow made an impact on the neighborhood, for the better.