"True Christian Motherhood"-- Soon to be Released!

Hey everyone! My mom, June Fuentes, wrote an ebook entitled "True Christian Motherhood" and it's going to be released real soon! Keep an eye out for it in the next couple weeks...

This ebook on Christian Motherhood will give you life-changing vision that will change the way you view motherhood, your life, and the way you engage with children forever.

Women everywhere are looking for guidance, encouragement, and vision. This book will help provide it for grandmothers, moms, and girls not yet married. I encourage you to buy it when it comes out, read it, and then apply it! :)

Make sure to "like" the FB page- True Christian Motherhood- and join the discussion page-  True Christian Motherhood Discussion Group!

Going to Mexico!

Dear Family and Friends,

Happy New Year!! I hope you all are doing well. The Lord has given me a great opportunity to travel to Reynosa (a border town in Mexico) with the Ruiz family. In this town there is no indoor plumbing or electricity. Houses are built from wooden pallets that have been scavenged from the nearby garbage dump. Other families live in cars. Some parents have made the decision to stay living in these rough conditions because moving to a sophisticated town- with indoor plumbing and electricity- would force both mom and dad to work everyday for 16 hours a day because of poor paying jobs.

The Bible says in Deuteronomy 15:7, “If there is a poor man among you, one of your brothers, in any of the towns of the land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart, nor close your hand to your poor brother; but you shall freely open your hand to him, and generously lend him sufficient for his need in whatever he lacks.”

(Little boy sells plastic bags for his family)

And in Galatians 6:8, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”

In order to obey these commands, we will be building very modest one room houses on cement slabs and roofs of tin and plywood for exterior walls. Despite this being Mexico it does get cold. The cost of building these houses is $3000. We are asking that you would team up with us in sponsoring a house, helping us with our travel expenses or both. Thankfully, we have been given free lodging with a missionary family living near the border on the U.S. side. We will be on this trip from February 4-16.

This will be my first missions trip! My goal is to reach around $400. I am asking anyone who is able to contribute to give either monetarily or through prayer. Anything you can give will help. Even a small donation goes a long way and will be greatly appreciated and a huge blessing.

I am very excited about this and ask for your prayers of protection and blessing during this time. Pray that these people will see the love of Jesus Christ and turn to the Lord for salvation.

In Christ,

Janai Fuentes   

If you would like to donate, click on the "Donate" button below--

"I Have Been Blessed"

This song has a really good message; it's just so true! It's usually the little things that we forget to be thankful for. . .that when we start whining and/or complaining to each other (or ourselves). . .be glad you even have a place to live, are able to read this post, and have a Father who loves you!!



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When He walks among us, all that He does, All of His mercy and all of His love. If the pen of a writer could write every day even this world could never contain just how I've been blessed / The warmth in the winter, the flowers in spring, the laughter of summer, and the changing of leaves. Food on my table, a good place to sleep, clothes on my back and shoes on my feet. Oh, I have been blessed.

Chorus
I have been blessed, God is so good to me, precious are His thoughts of you and me. No way I could count them, there's not enough time, so I'll just thank Him for being so kind. God has been good, so good. I have been blessed.


Arms that will raise, a voice that can talk, hands that can touch and legs that can walk. Ears that can listen and eyes that can see, oh, I've got to praise Him as long as I breathe. Cause I have been blessed / Father and mother, nurtured and raised, my sisters and brothers, memories made. Our pastor to lead us, this altar to pray, Stripes that can heal and a Blood that can save. Oh, I have been blessed.


We live in a country, the greatest on earth, our flag stands for freedom and what it is worth. She stands in the harbor, Ms. Liberty calls, all have gave some, but some gave it all for me to be blessed / A shoulder to lean on when I am down, a rock where He leads me when I'm overwhelmed. The place where He hides me under His wings. He's not just a song, He's the reason I sing, Oh, and I have been blessed.

From: http://lyricstranslate.com

"Raising Homemakers" Website

Raising Homemakers

Today the website "Raising Homemakers" launched and we're really excited about it! This website is to help girls become what they were made to do, which is being a helper for their husband and building up their homes and children. It's also to encourage mom's in teaching these life skills to their daughters. There's alot of women (married or not) who don't know many practical skills that would help them tremendously through life and so this website's for them, as well.

To get a better grasp of what this website's about, read this article by Breezy Brookshire-
"The Invisible Hope Chest".

Four of the ten contributing authors are:
June Fuentes (my mom, woo hoo! =) at A Wise Woman Builds Her Home
Breezy Brookshire at A Bowl of Moss and Pebbles
Emily Rose Brookshire at Simply Vintage Girl
and Sarah Mae (the woman behind this website) at Like A Warm Cup of Coffee

"Raising Homemakers" is having some giveaways which you can enter to win. Two of the prizes are the books Beautiful Girlhood and Polished Cornerstones.

To enter the giveaway (do one or all, just make sure you leave separate comments for each thing you do!)…

* Tweet or Facebook this: RaisingHomemakers.com has launched! Be taught, blessed, & inspired in the homemaking arts for the glory of God! http://bit.ly/9tUDsS

* Write a post about the launch of RaisingHomemakers.com

* Put their button on your blog (no code yet, so just ’save image as’ and link to the RH homepage)

* Subscribe to RaisingHomemakers.com (When you subscribe via RSS or email, you will never miss an article!)

* “Like” RaisingHomemakers.com on Facebook

This giveaway will end on Friday, June 4th at 8pm EST.

Go ahead and enter (even if you have some of these prizes already, you can give them as gifts to relatives and/or friends or keep them for your home and children!) and see if you'll be one of the winners!

The Doll

I received this story in an email and was really touched by it. . .So I thought you would enjoy reading it, too--

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I was walking around in a Wal Mart store, when I saw a cashier

hand this little boy some money back.

The boy couldn't have been more than 5 or 6 years old..

The Cashier said, 'I'm sorry, but you don't have

enough money to buy this doll..'



Then the little boy turned to the

old woman next to him: ''Granny, are you sure I don't have enough money?''

The old lady replied:'You know that you don't have enough money to

buy this doll, my dear.''

Then she asked him to stay there

for just 5 minutes while she went to look around. She left quickly..


The little boy was still holding the doll in his hand..


Finally, I walked toward him and

I asked him who he wished to give this doll to.


It's the doll that my sister loved most and wanted so much for Christmas.

She was sure that Santa Claus would bring it to her.'


I replied to him that maybe Santa

Claus would bring it to her after all, and not to worry.

But he replied to me sadly.


'No, Santa Claus can't bring it to her where she is

now. I have to give the doll to my mommy so that she can

give it to my sister when she goes there.'


His eyes were so sad while saying

this.. 'My Sister has gone to be with God. Daddy says

that Mommy is going to see God very soon too, so I thought

that she could take the doll with her to give it to my

sister.''


My heart nearly stopped..


The little boy looked up at me

and said: 'I told daddy to tell mommy not to go yet. I

need her to wait until I come back

from the mall.'


Then he showed me a very nice

photo of himself. He was laughing.. He then told me 'I

want mommy to take my picture with her so she won't

forget me.'


'I love my mommy and I wish

she didn't have to leave me, but daddy says that she has

to go to be with my little sister.'


Then he looked again at the

doll with sad eyes, very quietly.


I quickly reached for my wallet

and said to the boy. 'Suppose we check again, just in

Case you do have enough money for the doll!''



OK' he said, 'I hope I do

have enough.' I added some of my money to his without

him seeing and we started to count it. There was enough for

the doll and even some spare money..


The little boy said: 'Thank you God for giving me enough money!'



Then he looked at me and added,

'I asked last night

before I went to sleep for God to make sure I had enough

money to buy this doll, so that mommy could give it to my

sister. He heard me!''



'I also wanted to have enough

money to buy a white rose for my mommy, but I didn't

dare to ask God for too much.. But He gave me enough to buy

the doll and a white rose.''



'My mommy loves white roses.'



A few minutes later, the old lady returned and I left with my basket.



I finished my shopping in a

totally different state of mind from when I started.




I couldn't get the little boy out of my mind.



Then I remembered a local news

paper article two days ago, which mentioned a drunk man in a

truck, who hit a car occupied by a young woman and a little girl.



The little girl died right away,


and the mother was left in a critical state. The family had

to decide whether to pull the plug on the life-sustaining

machine, because the young woman would not be able to

recover from the coma.




Was this the family of the little boy?





Two days after this encounter


with the little boy, I read in the news paper that the young

woman had passed away.



I couldn't stop myself as I


bought a bunch of white roses and I went to the funeral home

where the body of the young woman was for people to see and

make last wishes before her burial.


She was there, in her coffin,


holding a beautiful white rose in her hand with the photo of

the little boy and the doll placed over her chest.


I left the place, teary-eyed,

feeling that my life had been changed for ever... The love


that the little boy had for his

mother and his sister is

still, to this day, hard to imagine.


And in a fraction of a second, a drunk driver had taken all this away from him.







Now you have 2 choices:

1) Send this message to others,

or

2) Ignore it as if it never

touched your heart.



The quote of the month is by Jay

Leno: "With hurricanes, tornados, fires out of control,

mud slides, flooding, severe

thunderstorms tearing up the

country from one end to the other, and with the threat of

swine flu and terrorist attacks, 'Are we sure this is a

good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?'"


For those who prefer to think

that God is not

Watching over us delete this, for the others ...


Pass it on!



God Bless!!!




Dear God:


The person reading this is beautiful and strong.

Help them live their life to the fullest.

Please promote them and cause

them to excel above their expectations.

Help them shine in the darkest

places where it is impossible to love.

Protect them at all times, lift

them up when they need you the most, and let them know

when they walk with you, they will always be safe.

Hold On

"When your body is betraying you and your mind is spinning. Hold on. When hope seems like it is lightyears away and strength is disappearing. Hold on. When your relationships are crumbling and your feeling all alone. Hold on. When life is throwing death at you from every direction and you think that's all there is left. Hold on. When you feel your faith is frutiless and that it's all a farce. Hold on. When you feel like giving up, don't give in to those feelings. Hold on.

Keep watching and praying, Keep trusting and believing. Keep singing and offering the sacrifice of praise. Don't let go of what you know is true. Don't let the lies rob you of your joy and don't let the devil deceive you. Hold on, Hold on, Hold on. Help is on the way!

Hold on to Jesus, He's holding on to you.

"If I take the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, Even there Your hand will lead me and Your right hand will lay hold of me." Psalm 139:9-10."

- By my friend, Mrs. Janet Fugate

Just For A Hat. . .

There's this story of a man in Alabama who was walking down the street on a gusty day. He was in the middle of crossing the street when his "favorite" hat blew off him and he ran to get it. He didn't look where he was going and a big truck hit him and he died.

Instantly.

For what? A hat. He lost his entire life for a piece of material he could've easily replaced. Isn't that sad?

But how many times do we, for something small, lose something a whole lot bigger and more precious that we can't replace?

Here's one big example, someone tries to win an argument. Then they lose a friendship.

Or some sibling is too prideful. They lose the relationship with another sibling(s).

Some adult wants their way. Then there's divorce.

Remember, don't do it just for a hat. . .

it's definitely not worth it in the end!

Eight Gifts That Are Priceless!

Have A Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

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Eight Gifts

Below are eight gifts that don't cost a cent to give.

1) THE GIFT OF LISTENING...
But you must REALLY listen. No interrupting, no daydreaming, no planning your response. Just listening.

2) THE GIFT OF AFFECTION...
Be generous with appropriate hugs, kisses, pats on the back and handholds. Let these small actions demonstrate the love you have for family and friends.

3) THE GIFT OF LAUGHTER...
Funny pictures. Share articles, funny stories and funny greetings. Your gift will say, "I love to laugh with you."

4) THE GIFT OF A WRITTEN NOTE...
It can be a simple "Thanks for the help" note or a full sonnet. A brief, handwritten note may be remembered for a lifetime, and may even change a life.

5) THE GIFT OF A COMPLIMENT...
A simple and sincere, "You look great in red," "You did a super job" or "That was a wonderful meal" can make someone's day.

6) THE GIFT OF A FAVOR...
Every day, go out of your way to do something kind. Helping elderly cross the road can be nice.

7) THE GIFT OF SOLITUDE...
There are times when we want nothing better than to be left alone. Be sensitive to those times and give the gift of solitude to others.

8) THE GIFT OF A CHEERFUL DISPOSITION...
The easiest way to feel good is to extend a kind word to someone, really it's not that hard to say, Hello or Thank You.

~Author Unknown