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--

Tomorrow Is NOT Promised!

My 19 year old cousin, Alan Oliva Jr., was out from a party on Sunday morning (5/30/10 at 1 am) in Chicago with a friend and while they were walking on the streets he and his friend were hit on the backs with bats by three gangsters. The friend got away but Alan didn't. He was stabbed twice in the back and was rushed to the ER but died six hours later. You can read more, here.

This is my first personal loss of someone that I knew and it's just incomprehensible. I mean it feels so unreal. It's hard when things like this happen but I'm finding I just need to trust God and that "all things work together for the good of those that love Him."

Hopefully when things like this happen that we read in the paper or watch on the news or personally experience, we'll be drawn closer to Him and learn to trust in Him more. We need to trust that when God says not to do things (like "thou shall not murder" ), we shouldn't do them. There are other commands in the Bible that to many people don't make sense or they just don't care or purposefully don't obey so they end up basically ruining their own lives if not others.


Alot of times, we think we have our whole lives in front of us (especially us teens) but really only God knows how much longer we have. Alan probably thought we was going to spend his memorial day weekend with his family and friends. I understand he wanted to be a cop. He probably felt he could take on the world. But God had other plans. Now through this, I'm praying many more of my family members and Alan's friends (and, yes, it's hard but even his murderer) will hear of the love and grace and saving power of Jesus Christ and be added to the family of God.

Tomorrow is NOT promised. Cherish the people in your life. Be kind and love your siblings. Honor your parents. Treat everyone with respect. Live everyday as if it were your last. Because really, you don't know if it is. Or someone else's.

Some events can really put things back into perspective.

Two of my friends just lost their 13 year old cousin (Sean Woods) this past weekend as well. After being missed for a couple hours at a party, they found he had been accidentally drowned.

So if you would please pray for my cousins (the Oliva's) and my friends, the Piekarski's, cousins (the Woods) to be comforted and experience the peace of God through these untimely deaths in both of our family's, we would really appreciate that.

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These events remind me alot of Kris Allen's song-
"Live Like We're Dying".

The Conqueror's Heart

When I read this story in "Jesus Freaks: Revolutionaries", I was so inspired! I tend to read alot on martyrs and I can tell you my faith is made so much stronger after reading their stories! I highly recommend this book, the first book ("Jesus Freaks: Martyrs"), "Foxes Book of Martyrs" by John Foxe, and reading the "Voice of the Martyrs" magazine (free subscription!).



This took place in Hungary 1950---

The Russian army captain walked haughtily down the aisle of the church and up to the pastor. "I will have a word with you alone. Take me someplace where we can speak privately!"

The officer was very young and brash and seemed very conscious of his role as a conqueror.

When the pastor had led him to a small conference room, the officer shut and locked the door. he nodded toward the cross that hung on the wall. "You know that thing is a lie," he said to the minister. "It's just a piece of of trickery you ministers use to delude the poor people to make it easier for the rich to keep them ignorant. Come now, we are alone. Admit to me that you never really believed that Jesus Christ was the Son of God!"

The minister smiled. "But, my poor man, of course I believe it. It is true."

"I won't have you play these tricks on me!" cried the captain. "This is serious. Don't laugh at me!"
He drew out his revolver and held it close to the body of the minister.

"Unless you admit to me that it is a lie, I'll fire!"

"I cannot admit that, for it is not true. Our Lord is really and truly the Son of God," said the minister. For a painful instant his muscles tightened as he awaited the bullet.
Instead, the captain suddenly flung his revolver on the floor and embraced the pastor. Tears sprang to the captain's eyes.

"It is true!" he cried. "It is true. I believe so too, but I could not be sure men would die for this belief until I found for myself one who would. Oh, thank you! You have strengthened my faith. Now I too can die for Christ. You have shown me how."
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This is the kind of life you've been invited into, the kind of life Christ lived. He suffered everything that came his way so you would know that it could be done, and also know how to do it, step by step.

"He never did one thing wrong,
Not once said anything amiss."

They called him every name in the book and he said nothing back. He suffered in silence, content to let God set things right.
-Peter (1 Peter 2: 21-23 THE MESSAGE)

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Following Jesus may cost us our life but imagine how many blessing will come from that and how many people will be inspired! This is a free country where Christianity is allowed so we tend to get lazy about spreading the Word or talking about Jesus or anything associated with Christianity but, in Communist country's I think the Christians really know what it means to follow Jesus. They do more there than most people even try to think about! I'll be posting more stories of them so you can get a glimpse of what we're missing out on (there's even a story that took place in China of two siblings, 15 and 16 years old, who's parents where in jail for witnessing to some Communist solders, that went and planted two churches! I liked that!)!

While you're at home or at school remember that you're a witness for Christ whether you want to show it or not! People are watching to see if what you believe is beyond words to you!

Were You Set Up?

There's a show called "What Would You Do?" and the point of the show is to see what different people do in different situations. For example there's this old blind woman who got cheated on at the store from the cashier and nobody stood up for her until one person took the initiative then others helped her, then they get interviewed and asked why they didn't help out first? and they usually answer with "I didn't feel comfortable" , " I couldn't", or "I don't know her". The blind woman and the cashier are just acting for this show but nobody else knew that; they were set up.

In every person there's a "hidden camera". They use their camera to determine your reputation. Whether you're respectful, loving, godly (and whether you show it), generous, caring, joyful, etc. Others are looking to see if there's anything different about those "Jesus" people. Is there?

What if those actors somehow knew that some of the people who didn't help them were Christians? What were the actors thinking when they saw they didn't move? I don't think those people (Christian or not) had a very good reputation after that.

That paper you walked by today and didn't pick up; were you set up? How do you know you weren't? Also who was watching you? Jesus definitely was.

Next time...remember that someone's camera is on and they're recording what you do!! So set a good example and go above and beyond what's required of you!

Mark Cahill

About a month ago, my family heard Mark Cahill speak at church and his message was awesome!!

Mark is a former basketball player who played his college ball at Auburn and was teammates with Charles Barkley. After getting his degree in Business and working in the field for a while the Lord called him out and he began his journey of sharing his faith and summoning the people of God to do the same.

His mission is to witness to the unsaved through "conversation not a presentation". He says "every second, two people die. Do you care? If so, do you care enough to do something about it?"

He's written two books, "One Thing You Can't Do In Heaven" and "One Heartbeat Away". I have read the first book and it has changed the way I think about witnessing to the unsaved, drastically! Go to his website to see video of him speaking and order his books and DVD's. Let him challenge you to change somebody's eternity!