The REAL Meaning of Christmas

We got to have the kids from San Jose over to our house yesterday for Christmas.

10 kids.

14 hours.

All the fix-ins.

Shopping.

Gifts.

The Christmas Story.

It was exhausting and so much fun!

I just want to share a little part of the day that I thought was the most meaningful. Anna had an idea to help the kids learn about the true meaning of Christmas, and that was to take the kids shopping to buy something for another, less fortunate child here in Cancún.

I know most people would say that we may be crazy. Taking kids from an orphanage in a poor part of Mexico to buy gifts for a less fortunate kid...

But the truth is, it is not about the need or what the kids have at San Jose. It's about the teaching them about the meaning of Christmas and at the same time showing them that they are not some poor child to be pitied.

The month of December has been difficult for Anna and I as we watch a steady stream of people file through San Jose bringing toys and junk food and more stuff than the kids need. I know that they mean well and are trying to help, but the truth is, they are not helping these kids in the long run. We are thankful for the sisters running the home who know when to separate things out to be sold to fund the real needs of the home and are always gracious with those bringing the donations.

It is a tough place to be in for them as they also understand that all of this stuff is to much for the kids, but at the same time they survive on donations and do not want to offend any of the givers.

So after watching what has been happening all month long, we wanted to change the kids mindset from that of "poor kid at the Casa Hogar, what did you bring me?" to "you are a blessed child in so many ways with more toys than you need."

So we took the kids shopping at Walmart and they each bought a toy or clothes, whatever they wanted, for another child their same age for Pastor Victor's children and the other kids we serve in Tres Reyes.

Then they each wrapped the gifts and wrote a note on them for the kids that they will go to. And in January, we are going to take all of the kids out to Tres Reyes with their gifts to deliver them in person and experience the joy of giving!

Here is a link to our who day where you can view all of the pictures and the video here:

http://media.agconrad.com/Back2BackCancun/San-Jose/CHSJ-Christmas-2012

Or you can click play for just the video of our day here:

#ConradQ&A2012 - Post #1

This is the first part in our #ConradQ&A series.

We wanted to ask our partners, sponsors and followers on Facebook and Twitter what they wanted to know about us and what they wanted us to blog about.

WARNING: Bear with me on this as it is quite long and detailed.

We got a great response, and here are some answers to your questions.



Question (Series) #1 - From: Ty Morelock

What have you done? 

What are you doing? 

What are the goals for the future? 

How can we help reach those goals?

Answers:

What have you done?

Our first year here has been a whirlwind, but we have spent the majority of our time doing the following: moving, finding a place to live, learning the language, adapting to a new culture (this is still happening daily), leading short term groups, and we took over Casa Hogar San Jose as captains and began orchestrating all work done at the home as well as overseeing each area of the child development model  in each child to make sure that they are receiving holistic orphan care. This is the short list, the long list involves many more hats and many more projects and planning sessions.

On top of these things, we have also launched an entirely new web site with specifics about the Cancun site and how to get involved here as well as keep up with us and what we are doing with our ministry partners.

I have also been taking photos and videos that are being used by staff worldwide for marketing and fundraising including the Fall 2012 Back2Back Magazine cover image as well as many of the photos for the articles inside.

What are you doing?

As we continue to move forward as an organization, our focus is shifting increasingly toward holistic orphan care and what that means down to an individual basis for each child that we serve.

What I mean by this, is that along with continuing in what we are doing with the the physical properties of the children's homes, continuing to invite others to serve alongside of us through short term groups, pioneering a Hope program based on foster families rather than residential group based living, and pioneering a program for orphan and trafficking prevention through family assistance, we are continuing to generate new processes and ideas toward fulfilling holistic care in all of the five areas of each and every child's life that we serve.

For Anna and I, this means a continual evaluation process and paperwork for each child at San Jose and planning out tutoring, therapy, one on one time, and activities that will continue to build into the areas where the child needs the most attention.


What are the goals for the future? 

The overarching goal of everything we do at Back2Back is:

"the sustainability of the orphan child, each child becoming prayerfully dependent on Jesus, and independent in his or her community"

Underneath this overarching goal, we have developed our Child Development Model (CDM) that covers five distinct areas of a child's whole being: Spiritual, Physical, Educational, Emotional and Social.

Everything we do as a ministry and as a staff is filtered through these five areas. Every dollar spent, every activity planned, every project worked on is either approved or cancelled based on these five areas. If we can see no value in one of these areas in something that we are doing, then it is placed on hold or cancelled and the resources (both staff time and donor monies) are reallocated toward programs and activities that are meeting the needs of the children in these areas.

So within this, we have many goals for the future. I cannot speak for the organization as a whole or even for the Cancun site as a whole, so I will speak only of Anna and I's goals for this next year with San Jose.

#1 - Get the Head caretaker's and their superior in Mexico City to Monterrey in April for the Latin American Summit on the Orphan that is being jointly hosted by Back2Back and the Christian Alliance for the Orphan. We desperately want the nuns to be educated on the dangers of institutionalized care for children as we continue to try to move towards family based care.

#2 - A second story for San Jose. This is the sisters' greatest need right now as all of the sisters and the 11 kids at the home share two bedrooms and two bathrooms. We need a significant donation to move this forward, but want the sisters to attend the Summit in April first as we want them to consider using this additional space to create separate family apartments where one sister would live with 2-4 kids creating a more family like environment.

#3 - Psychological evaluations for each child, and those that need therapy or medications receive it as well as continued mental health care

#4 - Develop relationship with the DIF (Department of Family Services) in the county in which San Jose is in in order to better understand the needs of the surrounding area where the children's parents live and to begin to look at options for assisting the parents in order to reunite the families (where it is appropriate and safe).

#5 - Get the HOPE program for Cancun off the ground and fully funded as we have one child graduating this year and another next year and need to be prepared for them, should they choose to further their education.

#6 - Continue and expand our tutor program to continue to help the kids catch up and/or excel at school. We have already begun to see great results with a few kids even making the honor roll for the first time ever!


How can we help reach those goals?

This is such a great question and as someone who fundraises daily, is one of my favorite questions to hear.

There are always so many areas to to help, wether that is leading a group to come down to serve alongside of us, or just mailing a check in. Here are a few areas that you could donate towards to help us achieve these goals:

#1 - Staff Support. The only way that we are able to be here working daily for these kids is through the support of individuals just like you who have a heart for the orphan and partner with us by donating so that we can be here full time working towards achieving these goals. This is a very important aspect of us being able to reach these goals, because the less time we have to spend fundraising for ourselves, the more we are able to work towards achieving sustainability and success in these kids lives.

#2 - Donations towards our ministry partner workers being able to attend the summit. Back2Back's role is one of support for the locals doing the work, and the more educated they are in what we are doing and trying to achieve in each child's life, the easier it is to work together and see progress.

#3 - A second story for San Jose. We are in need of roughly $30,000 USD to upgrade the existing building as well as add on the second story of living space for San Jose. Obviously, not many people are able to write a check this large, but every little bit helps toward this project and you could always lead a fundraiser in your community or at your church to help even if you can't give a dime.

#4 - HOPE Program funding for Cancun. We have one student already in the program, David, as well as one entering this year and one more that we are hoping to accelerate as she is the top student in her entire school. This is a great need for us to be able to achieve this goal in the coming year.



Question (Series) From: Shannon Runnels

What does the day-in, day-out routine look like for you? Do you get weekends "off" or do you work seven days a week?

Answers:

What does the day-in, day-out routine look like for you? Do you get weekends "off" or do you work seven days a week?

I have often remarked: "there are no weekdays or weekends in this job, only group days and non-group days"

During the spring and summer months, this is very much the case as most of the time, I honestly don't even know what day of the week it is. I can only tell you which site we are going to and what projects and activities are planned for the day. During these 5-7 months, we are "on" or working whenever there are groups here. A typical group day begins by leaving the house at 7:30am and getting home between 8:00 and 11:00pm.  We do try to schedule to get a day off every now and then, especially in the summer when we have 7 weeks of continuos groups.

The other 5-7 months of the year, we average about 1-2 groups per month and the schedule is a bit more relaxed. We have much more time to spend at the children's home by ourselves. Anna and I go to San Jose at least two to three times per week when we do not have groups here. This is also when we do the majority of our staff trainings, strategic planning, project planning, long term CDM mapping and evaluations as well as fundraising, traveling for support development and some date nights with the wife here and there ;)

It is a schedule that is very far from "traditional". It goes from feast to famine as far as time goes and you have to be able to manage stress and your time very well as well as flip a switch to go into overdrive when things get crazy (which seems to happen to often).



So those are the first two series of questions. Hope they were helpful and informative for you and I will have the next set of questions and answers up soon!

The Inadequacy of Words

There are so many situations and times in life, where our words fall miserably short of what we want to express.

A simple "thank you", on this special day, is certainly one of those times for us.

We want to say thank you to you, but at the same time we want to show you how much you mean to us and how much we value you and the words "thank you" just don't come close to saying it.

So on this day of gratitude, we just want you all to know, that we are mindful every day of the prayers you pray for us, the sacrifices you make to support us financially and that we are overjoyed in our thankfulness for you and the impact you have chosen to make in this world and specifically in the heart of the orphan child in Cancún through partnering with us in our ministry.

We are blessed to be able to spend this holiday with family and pray that you are experiencing the blessings of our Father in HEaven and are as grateful as we are for the many gifts he has placed in all of our lives.

THANK YOU!

You Have No Right To Happiness

Did you know, that as a son or daughter of God, you do not have the right to live a happy life?

We have been conditioned by this world to believe that our happiness is a right, that the greatest thing that we can strive for is a long and happy life.

The only problem is that this "right" is not written anywhere in the Bible. Nowhere does God tell us that our happiness is His goal or intention for us.

Our only purpose on this earth is to glorify God.

Thats it. No more, no less.

You have been given this day, today to learn how to rely on God more and bring glory to Him.

Nothing else.

I think that this confusion is why so many struggle with death.

Death, is seemingly totally contrary to the idea that our happiness and a long and full life is our right.

But that is not what death is.

As someone much smarter than me said: "Death can make you better or it can make you bitter!"

When your perspective of life on this side of Heaven is correct and you see your time here for what it really is, an ongoing opportunity to worship your creator through your words, actions, finances and time; to share that undeserving love that you have been given graciously with everyone who comes across your path.

While we have not been promised or guaranteed happiness in this life, we can walk in the promise of ever-sufficient grace to get through everything that we endure as God teaches us to trust in Him.

One of my favorite theological questions (thats more of a statement) goes  something like this (paraphrased of course):

"Humans questioning God's plans for our lives is the same as the clay questioning the potter's masterful design."

I am so thankful for the example I had in my Father-in-law, Carlos. He lived his life fully embracing this mindset, and was faithful to his creator up to the moment he joined his savior in paradise.

We don't know why he was called home when he was, when it seemed to our human understanding, he and his family (us) were robbed of so many more years with him, but we know that God's hand was in it and still is.

We know beyond a shadow of a doubt, that in the pain, in the sorrow, there is that peace that passes all understanding and a joy that is unexplainable.

We can not thank you enough for the prayers and support. We are so blessed to have the family support system that we do and the incredible church families, friends, and ministry partners that daily sacrifice their time and finances to support us and lift us up in prayer.

We can not express to you how grateful we are for the many expressions of condolences we received and all of the prayers. They were and are a huge blessing to us and continue to lift our spirits daily.

Our prayer for you is that you are one day blessed with the same view of this life and our hastening death that we have and has allowed us to truly live this life to the fullest, in service and worship to our creator, our savior, our Father in the lives of the children that we are so blessed to serve here in Cancún.

Anna's Dad, Carlos

Pastor Carlos Salazar

For those of you who have not heard, Anna's father, Carlos passed away late Saturday night. We are so thankful for the many emails and calls that we have received and for those asking how they can help.

It has been heartwarming in this difficult time to see and feel the true love and support from all of our family, frends, supporters and Back2Back family around the globe.

Anna and her two sisters (all of whom work with Back2Back as missionaries in Mexico) were able to fly up to Michigan a week ago and spend the last few days together as a family. Kai and I flew up first thing Sunday morning to join the rest of the family.

While we mourn our loss of a wonderful husband, father, grandfather, spiritual leader and mentor, we are rejoicing that he is no longer in pain, and is with his savior whom he loved dearly and could not wait to see.

For those that live near Kalamazoo and have been asking about service location and times, here is the information:

Viewing and Service will be held at Carlos' church:

Iglesia Misionera Evangelica "Yo Soy"
551 Phelps Avenue
Kalamazoo, MI 49048

Viewing and the service will be held tomorrow, Wednesday October 31.

Viewing - 4:00pm - 6:00pm
Funeral Service - 6:00pm

We have also had many of our supporters, friends and family asking how they can help. What we really need is help with the costs of the funeral.

The Michigan Region of the Missionary church, whom Carlos pastored hispanic congregations and church plants, has graciously opened a Memorial Fund for Carlos.

You can make checks out to Michigan Region, Missionary Church and write in the Memo line of the check: "Carlos Salazar Memorial"

You can then mail the checks to the district office at:

Missionary Church, Michigan Region
1091 Creekwood Trail
Burton, MI 48509

If you would like to donate online, you may do so via Paypal to our account by logging into Paypal and slecting Send Money. Then enter our Paypal email address of andrewgconrad@hotmail.com and we will pass this along to Anna's Mom to help with the funeral costs.

Thank you again for all of the prayers, phone calls, email's, FB messages, comments and texts. We are overwhelmed by your caring hearts and geniune sympathies.

Though these are very difficult days, we are placing our hope in our God whose love never fails, whose faithfulness never falters, whose will and timing is perfect, and whose grace is always sufficient.

If you have any questions about anything or something I may have forgot to mention in this letter, please let us know via email at aconrad@back2back.org.

Fiestas, Bullies, and Teeth

This week has been filled with "To Do" lists.

So it can be very difficult to stay focused on the things that really matter...the kids.

Between moving our group house to a new location, starting up our new Fall VBS programs with all of our ministry partners, and launching our new website, it was one of those weeks that, if you are not careful, you can spend all your time laboring away at the menial (somewhat necessary) managerial tasks, and completely miss out on the real needs, ministry, and relationship nurturing that must continue to happen no matter how busy we get.

So, let me share three little highlights from this past week that had absolutely nothing to do with the hustle and bustle of back-end ministry management...

#1

Last Friday, we headed out to San Jose in the morning with Mau and Lizy to treat all the kids for lice. It was quite fun and most of the kids enjoyed having their heads massaged for 15-20 minutes...

#2

Last night, we took corn on the cob, a Mexican favorite, to San Jose to celebrate Kai's (our son) 2nd birthday with the girls. We had so much fun with them...

While we were there, we were abel to chat with Jorge, about some recent problems he has been having with a group of kids bullying him at school.

This is Jorge, at his finest...

It was a difficult conversation as he is really being bothered by them (no physical abuse or anything dangerous) and we were not sure what advice to give him. But we told him to try to kill them with kindness... please join with us in praying for Jorge and that these kids would stop bullying him.

#3

Last but not least, this morning, we were able to start taking the kids from San Jose to the dentist for much needed work to be done!

The first two lucky ones were Mari and Sofi...

Mari definitely had it the worst as she had to have two of her molars pulled...

Sofi had to have two fillings put it in...

They both did great and have appointments next Tuesday for quite a bit more work to be done. It has been a huge blessing to have a local dentist partnering with Back2Back and offering her time free of charge and only charging us for the cost of materials needed! 

PRAISE GOD!!

All New Web Presence

I am so excited to finally tell you about our new websites that are now live!

They are filled with lots of great information and our home page is now streamlined with our Blog page and our Media page for a completely seamless experience!

Here are screen shots of the sites & you can click on the pictures to visit the sites!

www.agconrad.com

For all of our videos and photos, check out our media site

media.agconrad.com

Our hope is that our web presence will be a tool of communication with you as well as a tool for you to share with others you know that may want to get involved in orphan care and serving with us through partnership or visiting and working alongside of us.

Please feel free to check out the sites and let us know if you have any feedback or questions!

I would also like to add that our organization, recently rolled out their new site as well, and you can check it out by clicking the picture of it below!

www.back2back.org

Fight The Good Fight

It has been a few weeks since we have been back in Mexico since returning to the States for fundraising the first two weeks of September.

There has been so much going on since we got back, from school starting up and new tutors starting work at Oti's house and San Jose, to changing houses for our groups, to just this last week, having an amazing group of couples from Indianapolis down to visit and serve alongside of us.

It has also been very difficult at times.

We know that each step forward in ministry is taken from am unrelenting enemy, that fights desperately against the power of the blood of Christ.

We know that Satan continues to claim that he owns this city. He thinks that he has the rights to the children and families that grow up homeless and fatherless, that poverty and hopelessness will keep these people in bondage to him, that lust and materialism will continue to reign over the hearts and minds of the thousands that visit here daily, but he is WRONG!

Just as Ephesians 6:12 says:

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

And even though we know that we are under attack and this city is oppressed constantly by the enemy,

He does not get to lay claim to this city!

He does not get to claim the hearts and minds of the poor and downtrodden!

He does not get to claim the money and wasted lives of those who vacation here!

And he most certainly does not get to claim the hope and future of these precious children!

The blood of Calvary has already broken the hold he thinks he has on this city. The blood that was shed for you and me has already claimed the hope and future of these kids, and the death he died on that cross took the punishment for every sin being committed in the hearts of those who visit here.

He does not own this place and he will not have any dominion over this city and those in it.

And when he attacks, as we know he will, we will speak out loud of the promises of our faithful God and beat him off of the poor and oppressed and the hopeless with the cross of Calvary which Jesus soundly beat him with two thousand years ago.

I really cant explain to you why I needed to write this down, if for no other reason than to say it out loud and to speak the truth of the Word to the constant attack we find ourselves under.

Not that there are not days that are great, filled with wonderful ministry and times with the kids and with family and fellow staff members, but this is a time of year when the enemy tries desperately to gain ground with the holidays here in Mexico, Day of the Dead, and with Halloween in the states.

I know Pastor Randy at our home church of FCC always does a series in October on Victory over Shadows, and being outside of the US for the first time, it is much easier to see just how powerful those shadows are and how much they are attempting to gain ground this time of year.

I want to urge you to pray along with us. Not just for us (although we need it badly if you can ;) ) but also with us. Pray against the lies that this season has nothing to do with spiritual warfare. Against the lies that a little halloween fun and scary movies does not open doors to an enemy seeking to destroy you and your family.

Please join with us in prayer this month because we serve one who has already claimed the victory for us, but only if we seek after it with Him. If our hearts are apathetic to the spiritual warfare going on around us, we are losing this battle.

So, pray. Please pray. For us, for our staff, for the kids and families we are serving here, for the people who visit this city every week who are lost, for your own home and family, and against the enemy who is working so hard to destroy us.

Birthday Bash!

It has been a very busy 6 weeks since we last posted!

A week of training in Monterrey at the main campus, learning much about Back2Back's Child Development Model and how to go a mile deep with each child we serve to bring about the most holistic healing...

After returning to Cancún on August 19th, we had 10 days to prepare for our first trip back to the states since we left as well as throw one huge birthday bash for all of our July and August birthdays at Casa Hogar San Jose!



We celebrated birthdays for Perla:

Ami:

Bety:

And Maria Jose:

Each of the girls got to open their gifts from their Back2Back sponsors back int he states:

And of course we had lots of great food and some very fun (and messy) games!

For each one of the girls, Anna prepared and read out loud a little speech about the things we loved most about them and why they are so special! The girls loved it. Here is a video clip of Anna reading Bety's:



We were also blessed to be able to return to the states for two weeks for support development. We met with many of you and it was so good to be home and to catch up.

We also met with new possible donors, mailed out letters to our annual givers, and my Mom and many others held another fundraising event for us on September 9th!

It was a huge success and we raised over $8,000 and picked up several new monthly partners!

Thank you to all of you who serve alongside of us through your finances and prayer. You are an absolutely invaluable member of our ministry in Cancún!

Here are a couple photos from the fundraiser:

A Piece at a Time...

If you have never seen this video that Back2Back put out about the heart of the orphan child and what they truly go through, please take 4 minutes and watch it. The rest of this post revolves around what Beth is talking about here...

The last two weeks have been so great for us. We have had so many opportunities to spend time with the girls from San Jose.

Each day that we picked them up for VBS and watched them sing and dance and pray was a beautiful highlight.

Each time they would sing at the top of their voices to the worship songs in our car, I breathed a thank you to God for blessing us with the opportunity of being a part of their lives and watching what He is doing in them.

And each time I saw their faces twist into a smile for no other reason than they saw us, my heart melted and I once again had to thank God for giving us the opportunity of being called to serve here in Mexico.

Each day we spent with them, whether it was taking them to VBS:

or taking them to see a movie about how they can grow up and be anything they want to be, or discussing after that movie that with Jesus, they can truly be who they were meant to be:

or teaching them worship songs for the first time, or hearing them scream that high pitched scream when they saw us, it was like the Lord was saying, there is one more piece put back where it belongs, a little bit closer to the great woman of God I have called her to be...

I really can't begin to describe the joy of knowing that I get to be a part of how the Lord is working in these girls lives, but many of you know the feeling well because you have come down and served alongside of us and built into their lives also, or you are planning to in the future.

I just had to say thank you.

First, to God for allowing us to be a part of His work here, that he started long before we came.

And second, to all of you who support us and serve alongside of us in this as you are every bit as involved as we are in putting pieces of these kids hearts back where their Heavenly Father designed them to be.