Sweet Friends
On October 17, one of our precious teenage girls went into surgery to remove growths from 5 different areas of her face as well as removing a growth from her tongue. These surgeries are common and have been semi-frequent in her life as she lives with a rare skin disease which makes her skin extremely susceptible to skin cancer. Because of her condition, she is completely blind and we as a home, school and community have to take many precautions to protect her. Many of you have followed her story through different newsletters, and know that she has been able to attend El Camino, where both Reagan and I work. This is only her second year to attend El Camino and it is one of her favorite things. As a result of her surgery she could not attend school for a few weeks, and it made her recovery a lot harder. She was noticeably different in character, she was less happy, joyful and bubbly, she had an overall discouraged demeanor. Her absence from school did not only affect her but it was felt by all in her classroom and specifically by her best friend, Briany. About a week after her surgery, Briany came to visit and brought a little present. There were about 6 or 7 of us crowded into a small, dimly lit room and I told her that she had a special visitor. I imagine that between her ability to recognize the way people walk to their distinct smells she may have already known her sweet friend Brianny was standing in the doorway, because she let out a squeal in excitement. Her demeanor instantly changed and joy had overtaken the room. Briany had brought a gift, and with each item that was removed from the bag, there was another squeal. She ran her fingers through the fluffy hair ties and clips for her hair. She ran her hands over the crayons and pages that her friend brought to color with her. I don’t think there was a dry eye in the room as we watched this interaction between friends, best friends, something that we had prayed that she would gain through El Camino. How do I express how the Holy Spirit felt in the room/the moment? I don't think I can. A precious little girl brought a simple gift to her friend who was going through something hard and it covered us in goosebumps. The presence of the Lord was tangible. We sensed the love of Christ filling the room, maybe the moment He had been preparing this friendship for. Briany, filled to the brim with the fullness of God, overflowed and brought us such a sincere joy.
“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:16-19
Children's Center
The home keeps us busy, and we love it. In the last year I (Chase) have grown in so many ways, personally because of my work at the Home. It often is not easy but always rewarding. To know these kids is to love these kids. Love is what gets us through, and keeps us going. A large number of our kids in our home are transitioning from “tweens” to “teens”, which comes with a whole new world of curve balls. You really never know what to expect and it keeps me on my toes. But we count it all joy and trust God every step of the way.
El Camino
If you’ve ever talked to me (Reagan) about the staff at El Camino I’ve probably told you continually how amazed I am at the ways I’ve seen God provide over the last five years. I’m sort of a broken record about it but it always grows my faith to tell someone else about God’s perfect timing and provision. I’ve learned each year how God works in our weakness. This year has been no exception. Chase and I are blessed to work on a phenomenal team of people who all share the goal of discipleship through education. On December 14th El Camino students will share the Luke 2 Scripture of Christmas with all invited families at our annual Christmas Program. It's beautiful to see the kids hiding the Scriptures away in their hearts especially in this advent season.
Our school is doing in a virtual angel tree. Our kids and teachers chose items they would like for our school and we added them to our wishlist and then place them on our tree. Here is the link to “Claim an Angel” if you would like to participate: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/3PMQQT9JS2U5P?ref_=wl_share
PRAISES:
The young lady mentioned above was able to return to school and continues to heal more and more daily.
God continues to provide for every need we have.
So many people joined together to send really special gifts for the kids at our home for Christmas!
PRAYERS:
Reagan continues to struggle with chronic hives off and on. Please pray for these to be completely healed. We continue to look for the right balance of medication to control this.
Please pray that our Christmas Program on the 14th will spark Gospel conversation in our kids’ homes this Christmas season.
Pray for the continual language learning.
THANK YOU
The Grays
