We finished Operation Back To School yesterday after visiting the last four neighborhoods on our targets list.

Please see the completed photo diary of all the events. There are so many kids and so many new stories to tell.

This photo here captured my heart and re-solidified why we do what we do. My wife led the closing prayer, this little guy was filled with reverence as he folded his hands and bowed his head to accept Christ.

Please visit the photo sets of all the neighborhoods that we visited. There are over 500 pictures to tell the story.

+Pajarito

+ Santa Cruz

+Apple Valley

+ Las Lomas

+Vista Del Rio

+Santa Clara

By Daniel

Saturday, August 2, 2008 10:48 PM

Day One of Operation Back To School

Operation Back To School started today, we visited 4 neighborhoods,(Loma Vista, Pajarito, Apple Valley, and Santa Clara  Apartments) we gave 155 backpacks filled with school supplies to children from grades k-12. We had over 25 Pre-K children who received coloring books, and crayons.

Operation Back To School Highlights, over 310 + attended, dozens of give-a-ways, 10 new mentee applications for HYA, and a special visit from the Dog -Rovercomer, The Rock Christian Fellowships children ministry mascot. ( The children loved him). We also had a special visit from the Rio Grande Sun Newspaper; Staff Writer Sarah Walsh.

Please visit the growing Photo Diary here

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Alliance Helps Needy With School Supplies

By Polly Summar
Journal Staff Writer
“My kids are Catholic,” said the man answering the door at a La Loma Vista Apartments unit late Monday afternoon.
But that’s not a problem for Daniel Arellano and his youth volunteers with Hope for Youth Alliance. Canvassing the apartment complex, the group is simply looking for kids who are going to need backpacks and school supplies when school starts. It doesn’t matter what faith they or their parents are.
“Their faith is not a wall for us,” said Arellano, founder and president of the alliance and an associate pastor at The Rock Christian Fellowship.
The Hope for Youth Alliance has targeted five lower-income neighborhoods in Santa Fe and Rio Arriba counties and is going door to door this month finding the names, ages and schools of kids who need backpacks, from kindergarten through 12th grade. Six area banks have pledged their help — Century Bank in Española, Bank of America in Española, Community Bank in Española and Santa Fe, Zia Credit Union in Los Alamos and Española, Los Alamos National Bank and Valley National Bank in Española — and the alliance is also looking for individual donations of money and supplies.
“One local bank has an anonymous angel who has provided most of our needs for kindergarten through fifth grade,” Arellano said. “She’s dropped by over eight bags filled with supplies.”
Arellano knows that a filled backpack won’t solve all of a kid’s problems but said the alliance’s mission is to help kids succeed emotionally, spiritually and academically. He believes that being prepared with the right supplies for school is a start. Arellano said he’s read figures that a third of American families will not be able to afford school supplies this year.
His wife, Esperanza, operates the private academy at The Rock and has helped prepare lists for the various grades of what a backpack should hold, and the alliance has also contacted various schools for information.
Arellano comes by his interest in kids naturally.
“I have a heart for troubled kids,” said Arellano, 29, “because I was a troubled kid myself. I’m a graduate of the New Mexico Boys School.”
He describes bouts with truancy, drug use and incarceration.
“At the age of 13, a probation officer introduced me to Christ, and I started attending church and from there I started a whole new journey.”
Gradually working with kids at The Rock, Arellano was selected to attend a 15-month leadership initiative.
“That’s where my vision and my calling solidified to working with at-risk youth,” he said. With the creation of the Hope for Youth Alliance, a 501c3, Arellano now speaks to juvenile probation officers, local church and works with “some of their most incorrigible kids.”
The Hope for Youth Alliance has no paid staff, but Arellano’s salary is covered by the church as an associate pastor.
“Alongside my work as a pastor, I am doing this,” he said. “All our monies are generated for specific programs. Potentially, we’d like to be a premier mentoring organization.”
With many members of the group wearing T-shirts saying, “Got Mentors?” they say they like canvassing the neighborhoods.
“It’s pretty nice because we’re helping people,” said Daniel Martinez, 14.
In just 20 minutes of work on Monday, the some 25 volunteers had a list of 58 kids at the apartment complex who need backpacks. Arellano estimated that among the five neighborhoods, some 400 kids will need the filled backpacks.
The Alliance members will distribute the filled backpacks on Saturday and Sunday during parties in the various neighborhood with hot dogs, sodas, games and puppet shows.

See the Article here online

Our good friends over at Espanola Municipal court in conjunction with their Teen Court Program extended an invitation to HYA and RCF youth to participate in a two day trip to the Santa Fe Mountain Center to experience a time of creative learning in wilderness, community and cultural environment.

+ I am looking forward to being there for our scheduled trip. Due to Operation Back To School, I had to miss this great trust building experience with our youth.

View the full set of SF Mountain Center Pics here

These are photos from our annual family trip to White Rock Overlook Park.

Enjoy.

The Homeboys -Adullam Project Mens Home

The Homegirls- Beauty for Ashes Womens Home

View em all here

One of the biggest mysteries in the Bible concerns the timing of Jesus Christ’s return to earth. Although the Bible tells us no one knows the hour nor the day when the Lord will return, the Bible is filled with many indicators or conditions we can use to assess how close we may be to the season of His return.

+The Gospel will be preached in all the world before the physical return of Jesus Christ to the earth occurs at Armageddon, although exhaustive efforts are presently underway to accomplish this:
Matthew 24:14: And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.

+There will be scoffers:
The Bible tells us one of the key signs of the end times will be people doubting the return of Christ will ever happen.

2nd Peter 3:3-4: Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.

+

Humanity will be able to cross the globe rapidly

and science will be advancing:
Daniel 12:4: But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.

+Perilous times will come for mankind:
2nd Timothy 3:1: This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.

+Mankind will deny God once flooded the earth:
2nd Peter 3:5-6: For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:

+The earth will be swimming in a sea of violence:
As it was in the days of Noah (Luke 17:26), so it shall be at the end.

+There will be warfare all over the globe:
Mark 13:8: For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:

+There will be wars and rumors of war.
Matthew 24:6: And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all [these things] must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

+Deadly diseases will be rampant:
Matthew 24:7: For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.

+Famines will be common:
Matthew 24:7: For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.

+Earthquakes will be occurring globally:
Matthew 24:7: For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.

+There will be violent weather:
Luke 21:25- And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring;

+Children will be disobedient and rebellious:
2nd Timothy 3:2: For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,

+Mankind will be in a state of moral decay:
2nd Timothy 3:2-5: For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

+Religious cults will flourish:
2nd Peter 2:1: But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.

+Rising food prices

6 And I heard a voice from among the four living beings say, “A loaf of wheat bread or three loaves of barley will cost a day’s pay.^{[a ]} And don’t waste^{[b ]} the olive oil and wine.” Revelation 6:6

HT "HatTip": Paul Lujan Thanks for the Source

The Albuquerque Isotopes are committed to giving back to their community, spreading goodwill and promoting the positive aspects associated with baseball in particular and sports in general. The Albuquerque Isotopes want to “Take You Out to the Ballgame”. This community program provides deserving non-profit and community youth groups the opportunity to receive complimentary tickets to an Isotopes home game.We went to a Isotopes game last night, and we will be out there with two more groups of students from our program the next two nights.

Attention Mentors: If you have yet to pick up your tickets please call me or email me to arrange to get your tickets. Also we will not be able to travel as planned as a group, because our van broke down on us, we had to be picked up by our school bus at 12:00 AM off of I 25, 30 miles south of Santa Fe. The kids who were able to go last nights enjoyed themselves and got to stay up way past their bedtime.

The Rock Academy and HYA Youth at Isotopes Park

View Isotopes set here

You are cordially invited to Hope for Youth Alliance Mentor training on Thursday, April 17 2008 at 6:30 pm

Place; Rock Christian Fellowship/919 N. Riverside Dr/ Espanola, NM 87532/ Please contact us here by Email.

Come learn about how you can develop a transformational mentoring relationship with a kid in your community. We have over 25 youth on a waiting list you may be the one.

Youth at risk face the following problems:

• Delinquency
• School Failure
• Drug and alcohol abuse
• Gang involvement
• Violence
• Broken families
• Teen parenting

Youth involved in mentoring programs are:

• Less likely to start using drugs and alcohol
• Less likely to hit someone
• Less likely to skip school
• More likely to improve relationships with parents and peers

Thanks to Prestigous Car Club who came out strong in support of Jdubbs CD release party. The show was right outside The Rock Christian Fellowship located in Espanola, NM which prides itself as being the Lowrider Capital of the world. The car display is an easy bait to attract youth and the locals to attend a free hip hop event.

Here are some photos of a few of rides who came out.

View more here