God is Still God.

Sorry its been awhile since my last blog post. I have not been very intentional in making sure this gets done. Every time I make my way to start writing I get distracted and thrown off course. We have had a good couple of weeks of American groups coming down. The past two weeks have been filled with whole digging, dirt moving, cement pouring, and rebar bending fun.

I would like to take this time to share some statistics with you about the orphans in the world. These number have been running through my head the past few weeks and at some points overwhelming me.

--There are approximatively 148 million orphans in the world according to the World Health Organization

--Only 8 million of those 148 million orphans are in a institution (who knows how many of those institutions actually meet their physical, spiritual, and emotional needs)

--That means there are 140 million children roaming the streets, serving as slaves or prostitutes, fighting wars as child solders, and who knows what else

--There are about 250,000 child solders

-- 90% of orphan girls fall into black market prostitution

That is a BIG problem which needs a BIGGER solution. For someone, who has felt a call in their life towards the plight of the orphan, those numbers can look awfully daunting. I often get caught up in the numbers. I look at those statistics as they permeate them in my mind, and I quickly lose heart. I begin to let doubts and conjectures slip into my head. What can one person do for such a big problem? How can my life and work even make a chip off the block? The truth of the matter is I can do nothing to fix the problem. I can do nothing to provide a adequate and feasible solution. I can do nothing. I quickly let this problem and lack of my ability to fix it consume me and dishearten me. Whats going to happen? How is this OK? Who will love them? In all this thought process somehow I easily forget one simple thing. God is still God!

Thursday night I went to Casa Hogar Douglas to help entertain the kids while some others began the process of bathing them. If there is one children's home, that I have interacted with and connected to on a deeper level then any other it would be Douglass. We put on a movie to watch with the kids while the care givers began marching them in for a shower one by one. One little girl, named Fatima, has really stolen my heart. She ran up to me and jumped into my arms. Throughout the entire movie she was lounging in my lap as if I was her leather recliner. Occasionally she would grab me head, bring it down to hers, give me a kiss on the cheek, and proceed to tell me thank you for everything. I have experiences few actions of gratitude that have moved me more.

As I sat there with that precious child, who preceded to tell me every single thing about the movie we were watching, my frustrations, doubts, and anxieties towards the orphan's cause and my role in it began to melt away. For the first time in awhile, I began to realize and understand the idea of starting with one child at a time in the effort for the orphan's cause. Thats all I can do, and with Christ love that little effort, that one step, becomes something so much bigger and grander then I could ever of imagined. God loves these children. For some wild reason which I am not strong enough to understand, He wants to use me. He will move. I will do little. He will do a lot. God be glorified. The world be changed. I am more then okay with this. Use me! Send me! God is still God.

I challenge you to not lose hope in the Sovereignty of God when you see trials of many kind in and around your life. I challenge you to not let your trust fall when you see the pains in this world. May you have 'faith like potatoes'. You may not be able to see the potatoes as the soil, water, and sun do their work, but the potatoes are growing. You may not always be able to see God move in, around, and through you, but God is moving. Trust in God and rely on Him. God is still God.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Roman 8:28

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything... But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind

James 1:2-4, 6

May your afflictions be eclipsed by His Glory.

Love,

Andrew Dixon

Back to the Normal

Just wanted to time to say thank you for all of your prayers during the storms, and to let you know that the rain has stopped. Things are beginning to dry out here, finally. We have spent the past week just repairing our property and serving the Rio areas. The groups came in today. It is good to get back to the normal schedule. The new interns for July are here. They have a great heart and serve to there fullest extent. I am very excited to get to know them and work with them these next three weeks. Tomorrow I head off to Rio 1. My prayer this week is that God uses me tomorrow and the rest of this week in a way He never has before. That He would stretch me and bring me to a new point. That I would work outside of my comfort zone for him. I have three weeks left here in Monterrey. I am really excited to see what God does in these last three weeks.

Continue to pray for..

flood recovery for the rio areas

the abandoned children of Monterrey.. for there hearts to continue to be healed'

God Bless,

Andrew Dixon

Hurrican Alex -- Monterrey Mexico

So if you are wondering were I have been for the past several days, I now have the chance to tell you. I have been fighting through a hurricane, getting sick because of one, and cleaning up after one. Hurricane Alex hit Monterrey, Mexico on Thursday July 1, 2010. By the time it hit Monterrey, Alex had actually been downgraded to a tropical storm. However, I have never seen a tropical storm bring so much rain in my entire life. Withing 36 hours Monterrey had received 40 inches of rain. This is not good at all for a city thats has the water retention of desert. Everything started to flood. The city lost one of its most major highways to the river. The downtown area has close to 20 ft. of rain in the streets. Almost all of the homes here on our campus have received some flood damage. The most catastrophic and depressing part of the storm was the people who lived in the poor Rio areas completely lost their homes and everything in them. There are about 20 estimated deaths so far. However, by the grace of God all of the Children's Homes were spared.

People searching for items to rebuild their homes with in the Rio 3. That river is normally dry.

The storm began on Wednesday....... We went out into the Rio areas and did what little prep work we could before the storm hit. After 4 hours of rain we had to make our way home, and within only 4 hours, we were driving through 4 feet of rain in some areas along the major highway.

The real storm began on Thursday. By late Thursday morning we were building trenches around campus trying to save the homes from the water. We were blowing holes through the walls surrounding our facility in order to relieve the water pressure building up on the other side and to let it escape out of our property.

These are some of the picture of the water runing through our property. It only got worst that night. Several of us stayed up all night long working on water control for the sake of the property and those staying in it. Several sink holes formed that night, some as deep as 5 feet.

Above are the picture of the two bridges that we have to cross in order to leave our property. We were at one point afraid the bridges would collapse and we would be stuck. There is about 5 feet of water rushing over the first one. Both of these are normally dry creek beds.

Above are two picture of the floods affect on the city. That river normally has little to no water in it. The road that was taken out is how we used to get to the airport. Now we have two go a roundabout way that takes an hour or longer.

For those of you that knew I was sick for a few days with a infection or something from the water, thank you for all your prayers for they have healed me.

We have so much to give thanks for done here even after this massive amounts of rain.

-- No drought this summer.

--The children's homes were spared by a miracle of God.

-- No lives lost among those that we serve.

--The people of Rio 3 were able to find physical and spiritual Shelter in the church.

--Several people in Rio 1 were spared and are now choosing to serve others in greater need.

--We have our health.

--We have our shelter.

--God is still sovereign and He is still the God of this city.

Please continue to pray for the people in the rio areas who have lost their homes. We have been running both clean water and food to those areas. Continue to pray for their safety, food, health, shelter, and clean water.

If you would like to donate to the flood relief through the ministry that I work with down here, you can do so by following the link.

http://www.back2backministries.org/index.php/internationalMinistry/story/96/international/

Oh hey its raining again....

Thank you for your continued prayers and Support,

Love,

Andrew Ryan Dixon

P.s. Here is a video showing some of the devastation in Monterrey..

It's pretty crazy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3rpPkIO1x4

p.s.s. Please pray.... Bonnie may be coming our way

http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/gulf-of-mexico-faces-possible-tropical-storm-or-hurricane-named-bonnie/19541747?icid=main|welcome|dl1|link4|http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/gulf-of-mexico-faces-possible-tropical-storm-or-hurricane-named-bonnie/19541747&sms_ss=facebook