Hello friends and family!

Last time I wrote I told you about the amazing things God is doing in East Dallas. I will share with you some more of the great things and some of the heartbreaking things that make up YWAM Dallas.

Some of the stories of East Dallas:

We have a "family" dinner on Wednesdays. Three young men came and wanted to eat with us. I said yes, even though we were all slightly afraid of them. As we were eating I asked Mao to share his testimony. The guys were listening, and then some of the boys from Timothy House began to tell them about the Lord. Two of them were listening, but one of them ( I will call him C ) began to laugh and howl like a wolf. I told him to stop and he said that the Lord never listens to him. That God is not real. I jumped out of my seat, ran over to his side of the table and said to him, face to face, that I promise him if he will get on his knees right now, God will show up. He got up and ran out the door. Every time I see him, I go hug him and tell him I am praying for him. This has been months. Then last week, C came into the YWAM house and sat with me and told me he wants to die. I asked him why and he said he is 19 years old, in the 9th grade ( and now kicked out of school) has four children by four different women, and has never seen one of them. What do you say to someone with that kind of life??? I told him I did not have the answer but God does. That He had a way to make a good life for him. He started crying and I prayed for him. I told him I would be willing to help him get into a GED prep course if he wanted. Pray for C.

One of the boys that lives with us was in trouble because he does not tell anyone where he is going, when he is coming back etc. I was talking to him about accountability and he said to me: My parents never made me tell them where I was going. They really did not care. I am not really used to people telling me what to do, I am just used to them hitting me. Sigh.....

Some of the kids went pool hopping and got caught and got in trouble with some of the people from the apartment where the pool was. They ended up calling the police on the boys, and one of our boys went to jail for outstanding warrants. We wondered what the warrants were for. Stealing? Drugs? Gang violence? David looked the warrants up on the internet and guess what they were for? A police officer gave him tickets when he was 15 for not having a light on his bicycle. For not stopping at a crosswalk when riding a bicycle. Some other bicycle violation. The total due on these violations was around $650.00. He spend three days in jail with hardened criminals because some police officer wanted to harass him when he was 15. And people wonder why they hate police officers?

On a brighter note, enjoy the pictures below. I cannot thank all of you enough for the support you sent for these kids to go to camp. I cannot tell you how excited they are. I have the best friends and family. I love you all dearly.

Barbara

The 2010 YWAM Lap the Lake Walkathon was a huge success! The kids went door to door asking people to sponsor them to go to Kids Across America Camp in August. The idea was for people to pay them per mile that they walked. White Rock Lake was the location and to walk around the lake is 10 miles. I will admit I was a skeptic. I could not imagine our complainy kids making it 10 miles. BUT THEY DID! Many even ran it!! It was not only the 6th annual Walkathon, buy it was also the Great Race! The kids had to solve riddles and find clues to get to the next place!

Here are the Carillo boys, George and Robert the first and second place winners of the Walkathon!

It looks like David is preaching but he is really handing out prizes! Every kids who finished got McDonalds gift certificates and then there were bigger 1st - 4th prizes!

Isai is too tired for pictures!

Here comes Pedro in to the finish line!!!

Tori, who is physically challenged, was my partner. She walked probably one third of the Lake, which is a huge accomplishment for her!