Hey guys - please read this letter from Jen regarding recent events with her family in Mexico.
Dear Church Family,
This is by far the most difficult letter I have written. I never thought I would find myself needing to depict my afflictions and trust in another for this type of support. It has been a two and a half month process to finally get these words down and I assure you all, an extremely broken and blessed road to have found myself choosing to take after the loss. The shock of losing my sister has not really left me yet, but the anger, disbelief, and confusion has been washed away. I was asked to write this letter a couple of weeks after it happened in order to let you all know how one could be of help in this situation. In all honesty, I was afraid of requesting support because I thought I could handle it alone. I was also in my anger and disbelief unwilling to share the pain because I was not ready to acknowledge my sister’s death. It’s silly how for weeks I kept thinking she would return; no confirmation of it made it real. I had to take my time in allowing God to walk me through the process and confirm ONLY His love, always present comfort, and His reasoning for taking her. These past months I was able to morn and I have seen how much God’s hand has been at work through this in my life.
My sister….
Hashlee Nicole Serrano was born December 6th 1990 and died December 10th 2011. I would really like to celebrate this wonder of a person. She was beautiful, both inside and out. Nothing negative ever came out of her mouth and she always found a way to minimize large obstacles to size for overcoming them. She married very young and I received constant pushes to do the same. Not just because it is culturally unacceptable to be unmarried at 23, but because she genuinely wanted me to be happy and learn what love was in that sense. She had it all at a young age, the job, the husband, and a child whom she adored beyond measure. There is only one person in my life I have experienced jealous feelings towards and it was her. Because she was always so darn happy! Anything she was given in life, could have been a big pile of %$&#, she would think the world of. This translated into her love for others. Oh how she loved people. If you were sad, no matter how big your falsie smile, she knew it and she would hound you until you told her what was hurting you. If you were happy she would celebrate excessively and that was so annoying to me, then. Now I would take her laughter and unending questions any day to tell her what really eats me and what truly brings joy to my life.
A list of what she loved: God, family, friends, books (autobiographies), learning, working, simple food (fruits mostly), Mexican ice cream (strawberry), a great dress and heals (pink or animal print), singing, chewing gum, the beach, old movies and laughter. When she was younger she would imitate different laughs or when she heard someone laugh unwillingly she would make certain to tell how fake they were. She would tell you it was a waste you even thought of giggling like a fool when you didn’t mean it. It was such an intimate and cherished affair of hers to laugh. Before she passed I found out it was because she loved the small feelings it produced inside her, if even for a few seconds, laughing made her feel alive and that was how she felt God. He tickled her when most of the world frowned upon her and because there wasn’t much laughter in our household growing up. It’s quite contagious; since she has passed I have laughed more than ever and begun to enjoy the amazing people God has left me with. I often think of how young she was to die, but when I see how packed full her existence was of grace, joyfulness, and love. If she was just a glimpse of how God feels and seeks us, even when we are tired and annoyed by his knocking at our doors, I can see 21 years well precluded onto His glory.
The way she was taken leaves details in my memory that I would like to omit, but I would like to share this. My biological family was ordered to move out of the city they were living in after she died. Culiacan, Sinaloa is the leading city for drug trafficking in Mexico. Culiacan was a triumphant city where three families built an empire of drugs and violence. In 2008 one of the men leading in this was arrested and this caused great political and civil uproar. The government tried to fight the powerful influence, but had grown create great political, economical, and social unrest. Devastated the city gave into these leaders as they were given no choice but to aid in the drug cartel.
A journalist wrote:
“You don’t have to be involved with drugs in order to be affected. It has become a way of life. People have surrendered their streets. To go from your own doorstep to your neighbor’s is like crossing an abyss. Here the danger is being alive, not being a narco or a gunman.”
I am aware of my real family’s contributions to this and I share this to bring awareness and show where my heart along with my siblings has been these past months. I would like for you all to join me in prayer for this city and the impact it has had worldwide from illegal and detrimental substances. I would love for you all to keep in mind the people there that are being forced to grow up in this environment. Being a product of such a life and being delivered from it has opened my eyes to it. I have a greater understanding of its affects and most amazingly gaining an understanding of God’s overall power and control to bring justice and His love to this place. I admit to being angry with God for allowing my siblings to be brought up there and I didn’t realize how much anger I still had over my own childhood, but that anger has dissipated as I think about how God uses people to make Himself known. I am grateful for God using my family to bring awareness to this place and thankful that in this ruined place God planted my sister for others. To experience her laughter, her happiness amidst the hopelessness of their circumstances, I know now her being there was part of his masterful plan.
In conclusion, I was asked to write about how you can help in this circumstance and this is how we as a family see our greatest needs to be:
I have six younger siblings that have been placed in homes. In February they were settled in Wasco, California and Tecate, Baja California. They are not allowed to return to Culiacan without losing their American citizenship. One of my younger siblings is pregnant and is due in the next couple of months. Her name is Leslie Jhovany Briceno. She is currently living with an aunt in Tecate, but our goal is to get her moved into her own place where she can care for her two daughters. Esteban Serrano was Hashlee’s twin and has been having a hard time finding work in Tecate. Our goal is to provide for him to get on his feet also and return to school to finish carpentry and building. He used to work at a furniture store in Culiacan. He has requested a need financially for that. He suffers from Schizophrenia and finding help for him in Tecate has been difficult, so my greatest request for him is prayer that God brings the right doctors and support for him. As for Leslie, baby items would be greatly appreciated. Two weeks ago Jorge, who is 15 was getting ready to join the soccer team for school and when he had his physical taken, he was referred to a doctor and shortly after was diagnosed with Tuberculosis. TB is now a very rare disease that is found in impoverished towns or villages. In the US treatments for it have been put in the back burner since the 70s since it has pretty much become extinct here. The medications for this are very expensive and he is expected to be on a nine month treatment. TB is attacking his brain and I just ask if you would like to contribute to this in some way, to write him letters. He would appreciate letters of encouragement. These are the siblings that need immediate help and support. I thank you for taking the time to allow me to share in this the cause and the aftermath. I am sure it will be a long process for us as a family, but I would love nothing more than to have my church family supporting and pouring out God’s love to them in this journey.
The number one thing is prayer for the city of Culiacan, prayer for my siblings, and prayer for God’s provisions as they move forward in life. Secondly, baby goods for Leslie and thirdly, money contributions to help with homes and for medicines. If you would like to write words of encouragement they would all love that, so I will take letters as well.
I thank God for you all and am so incredibly blessed by the lives you have allowed me to be a part of and learn from as well. You are being greatly used and I hope you are encouraged by this story to find joy in the simple things every day, to acknowledge that God is using you in your daily life for His glory no matter how tough and dark things may get. I hope that you are encouraged to laugh. Even when you are sad and drenched in tears, surely amongst the pain there is reason for laughter.
You are loved and greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Serrano
“A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one’s birth.”
Ecclesiastes 7:1
I will be going to California and praying I can go to Tecate on Tuesday March 27th. I will be surprising my siblings and would love to bring any contributions and gifts you have found to supply them with.
I might, indeed, have learned, even from the poets that Love is something more stern and splendid than mere kindness…Kindness, merely as such, cares not whether its object becomes good or bad, provided only that it escapes suffering…If God is Love, He is, by definition, something more than mere kindness…He has often rebuked us and condemned us, but he has never regarded us with contempt. He has paid us the intolerable compliment of loving us…
We are [therefore], not metaphorically but in very truth, a Divine work of art, something that God is making, and therefore something with which He will not be satisfied until it has a certain character…Over a sketch made idly to amuse a child, an artist may not take much trouble: he may be content to let it go even though it is not exactly as he meant it to be. But over the great picture of his life – the work which he loves…he will take endless trouble – and would, doubtless, thereby give endless trouble to the picture if it were alive. One can imagine an alive picture, after being rubbed and scaped and recommenced for the tenth time, wishing that it were only a thumbnail sketch whose making was over in a minute. In the same way, it is natural for us to wish that God had designed us for a less glorious and less arduous destiny; but then we are wishing not for more love but for less.
You ask for a loving God – you have one, not a senile benevolence that drowsily wishes for you to be happy in your own way, but the consuming fire himself - the love that made the worlds, persistent as an artist’s love for his work. It is certainly a burden of glory not only beyond our deserts, but also except in rare moments of grace, beyond our desiring.
this is one the best sermons I’ve ever heard on prayer
This documentary gives more info about what the Salem MC Network is giving to this Christmas. Find out more at Project 61’s website.
Salem MC Network is participating in Advent Conspiracy this year. Here’s the basic idea behind it.
We are teaming up to give money to the village of Korah in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Over 75,000 people live in Korah, most of whom are outcasts - lepers, HIV victims, widows, orphans, and prostitutes. Many scavenge through Addis’ trash dump, located in Korah, to find food to keep them alive.
We’re coming into a new season of celebration of Emmanuel - God with us in the person of Jesus. Our calendar is full of events and changes to the usual.
Here’s what’s happening:
Sunday, Dec. 4 - Meeting in individual missional communities, not at IKE Box.
Sunday, Dec. 18 - KORAH Benefit concert - IKE Box. (this will be instead of our usual service)
Saturday - Sunday Dec 24-25 - “Room in In” Kingdom of God event for Church at the Park +Salem MC Network.
Sunday, Dec. 25th - no Recon gathering at IKE
How is a missional community different than a “community group” or “small group” ? One aspect is missional focus.
One of the common characteristics of gospel communities is the missional focus or foci. They cannot reache veryone or contextualize to everyone, so they focus on reaching specific groups or communities. This helps the members to work together so that mission is a shared venture. Shared foci will usually emerge out of the passions of team members and the opportunities they encounter through the leading of the Holy Spirit, the great mission strategist.
We have found it helpful to make a distinction between proactive and reactive intentionality. As a team we may have agreed a specific missional focus. But we still want to take in other gospel opportunities as they arise. Our lives will naturally bring us into contact with people who are not part of our focus…This is reactive intentionality: we will be reactive to opportunities whenever and wherever they arise.
But where we can be proactive we will pursue our missional focus. Where we can make decisions about how we use our time, where we shop, with whom we eat and so on, we will do so in the light of our focus. This is proactive intentionality.
- Tim Chester and Steve Timmis, Everyday Church: MIssion By Being Good Neighbours, pp. 121-122.
We want our city to reflect the City to come.
