Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.  Proverbs 22:6

Four-year-old Renata and her older sister Miranda worked together to sort through school supplies in preparation for filling backpacks, which was done the next day by the Zaragoza Rotary Club.  The two girls, daughters of one of the staff members at Ysleta Lutheran Mission Human Care (YLM), were eager to help, asking questions all the while.

“Why do you do this?  Who gets these backpacks?  Do the kids like school?”

Renata, who will soon be starting school for the first time, was especially inquisitive about this, as well as excited to share how she was going to school herself this year.  It was truly a blessing for the adults working alongside these dedicated little girls who didn’t stop until the job got done.

“I want them to learn how to serve others,” Karla, their mother, explained how, “Sometimes, as parents, we’re so focused on giving our children everything they need and want, we forget to teach them to think of others who don’t or can’t have what they have.”

And so, these little girls learned on that day YLM gives out backpacks full of school supplies to children in need so they can succeed in school. For the last eight years, this has been an area of mercy in which over a thousand children in El Paso and Juarez combined receive backpacks and school supplies.  For many of these children, their parents struggle financially, having to pick and choose what they are able to provide for their children’s education.

On the Friday before the Back to School Drive-Thru, several members of the Zaragoza Rotary Club were able to quickly fill up over two hundred backpacks thanks to the work Renata and Miranda did along with a few of the YLM staff members and volunteers.  As Renata and Miranda learned, it takes multiple people to come together to help those who are in need.

For this year’s backpack distribution, several dozen people were involved in making it happen.  From those who responded to the appeal email and ordered backpacks, which were most needed, through the suggested website, to churches who collected backpacks and school supplies, delivering them to YLM a few weeks prior to the distribution.

“Supplying the website to order backpacks in bulk was a great idea,” Ofelia, member of the Zaragoza Rotary Club, shared on Saturday as parents and grandparents pulled up to the Warehouse to pick up backpacks, “It made it simple and affordable.”

Over a hundred backpacks were ordered through the www.bagsinbulk.com and delivered directly to YLM, with the donors reaching out to let the staff know of their donation.  Thanks to these people’s generosity, every child in El Paso and Juarez received brand new backpacks this year.

New school supplies were collected and delivered by individuals and churches, such as Zion Lutheran Church who, for years, has supported the Back to School Distribution, and funds donated for this ministry were used to buy needed supplies.

“We were able to provide new crayons, markers, rulers, scissors, and other supplies to every child,” Maritza, member of San Pablo Lutheran Church and volunteer at YLM, shared as backpacks going to Mexico were filled and counted, “Over 500 backpacks are going to Juarez to four different communities, among them an indigenous community with a serious need for them.”

“It was a joy to see so many people involved in making this possible,” Miguel Muñoz, YLM’s Donations and Distributions Facilitator, shared on Saturday as he worked alongside members of the Zaragoza Rotary Club, “Without them, we wouldn’t be able to do this.”

When Renata asked, again, why they were giving away backpacks, the answer was simple.  God has blessed YLM with many giving hearts and eager hands…and those kind of blessings are multiplied when given to others.