When Ciudad Nueva brought a youth soccer league to the Rio Grande neighborhood last fall, only one thing was missing: a middle school division. Ciudad Nueva decided to limit the league to kindergarten through fifth grade during its inaugural year, but league director Bruce Meyer plans to expand the league to include teams for middle schoolers this fall. The league, which is part of the Upward Sports organization, was the vision of Ciudad Nueva’s executive director, Sami DiPasquale, who sees it as a way to further Ciudad Nueva’s mission of building community in the Rio Grande … [Read more...]
How Soccer Is Helping Deepen Community in the Rio Grande Neighborhood
Soccer has deep roots at Ciudad Nueva Youth-serving organizations have long known that soccer is an excellent tool for connecting with kids and teaching them important life lessons. Christian organizations are no exception, with many churches and faith-based nonprofits sponsoring youth sports leagues as a way to help introduce kids and their families to the life-changing person of Jesus. It’s no surprise, then, that a youth soccer team comprised of middle school kids from Ciudad Nueva would form shortly after the organization’s founding in 2004. Tom Beeman, a Ciudad Nueva volunteer for … [Read more...]
Make an Impact Where You Are: A Conversation with Border Fellow Ellen Denzel
“I knew it was perfect for me” When Ellen Denzel graduated from Clemson University with a degree in industrial engineering, she could have gone anywhere. “I was looking at jobs and I had a lot of options,” Ellen says, “but I wasn’t ready to go right into an industrial engineering job.” Ellen had gone on a few international mission trips during college, and she knew that’s where her heart was. “A friend was doing the fellows program in Salt Lake City, Utah,” Ellen says. “I heard about the [Border Fellows] placement in El Paso, and when I went to the Ciudad Nueva website I knew it was perfect … [Read more...]
Meet the New Border Fellows Director, Jennifer Shinn
The Border Fellows program, a ministry of St. Clement’s Church, Ciudad Nueva Community Outreach, and La Frontera Youth Ministry Education, is a 10-month work and service leadership development program on the U.S.–Mexico border. It is part of a larger community of fellows programs across the United States called The Fellows Initiative. A Gift for Creating Community For the last two years, incoming Border Fellows Director, Jennifer Shinn, and her husband have been hosting a weekly Sunday night dinner for a group of young adults they fondly refer to as “displaced twentysomethings.” The group is … [Read more...]
Summer Camp: Testimonies from Campers and Camp Leaders
As we wrote about in the blog earlier this month, we offer the kids from our youth programs the opportunity to go to summer camp each year. It is an opportunity for campers to have experiences they might not otherwise have and a chance for them to take the next steps in their faith journeys. Here, in their own words, is what summer camp has meant to some of our campers and camp leaders over the years. Testimonies from campers “Something that I want to remember and that I learned at camp would be that God is always there with you and that you aren’t alone even if it feels like it. He has a … [Read more...]
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