Highlights of a Day at Santo Domingo North

Declaring Life: I Am a Child of God - Living as Beloved Sons and Daughters

Kids Alive Life Declaration Series

For many people, the word family carries deep emotion.

For some, it brings comfort and safety.
For others, it carries loss, distance, or pain.
And for many, it is a mixture of longing and caution — something deeply desired, yet hard to trust.

Beneath those experiences often rests a quiet question:

• Where do I truly belong?
• Who will care for me?
• Am I allowed to take up space here?

This is why the identity truth “I am a child of God” matters so deeply. It speaks to the human need for belonging — not as something to earn, but as something lovingly given.

Welcomed Into God’s Family

Scripture offers this promise clearly:

“Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.” — John 1:12

This verse tells us something essential about God’s heart. Becoming a child of God is not a reward for good behavior or spiritual effort. It is an act of grace. God chooses to adopt, welcome, and claim His children as His own.

To be a child of God means belonging to His family — fully, securely, and permanently. It means being given the rights of a son or daughter: the right to love, care, guidance, protection, and relationship.

Let’s Reflect:
What emotions surface when you hear that God invites you to be His child?

What a Good Father Provides

For those whose experiences with earthly parents were painful or inconsistent, the idea of God as Father may feel unfamiliar or even difficult. Yet Scripture consistently reveals God as a good and loving Father — one who does not abandon, neglect, or harm His children.

A good Father:

• Protects — offering safety and refuge ‍
• Provides — meeting needs with care and faithfulness ‍
• Guides — teaching what is good and true ‍
• Corrects with love — not to shame, but to grow ‍
• Stays present — even when His children struggle

God’s fatherhood is steady and compassionate. His love is not withdrawn when mistakes are made. Instead, He draws nearer, inviting His children to learn, heal, and grow.

Let’s Reflect:
Which aspect of God as Father feels hardest — or most hopeful — for you to believe?

Our Purpose as God’s Children

Being a child of God is not only about receiving love; it is also about becoming who God created us to be.

This growth unfolds over time, shaped by relationship, trust, and grace.

Our purpose as God’s children includes:

• Learning to love others as we have been loved
• Reflecting God’s kindness, mercy, and faithfulness
• Growing in character and truth
• Participating in God’s work of healing and restoration in the world

This is not about perfection. It is about formation — becoming more rooted in love and less driven by fear.

Let’s Reflect:
What might God be inviting you to grow into as His child right now?

Growing Together in God’s Family

God never intended His children to grow alone. When Scripture speaks of God’s family, it also speaks of the Church — a community of believers learning how to live as brothers and sisters.

Being part of God’s family means growing alongside others:

• Practicing patience, forgiveness, and humility
• Offering encouragement and receiving support
• Learning to belong, even when relationships feel challenging
• Discovering that faith grows best in community

At Kids Alive International, this truth is lived out every day: healing and growth happen in safe, loving relationships — not only impacting a single child's life, but extending into their family unit and reach entire communities.

Let’s Reflect:
Where has God placed you to grow alongside other children of God?

Holding On to What Is True

“I am a child of God” does not erase hardship or loss. But it offers something unshakable beneath it all: a secure place in God’s family.

Each time this truth is remembered, spoken, or practiced, it replaces fear with belonging and isolation with connection. Over time, it becomes a foundation that supports renewal of the heart, mind, soul, and strength.

Identity work is slow. But it is sacred.

For those who want to explore this truth more deeply, Kids Alive International offers free resources designed to support reflection and growth:

📘 Renewing Identity — exploring core identity truths that foster healing and restoration
🌿 Rooted Values — understanding how identity grows into everyday values

Each resource invites readers to continue the journey of becoming — rooted in love, shaped by grace, and grounded in the unchanging truth that they are children of a good Father.

Declaring LOVE: Becoming Alive in God’s Love

Kids Alive Life Declaration Series

Few words are used as often — or misunderstood as deeply — as the word love.

For some, love has meant safety, care, and tenderness.
For others, it has been confusing, conditional, or even harmful.
Many have learned to associate love with obligation, performance, or pain.

Because of this, it is important to begin with a clear truth:
Love does not originate with us. Love begins with God.

At Kids Alive International, love is not treated as a feeling or personality trait. It is understood as a reflection of God’s character — something learned, practiced, and grown over time as people encounter His perfect love.

Defining the Depths of Love

Scripture gives us a clear picture of what love looks like, not in theory, but in action:

“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” — 1 Corinthians 13:4–7 (ESV)

This description is not merely an ideal to strive for. It reflects the heart of God Himself. God’s love is steady, gentle, and strong. It does not rush, manipulate, shame, or harm. It is patient. It is kind.

God displays perfect love by meeting people where they are, extending grace instead of condemnation, and remaining faithful even when others fall short.

Let’s Reflect: When you hear this description of love, which word stands out most to you — patience, kindness, humility, or gentleness? Why might that be?

Love Takes Action

God’s love is multifaceted. It cannot be reduced to a single action or emotion.

God’s love:

• Protects — creating safety and boundaries
• Forgives — without minimizing harm
• Corrects — not to punish, but to restore
• Perseveres — even when trust takes time
• Honors dignity — in every person

This means love is not permissive, passive, or enabling. True love does not ignore wrongdoing or tolerate harm. Instead, it seeks what is good, true, and life-giving.

At Kids Alive, love is practiced through kindness and gentleness, and through forgiveness that leads to healing — never at the expense of truth or safety.

Let’s Reflect:
Which aspect of love feels hardest for you to trust or practice right now?

The First Step: Learning to Receive Love

Before love can be practiced well, it must be received.

Many people struggle not because they lack love for others, but because they have never experienced love that is patient, kind, and secure. God’s love meets this need first. It reassures, steadies, and heals what has been wounded.

Receiving God’s love often requires unlearning false beliefs:

• That love must be earned
• That mistakes cancel belonging
• That gentleness is weakness

God’s love says something different: You are worth loving because you are made by Me.

Let’s Reflect:
What makes it difficult for you to receive love without fear or conditions?

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How Love Takes Shape in Everyday Life

As you grow in understanding God’s love, it begins to shape how you live and relate to others.

Love shows up in daily choices:

• Choosing patience instead of reacting in anger
• Practicing kindness even when it costs something
• Forgiving without forgetting the need for wisdom
• Treating others with honor and respect

These practices are not signs of perfection. They are signs of formation — evidence that love is being learned and lived out over time.

Love grows best in community, where people learn to practice patience, forgiveness, and gentleness together.

Let’s Reflect: Where do you see opportunities to practice love in small, tangible ways today?

Holding On to What Is True

Love is not something we generate on our own. It flows from God — steady, patient, and kind — and shapes us as we receive it.

Each time love is practiced in healthy ways, it pushes back against fear and isolation. Over time, it becomes a foundation for healing, trust, and restored relationships.

Growth in love takes time.
But it is sacred.

For those who want to explore this value more deeply, Kids Alive International offers free resources designed to support reflection and growth:

📘 Renewing Identity — exploring core identity truths that foster healing and restoration
🌿 Rooted Values — understanding how identity grows into everyday values

Each resource invites readers to continue the journey of becoming — learning to receive God’s perfect love and reflect it with patience, kindness, and grace.

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COVID-19 presented many challenges for the seven Kids Alive schools in the Dominican Republic. Our first priority became keeping the children, their families, and our employees safe from a new and deadly disease about which little was known. Secondly, when schools were closed and the country locked down in mid-March, we had the challenge of continuing the education and emotional care for 2,000 impoverished children with difficult family situations. Finally, with massive unemployment (we estimate 80-90% of our school families are currently unemployed with no savings or credit), and no school breakfasts and lunches, many of our children and their families quickly began to suffer from lack of food.

Our staff responded quickly and creatively. We created protocols for handwashing, social distancing, wearing masks, and sanitizing groceries, and began distributing information to families in various ways, including video clips they could watch on cell phones. Additionally, our teachers and counselors worked with parents to get classroom study material, family devotionals, and other activities into the home as well as help create healthy routines for the children with so much time in their little homes. Furthermore, for a limited time we transitioned in one aspect to a relief organization, and with the help of generous donors grew our food distribution to feed over 1,200 families regularly during the quarantine period which recently ended. Our relief work is likely to continue for the next several months on a lesser level as parts of the economy remain shut and many children and their families lack adequate food.