It had been a sad, bad day for 3-year-old Vincent, 5-year-old Angelica, and 9-year-old Joseph.
First, they learned that their dad, Santana, had been sent to jail … again.
Then, they were awakened from their naps when the ATF raided their home. Exhausted and afraid, the three children cuddled up with their mom, Danielle, in her bed that night, only to be awakened by rapid gunfire near their house — seven shots in all.
“The shots were so close I could smell the gunpowder,” Danielle recalls.
The next morning, as Danielle and the children got out of bed, they learned just how close those gunshots had been. A man with a vendetta against Santana had shot up their house, and their thick wooden bed frame was riddled with bullets.
The three children were lonely and afraid. And they stood at the brink of a long separation from Dad.
Soon after he went to prison, Santana had the opportunity to help reach out to his family through Angel Tree. Danielle and her children clung to the joy they received that Christmas from Angel Tree with all they had — because it WAS all they had.
The Answer to a Mother’s Prayer
Danielle’s parents both passed away, Santana’s cousin was murdered, and Danielle slipped deeper into a crystal meth addiction. Desperate for a way out, Danielle made the decision to take her own life. But as she touched the razor to her wrist, she heard a voice.
“Stop,” the voice said. “Listen.”
Through the open window, Danielle heard her children laughing.
“It was the voice of God,” she says.“He told me that if I took my life, I would take that laughter away from my children forever. It was then that I realized how much He loved me. I never looked back.”
Behind bars, Santana, too, gave his life to Christ.
And each Christmas, Joseph, Angelica, and Vincent received gifts and the Gospel message from their dad through Angel Tree.
Spreading the Good News of Great Joy
The Ortiz family is thankful for Angel Tree.
A dozen years have passed since the Ortiz family was torn apart. Joseph is now 20 years old and is an EMT. Vincent is 14 and hopes to someday be a marine biologist. And Angelica is 16 and her dream is to help children just like her. They’ve never forgotten the joy of Angel Tree.
“Once Daddy comes home, I want to give back and start Angel Tree at our church,” Angelica would say to her mother.
As Christmas approached this past year, Angelica begged her mom to sign up as an Angel Tree coordinator for their small church.
“She felt the love from Angel Tree as a child,” Danielle says, “and that’s what she wanted children with a parent in prison to feel.”
Help Support Angel Tree
Each year, thousands of churches do something profound: they accept the challenge to serve children by purchasing, wrapping, and presenting gifts on behalf of their incarcerated parents. In the process, they discover the joys of ministering to hurting children and parents who were right there all along, waiting for a church to see their pain, come alongside them, and introduce them to the Father.
Christmas is just around the corner, and this year’s Angel Tree campaign has begun! All across the country, incarcerated parents have signed up their children to receive a Christmas gift, a message of love, and the hope of the Gospel. We’ve processed that information, and will use it to once again join hands with thousands of churches to serve prisoners’ children in many different communities.
We need your church’s help to deliver gifts and the Good News of God’s love to children in your community. Will you join us this year, bringing hope and connection to families like the Ortiz family, and releasing them from the cycle of crime? Call 1-800-55-ANGEL (2-6435) or visit www.angeltree.org. Together we’ll see God’s Kingdom made visible in many lives!
Katherine Craddock also contributed to this story.
