Dear Friends.
Greetings from Guatemala!
Personal Update
Only our youngest child remains at home, as he is studying architecture and set to graduate soon. He hopes to start working in architecture, and is working and studying, which hasn’t been easy, because architecture is a challenging field of study.
Ministry Updates
My main focus in working with our partners here in Latin America is building the relationship. I try to be someone they can call, to ask for advice, because for me the important thing is being first of all friends. In the last six months, I praise the Lord because we had a great time with our partners talking about things they are facing. Every organization has their own challenges, but we can see how the Lord is working as we share what we are struggling with. Especially at the last conference that we had with all the partners together, we really saw the Lord working. It was amazing to see everybody at the same table, sharing their hearts.
Program Partnership
In the last weeks we were talking with our partners, thinking about what will be the next steps, for the next year.
One of our partners has a tutoring program for at-risk kids in the community.
One month ago, we invited teachers of the public school and the parents of the kids to the church, to meet all together and begin a conversation about what we’ve been doing, evaluating the tutoring program – what’s going well, and what could be improved. Because the teachers know about the program, and of course the parents know, because they are bringing the kids to the church. So we asked them for their ideas of how we can improve. It was amazing to listen and learn from them, and having the teachers and parents at the same table, building a relationship. And now, because of that meeting, next year the church is going to start doing something new, based on the feedback of the teachers and parents in the community.
Integral Mission
A group of women in El Salvador have a collective business making chocolate. Recently it has been hard for them, as the cost of ingredients to make chocolate has become much more expensive So, we are thinking through new ways to source supplies, and some of them want to try producing their own.
Prayer Requests
We continue to lean on God’s grace for the health of our family. In the past six months my wife has been dealing with some health issues, so she was getting some tests, and praise the Lord, we see she’s improving. I was also dealing with some concerns about my health, but I changed my diet a little bit, and I’m doing better now.
Thanks for your prayers for my father. Two years ago had a pacemaker. But praise the Lord now, he is doing well, although the doctors say his heart is working only 10%. So he needs a lot of our care, but we praise the Lord he’s alive.
Pray for the partner board elections and for a successful transition.
Pray for the kids in the communities, especially for the orphans in El Salvador, because this is a big issue. We don’t have the resources to really address the scale of the issue, but we pray for more churches to get involved, pool their resources and work together to address the need.
Pray for the women in El Salvador, that they’ll find ways to source materials so they can provide for themselves and work profitably.
