ministry video 2015

A small glimpse

Here are a few pictures of some of the kids at the Rock school and the different parts of the ministry at the trash dump, in public high schools, and soccer tournaments.

Jose Angel

Steven

Kindergarten

Kindergarten

Daycare

Jenny; daycare worker

breakfast at the daycare

drama/ evangelism in public high school

evangelism in public high school

worship at the trash dump

sharing the Gospel at the trash dump

Soccer outreach

Soccer outreach

Starting the new school year

      Last Monday we officially started the 2015 school year. This year we have four classes with two new teachers. At the end of last year we learned from the district that there are no other kindergartens in the area. For this reason, we will have two kindergarten classes this year instead of pre-K and kindergarten. Gabby and Irma will be teaching the two kindergarten classes. Irmalina will continue teaching level 1 (first and second grade) and level 2 (third and fourth grade) and Fabio will be teaching level 3 (fifth and sixth grade). Last week was an organizational week, since many families do not return to the city until the first week of school. It is hard to know the number of students we will have until after the first week. Now that we have registered the kids, we can count on the numbers, for the most part, to stay the same. The two kindergarten classes will have 18 and 20 students (about 10 returning from pre-k last year). First thru fourth grade will have 13 students (8 returning from last year that completed level 1). The fifth and sixth grade class will have 11 students (4 returning students that completed level 2 last year).
    Jnathan, who taught at the school the last year and a half, will continue in university but does not have the time to continue teaching this year. Marina has decided to look for another job sinse her daughter is now in first grade in the public school. This school year we will have a new principal. After some problems with the school district last year, Aben will now be principal and director. Jenny will continue teaching English a few days a week to each class, as well as, heading up the daycare. 
      Now that school has started again, we will start to organize evangelism outreach in the public high schools. Please pray for doors to be opened in the high schools throughout the city, as we plan evangelism outreach all over Tegucigalpa. 
     We have hired two teachers for the day care. Now all that's left is to buy materials and have the kids start coming. We plan to have the daycare up and running by the end of the month. 
    As the new academic year starts, it gives us time to think about what we can do better this year. This year we want to involve the parents more in the children's education, so we will be having a parents meeting once a month.  In this meeting, we will train parents how to help their kids, how to treat their kids, and biblical principles to lead their families. We also plan to start having chapel once a week with all the students. In the past years, we have had devotionals in each classroom and assemblies once a month. This year we are hoping to develop worship as a whole school.
    Please pray for us as we start this new year. Pray for the teachers, the students, and the families that we will reach. Also, please pray for us as we open the daycare. We are thankful for God's provision in this ministry and look forward to reaching more families for Christ in this year. 
    Another one of our goals for this year is to send a more detailed update with stories about some of the families we work with and the events going on from day to day.
     Thank you for being part of our ministry. We pray you have a blessed month.
Aben, Jenny, and Daniela

Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. (KJV)

Greetings from Honduras! We pray you are doing well. We wanted to update you with what has been going on with us and our ministry over the last few months. Since the last update we had another team come at the end of July from New York. They helped with construction, vbs, home visits, and doctors’ consults. It was a great week and we got to reach a lot more families with the help of extra hands, feet, and God given gifts. After the team left we headed to the States for a shortened fundraising trip. Since we had a timeline for traveling from the doctor, we did not get the opportunity to see all of you. We wish we could have! Thank you to everyone who hosted us and welcomed us into your homes and churches, the trip was encouraging; to see all the people that have partnered with us, and to make new connections along the way.

Many people have asked how the fundraising went, and our response would be that it went great. However, we did not raise the monthly addition we need to maintain the daycare on a monthly basis. We raised the start up costs, but are still in need of an additional $2000 to pay for teachers salaries and the costs of the daycare. Our desire is to be open from 7am-4pm to assist mothers in the community that are working and need someone to watch their children in a safe environment. Within the past few weeks we have had 5 new families with small children start attending the church. We do not know if word has spread about the daycare, but we do know that it is a very large need in the community. The added cost of running a daycare from 7am-4pm is that we will provide 2 meals for the kids that are there all day. We currently have one meal a day for the kids in the school.

Upon returning home, we were greeted by a team of 8 girls that have been with us for the month of September. They have been a huge help all around, since we are preparing for the baby, and the road is a little to rough for Jenny to travel up there everyday.

Since our last update, the daycare has been completed. There are doors, windows, a bathroom, and tile floors. We still need to paint and add electricity, but the structure is complete! We have also completed another season of soccer tournaments and will start with a new round later this month. We continue to have the boys come to the church after each game for water and to hear the Gospel. We are looking forward to the next season.

Please be in prayer for Fabio and his family. Those of you who have visited have met Fabio and have seen his servant’s heart. He is a huge blessing to our ministry and very responsible in working with us. About four months ago his niece (then 6 months old) was diagnosed with a rare pulmonary condition. After many operations and even the removal of one lung, she passed away last Wednesday night. It has been a long, hard four months for this family, emotionally and financially.

Lastly, a short update on our family. We went to the doctor last Thursday and everything looks great. Everyone looks healthy and the baby should be making her appearance in about 4 weeks.

Thank you for your partnership in this ministry. We are thankful that God has called you to serve with us.

Daycare Update

The day has finally arrived! We are beginning work to construct the new daycare! We could not be more relieved and excited to start the process. The past few months have been A LOT of talking with not much action. Last Thursday everything with the land and the neighbors was solved without any problems and Friday we started to work. We have a young man from the church who will be helping us with most of the work.

The first step from here is to move Demaris and her 3 kids to the property we bought for them. She will be renting a room for a few weeks while we construct her a wood house on the other side of the neighborhood. This will be a huge blessing to her and her family because she will not longer be a squatter and the location is very close to a bus terminal, to make working much easier. Once we have her moved, we will begin to extend the perimeter wall. Aben and I have been brainstorming about the dimensions of the daycare, bathroom and pila (a concrete wash basin to wash clothes). Here are some pictures of the first few days of work.

Demaris' 3 kids, getting ready to move (before)

After taking apart the house, getting ready to build the day care

We are excited to have 2 small teams, 1 big team and an intern this summer. We are still waiting to hear back from another team that might come. It will be an exciting summer of growth and energy; its always fun and encouraging to have people come and share the vision and the work!

Its' a girl! Due October 21

Other big news for the year is that we will be having a baby girl mid- October. It’s been a long couple months of not feeling so great, but hopefully Jenny will start to feel better in time for the summer! Because of the fundraising and flying situation, we will try to do our fundraising trip in the month of August. Since everything is normal, the baby looks great, and there are no complications, the doctor says we can fly until the first week in September. That being said, we will try to make the most of our short time in each place and might not be able to visit every church this year.

Graduation and the coming year

It’s great to be home and back to the routine of things. However, telling you that routine is another story. Until next week, when school starts again, every day is completely different. We had a great trip to the States and God has provided more than we could have asked or imagined.

The third graduation of the Rock school was last Saturday. This year’s graduation was special because it was our first group of kids to go through the program. Since most of these kids have never been in school, we help them complete 6 grade levels in 3 years (2 grades per year). We had 4 kids graduate from 6^th grade and 23 graduate from kindergarten. The 6^th grade graduates will be going to a local public high school. If you are asking, how can these kids afford school now, if they could not before? The difference is now these kids can work to pay for their own studies. We have poured into their lives the importance of education and they have accomplished something they never thought they would be able to. Now, they have dreams and the ability go farther in life. For a child that cannot afford to go to school when they are young, they do not completely comprehend what they are missing. As they grow, they are not dreaming more and more about completing school, they are simply trying to survive. This is why our kindergarten is equally important. It sets a standard and routine for learning. The parents have committed time and learned responsibility and now these kids can continue in the public school. We are educating the parents the importance of education, so they can fight for their child’s education.

The new school year will start next Monday. We will lose one of our older students because he has caught up to his grade level and will now go to public school with other students his age. Our next update will let you know about the new students! We are looking forward to introducing English to the students 5 days a week. This will open doors for the kids to know English.

The kindergarteners singing

When I say God provided more that we could have asked or imagined, we are talking about our goals for the year. Whether you were at the beginning of our trip, or the end, you know we shared about opening a daycare in the neighborhood where we work, and are planning to start teaching trades and starting micro-loans. When we originally talked about these ideas and plans, “we thought” it would take about a year to raise the funds and get started. However, “God thought” otherwise. God has provided the funds for the construction of the daycare and to start micro-loans. We want to thank God for opening doors and providing for the families we will help! It’s still a long road ahead, but God moved us forward to the action stage quicker than we thought! Thank you to everyone who has helped us with this step.

Other encouraging news from our trip is that we will have more teams coming down this year to help reach this community and start working on developing micro-loans, constructing the daycare, training youth pastors, and outreach. We are also excited to have a few interns this year too! Please let us know if you are interested in coming down with a group or as an intern. God’s doing great things in this ministry and would love for you to come along side and help us. 

New Classrooms

We have new classrooms! Well, not really, but it looks like it. We had a group that consists of different universities in Tegucigalpa come and help us fix up the Rock. Over the past few years, we have worked hard to construct three classrooms, a kitchen, bathroom, shower, and room above the kitchen. Each step takes time because groups usually come for one week at a time. This past month, this group helped us paint the classrooms, the bathroom and shower, put in electricity in the classrooms and bathroom, put new whiteboards in all the classrooms, and helped us fix up a garden area. They painted each classroom; then they put a mural, or painting on one of the walls. It has really added life to the rooms.  The addition of electricity to the classrooms has made discipleship in the evenings possible. On Thursday night we have about 70-100 youth come to church (mostly boys) and with the newest addition of light, we have been pulling the girls out and started discipleship with them in the classrooms. Not only did this group bless us by painting and electricity, they also provided school supplies and educational materials for the teachers. At the end of the work week, they had a party for the kids and families. They brought food, cake, piñatas and had workshops for the parents. We are thankful for their help!

While the kids and families were celebrating that Saturday morning, the usual English classes did not happen. Instead, the English teachers, all girls, went to the house of one of the families in our church and helped build them a latrine. This family lives on the side of a mountain, and survives on selling tortillas. Irma, the mom, had tried to dig a latrine by herself a while back, but it was only 1 ½ feet deep. Our plan is to dig it 6 ft. deep. Hers quickly filled up and they have been going out in the woods. We are hoping in the future to help build a place for them to bucket bath/ shower that is covered and not an open cleft in the mountain. Karla, the older girl, turned 12 on that Saturday, so it was fun to give her this gift. Her brother Daniel attended the Rock school a few years ago, but not attends the regular public school since he is 8 years old and on grade level. Both of the children are sweet and caring, and their mother Irma is a hard worker and loving mother. We (the teachers) were discussing why Karla is so loving and sweet. In a neighborhood like this with so much abuse and neglect, kids, especially girls, grow up too fast. I think Karla is an example of the innocence we are trying to protect in this neighborhood, and I think our prayers and presence is pouring the love of Jesus into her. We were all burdened with how to guard her innocence in this violent society and community, and the answer was to continue showing her Jesus as much as we possibly can. Only God can do that work, it is our job to be available instruments.

 

Also, this past month, we have futbol (soccer) championships. Pastor Giovani and Aben have been working with a group of boys in a soccer league. On Thursdays, we meet for discipleship. Giovani is teaching the word and showing the boys how to find passages in Scripture. It has been great watching the number of boys grow.

Lastly, I have great news. I have mentioned David in a few of my newsletters. He has been back and forth with church and the street. Please continue to pray for him, but he told me that he is back in church. This is a huge answer to prayer, but I know it is a continual struggle living for God in poverty, when his street family can easily provide for him.