(Photo Above: Danilo & Johanna, our Children’s Care Center staff, along with 5 of the 7 kids Faith in Action has taken in.)
He Gives Beauty for Ashes!
Faith in Action has experienced a season we hadn’t seen in our future, but again, here God has shown us that our picture will always require stepping in Faith and not Sight.
God’s hand is always most visible in hindsight. One of the reasons He leads us this way is so that we don’t carry more than we have to. The future was always meant to be entrusted into His hands, saving our strength for the present needs and work around us. There is more peace in the passenger seat.
Our ministry experienced this firsthand this summer with our Children’s Care Center. We felt an urgency to get it open, believing that God already had people lined up to fill it. With the two teams we had this year, along with some help from our local FIA team, we finished the fans, light fixtures, laundry room, and plumbing connections! The Care Center was still un-officially opened when an emergency in one of our villages brought 5 young children to us.
We have learned many times over in our life that God’s plans and His ways are always worth the journey, the up-hill battles, the detours and delays. The “Why” is always answered in hindsight of walking with God.
This moment proved to be no different.
Care Center Full of Kids!
(Photo Above: Jared playing in the pool with Harper and 4 of the children. It was a miracle they all fit, and it didn’t pop!)
Their Story
At the beginning of this year we began helping a family who’s mother tragically died in our village, Pinalito. There were 7 children under the age of 12 now left to a father who had returned to his old ways of drinking and machete fighting. They were severely malnourished and in an abusive living situation.
After long hours of conversation with the father outside our medical clinic, alot of sharing the love of Jesus, and begging him to let us help care for some of the kids temporarily, he eventually gave us the first 5. This is officially when our Care Center was considered “Open for Business!”.
The youngest we had was Ana, who was just one and a half years old. She was so severally malnourished that she could not even crawl and was not speaking. After their mother died all of her hair fell out from such severe malnutrition.
It was a very difficult situation.
(Photos Above: The day we hiked down to pick them up! They were in their Sunday best, with washed hair and all the girls sporting a top knot to celebrate the happy occasion!)
(Photos Above: The first thing we did was feed and de-lice them. In the bottom left-hand photo you can see Ana on the ground next to Harper. She is around 8 months older than Harper, but has suffered from sever malnutrition that has held her growth and development back.)
Less than 2 months passed with the 5 kids with us, when we received a phone call that the father had just been murdered and the other two kids who had stayed with him were being brought down.
Our Care Center now has taken on 7 beautiful children who have become orphaned. We are in un-chartered waters as God seems to be laying out the track before us. If you would like to help support the Care Center or any of these kids, it would be a blessing.
Our long-term view for them is to find a ministry that have missionary “foster families” who would take in all the siblings, give them a protected environment, spiritual guidance, and education until grown. Please pray with us for the right door to open and us to have the faith to walk through, whatever it might look like!
A Home for Rosa!
“Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress…” James 1:27
This summer we had the privilege of building Rosa, a widow, an adobe block home! It was a miracle how it all came together in the middle of two other building projects, and as the summer rainy season was already starting up! God was so good in holding back the rains until the day we finished the roof, then the rains came hard and strong! It was amazing to know that Rosa and her kids were safe and dry!
Thank you to Redeemer Church for helping make this happen!
(Photos above: Her beautiful home! We couldn’t stay for the completion. After these photos, a mud sealant was added inside and out which solidifies the adobe like what white-wash would do with cement blocks.)
The restrictions across Guatemala due to the Covid-19 Pandemic has hit hardest in the villages where the men have been unable to leave the villages to work or sell their crops. It has made obtaining even the most basic necessities like food very difficult. We have had the blessing of getting to supply 7 of the villages we serve in with food! It has been an amazing way of connecting with many of the families who would never normally step foot inside church!
| The beauty about the difficulties we face in life is that it opens a doorway into people’s lives. In meeting their physical needs we have the opportunity to meet the deeper and far greater need of the soul through the love of Jesus! |
Our Two Interns!
What started as a 10 day mission trip for Zoya (age 12) turned into a 3 month internship that her older sister Tatyana joined in on! They only planned on staying for a month, but Covid.
Both them and their parents believed God had them here for a special reason and put their trust in Him! It was such a privilege to watch this family navigate through the separation and the unknown with such peace and trust in God.
These girls were a blessing to the ministry and all the villagers they interacted with! We can’t wait to have them back.
Prayer Requests!
- Support One of the Orphaned Children!
- $25.00 (Monthly Support) This would greatly help curve the expenses of staffing and running the Nutrition Center with these 7 children.
- Help us buy more food for the villages!
- $1,500 can feed our most desperate villages! Urgent Request: Our villages have still been cut off from selling their produce in the market places, and unable to leave their villages to find work. There is a desperate need for food, as the government has yet to assist these isolated areas in any way.
- Phillips Family House
- $20,500 is what is left to finish out our family home before our second little Phillips comes this year!
You can partner with us financially through this link!
https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/1432832
THANK-YOU!!!
God’s Kingdom isn’t built independently, but as one body, coming together to make His vision a reality to this world.
From all of us at Faith In Action
Thank you again for your constant prayers and support! God bless!
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