Before today Guatemala had never won single a medal ever in the Olympics, but today Erick Barrondo won a silver in 20K speed walking.
Now go for the gold Guatemala!
Category Archives: Guatemala
The walls are going up
The walls of the house are going up quickly! Here’s a few pictures from the front of the house.
Mom came to visit
We were very excited to have my mom visit us this past week! It’s been lots of fun introducing her to our guys and to the kids at Casa Shalom as well as spending time with her and Yuli’s family together.
We had some issues with Yuli’s residency in the US which made it necessary for her to spend a few weeks with my parents until it all got sorted out. When it was all finished, my mom decided to take advantage of the time to return with her to Guatemala. She has always been a great source of encouragement to us, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to have her here with us!
Finished Foundation
The house’s foundation is finally finished!
The House’s Foundation
It’s exciting to now be working on the foundation of the actual house!
Teaching Sunday School
Yuli taught the kids Sunday School at Casa Shalom during Visitor Sunday a few days ago. We then enjoyed snacks, ice-cream and time together with the kids afterwards. Visitor Sunday is always the highlight of the month!
May in Guatemala
This past month we were able to get in contact with another guy who grew up in Casa Shalom, named Carlos, who now has returned to live with his family. We have his story in our blog here, and it was great to see him again. There are many other kids who have also left over the years, and we hope to continue to make contact with them.
The construction on the house continues to progress well, although it’s now a little more complicated because we’ve entered the rainy season. There are new pictures of the progress here. The most exciting progress was finally getting permission from the new mayor to connect water to our land. After three months of asking neighbors to use their water in order to be able to mix cement, we are very excited to now have all the water that we need.
Prayer requests for June:
- At the end of May we flew up to Austin, Texas in order to visit some friends and our home church in Austin, Texas for ten days. It’s wonderful to be back visiting with so many friends! Please pray that this time will be relaxing and refreshing for us.
- This trip was necessary because of the current status of Yuli’s residency paperwork. We’d appreciate prayer that it would all get sorted out.
- Please pray for Elias and Benjamin as they’re home alone until we return on Monday. They’re both adults, but it feels strange to be away from them. Fortunately Skype helps us keep in touch!
- Yuli’s pregnant! We’d appreciate your prayers for her health and for us as we plan the new addition to our family.
- Please pray Philippians 3:10-11 for us, “I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.”
Thanks so much for all of your prayers and support for us in Guatemala! God has given us an incredible responsibility to be His witnesses, and we feel honored to carry His name.
Brent & Yuliza
Stormy skies at the end of May
The rainy season began this past month, which sometimes slows our construction progress down but also creates dramatic views!
We have Water!
We finally received permission from the new mayor to connect our house to the town’s water line.
But first we had to dig a 500 feet long ditch down the road in order to connect to their pipe! It took a few days, and fortunately the road is just a dirt road. The above picture is our ditch as it’s passing our neighbor’s house that is also under construction. They have been generous in sharing their water connection these last three months as we were waiting.
Yesterday we reached the main waterline. Water pipes are very different here compared to the USA. We were only allowed to connect to the mainline with a 1/2 inch pipe, which is really skinny, especially for how far it has to go in order to reach our land!
It was also fascinating how the connected our pipe. They just sawed through the mainline with full pressure! It was pretty messy, but they were very quick about adding in our new T connection and reconnecting everything.
Having water available for construction is such a blessing! We’ve been praying for it to be connected before our trip to Texas so that the construction can continue without problem.
Connecting with Carlos
Carlos grew up at Casa Shalom with Elias and Benjamin, but moved away a few years ago to work at a restaurant that also provided him room & board. We found out that he had moved back with his family, so we tracked him down to see how he’s doing. His family lives only about 5 minutes away from us, and it’s great to see him again. We hope to continue to build a relationship with him now that he’s close. He has some learning disabilities, which is why his family left him at the home to grow up. But he’s one of the nicest and most helpful guys you could meet!