Monthly Archives: January 2011

Guatemala

Santos & José

Santos & JoséSantos & José are brothers that Yuli and I got to know in Casa Shalom.  Their grandparents won custody of  them this past year, and so in October they returned to live with them.  They don’t have much money, but they’re so happy to be home.  Fortunately for us, they live on the outskirts of Chimaltenango, which is the same town where we live.

We’ve gotten to visit them a bunch, and it’s great to see them so content to be with their family. But we also saw that money was really tight.  They we’re looking to get them enrolled in a nearby school, but education is expensive here.  As we mentioned in our previous newsletter, we decided to help out and pay for their schooling.

We enrolled them in a nearby middle school, where Santos is in 8th grade and José is in 7th grade.  Here’s a picture of them one day after class.  It’s been so much fun for us to stay connected with them and continue to build a relationship. They also now join us for church every Sunday, and we’re just so happy to be involved in their lives. We would appreciate your prayers as we continue to work with Santos and José.

We would also appreciate your prayers as we continue to meet with other kids who have many needs.

Guatemala

Celia, Anna and Marcelino

Brent & Celia Celia, Anna and Marcelino are three siblings who used to live at Casa Shalom, but returned to live with their parents a little over a year ago. Celia is remembered by about everyone who meets her as being one of the sweetest girls ever.

Since the three returned home, my friend Matt and my sister-in-law Veronica have made a few trips last year to visit them to see how they were doing.  They had been sent to the orphanage due to poverty, and so Yuli and I decided to also go check-up on them.  Celia’s going into fourth grade, Anna into second, and Marcelino into first grade this year, and so we got them some backpacks and school supplies to get them ready for school.

We didn’t have a phone number, and they live in a small village, but we headed over a week ago in hope to see them. We were sad to find Anna home alone, and she told us that her mom and the others had been at a coffee plantation working for the past two weeks.  They were due to return the following Monday, the same day that school started. We walked with Anna over to another family member’s house and got a phone number to call and made plans to visit again in a week.

Today we hoped to return to see all of them, but no one was answering the phone these past few days.  Finally this morning before leaving we got a hold of Celia only to find out that her family had gone to a new coffee plantation, and they would be working at the plantation for about a month.

We are very concerned for Celia, Anna and Marcelino. It looks like their family is really needing money, and this is hard work that doesn’t pay very much at all.  We also don’t know if their school will take them so late in the year when they return.  Please pray for them: That God would protect them, that He would provide for their needs, and that He would give us wisdom how to best help the family.

Newsletter

Our First Newsletter

We hope that you have had a good Christmas and New Years break!

As we start this new year, we are starting a new phase of life as we start serving together in Guatemala. We have a blog athttp://www.casashalom.net/potters/ which we will be updating regularly with news updates.

The drive down from Texas to Guatemala was an experience that we’ll never forget! We are so grateful to God for His protection all the way down. The journey was about 2,000 miles, and it took us 5 days. We were blessed to not have any problems, and the car drove great. Mexico was fascinating, and we’ve posted a bunch of pictures of the journey on our blog.

After arriving on December 20th, we’ve spent a fun and relaxing time with Yuliza’s family over Christmas and the New Year holiday. Now as we’re busy getting geared up for this year. Personally, we have a bunch of items to arrange for our life in Guatemala. We’re going to apply for permanent residency for Brent, just like we had to do for Yuli in the United States. Without it, we have to leave the country every 3 months, which is obviously inconvenient. Similarly, our car needs to be imported as it also currently only has a tourist permit. We also now have to buy a bunch of necessary items that wouldn’t fit in the car to bring with us. We are blessed to be staying at Yuli’s sister and brother-in-law’s house, so the number of things we need is greatly reduced.

The children at Casa Shalom return this weekend from their Christmas vacation. Each year they are sent to stay with extended family members or with families that take them in for about a month. This allows them to enjoy a time away from the home, and also gives the workers a break to spend with their own families. The school year starts in January, so they’re soon going to be returning and preparing for the upcoming year. We’re excited to see them soon!

We are currently working to get in contact with a few children that used to live at Casa Shalom, but now have either returned to live with family members or are now adults and have moved out on their own. We had lunch today with two brothers named Santos and José. They’ve returned to live with their grandparents very close to where we are living. Schooling isn’t free here in Guatemala, and continuing their education can be hard because of the economic hardship. So we’re going to get them enrolled in a good middle school nearby. We would greatly appreciate your prayers for them and for others that we are going to be connecting with. We want to see all of them succeed in the real world, and we want to help them in any way necessary. We are also looking at houses and land for sale that we could use to start a half-way house ministry for kids coming out of orphanages.

Prayer points:

– Praise that God has brought us here to Guatemala safely.

– Prayer for Casa Shalom and all of the kids under their care.

– Prayer for the kids who have left the home, that God would provide for all their needs.

– Prayer that God would continue to direct us and guide our ministry.

We have a phone number in the United States that gets routed down to us here in Guatemala. So we can be reached at 512-551-4334, and you don’t have to worry about making an international call!

Thanks for your support and prayers!

Brent & Yuliza Potter