Lots of Graduations!

Hello from Guatemala! We’ve been very busy celebrating with our girls as 5 graduated from high school last month. Karla (19) graduated with a degree in computer programming, Lesly (19) graduated with a science degree, Mary (22) graduated with a preschool education degree, and both Liseth (21) and Ana (21) graduated with degrees in business administration. It’s been wonderful to celebrate this accomplishment with them, and it’s also been a great opportunity to meet many of their families who we invited over to our house for a party afterwards.

The most common question we get asked is, “What will they do now?” And the answer is different for each of them. Their high school degrees include a major, and they hope to get jobs related to what they studied. Many universities offer evening and weekend classes, and they all have hopes to start studying in college next year. We encourage them to continue to stay with us, in fact, that’s why we built the apartment beside our house in order to give them space to live as well as some more freedom. Some of them do have family that they’ve decided to live with. In the end we try to help them in any way possible as they move into this new stage of life.

Liseth now has a job doing office work at our pastor’s rose farm. She’s very excited to be learning what it’s like to run a real business. And Karla has gotten a job at a print shop near our house where she will be helping them to modernize their website. Our other two girls, Anelcy (20) and Sharon (19) have both finished 10th grade, and they’re working temporary jobs in a guacamole factory until school starts again in January. Mary hopes to find a teaching job for next year, but is working at the guacamole factory with Anelcy and Sharon in the mean-time.

Monday Night Bible Study

In October we were excited to restart the Bible studies on Monday nights. A mix of street vendors, street kids, shoe shiners, homeless, and alcoholics of our town attend, and our heart is to have a place where everyone feels welcomed and loved while we pursue the Lord and His will for our lives. Many people can find it intimidating to walk into a church for the first time, especially if they’re poor, less educated, or struggling with an addiction. We love bringing everyone together, learning about the Lord together, praying for each other, having dinner together, and loving each other. And the children that come love getting some time to just be a kid after a long day of work. 

Please pray for this special group. For kids like Wilson, Maria and Joselin who are selling food and candy on the street everyday. For the adults like Mario, Rebeca and Jesus who are selling fruit and collecting cardboard to provide for their families. And for guys like Carlos, Moises and Wingly who are fighting against addictions. What touches my heart the most is to see Margaret’s heart for the other kids as she is everyone’s friend, and she was the most excited to restart our meetings!

Elections

This year was an election year in Guatemala, and things got crazy. A new candidate came out of obscurity and won the election in August by a pretty big landslide solely based on promises to reduce government corruption. His inauguration isn’t until January, and the current government has been working hard at disqualifying him, his party, and the elections. As a result the general public has been protesting throughout the country. October was particularly crazy as there were blockades everywhere, including 6 different points in our town, which stopped everyone from being able to drive anywhere. It lasted many weeks, and food started to become scarce and expensive. Fortunately it was mostly peaceful but there were confrontations between the protestors, the police, and frustrated drivers. 

We were starting our Monday night Bible studies in the middle of the protests, and in order to invite people we would walk around our central park to talk, pass out coffee and pray for people. The police station is beside the park, and one night after a tense day of protests, the police chief asked our group to come and pray for all of them!

Prayer Requests

• We are in the middle of many different Christmas parties at some orphanages and communities of Chimaltenango. Our desire is to love on as many as possible and to introduce them to our loving heavenly Father.
• The new school year begins in January, and we’re getting to know some potential new girls to see if they are a good fit for our family. After so many have graduated this past year, we hope to find some new girls to help this coming year.
• We ask that you would pray for Guatemala over the next 4 weeks because everyone here is watching and waiting to see what the government does and see if there are going to be more protests.

Thank You!

Thank you so much for your continued support for our family! Margaret just turned 11 and wants to be an artist. She loves to draw and is always making new clothes for her dolls. Isabella is 4 and loves gymnastics. She has been in multiple competitions this year and has even won 1st place! Both love their pet rabbits and are excited by our ever growing bunny population.

Thank you so much and God bless,
Brent, Yuliza, Margaret & Isabella