Hello from Guatemala!

 We’re so excited that our family has continued to grow this year. Jeremías joined us first in January. He’s 18 and a senior in high school studying computer programming. And Geovany joined our family in April after he turned 18. He’s a junior in high school and is studying architecture. The two boys grew up together and are good friends, and so it’s great to have them together in the apartment that we finished building 2 years ago!

Karla is 20 years old and is in her second year studying computer science at the public university of Guatemala. Sharon is also 20 years old, is a senior in high school and is studying business administration. And Katy is 16, is a junior in high school, and is studying robotics.

Back in January when Jeremías moved in with us, Yuliza and I began praying for his younger sisters. We both felt like God had placed a huge burden on our hearts to receive them into our family. But they’re living in an orphanage and so the children’s court decides such matters. We’re not family, so all we could do at that time was to pray. In late March they had an audience with the judge, and Jeremías was able to attend as their older brother. He was able to request custody of his sisters on our behalf, and the judge agreed to start the process to investigate us as potential foster parents for them!

Last month we were given permission to have them stay with us during Easter week because they were off from school. And we had an amazing time together. By far the best part was to see how Margaret and Isabella connected with them. They were inseparable all week, and they were all very sad when the week had ended.

Please pray for these special girls, that they could soon become permanent members of our family!

Monday Nights

One of my favorite times of the week is on Monday nights. We have a weekly Bible study meeting at a nearby church that we’re partnering with. The people that attend are street vendors, poor, homeless, alcoholics and some that work in our town’s dump. And the purpose is to welcome them, love them, serve them, teach them, pray with them, and fellowship together with a meal afterwards. 

The time of prayer has been really powerful lately, as we’ve seen people freed from the chains of addiction and find new life in Jesus! It’s an amazing time. And we’re starting a meeting on Thursday nights to focus on discipleship with those who really want to grow in their relationship with God.

Filter of Hope

We enjoy working with our local church in translating for teams with the organization Filter of Hope. We visit families in our area and give away compact water filters that are a huge help because of the parasites that are so prevalent here. And we use the opportunity to evangelize, share God’s love, and explain our need for spiritual cleansing.

Our two busiest seasons with teams are during spring break and summer. This picture is from March when we had 100 college students from a Cru ministry at the University of Arkansas. The teams are always wonderful experiences, and our girl Karla has become a very talented translator and now works with them whenever she gets a break from college.

Thank You!

Thank you so much for your continued prayers and support for our family and ministry. Margaret is in 6th grade and is currently learning trigonometry! And Isabella started kindergarten this year and is fascinated by learning to read and write. She’s always putting random letters together to see what they sound like. Both love gymnastics, swimming, and all of their pets.

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