Preparing the rebar columns
The block foundation
Reaching the ground level
Above ground
The septic hole
Chepe digging deep!
The end of March
Category Archives: Guatemala
In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1)
This month we’ve started a Bible study on my favorite book of the Bible, John. Of the four accounts of Jesus’s life, called the gospels, this book feels like the most personal. It goes into great detail to explain why Jesus did what He did, and it includes lots of His conversations with the people around Him. It also has some of the most memorable verses like John 3:16 and John 14:6.
I love how this book focuses on many of Jesus’s explainations about the spiritual side of life, something completely new to the people. For example, in John 3 Jesus talks to a Jewish leader, Nicodemus, about the need to be born again; not a physical birth like the first time, but a spiritual birth. In John 4 He talks with a samaritan woman about being the source of of living water of eternal life. In John 6 He explained to a crowd that we must eat His flesh and drink His blood in order to have life. In John 8 Jesus explains that everyone who sins in a slave to sin, and that we are either the children of the devil or the children of God. In John 9 He gives sight to a blind man and explains spiritual blindness. His teachings are both fascinating and incredibly rich with lessons for our own lives. It’s so easy for us to be so focused on our physical lives that we forget about our spiritual lives.
Benjamin’s with us
Elias’s brother Benjamin has now moved in with us! He has been busy in January and February with a final internship required for his degree in accounting, and he was working for a company that prints food packaging labels. Some examples are the labels on two liter bottles of soda and the plastic wrappers for hotdogs. After his internship ended the company offered him a full-time position at the company to help keep track of their inventory.
He is very excited for this opportunity to start working in his field. The new job offer did mean that he wouldn’t be able to take care of the house of boys at Casa Shalom anymore, and so he decided that it was time to move out of them home. We’re excited to have him here with us now. We had a great time together during the Christmas break, and now we get to be together all the time!
We would appreciate your prayers for both Benjamin and Elias as they live with us. Please pray that God would use us to continue to form and mature these two young men as they transition into adulthood.
February in Guatemala
February has been a very exciting and busy month because the land title has been finally approved! It took 5 months for the whole process to complete which is a lot longer than we were anticipating, but we’re so grateful for the land and excited to now begin building.
We had a picnic party to celebrate the start of construction the final weekend in February. We invited all the teenage boys from Casa Shalom over to the land along with our pastor and our family and friends. It was a great time of giving thanks to God for His provision.
We also used it to talk to the boys about their hopes for the future. Proverbs 29:18 says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish”, and other translations say that the people “cast off restraint”. A common problem with orphans is that they have no vision for their lives. When you grow up with no parents or your parents die and you’re left alone, your hopes and dreams for the future can easily die too. Our message to the guys was that in Christ we can have a hope and a future. Like a pot in the hands of a potter, He is forming us for His purpose.
Prayer Requests for March:
- Elias: Elias is continuing his final year of high school. Please keep him in your prayers as he plans for the future.
- Benjamin: Elias’s brother Benjamin has finished his required internship in order to graduate from high school, and is now looking for a job. He is also moving out of Casa Shalom and moving in with us. Please pray for him as he transitions into this new phase of life. We’re excited to have him here with us!
- House Construction: There are a lot of details that go into building a house! I’m learning a lot as we get the project started. One issue that we’re waiting for is that we don’t have any water yet, and the new mayor hasn’t decided how much he wants to charge us to hook it up. Without water we can’t make concrete. Also pray that God provides all the finances needed to build the house.
- Us: Please pray that Yuliza and I continue to have enough time together as a couple amidst the busyness of teaching, construction and our guys.
- Please pray Colossians 4:5-6 for us: Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.
Our website and blog have moved! Our name change is now complete, so our website can now be found at www.PottersHome.org. Please update your bookmarks! My email address Brent@CasaShalom.net will continue to work.
Thanks so much for all of your prayers and support for us in Guatemala! God has given us an incredible responsibility to do, and we feel honored with all the support that we receive.
Brent & Yuliza
It’s DEEEEEEP!
I’m impressed how deep the foundation needs to be and how quickly our workers dug it.
Even our nephew Jorge Pablo came to help!
Land Celebration
This weekend we had a picnic to celebrate starting construction of the house. The teen boys from Casa Shalom came over to see the land, and it was fun to spend the day together. Our pastor was able to join the celebration, and we had a great time praying and thanking God for His provision. Some of new neighbors are relatives of Yuliza, and they were generous to let us use their yard for the picnic since our piece of land is just dirt right now.
Construction has begun
We broke ground on the land today! This is a view of our land from the “road” leading to it. We’ve got a lot of work to do, but it’s very exciting that we were able to begin this morning.
The first thing that we need to do is build a cement block wall around the perimeter of the land, and then afterwards we’ll build the house inside. Here’s three of our workers starting to dig the trench. They’re Yuliza’s two brothers and a nephew.
Construction is very interesting because it’s completely manual labor. We don’t have any electricity yet, but we don’t need it, either. As an engineer I’m enjoying learning how everything is built. For instance, they use a clear hose filled with water in order to make two distant points the same height in order to make a wall straight.
We have the land title!
The land title has finally been approved! It took a few months longer than we were expecting, but we’re so happy that it’s now complete. It’s going to be exciting to start the construction now!
January in Guatemala
The busyness of Christmas time settled down quickly after most of our house guests left shortly after the new year, leaving just Elias with us. And then the school year started up, with Yuli teaching second grade at a school nearby, and Elias beginning his senior year of high school. It felt strange to all of a sudden have so many less people in the house! The kids from Casa Shalom have also returned from their vacation and are now busy with the new school year. It’s fun to be back with them working on homework and projects together.
Elias has now been with us for almost 2 months, and we’ve really enjoyed having him here in our home. We even got to celebrate his 21st birthday with him about three weeks ago. Yuli’s family has also been incredibly welcoming and wonderful to Elias. They have been a great help and support to Yuli and I! Elias has now even started calling some of Yuli’s sisters “tia”. (which mean aunt)
We are incredibly grateful that God has brought us here to serve, and that He has brought Elias into our lives. We pray that we will do a good job raising him, and we ask that you pray that God continues to guide our ministry to Elias and for the guys who will come to live with us in the future.
Here are some prayer requests for February:
- Please pray for Elias. He’s in his senior year of high school and works very hard at it. Because of long bus rides he leaves very early and is gone for 12 hours everyday. Pray pray for him as he lives and grows with us and as he decides what to do after graduation.
- Please pray for our land. We have not been able to start construction this month like we hoped. We’re still waiting for the final land title to return from a government office. It’s been frustrating to wait, as it’s taken about 3 months longer than we anticipated. Sometimes it’s hard to know exactly why it’s been delayed so long, but it’s mostly a mixture of the craziness of elections and new government officials taking office and slowdowns due to Christmas break. We were supposed to receive the final paperwork at the end of January, but our lawyer had mixed up some numbers. So we’ve resubmitted the paperwork and now are waiting for it to be accepted.
- Please pray for Yuli and me. Please pray that we get to spend sufficient time together, and that God continues to bind our hearts together. Pray that the busyness of the world would not distract us from growing together as spouses.
- Please pray James 1:2-4 for us:“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” We are young and new at this, and we NEED God’s wisdom in our lives. Please pray that He would always be our focus and our guide!
Thank you so much for your prayers for us!
As we’ve mentioned in the past, we’ve been trying to decide for the past few months what name to call the ministry. Many have recommended an obvious pun on our last name to call it “the Potter’s House”. The idea is from Jeremiah 18, where God says, “like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand”. What we decided that we like even more is the name “the Potter’s Home” because our desire is to create a loving home where God can form these guys into men. What do you think?
Thanks again for your support and prayers! The messages and emails that we receive are so encouraging to us. You are a great blessing to our lives!
Brent & Yuliza
Back to School
Today is the start of the school year in Guatemala. Yuliza’s students arrived for the first time, and Elias headed back to his high school for his final year.