Big news, T-shirts, basketball, bombas and more!

 Greetings from Guatemala!

For those of you who didn’t hear the news, we posted this on Thanksgiving day!

                                 
Obviously, we are super excited especially after the molar pregnancy that happened in the spring.

The word keeps spreading about the after-school program throughout our town. We had three kids this week ring our doorbell and ask about the program and when it meets. We now have 22 kids who have come at least once. Most of the kids are consistent in attending with the average at about 14-15 each day. We have been busy planning each day of the program with the bible stories, English lessons, and games and activities. We also have had to make some charts in order to keep track of which kids help with handing out snack and read during the Bible lessons because they all want to help every time! We are also in the process of researching and planning for the program once the school year here starts up in mid-January. We are creating a reward/point system to motivate kids to practice English phrases, be consistent in attending, to encourage and treat their friends nicely, among other things. With the program growing so fast we have needed more volunteers and helpers. God has provided different people who are here as interns with Hope for Home Ministries, some of Krishauna’s siblings, and other short and long-term people who have been willing to volunteer their time. If you know of anybody or have any interest yourself in being an intern with Push The Rock Guatemala we would love to talk with you about the possibilities! We will probably be splitting the program in the two age groups once the new school-year starts back up. You can be praying for the parents and families of the kids who attend that they will be willing to accept this change and still be willing to send their kids (especially for those who have kids in both age groups).

                                                                  

                                                                                        

          

We also wanted to let you know that very soon (most likely at some point in January) we will have Push The Rock Guatemala shirts available for sale. All the profit from these shirts will go toward our after-school program expenses, along with other expanding ministry opportunities here. A price has not been determined yet, but the front of the shirts will look like these pictured below (along with Guatemala below the logo).

Our town:

Churros: Deep fried dough with the
choice of chocolate, strawberry,
caramel, or condensed milk on top.

Tostados: Hard shell nachos
with avacado, cheese, and
noodles.

Our town, San Andres, had its annual fair/celebration the past few days as they celebrated Saint Andrew. It is a Catholic celebration with processions, alfombras (the carpets in the streets), bombas (loud firecrackers…loud enough they make our truck’s security beep because of the vibrations), fireworks, bands, booths with games and food, and lots of music. They also don’t stop throughout the night, so we turned our box fan up another notch and tried to sleep 😊 We participated by purchasing some of the food!

Basketball ministry opportunity:

Some of the guys from Hope for Home Ministries and I get together to play basketball twice a week in the mornings from 7-8 for exercise and to have a little fun. A few weeks ago we meet a few other Guatemalan guys down at the court and they asked us when we play so that they could bring some friends and a team to play with us. This is a great ministry opportunity that recently opened up out of the blue, and if you can be praying for this opportunity to pour into these young men and to show them the love of Jesus through how we play and interact with each other on the court that would be awesome!

Christmas:

I know we have had fun spending time decorating our new house for Christmas through all the non-working Christmas lights, spiders in the boxes, and running out of extension cords. Seriously though, we hope that you are also able to find joy as this Christmas season begins. Jesus is the reason for what we do and why we live, and Christmas is a great reminder to have Joy, Peace, Hope, and Love through it all.

Blessings to you and your family,

Andi and Krishauna



If you have any questions or want to know more about our ministry and what we are doing in Guatemala send us an e-mail at abrubaker@pushtherock.org or krishauna@hopeforhome.org.

If you feel God is calling you to support us financially you can go to hopeforhome.org/donate and designate your gift to Andi and Krishauna or pushtherock.org/donate and find Andi Brubaker on the drop down menu.

After-school program is growing fast!

We apologize for not getting an update out sooner. The past two weeks we have been extremely busy hosting family for Carissa (Krishauna's sister) and Stevie's wedding along with hosting Dave and Chico from Push The Rock. 

We had a great visit with Dave and Chico. We spent some time talking about vision and goals for Push The Rock Guatemala. We took a few walks around town showing them the area, the sports facilities, and ice-cream shops :). They were able to help out with the after-school program on Monday and Thursday. We also were able to show them both the homes for kids that Hope for Home Ministries operates, and they spent part of a day on a village trip. It was an encouraging time for us as we think about vision, and how fast PTR Guatemala can grow. 

The after-school program is up and running! It's been growing each day. We started with just our previous neighbors, and each day two or three new kids come! Last Thursday we had 13 kids who participated. It's been a lot of fun getting to know all these kids as the majority of them live on our street. Many of them just showed up as we were down at the court playing games and we invited them to come back with us to our house to be apart of the program! Each afternoon we have been starting here at our house then walking down to the basketball/soccer court at the end of our street. We have played/taught basketball, soccer, a form of dodgeball, 4-square, human batttleship, and shipwreck (or the fruit game as we call it here). We spend about an hour - an hour 15 minutes down at the court, then head back up to our house. Next we usually have a prayer and snack, and have a small English lesson. After that we either have time for board games, puzzles, or legos for about 45 minutes. We have a Bible lesson next and then usually finish up the afternoon with more active games in our back yard or more table games. We have worked through stories of David using the Beginner's Bible (La Bible para principiantes: Bilingue) and sometimes we give the kids opportunities to read which has been awesome! You can see some more pictures below (clicking the pictures increases the size).

 

The names of the kids in the photo L to R: 

Back row: Hillary, Jonny, Kevin, Nereida

Middle row: Gabriel, Harol, Diego, Keyler, Kenedi

Front row: Kenia, Daisi, Nicole, Leylani

Ways you can pray for us:

• Pray for each one of the kids that is a part of the program. Pray that their ears and minds would be open and they would feel loved and appreciated and we build relationships with them.
• Pray that we would have wisdom in knowing when to split the program into two separate age-groups. Right now we are all combined for two days a week, but the goal is to expand to four days a week and split into younger and older age groups for two days each. 
• Pray that we would have sensitivity to the cultural differences and the Catholic/Evangelical differences.
• Pray that God would send interns, volunteers, and other staff to come along side us.
• Pray that God would provide the financial support that we need in order to operate the after-school program to the best of our abilities as well as have sufficient funds for daily expenses.

Praises/Thanks

• We are so thankful for all the games, legos, and books that you have donated.
• We are praising God at how fast the program is growing without even doing much advertising.
• We are so thankful for our house and how it has been used in so many ways.

We still have some items on our Amazon wish list that would be great to have as part of the program. If you are interested in seeing what is left on the list here is the link. Amazon wish list

If you are interested in supporting us financially designated specifically to the after-school program, or daily expenses, we would love to talk with you more about it. You can also visit http://hopeforhome.org/donate.html and designate your gift in our names.

We are so thankful for your prayers, encouragement, and support,

Blessings,

Andi and Krishauna