Feliz Navidad from the Brubakers

As Christmas and the end of the year approaches we would like to take some time to look back and many of the ways God has blessed us throughout 2017. If you receive this update via e-mail and the formatting is messed up, feel free to click the blog title which will take you directly to our webpage.

Child: We are so excited to be celebrating Christmas this year with a new little blessing growing bigger and bigger every day! Baby Brubaker is due to arrive in early July! Early this year, we found out we were expecting our first child to arrive in late October, but got news shortly after that baby didn't make it. Although this new baby will never take away the pain we have experienced in loosing our first child, we are thanking God for a healthy pregnancy so far and we couldn't be more happy to be growing our family!

House: Early in the year we visited a couple other areas of Guatemala seeking God’s will where He wanted us to settle long-term. After a few months we decided to remain in the area and began keeping our eyes open for places to live. We ended up looking at seven different properties with only two being real possibilities due to space, location, and price. As we made some offers we prayed that God would use the place we choose for His glory. When we first settled on our decision, we still had some hesitancy, doubts, and fears that were in the back of our minds. However, now after living in our house for over two months, we can both confidentially say that this house is such a blessing from God and has already become full of kids to minister too, visitors from the states, friends, and family.

Residency and RENAP: After hours of sitting in different RENAP offices and multiple trips to Guatemala City, we have completed some very difficult processes. Andi finally got his residency and DPI card (Guatemalan ID card) to make him official. With this DPI card, he no longer has to use his passport for daily tasks like going to the bank and using his credit card. Krishauna has also completed the most difficult part (we hope) of name change and just has to apply for a new DPI card after the holidays. We are so thankful for these steps to be done! 

Involvement: We began attending Shoreline City Antigua last November and have been so blessed by the church and everyone there. After getting our truck in August, opportunities to get more involved and serve opened up. Now, Andi is serving with the worship team about two times a month and Krishauna is serving with Shoreline Kids. We have also been involved in connect groups and Sisterhood (a monthly women's event) that have deepened friendships and been great encouragement to us. 

Support: Without those of you who read our updates, support us financially, and pray for us, 2017 would have been a much more difficult year. God has blessed us through your notes of encouragement, prayers, messages, and financial gifts. Through officially joining Push The Rock and beginning the after-school program our budget increased. We have been blessed that our support has slightly increased as well. We are especially thankful for many of your large one-time donations that have helped with larger purchases such as our truck, furniture, equipment and supplies for the program, and sports equipment.

Truck: Our truck has been amazing!!! During the spring we began to look around at vehicles for sale, and were keeping our eyes open on facebook and different classified groups. We have been so blessed that God provided this truck in our price range and in great condition. A family we knew was selling it because of moving back to the states and it has been put to great use ever since!

Making Friends: The beginning of the year we were struggling to build friendships and get to know others our age. God has blessed us greatly as we have made many friends from our church and connect group, other interns and staff here with Hope for Home, and deepened friendships with other family members. We have had couples over to our house, gone out to coffee and meals one-on-one with other friends, and attended an ugly-sweater Christmas party as you can see in the photo :)

After-school program: Our Push The Rock after-school program started on Thursday October 19^th. That day we started out with three kids (all three were neighbors from our old house). Up to that point we only had informal game times at our old house twice a week. Now two months later we have run out of space (with 34 kids who have attended at least once), and will be dividing age groups when the school-year starts. The past three days we have had between 15-21 kids. The growth of the program has been a huge answer to prayer. God has blessed us with an opportunity to pour into the lives of these kids on a regular basis, help them with their education, and show them His love through games, activities, sports and Bible stories. This past week we did some special Christmas activities!

  

         

          

                    

Spanish: This week Andi had his last official Spanish class! From the beginning of the year until June he was taking classes three times a week, four hours a day. Since we returned from the states in July classes were decreased to once a week for three hours. The past couple of months classes have been mainly conversational based along with questions he takes to class. God has blessed both of us with ways to continue practicing a new language and blessed Andi with a great teacher as well! 

This photo was a part of
the annual
Hogar de la Esperanza
Christmas countdown!

2017 was a year full of struggles, growth, patience, and blessings. As we look back at each day, week, and month we can see that God was in the midst of it all. As 2018 approaches we are even more excited to see what God is going to do in our lives in order to make His name famous here in Guatemala and throughout the world. We hope that each of you can look back at 2017 and see the ways God has blessed you as well. From our family to yours.
Feliz Navidad, Prospero Año y Felicidad!


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 email 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.

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