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

Moving into our new house!

Whew. It’s been a crazy past couple weeks! We moved into our new house last Monday! We’ve had all sorts of little projects associated with moving into a new house. Some examples include: having to get a new pila due to cracks and leaks, hooking up water lines and drains for the pila and our washing machine, concrete work, fixing leaks, cleaning, hanging photos and decorations on the wall, making shelves, unpacking, and reorganizing.

Packing up:

Day of the move:

 

 Our house beginning to take shape:

We are looking forward to starting our (summer version) after-school program in our new space by this Monday the 23^rd. The school year here in Guatemala ends this week so the kids have their summer/Christmas break until mid-January. By the time school starts back up again for 2018 we hope to have a good base of kids along with more structure to the program. Please be praying for and with us as we officially begin the program.

If anyone is still interested in donating/purchasing some items for our after-school program we have an Amazon wish-list to give you some ideas. You can follow this link to the list (click here). We have a piece of luggage coming down at the end of October. If you are interested in helping us out please contact us as soon as possible and we will tell you where to ship the item(s) you are purchasing/donating to not miss the cut-off date. Thank you to those who have already donated and purchased items!

We are looking forward to a visit from two guys from Push The Rock who will be coming on November 5^th. They will be visiting to see the area, pray, talk about vision, see the beginnings of the after-school program, give encouragement, and spend time learning and seeing Hope for Home Ministries.

We also both are becoming more involved in our church, Shoreline City, Antigua. I (Andi) have started playing on worship team twice a month and Shauna has become involved with children’s ministry. We also have started up connect groups again and we meet every other Monday night.

Every night while we eat dinner, we have started saying ten thing we were thankful for that day. We realized that we were complaining and not being grateful for things that were happening in our day to day lives. So while we eat we take turns saying things that we are thankful for that God has done for us, other people have done for us, or general items of thanksgiving. We just started this last week, but it has allowed us to reflect on how much we are blessed each day. Sometimes they are small things while other times they are things that have impacted us greatly. It also has helped turn our attitudes toward the positives things of the day instead of the negative ones. 

We are so thankful for your continued prayers and support. 

To make Jesus' name famous,

Andi and Krishauna

Wish List

Our move is coming up soon!

We were told that the house will be ready for us on October 8th (hopefully all the work will be done by then) so we are working on getting things ready on our end. We are slowly packing things up, sorting through things to get rid of stuff we don't need, and we are making lists of things we will need to get after we make the move.

The plan is for us to spend a couple weeks getting settled in the new house and purchasing the stuff for our after-school program before we start having kids over.

 As the time is getting closer, we are getting more and more anxious for the after-school program to be up and running. The school year here in Guatemala runs from mid-January to mid-October so this school year is coming to an end, but that gives us an excellent opportunity to start with a more laid-back program of playing games, and getting to know the kids before school starts up and we have more structure and organization.

In preparation for all of this, we want to get books, games, puzzles, Legos and other toys that will be used for the program. We know that many people would love to be able to help out with these needs so here is our Amazon Wish List (click here). If this is something you would like to help with, you can purchase or donate any of the items on our list or you can donate any other lightly used items that you think would be a good addition to the program. We are very happy to get used items so if you find any of the items on the Wish List for a better price used, that would be great!

A few things to keep in mind: 

1) We will have kids between the ages of 6 and 13 so remember that when picking out items to donate

2) Books need to be in Spanish or Spanish/English bilingual books
3) Any used puzzles should not have missing pieces


Last, we also want to be able to work on math concepts with the kids and the Rocket Math program was recommended to me by a friend. I looked into it a bit more and think it would be a great addition to our program. We would like to purchase a subscription to that so if you would like to help us with that cost, please contact us. 

We are not able to receive packages easily here in Guatemala so if you are interested in helping, please email us at abrubaker@pushtherock.org or krishauna@hopeforhome.org and we will give you instructions for where to have it sent so it can be brought down to us. We also want to be sure we know what items are being purchased or donated so we can update the list as needed. 

Thank you for your prayers and support!

Andi and Krishauna