Stories

We are going to start sharing stories each update about things that happen in our after-school program! These are just a few of ways that God is using us to pour into these kids. It is such a blessing to be the hands and feet of Jesus! 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. You can also click on any photo to enlarge it.  

Keyler and Andi

A new girl, Joselyn, started attending our program this past Monday. This was her first day of learning about how the program worked and how to earn points. We were explaining how our ‘store’ works and that by the end of the week she would have enough points to purchase something. Keyler, one of the other boys, overheard the conversation and came up to Krishauna and asked if he could give away some of his points. Krishauna said, “Yes, they are your points, so you can spend or save them as you want.” He looked at Joselyn and told her, “You can use some of my points to buy something at the store.” He didn’t give a point limit but let her choose what she wanted. This was such an unselfish and amazing act! It is so exciting to see these kids grow in maturity and learning to love as Jesus loves.

Anderson

We were down at the court participating in relay races. Anderson, a 11-year-old boy, started to get a bad attitude and was annoyed at some of his teammates, because they were losing. He started complaining and so one of our helpers reminded him about a verse we were memorizing at the time (Do to others what you would have them do to you). Once the helper started quoting it Anderson finished the verse from his memory. Suddenly, his attitude changed, and he began to cheer and encourage his teammates. It is so cool to see how God’s word and memorizing verses can change attitudes and lives!

Kenet

Each day we give an opportunity for different kids to pray for the snack. As soon as I ask, “who wants to pray?”, four or five hands shoot up in the air! Recently, Kenet, an 8-year-old, in our younger group was chosen to pray. He started to pray and all the adults there that day were so impressed and blessed by his prayer. He was able to use a lot of his own words and prayed for a variety of items. It is such an honor to hear kids praying to our Heavenly Father!

We asked for prayer last update for a boy in our program who was causing trouble and not listening well. Thank you for your prayers and we are excited to say we have seen improvement in his behavior! He recently went two full days without having any issues. Please continue to pray for our patience for him and continued maturity and growth in his life.

Diá Especial

Here are some photos of our 'Dia Especial' with the kids! We played minute-to-win-it games, had different competitions, received special snack (depending on their point levels), and had a ton of fun!

                                

                                        

                      

 

The Christian character and sportsmanship award winners
from our older group, Melany and Keyler!

The Christian character and sportsmanship award winners
from our younger group, Fatima and Kenedi

 And who doesn't love this picture!!

 We are so thankful for all your prayers and support!

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.

Snippets of our life

Greetings from the land of Eternal Spring! For those who are unaware Guatemala has this nickname because of the climate. Many of you are looking out your windows at a large amount of snow on the ground, while we enjoy the 80 degree weather here. It's amazing how God created this world with so many different types of weather and climate - what a Creator! If you recieve 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. You can also click on any photo to enlarge it. 

This update contains a lot of pictures which are always fun :) They are great way to show snippets into our life here! 

As part of our rental contract, it was agreed that we would add a bathroom to the back of our house. It's been a little challenging finding time to work on it due to having the after-school program four days a week, but poco a poco (little by little)! It's a totally new experience using block and re-bar to build along with learning what tools to use and the different processes they use here. The hope is to have the walls complete by the time rainy season comes, which is usually around early - mid April.

With some of the profit that we made from the Push The Rock Guatemala shirt sales we were able to purchase these awesome storage cabinets and tub! They hold all of our games, books, supplies, sports equipment, and our 'mini-libreria' (store) that the kids use the points to purchase school supplies. We found out very quickly that pens of all colors, erasers, and sticky-notes are the most popular items.

The after-school program is going really well! The kids are getting excited for "Dia Especial" during the 2nd week of April. That day will mark the end of the first trimester of the school year and we will be playing minute to win it games, other games and activities, and the kids will be redeeming their points for their special snack (depending on what level they have achieved depends of how special the snack is). The past few days we have been going through the Easter story. We started with Jesus' arrival into Jerusalem, washing feet, the last supper, Jesus' arrest and crucifixion, and tomorrow we will be talking about His resurrection. Please be praying that as we share the story tomorrow (Thu) and Friday of Jesus' resurrection that we will be able to explain it in a way that the kids can understand. Pray that the kids will have questions and want to have discussion about why Jesus died for us and rose again. Pray that Spanish wouldn't be a hindrance to communicating and understanding.  You can also be praying that we will have wisdom to know how not to offend the kids who come from Catholic families, but still share the truth of the gospel.

 

During our English time we have been working on parts of the body (eyes as pictured below), simple action verbs, and days of the week.

We recently received some pinnies sent down by Push The Rock and have been using them a lot. We've enjoyed playing (to-ti-to) human tic-tac-toe, pony express, naden peces naden (swim fishy swim), robar el tocino (steal the bacon), kickball, mission impossible, and futbol! It was also really encouraging to hear one of the kids using a Bible verse he was learning and applying it during one of the games. The idea of doing to others what you would have them do to you. It's so cool to see them putting that into practice! 

                  

Some other ways you can be praying for the after-school program:
 - A boy who attends the program keeps causing trouble. He never wants to admit being wrong and constantly is telling on others. Please pray for wisdom for us to know the correct way to discipline and what consequences to give while loving him in the best way possible.
- We are learning more about some of the kids home situations. Pray for wisdom to know how and if we should get involved, and also how to love all these kids in the best way possible.
- Pray for interns, part-time or full-time staff, and volunteers. We are currently limited in how much we can do now regarding expansion and amount of kids we can accept due to staff.

Plans for the near future:

We are excited as we look ahead to planning a swimming pool day for all of the kids in our program along with their families sometime in May or June.

A team from Mechanicsburg BIC church will be coming to serve with us for a day in July. We will be having a kids community day where we play games and do activities down at the court for the afternoon they are here.

Other Life updates:

Shauna is doing well and the baby is healthy and continuing to grow. Praise the Lord! We would love for you to continue to pray for a healthy pregnancy and our son as he continues to grow!

Last week we started up a new season of connect groups within our church. We are a part of a group with 6 other couples. We meet every Tuesday evening and it has been a awesome time of encouragement, fellowship, community, vulnerability, and growth in friendship. 

This is just an awesome picture of all my Push The Rock shirts

 (for those of you who did not see it on facebook)

                                  

We are so blessed and honored to be doing the work God has called us to do here in Guatemala. We are so thankful for your prayers and support.

Much love,
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.

Multiply

If you recieve 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. You can also click on any photo to enlarge it. 

Whew what a crazy month that seemed to fly by! We hosted Andi’s parents for a week while they visited, we moved to four days a week for the after-school program, we found out the gender of our baby, we spent a week in Florida at a workshop, and are now getting back into routine here.  

Andi’s parents were able to see our new house in person for the first time and were able to help with two days of the after-school program. We were able to show them some of our favorite places to eat, take them to our church, and find a beautiful lookout over Antigua! It was a great time of encouragement, help, and refreshment to have them here (minus the four hours in traffic and missing their flight on the day they left).  They also brought down some more donations of games and books for the after-school program along with Christmas gifts, and Push The Rock Guatemala T-shirts!

 As we moved to four days a week with the after-school program it has been a smooth transition. We now have 15 kids signed up as participants with each age-group (with a max capacity of 16). However, since we were used to having 20-22 kids each day, 12-15 kids (certain kids aren’t as consistent) each day lessens the stress and is easier to handle. We were able to play some kickball and knockout with the older group along with doing different English lessons based on the ages. This week we will have our 'mini libreria' (school supply store) up and running so kids can use their points to ‘buy’ some school supplies. We are super excited for the growth of the program as we continue to build relationships with these kids and share with them the love of Jesus! You can be praying that we can find possible interns or other staff as the ministry grows. 

   

We had a doctor’s appointment last week and we were learned the gender of our baby! The Brubaker tradition continues it’s a boy!! We are looking forward to July when we can meet him!

We spent a week in Sanford, Florida attending a Sharpening Your Interpersonal Skills (SYIS) Workshop. Wow! We would highly recommend this workshop for anyone. It was a highly interactive, educational, and beneficial time. We were able to hear stories and wisdom from not only the facilitators, but also other missionaries, some of whom have been on the field for 30+ years. Some of the modules and topics that we learned the most from included: Loving Listening- the benefits of giving someone your full attention, Making Margin – the idea of setting aside time in your schedule to rest and refresh, Managing Conflict- tips and thoughts on ways to deal with conflict in your life, and Stressors – what are ways we can get rid of stress. There was so much to process, and the information will be able to be used the rest of our lives!

Our church’s theme for 2018 is ‘Multiply.’ It is a such a unique way to look at all aspects of life as we look to God at where He is leading us and what He is going to do in our lives. A quote from this past Sunday’s sermon that impacted us, “Multiply is what God is calling us toward. We can’t stay here.” This theme really goes along well with a book I (Andi) is reading called The Last Arrow by Erwin McManus. He states, “Am I still on the journey forward, or have I found myself settling when I should have been advancing?” We need to be willing to go where God is leading us and never get caught settling for less in the mundane or where we think we are safe or comfortable. Let us all step out and allow God to multiply our lives to be bigger and impact more people for his kingdom.

We are so blessed and want to say thank you to our new financial supporters who have joined our support team in the past couple of months along with those of you who have increased your support. As our lives ‘multiply’ so does our need for finances and we are so grateful. We are also so thankful for those of you who pray for us on a consistent basis. 

Let us advance the kingdom of God together!

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.