New Hope. Stronger Faith. Greater Vision.

Greetings from Guatemala. This update will be in three main sections related to the title of this post. We hope you spend the time to read it as God has been challenging us and we hope that you can be praying alongside of us as we walk through what God has before us.

New Hope

This is the name of the church we are apart of that launched in San Antonio three weeks ago! Iglesia Cristiana Nueva Esperanza (New Hope Christian Church). We have had multiple families start coming from the community and had 71 people total this past Sunday. It has been a privilege to serve in leading the worship team and coordinating the audio and screens team as well. Within three weeks we have been able to have a full band with four instruments and three vocalists which has been amazing! The entire service is in Spanish, with some parts in English, which has definitely challenged me to grow even more in my Spanish speaking ability :) Shauna has taken the role of being in charge of bookkeeping and finances. You can be praying that the church (we the people) would continue to be lights in our community and that the gospel that is preached along with the work of the Holy Spirit would reveal 'New Hope' to all those who step through the doors (also those who pass by the doors as the service happens). The photo above is of the main area of the church. You can also see a video of worship and like the church's page on Facebook below.

Video of worship

Iglesia Cristiana Nueva Esperanza Facebook page

Stronger Faith

Faith is sometimes a very difficult concept to grasp and understand. According to Merriam Webster faith is : strong belief or trust in someone or something. Obviously, the faith we have is in our Heavenly Father. We have faith that God will answer our prayers when we pray according to His will. Both Shauna and I have been challenged in our faith to pray that God will open the doors to our next home/property. We have been praying that by March the house that has been under construction (that we first looked at last January) will be completed and we will be able to move into that new property. We believe that God has greater things ahead and ask that you join with us in praying for the doors to open on this new house/property. We also ask that you continue to pray for us to have greater faith in our daily walk with God.

Greater Vision

Along with praying for the new property and house, each day, week, and month that passes we are sensing a "Greater Vision." One of our goals for PTR Guatemala is to disciple and train Guatemalans to disciple, train, and educate other Guatemalans. We as 'Gringos' (foreigners) can only associate, communicate, and train others as best as we know how, but we will never be the 'same' as the people here. So in that regard by having Guatemalans directing and leading programs and events they will be able to relate and reach more people that we would ever be able to. So first you can be praying that relationships would continue to build with people here in our community and that God would raise up leaders who have to heart of impacting people for Him. Shauna and I have already had discussions about one of the oldest boys in our program and the possibilities of hiring him next year to help us in the program. Going along with this idea of 'greater vision' you can be praying for wisdom as we process what it would look like to purchase land to build a ministry area. We have found that properties large enough for ministry are extremely expensive to rent and very hard to find. By having our own space and property we would be able to design the space to fit not only what we need right now, but for expansion as well. This could include living space, sports fields, education classrooms and more. Pray that God would reveal his will and that we would have faith to follow Him where He leads. We know this is a big vision that will bring in many more expenses and that God will have to provide a piece of land, but we continue to have this vision on our hearts and are praying for God to move in miraculous ways. We can see so many kids who come to our program that crave attention and love and many don't have a father figure who is consistently involved in their daily lives. We are that safe and loving place that they can come twice a week and our vision is for that to grow and that we are able to show God's love to so many more kids and families in this community.

Please pray for us for 'New Hope', 'Stronger Faith,' & our 'Greater Vision.


E-mail address update: Shauna's e-mail address has now changed. Her new e-mail is  k.bru91@gmail.com so please update your contact information. :)

 

Thank you so much for your financial support, your prayers, and encouragement. 

Andi, Shauna, and Sammy

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 

k.bru91@gmail.com

If you feel God is calling you to support us financially you can go to pushtherock.org/donate and find Andi Brubaker on the drop down menu. Dios le bendiga.

Exciting beginnings

The 2020 school year has begun! It has brought an increase in numbers as well. We have 27 kids registered in our older group and 12 in our younger group. This includes eight brand new kids. Because of the size of the older group we now split into two levels of English which will allow the kids to learn better. We also have had to add a 3rd table to our main room, add more stools, and have more energy and excitement too! We are so pumped to have this group of kids and are excited to see how the Holy Spirit moves in their hearts. 

 Taking their writing speed tests and placements for Rocket Math.

 

We learned about the Creation story with the younger group and they drew pictures representing each day.

 Reviewing numbers and colors as part of our first couple days.

 

Working on the Books of the Bible. Excited to start our lessons on prayer, and diving into some different topics like honesty, honor, and forgiveness this trimester.

 Another change we have made is to join the core team of a new church plant here in San Antonio, our town. The name of the church is 'Nueva Esperanza' which means 'New Hope'. We met for the first time this past Sunday as a core group to worship together. I (Andi) have taken the role of worship leader and am looking forward to see how God works through this opportunity of leadership. We are painting and doing some other work on the building we will be renting for the church and Lord willing, will have the first service by the middle of February.

Ways you can be praying :

-That God would provide a building/house for us as the program continues to grow (in this area due to the majority of our kids live in this section of town)

-Continued healthy pregnancy for Shauna who is almost 20 weeks now

-This new church plant: that we can share the gospel and be the light to many who live in darkness

-That God will raise up Guatemalans who are interested in working with us in the program, passionate about Jesus and pouring into the lives of kids.

As always some fun photos of Sammy :)

We have already seen God move in so many ways this year and we are only 2/3 through January. We are so excited to see what the rest of 2020 brings. 

We are blessed. 

God is good all the time. All the time God is good.

Andi, Shauna, and Sammy

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 pushtherock.org/donate and find Andi Brubaker on the drop down menu. Dios le bendiga.

Merry Christmas

Only 5 more days until Christmas and 11 until we begin a new year. We hope you have a very blessed holidays as you celebrate our Savior coming into the world.  A shorter update this month with lots of photos from our busy past few weeks :)

We really enjoyed our time in Pennsylvania for three weeks over Thanksgiving into early December. We were so blessed and encouraged by those we were able to see and meet with. 

We also want to say thanks to those who gave donations for coffee, scarves, and t-shirts, for the camera and phone we received to take pictures with, and for the use of a vehicle.

 We were also thrilled to have some snow!

 

Brubaker extended family at Thanksgiving. 

 We were able to take an overnight trip as a late anniversary celebration to Pittsburgh to see a Steelers game!

 After getting back to Guatemala on Dec. 10th we left for the annual Fulp family beach trip early the next morning.

 This past Tuesday we had our last event of the year with the kids from the program.

We played some Christmas-themed games at the court, they decorated cookies, and received some small gifts, given by a family in the states.

Some big news that some of you may not know about is that Sammy is going to be a big brother :) Our next baby is due mid June.

Much love from Guatemala

- - - - - - - - 

Andi, Krishauna, and Samuel

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 pushtherock.org/donate and find Andi Brubaker on the drop down menu. Dios le bendiga.

School Break Activities

Since the school year ended in mid October we have been having once or twice a week special activities with the kids. 

Our first event was water games - relays, competitions, and frozen t-shirts. We all got soaked not just from the games, but because it rained 90% of the time :)

Our next event was only for the older kids. The boys went to a grass field and played some baseball (it rained most of that afternoon too :) ). The girls were at our house to make some jewelry, eat cookies, drink coffee, and paint nails.

We then had an event for the younger kids. We started at our house playing legos, then went to the turf field in San Antonio to have some fun playing soccer and running around. (It also rained that day - notice a theme?)

Our zoo trip was last week (It was a beautiful sunny day :)). We had 19 kids attend, along our volunteers, the Ewert family and Izzy Alvarez. We left our house at 8:30 in the morning and didn't arrive at the zoo until noon (when it normally would take an hour and 15 min to get there). The van we were borrowing broke down and so we had to rent another micro bus to take us the rest of the way. That was an adventure, but once we arrived we all had a great time, seeing the animals, and enjoying pizza! This was some of the kids first time to visit the zoo so it was awesome to be able to give those kids that opportunity. It was a long, but fun day and we arrived back at our house at 5:45.

 

It's been a lot of fun having special activities with the kids the past few weeks. We are now looking forward to hosting Chico and Ben, two guys who work with Push The Rock at Headquarters in PA for five days, then heading back to PA ourselves for three weeks.  Because of our trip we had to set up Christmas decorations early and so our family Christmas tree day was on Saturday.

We are looking forward to see many of you and are bringing the largest amount of coffee (just about 30 pounds of freshly roasted Guatemalan coffee) we have ever brought. Thank you for those who ordered and for those who didn't get a chance too we will have a few extra bags :)

You can be praying for our time as we travel back to see family and friends, pray for the Ewerts as they lead two events with the kids while we are gone, continuing to pray for our house situation (still have a place in mind, but construction is taking longer than we originally thought), and that the kids and families we work with would truly know who Jesus is.

Thanks so much for your prayers and financial support!

Blessings,

Andi, Krishauna, and Sammy

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 pushtherock.org/donate and find Andi Brubaker on the drop down menu. Dios le bendiga.