What a month it has been! Sometimes, when I sit down to write these updates, it’s hard to even remember everything that has happened since the last one. So much happens in just a few weeks that it can be difficult to keep up with it all! But I’ll do my best to fill you in and not leave anything out.
But in order to not leave anything out, this month’s update is going to be a bit longer than usual! So, grab a cup of coffee, get comfortable, and let’s get into everything that’s been going on!
Feeding Program
Every day at lunchtime, our tables are packed! Sometimes, the number of people coming through our doors is hard to keep up with—but we love it!
Just over a week ago, so many people came for lunch that I honestly wasn’t sure we were going to have enough food for everyone. As we got down to the very last little bit, a friend who was serving with us simply started praying. Then, as the last little boy walked in to get his food, we looked down—and there was exactly one portion left for him. Praise God! Not one person had to be turned away because we ran out of food. Moments like that remind us again and again of God’s faithfulness and why we are so grateful to be able to serve this community.
Every day as we set up and tear down tables, we get more and more excited for our multipurpose room to be finished! Moving into this new space will make everything more comfortable, clean, and efficient—and so much easier for our team. After more than seven years of setting up and tearing down tables and stacking and unstacking stools, we won’t have to do it anymore! The tables and stools will be set up and ready to use at all times.
But even more exciting is what this space will allow us to do beyond serving meals. We’ll be able to sit down with people, have conversations, hold small classes, help children with their schoolwork, and use the room in so many other ways. We have dreamed about having a space like this for a long time, and we can’t wait to start using it!
As our feeding program continues to grow, we are still looking for people who would prayerfully consider joining our monthly support team. It costs just $20 to provide meals for one child for an entire month. Your monthly support would help us continue providing nutritious meals to the children who come through our doors each week.
And we have another hope for the future.
If we are able to build enough consistent monthly support, we would love to begin offering the children something small to eat before they head to school in the mornings. Here in Guatemala, many people drink a hot, nutritious beverage called Incaparina for breakfast. It is fortified with vitamins and minerals, and we would love to be able to offer the children a cup of Incaparina along with some bread so they don’t have to start their school day on an empty stomach.
Research consistently shows that hunger can interfere with a child’s ability to learn. When children’s nutritional needs aren’t being met, it can be harder for them to concentrate, remember information, regulate their behavior, and fully engage in the classroom.
We don’t just want to fill their stomachs—we want to give these children the best opportunity we can to learn, grow, and build a brighter future.
Would you prayerfully consider joining us for $20 a month and helping us make that possible?
Construction
The kitchen that the guys have been building for the elderly couple up on the mountain is officially DONE! It was definitely not an easy project, but they worked hard and kept great attitudes through it all.
And just yesterday, we were also able to purchase and deliver a new wood-burning stove for them. The stove has a chimney, which means their home will no longer fill with smoke every time they cook. Getting it to their house, however, was quite the adventure! The stove is made of solid concrete, and the path up to their home is narrow, steep, slippery, and full of rocks. Thankfully, we had a team serving with us yesterday, and they happily struggled, sweated, and worked together to get that heavy stove all the way up the mountain and into their home. Praise God! We are so thankful to see this project completed and to know that this couple now has a safer and more comfortable place to cook.
Once that kitchen was finished, we wasted no time getting back to work on our own construction! The two weeks of allowing the concrete to cure were finally up, so the guys immediately began taking down all of the supports. From there, they moved on to some of the smaller concrete details, including installing the windowsills to make the space both nicer and more practical. Now they are preparing the walls for the finishing touches and packing down the dirt to get ready for the floor.
We have decided to take a simpler approach to the floors and ceiling and embrace a bit of an “unfinished” look. Instead of installing tile, we are planning to do a concrete floor with a clear sealer on top. This will save us a significant amount of money, save time, and make the floors incredibly easy to clean—which I’m sure will come in handy with the MANY spills this room will see over the years!
Little by little, it is all coming together, and we are getting so close!
Our hope is that by the time I sit down to write next month’s update, we will officially be serving lunches in this new space! Please pray with us that everything comes together and that we are able to make that happen. We are so excited to finally see this space being used for the purpose we have dreamed about for so long!
Library and Office
On that note, we have another need that we would love to invite you to be a part of!
Praise God, we currently have the funds needed to finish the multipurpose room, repair the back perimeter wall, and finish filling and leveling the ground. However, we do not yet have the funds needed to begin construction on the second-floor office and library.
Originally, we thought we had the funds to move straight into building the second floor, but as many of you know, construction is expensive—and there are always unexpected costs that come up along the way! Because of that, we would love your help toward the construction costs of this next phase.
We are especially eager to get the library up and running as soon as possible. We truly believe this space is going to be an incredibly important resource for the children in our community. We want to create a place where they can discover a love for reading, grow their minds, receive help with their education, and be exposed to ideas and opportunities beyond what they see in their everyday lives. We believe something as simple as access to books and a safe place to learn can open doors for their futures, and we don’t want to delay that opportunity any longer than we have to.
And we already have a BIG praise to share!
The teams that came to serve with us over the summer rallied around this vision in an incredible way and almost completely bought out our Amazon wishlist of books for the library! We are so grateful to every single person who purchased and donated books. It has been so exciting watching our future library begin to fill up before the room is even built!
I am currently working on creating an online library system where we can inventory and organize all of the books we already have. As I work through that process, I’ll also be adding a long list of additional books we would love to have to our wishlist.
So, keep an eye out! Once everything is updated and ready, we’ll share the wishlist for anyone who would like to help us continue filling the shelves.
Now we just need to build the room to put them in!
If you would like to help us take this next step and get the second-floor office and library built, we would be incredibly grateful for your support. We are excited to see what God will do through this space and through the lives of the children who will use it for years to come.
Water Project
As I shared last month, we have faced quite a few hiccups and challenges with the water project as we adjust to some major changes. Unfortunately, we are still working through many of those challenges. While distribution has increased since last month—which we are very thankful for—the logistics continue to be difficult, and there are still a lot of things we need to figure out.
Please pray for wisdom and guidance from the Holy Spirit for those leading the distribution side of the project. Pray that God would give us clarity as we evaluate what is working, what isn’t, and what changes need to be made. Our desire is to find a system that allows us to continue distributing water efficiently and sustainably while doing everything in a way that honors and glorifies God.
On top of the logistical challenges, we have also had quite a few problems with our three-wheeled cargo motorcycle. It has broken down multiple times and has had a lot of trouble starting, which, as you can imagine, makes water distribution even more complicated! We believe the main issues have now been fixed, so we are praying that it will continue running well.
Personal Update
The time we’ve had with friends over the last few weeks has been absolutely priceless! We always love spending time with friends, but there was something extra special about this visit. Both Maudilio and I came away from our time with them feeling so refreshed and filled up.
On top of that, some incredibly generous friends sent us money specifically to spend on fun things while our friends were visiting. They wanted to give us the freedom to enjoy our time together without feeling the weight or guilt of spending money on things that weren’t necessities. This was such an encouragement and such a gift to us!
So, while our friends were here, we finally went to Semuc Champey! It is about seven and a half hours from our house and is an incredible natural limestone bridge with beautiful turquoise pools that you can swim in, along with a lookout point high up on the mountain that you can hike to. I have wanted to visit this place for over a decade, and somehow none of the four of us had ever been! So, we rented an Airbnb, packed up the car, and road-tripped our way there.
It was such an amazing experience and so much fun!
The trip home, however, turned into an adventure of its own. Our alternator went out, leaving us stranded on the side of the road about two hours away from the nearest big city. Looking back, we are incredibly thankful for God’s protection over us. When the battery died, we lost the power steering at what could have been a very dangerous spot along the road. But God provided a safe place for us to pull off, which happened to lead us right to the home of a kind family who allowed us to stay there while we waited for a tow truck.
It definitely wasn’t how we planned to end our trip, but we all kept great attitudes and made the most of it. Honestly, some of our core memories from the entire trip came from that breakdown!
Once the tow truck finally arrived, the adventure continued. We rode inside our car ON TOP of the tow truck for TEN HOURS straight through the night to get home! By the time we arrived, we had just enough time for a quick nap and a shower before heading straight to church—with sore backs, very little sleep, and some pretty crazy stories to tell.
And somehow, after all of that, we can still say it was an incredibly fun trip! We are so thankful for the memories we made, the laughter we shared, and especially for the time we had with people we love. It was exactly the kind of refreshment we needed.
Now our friends have gone home, vacation is over, and life is settling back into its normal rhythm. We would really appreciate your prayers as we step back into our regular routines and responsibilities. This first week back has honestly been difficult. Vacation and time away can be so refreshing, but sometimes returning to the weight of ministry and everyday responsibilities can feel overwhelming. The transition back can hit so hard that, for a moment, you almost wonder if taking the break was worth it—even though you know how much you needed it.
Please pray that we can carry the rest and refreshment we received during these past few weeks with us as we move forward. Pray that we would ease back into our responsibilities without becoming overwhelmed by everything that needs our attention, and that God would give us wisdom to know what deserves our time and energy and what can wait.
Most of all, we are incredibly thankful—for good friends, for laughter, for adventures, for generous people who blessed us with the opportunity to rest and have fun, and for God’s protection through it all.
I don’t typically share much about the other branches of Hope for Home because my responsibility through these updates is primarily to share what is happening with Aliento. But this month, I want to ask you to please pray for our entire ministry and ministry team. The last couple of weeks have been incredibly heavy. It feels like we are being hit from all sides, and there are some very difficult situations happening throughout the ministry right now. Without going into details, I can simply say that there is a lot of heaviness, and many on our team are feeling tired, burdened, and discouraged.
We believe the enemy is attacking hard, and more than ever, we need to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus.
Please pray for everyone serving throughout Hope for Home. Pray that in the middle of difficult circumstances, discouragement, and uncertainty, we would not lose sight of who God is and what He has called us to do. Pray that we would guard our hearts and minds and not allow ourselves to become distracted or consumed by the schemes of the enemy. Pray for renewed strength, wisdom, unity, peace, and encouragement throughout the entire ministry. And above all, pray that we would keep our focus firmly on Jesus, trusting Him even when things around us feel especially heavy.
We know that God is faithful, and we know that He is at work even in the difficult seasons. Thank you for standing with us and covering our entire Hope for Home family in prayer.
