Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all! We hope this season brought you sweet, meaningful time with loved ones as you celebrated the birth of our Savior.
Personal Update
The month started off strong with a short beach vacation with my family. I wasn’t feeling great during the trip, but I pushed through and tried to enjoy our time together. After we got home, though, I kept feeling worse and worse. I ended up going to urgent care and found out I had dengue fever. It can be a really serious illness, so I’m very thankful I didn’t have any major complications. Still, it left me stuck on the couch for almost two weeks—dengue really takes it out of you. Thankfully, I started feeling much better on Christmas Eve, which meant we were able to enjoy Christmas celebrations with Maudilio’s family and then with mine. That time together was such a blessing.
We had planned to go to Honduras over New Year’s with some friends, but after buying the ministry truck, it put us in debt and we had to cancel the trip. It was really disappointing. Then, a friend surprised us by sending money specifically for a trip to Honduras. By that point, we had already made other New Year’s plans, but we’re hoping to make that trip happen soon. We’re so grateful that God provides even fun and refreshing things, even when finances are tight.
This month has also been hard in terms of discouragement. The enemy has definitely been trying to bring us down, but we’re fighting back. We would really appreciate your prayers in this area.
Feeding Program
Every year around Christmas, we take a two-week break from serving food. This gives us a much-needed rest and also allows our staff to have a break. Those two weeks were supposed to end yesterday, but Maudilio had a great idea to use this quieter time to lay cobblestone in the area where we serve meals.
It turned out to be a bigger project than expected, and the crew hasn’t been able to finish it yet. Because of that, we needed to postpone restarting food service for one more week. Once the project is complete, though, it will make a big difference—keeping the area much cleaner and cutting down on all the dirt and mud. We’re really excited to see the finished result!
If everything goes as planned this week, we’ll be back at it on Monday, with the property full of people ready to eat and kids running around and playing again.
Water Project
This has been the most challenging area of the ministry lately. This project brings a lot of work, stress, and headaches for Maudilio. Often, if one small thing goes wrong, it creates a domino effect that impacts other parts of the process, making it harder to fix the problem and get everything running again. Some days it feels like a well-oiled machine, and other days it feels like everything is falling apart.
On top of that, as I mentioned in last month’s update, this project is facing significant financial challenges, which only adds to the stress. Because of limited funds, Maudilio has had to lay off one worker and reduce the hours of another. This has been especially hard and discouraging for him.
The goal for this project is to get the purification center fully licensed. Once that process is complete, we hope to expand to other towns and sell the water at full price. This would allow us to pay the workers, keep the project running, and continue offering water at a low cost to the people of Aceituno. Our hope is to see this up and running in the near future!
2025 Overview
Many times over this past year, we’ve felt discouraged—like progress was slow and we weren’t doing enough. But when we look back at photos of our property from last year, we’re honestly shocked. It doesn’t even look like the same place! God has also brought some wonderful supporters and friends into our lives who have helped us see just how much progress has been made and how much has been accomplished this past year. That perspective was so encouraging.
I remember that in January of last year, God spoke to both Maudilio and me individually and told us it was going to be a big year for the ministry—and wow, was He right! It was busy, exhausting, overwhelming, and incredibly rewarding all at the same time.
To wrap up 2025, some generous donors blessed us with extra Christmas funds so we could do something special for the kids. Naturally, we threw a pizza party! We ordered 50 pizzas, lots of juice boxes, had four piñatas, and went through about 33 pounds of candy. It got a little wild—but the kids had an absolute blast!
Check out those lines to receive their pizza!
Goals for 2026
As we look ahead to 2026, we’re expecting a pretty similar year. We’re finishing up the last details in the bathrooms to get them fully up and running, laying the cobblestone, and—hopefully—starting to dig the foundation for the dining room this week! It has taken longer than we hoped to get to that point, but Maudilio rearranged some projects so we could take advantage of this break to get the cobblestone done.
Once those projects are finished, we’re hoping to build an office on the second level. Having a kid-free space for administrative work would be such a help. I often bring my computer to try to get work done before or after serving food, but with people constantly coming and going—and kids running around and playing—it’s nearly impossible. We absolutely love having a place where kids feel welcome and can play, but it does make focused work difficult. An office would make a big difference, though it will depend on how much remains in the building fund after the other projects are completed.
On top of all of that, we’ll be adding the finishing touches—installing a donated playground, painting the walls and buildings, planting flowers throughout the property, and doing our best to make this space feel warm, welcoming, and inviting.
All that to say, we have a lot on our hands this year as well. Still, we’re praying that 2026 is the year Centro Aliento de Vida truly comes to life. We can’t wait to see what this place looks like once the construction is finished and we have a fully functioning ministry center!
Prayer Requests
- For strength and encouragement during challenging seasons
- For God’s provision for the water project
- For steady and efficient progress on all of the ongoing building projects, especially the dining room area
- For a fruitful and productive 2026 at Aliento, bringing glory to God in all that we do
I know this was a longer update than usual—thank you for sticking around and reading all the way through. We truly appreciate and value each one of you!
As always, we’d love to hear from you! If you have any questions, doubts, prayer requests, or even just want to chat, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
Thank you for always being here and for investing in what God is doing in Aceituno—we’re so grateful for you!
