What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. James 2:14-17 Hey everyone! A couple days ago we got a call about a woman that had got on a bus and was headed in our general direction without a place to stay for her and her 5 kids. She was running from an ugly situation involving a relative who is a sexual predator and that involved death threats to her if she got the police involved. Someone helped her get close to our location where i picked her up. She was desperate! They have stayed with us the last 2 nights. We have visited some rental places and are visiting some more today. Have received some financial and goods donations that have and will be used to help her get on her feet. We still needs beds, stove and refrigerator and clothes for mom and the kids since they came only with the clothes on their backs. We are looking for some sponsors that will help us cover the rent of the place, it’s looking like it will be between $150 and $200/month. 100% of the donations will go to help them and the other families we support. You can get immediate support to us by using paypal.me/Alvarezes or you can go to hopeforhome.org/donate and we are listed under ”Individual Support A-K” as Alvarez, Emanuel & Shannon. There you can select to make it a monthly gift. Her kid with special needs is also in need of a sponsor for his meds through the rural ministry of Hope for Home Ministries. This month the ministry has spent thousands of quetzales getting him the emergency treatment he needed, all paid by the emergency medical fund of the ministry. His ongoing meds will be around $60/month. If you are interested in sponsoring him or contributing to the emergency medical fund contact April at april@hopeforhome.org Working with women in this situations is not what we were expecting when we came down but we are not going to look the other way and let women and kids stay in situations of abuse and/or neglect. Circumstances like this brought our kids to the foster care system and we will do everything we can to care for the “orphan and widows” like the Bible calls us to do. Maybe, just maybe, our home license has not come through so we could say yes to them staying with us the last two nights. God knows what we have need of before we ask him. Please help us pray, for her and her 5 kids (2 with special needs), for miraculous provision so we can get them settled, that every action and word points them to the reason of our hope who is in Jesus. She is the 3rd woman in the last few months that we have started supporting on an ongoing basis. Doris and her 3 kids, Ruth and her 2 kids and now O and her 5 kids. Our resources are far stretched but we will continue to say yes to what God puts in our plates and trust He will provide. What is the real cost of following Jesus?Last night, we had dinner and wrapped up a week with an awesome team from Living Waters Church from Hastings, Michigan. Daryl, our ministry director, was sharing and talking about the cost of following Jesus. How it is not a rose-colored version of what Jesus said but exactly what Jesus said. How sometime we say "well, I am willing to give it all if Jesus asked me." as a way of saying "I'll keep my comfort and my way of life until Jesus tells me otherwise". It got me thinking: what has been our cost? What idols have we sacrificed at the feet of Jesus? Dietrich Bonhoeffer, was a pastor and Nazi dissident who was hanged for his work against Hitler. A witness to his execution wrote: "I saw Pastor Bonhoeffer... kneeling on the floor praying fervently to God. I was most deeply moved by the way this lovable man prayed, so devout and so certain that God heard his prayer. At the place of execution, he again said a short prayer and then climbed the few steps to the gallows, brave and composed. His death ensued after a few seconds. In the almost fifty years that I worked as a doctor, I have hardly ever seen a man die so entirely submissive to the will of God." In his book "Cost of Discipleship" he wrote: "The cross is laid on every Christian. The first Christ-suffering which every man must experience is the call to abandon the attachments of this world. It is that dying of the old man which is the result of his encounter with Christ. As we embark upon discipleship we surrender ourselves to Christ in union with his death—we give over our lives to death. Thus it begins; the cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise god-fearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die. It may be a death like that of the first disciples who had to leave home and work to follow him, or it may be a death like Luther’s, who had to leave the monastery and go out into the world. But it is the same death every time—death in Jesus Christ, the death of the old man at his call." What was the cost to the apostles for following Jesus? How about the Christians in the early church? Or the Christians in the persecuted church around the world today? What is their cost? This week Luke Sullivan, a young missionary who had recently moved to Guatemala died in a plane crash. He leaves a pregnant wife and 3 beautiful girls behind. What was their cost for obedience? What has been your cost? And yes, he is asking you... To the rich young ruler Jesus said, It is going to cost you all your possessions to follow me: "Sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me" (Matthew 19:21) A year ago today Millie (Sarai) and I arrived to Guatemala with 2 dogs, 4 crates and 2 bags to start the transition of the family down to Guatemala. Shannon, TJ, Izzie, Abbie and Anaiah would follow 6 weeks later after staying in Indiana to sell or give away almost everything we called our own. Besides the material things we had a heart full of love and the burning desire to serve God and neighbor in this country that we would now call home. What a year it has been! We have had the blessing to meet some of the most amazing people in this planet. People that choose to spend their resources and vacation time coming to serve people that they have never met. Putting at God’s service their resources, talents and training to alleviate the pain and suffering of my neighbors. These people were strangers just a year ago and now they are family, isn’t it amazing the way God works? One of the things consistent in our lives since Shannon and I got married has been the love for vulnerable children. That has taken shape in foster care, adoption and advocacy through the years. In coming to Guatemala we feel one of our callings is to open a home for children with special needs. That process has been long and involved (and expensive!) but we are almost there. We are waiting for the call from the CNA (agency that regulates and approves private homes) for our final inspection. In the process we have been able to staff and spend time with the families of the people that will help us run the home. I feel that many people forget how important is to be good witness of the gospel to the community their are in and how that starts with the people they bring in as staff. They are our ministry partners and definitely family to us. One of the ways that God has worked on my heart during this year has been with the rural ministry. Five months ago I accepted an unpaid position as Field Director for Hope for Home Ministries which has taken me places I never dreamed and places that would cause nightmares to most Americans if they had to live 1 day like that. I am blessed to be surrounded by a team of God-and-neighbor loving men. Often I am asked what do I do? What my day looks like? So let me share my day yesterday as posted on Facebook:
“It has definitely been a heavy emotional day! Early this morning I got a call from a family I met at a clinic regarding their 10 month old baby spending the night with fever and seizures. They didn’t want to take the baby to the hospital because they lost a baby there before. After getting to their home in Escuintla I was able to convince them to take him in. A few hours later they call me that he was released from the hospital and was seizing again. I am about to walk back into their home. Please help me pray for Carlos Enrique and his family! After the morning visit as I am driving back into back into San Antonio I got a call from Juan-k regarding a visit he wanted me to go to. When I arrive I meet this young man, 45, with obviously primary progressing MS, pretty advanced and already having difficulty breathing. I ask to see his meds and all he is taking is lecithin, probiotics and ginkgo biloba. They lack the resources for treatment. He is the father of 3 young daughters and the disease has progressed really fast in the last 3 years. Please help me pray for Victorino and his family. Then I get the afternoon call to get back to Escuintla. Please help me pray for these families and please pray for me, there are days that the weight of the pain and suffering in this world gets really heavy. That my actions are His actions and my words are His!” Carlos Enrique died last night around 8pm in my arms as we waited for him to be admitted at the local hospital. The need is great, the workers few, the resources limited. A year in and we are still not fully supported financially, but every month God shows at the 11th hour and provides for our needs. From our income we give more than what most would consider prudent or wise and trust God with the rest. He never has and we know he never will let us down. The CNA paperwork was signed Monday and submitted Tuesday and now we wait.Soon enough one of our babies will sleep here. Help us pray for the children that will come to our home and their families.
While we post often on Facebook about what God is doing with and through our family in Guatemala, I have been wanting to start a blog for a while now.AND... here it is. I am hoping to be able to write at least a post every week and use the blog as a journal of sorts of our journey from now on. Here is a collage of some highlights of what has happened so far.
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