I wanted to take a few minutes to update you regarding various areas of ministry. There has been a lot going on in recent weeks, but in the rush of life I haven’t had a chance to bring you up to speed.
First, three weeks ago we received our Association paperwork from SAT! This means that Ministerio de Esperanza (Ministry of Hope) is now officially recognized by the Guatemalan government and is tax exempt. Under the approval that we received we are able to open multiple children’s home, run our rural village ministry, open schools and medical clinics and do public education. This is a major praise as the bureaucracy of the government here can be a nightmare. I know several ministries and churches that have been seeking this status for years and are still awaiting approval.
With this new status as an association comes numerous responsibilities, including filing regular reports to the Guatemalan government. In order to make sure that we meet all the filing requirements we have hired an accountant who works with numerous other associations. This is important as we don’t want to do anything incorrectly that could jeopardize our ministry here. The cost of this service is about $195.00 a month, but it is well worth it.
You would think that the addition of an accountant would take away some of my much hated office work but, alas, it is not to be. The record keeping and receipt organizing that we are required to do and submit to our accountant will actually take me more time than I have been spending until present. I am still waiting for someone to be called to join us here as our office manager! 
I have also been busy opening a checking account for the association. Until now, since I am not a resident, I was not allowed to have a checking account. I could only have a savings account and all transactions had to be in cash or bank card. But since I am the legal representative for an association, I can now get a checking account for the ministry. This will save me lots of work in the long run, but has been are real pain in the here and now. Imagine having to gather nine different documents and take two hours to open a new account and another half hour to have them set it up the way you want it. Then I will spend another two hours tomorrow picking up the checks and arranging for a credit card. Blah!
In addition, the licensing process for our group home continues to proceed. Two weeks ago I had the official interview with CNA (Consejo Nacional de Adopciones), the government organization that oversees adoptions and orphanages. It went smoothly as I got to know the woman, Victoria, with whom we will be working from that office. The next day, however, we were told that there might be a four month delay in our licensing. I am not yet a resident of Guatemala because we were waiting for our association paperwork to come through so that we could apply as religious workers. We had been told that it would not be a problem, but CNA informed us that it was. We had a discouraging few days until we found out that we could proceed if we just would appoint Gerardo as the temporary Director of Hogar de la Esperanza while my residency is completed. He agree, so we are off and running again. (I continue to serve as the legal representative for the home.) We are now awaiting our big inspection which could come any day now, so we are making last minute preparations to assure we pass with flying colors. We are hopeful that we will be licensed and ready to accept children by the end of January.
Meanwhile, our work with families of children with special needs continues. Last week we were approached by a family across the street wanting to know if we could help a single mother and her daughter who go to their church. We went to meet them and found Soledad (age 33) and her mom in desperate need. Soledad has Down Syndrome and is deaf. We also found her with a nasty skin rash that she had scratched until she bled. It covered her body, limbs and face and she was miserable. We quickly made arrangements for her to go immediately to see Dr. Augusto and get the treatment she needed. We also gave her and her mom a basket of food as they had none. Her mom, Julia, only makes a few hundred quetzales a month (less than $40) doing laundry and cleaning for households around her, so their situation is quite desperate.
If you look back through my blogs you will see that I have written several times that we are restricting the families with which we work. You could wave those in my face and show me how I have said that we will only work with families who have children with special needs who are under 21 years of age, and I would have no defense. I wrote that with the best of intentions, realizing that we would run out of resources quickly if we did not limit our scope. However, I do not know how to turn away people like Soledad and her mom and still sleep at night. I cannot say no to a situation like this and not feel like I have turned Jesus away. So, if you would like to sponsor Soledad for a basket of food each month (cost $25/month) please write me at daryl@hopeforhome.org.
Today is Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) in many of the Hispanic cultures. In Guatemala it is a national holiday in which families eat picnic lunches in cemeteries and fly kites as a means of connecting with their dead loved ones. The kites, made of bamboo and colorful tissue paper and reaching up to 16 foot in diameter, are beautiful to see, but the pagan Aztec roots and fears that led to this tradition are sad. Please pray for the people of Guatemala.
Finally, the real celebration of the day is that my daughters, Teisha and Carissa, are arriving back home from Uganda! (Teisha and Carissa are the two very white girls to the right of the photo.) After six weeks away, we will be very glad to pick them up from the airport late this afternoon. We will have the holidays together before Carissa heads back to Uganda for a six month stay beginning mid-January. God faithfully provided for this ministry trip and we are trusting Him to provide for Carissa again. I ask you to also pray for both Teisha and Carissa as they take their next steps to full-time ministry in Uganda.
That is all for now. Thanks for all your prayers, encouragement and support!
Daryl, Wanda and the Crew
