I have recently completed the 2011Year End Report for Hope for Home Ministries. Out of a desire to make this report accessible to as many people as possible, I am posting it here. Hopefully it will not be as dry and boring as many of the reports I have been forced to read through the years. So, pop some popcorn, put on your jammies and snuggled up for a good read!
Hope for Home Ministries - Year End Report – 2011
As I look back on 2011, I see it as a year of huge transitions and rapid growth. That is true for our ministry and our family. God has brought us so far in the last 12 months, and we are excited about where he will take us in 2012. As we begin a new year, I want to take a moment to look back and inform you of what God has done and then look ahead to our goals for the coming year.
Our biggest transition has occurred as we have now began our ministry in Guatemala. On January 25th my family and I landed in Guatemala City and moved into our new headquarters/home in San Antonio Aguas Calientes. This 6000 square foot facility houses our family and group home for children with special needs on the first floor and hosts our visiting ministry teams on the second floor. Since our work in Guatemala has three areas of focus, I will fill you in on each one at a time.
Guatemalan Ministries
1. Hogar de la Esperanza (Hope Home)
We have now received the necessary partnerships to begin that process and will do so early in 2012. We have secured an excellent and honest attorney who was recommended to us by several Christian group homes who have used him in the past. The process involves two steps, becoming a recognized association with the Guatemalan government and receiving our official license as a group home. We have been told that the completion of these two steps will take two to three years and cost around $6000.00.
However, we have plenty of ministry to do during the process. Hogar de la Esperanza is serving as the headquarters for our ministries here and is already seen as a place to seek assistance for people with special needs.
2. Wheels of Hope
We added our first 4-wheel drive vehicle in early May of this year and began our trips into the rural villages. Since that point, it has been difficult to keep up with what God is doing.
As we have found individuals in need of assistance, we have done careful evaluation to determine both the legitimacy and extent of their needs. This is done through interview and analysis of both household income and expenses related to the care of the family member with special needs. Sometimes the only assistance required is the one-time provision of a wheelchair or piece of equipment. Other times we find that more extensive and long-term intervention is required. All of these needs are met through sponsors from the US who respond to the needs as they are posted in my blog at www.hopeforhome.blogspot.com.
In the last eight months of 2011 this ministry has assisted 41 families. Of these, we are providing long term support to 27 in the form of food, medical care, therapy or medicine. In addition, we have provided nine wheelchairs, five pairs of AFO braces and 27 doctor visits. But all of this physical support we are providing is not the focus of our ministry.
The real priority is to bring glory to Jesus and draw people into a personal relationship with Him. As a result, during every visit into every home we talk about Jesus and pray with the family. And each time we are thanked for the help we provide, we tell them that the help comes from Jesus. This is a very religious culture in which almost everyone believes in Jesus but very few people know Him personally. Through our work, He is opening doors for us to share the Gospel, and He is working in lives. Here are just a few stories:
- This afternoon we were invited to the home of one of our sponsored children. His mother just wanted to visit with us for a while. During our time together she asked me again why we were helping her. So, I shared my testimony and how much God loves her and her family. With tears in her eyes she told me that we were the first people who ever cared enough to help her son. And she told me that God was real in our ministry in a way that she had never seen.
A few weeks ago we received a call from the mother of a four year old for whom we are providing essential medication. She told us that before we came to her village she was desperate. She wanted to believe that God cared about her and her son, but he was so sick and she had no way to help him. One night she wept and prayed that if God was real would he please send help. The next morning we came to her door, brought by a neighbor. She said that she knew at that moment that God was real and that He loved them. They are now attending an evangelical church and are asking more and more questions each visit.
- In June we found an elderly lady who was anemic, malnourished and dying of pneumonia. We immediately arranged to get her to a doctor who hospitalized her for five days. She has now recovered completely. The family shared with us that 15 minutes before we came to their door they had been praying that God would please send someone to save her life. Now, every time we visit we sit and talk with her, her children and her grandchildren about Jesus.
God is moving and He is being glorified through this ministry. We are hoping that God will provide more manpower and another 4-wheel drive vehicle so we can add a second rural village ministry team in 2012. Both the opportunities and needs are growing significantly and one vehicle and team is just not enough to keep up with this ministry.
Our Board of Directors recently voted to hire a young Guatemalan named Gerardo as my full time assistant. The benefits that Gerardo brings to our work are too numerous to share here, but let me simply say that he is very effectively sharing Jesus while providing some much needed relief to my schedule. In addition, through his connections and bargaining ability he has already saved our ministry enough each month to pay for his salary. I praise God to have this co-worker alongside me in ministry.
3. Encarga Pastor Training
“And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.”
The focus of this ministry is to provide both theological and practical training and equipping to rural pastors. Many pastors in rural settings have little or no training and base their ministries on what they have heard from others. This can be dangerous and deceptive. Even good men who love Jesus and want to follow Him have unknowingly embraced false teachings.
Pastor Ron is seeking to develop a comprehensive training program that will enable these men to complete the majority of their studies in the homes with a combination of self-study and regular visits from a coach who will mentor and instruct. In addition, there are plans to provide regular training seminars in a central setting.
Currently Ron is still involved in language studies and is working to develop connections with other ministries that are doing similar work. His desire is not to reinvent the wheel, but to build on existing programs and improve them for our purposes.
Beginning in February he will begin working with his first student, Gerardo, the assistant I mentioned above. This will be a learning process for both teacher and student as Gerardo will be helping Ron learn more about Guatemalan culture and churches while Ron teaches him about ministry.
US Ministries
As I share what God is doing in Guatemala, one area of struggle we are facing is our US Ministries. One of our priorities when Hope for Home was founded was to provide education to American believers and challenge them to adopt hard-to-place children in response to the biblical command to care for orphans. For the first two and a half years of our ministry we were successful in the endeavor and saw 81 children find homes.
When my family and I moved to Guatemala we left this task in the hands of Ron and Melanie Ecklebarger who took over the traveling and speaking ministry. However, since they moved in August, there is no one stateside serving in this vital role. We are currently looking for someone to fill this position, but have not found anyone at present.
The qualifications for this role are as follows:
- A Christ-followers whose discipleship is evident in their life
- A parent of an adopted, hard-to-place child
- Public speaking skills
- Management and organizational skills
- Effective one-on-one skills in developing contacts and scheduling speaking engagements
- A willingness to travel on weekends
While we are not in a financial position to pay a salary, the person would be welcome to raise support to fund their position. Travel expenses would be paid. Would you please pray with us that God will raise up someone to fill this position?
While we are struggling with securing someone to cover our public speaking ministry we are blessed with our wonderful Office Manager, Emily Vance. She has kept our stateside office running smoothly and has provided vital support to us in Guatemala as well as our donors and adoptive families in the US. I don’t know what we would do without her crucial work.
Looking Ahead to 2012
In the coming year there is a lot to do. Would you please pray with us toward these goals:
- Secure permanent residency – Currently our family is living in Guatemala under a tourist visa. This means we have to renew our visa in Guatemala City after three months and leave the country by driving to Mexico after six months year after year. While many people do this long term, it is expensive for a family of 11. Early in the new year we will be beginning the time consuming process of become permanent residents of Guatemala.
- Receive our association paperwork and begin the licensing of our group home – As stated earlier in this report, this is an expensive and time consuming process. Please pray for honest and responsible representatives in the Guatemalan offices and for the provision of necessary funds.
- Add a second 4-wheel drive team – We need another family to move down and work in this vital ministry. In addition, we need a second 4-wheel drive vehicle. Please pray for both of these to be provided sooner rather than later.
- Finalize the structure of our pastor training program and have resources and curriculum in place for larger groups of students – This is a tremendously difficult task that has been given to Ron Ecklebarger. He will be working with men who have little education and some who are even unable to read. Developing an educational program that will encompass these needs and effectively equip is a challenge. Please pray for wisdom and direction for Ron.
- Become increasingly effective at sharing the gospel in this culture – As stated earlier, this is a very religious culture but many do not know Jesus. The difficulty of sharing Jesus in homes steeped in religion is compounded by many social taboos that are considered offensive. We are only now beginning to really understand the Mayan people and their mindset. But with each new insight, our ability to effective share Jesus increases. Please pray that 2012 will be the year in which we will see many come to true relationship with Jesus.
Thank you for all your prayers, financial support and encouragement in 2011! Without you, we would not be here doing this ministry!
Because of Him!
Daryl I. Fulp
Director of Hope for Home
