2012 Year-end Report

 

“Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.”

                                                 2 Corinthians 9:10-11

As I look back on the past year, three words seem to describe this ministry: growing, learning and faith . And all of these are tied together as I see this journey unfolding.

Growing

It is hard to believe that we are only now concluding our second year in Guatemala. When we hit the ground on January 25, 2011 we had a place to live, but little else. With God’s help and the help of wonderful people He sent to us he has built a real home and ministry.

The focus over the last year has been three-fold. First, we worked hard to obtain our official association paperwork from the Guatemalan government. This is the equivalent of obtaining 501(c)3 status as a non-profit ministry in the US. With the help of an excellent social worker, Edy Tum, we received our paperwork in October. Our official identity in Guatemala is Asociación Ministerio de Esperanza (Ministry of Hope Association). Under this paperwork we are approved to provide assistance to needy families, open group homes, operate schools, do community education, and more. With this new identity also comes a lot of accountability. The administrative load has increased significantly and we have had to hire an accountant to make sure we keep our records and receipts up to date with the government.

Second, we have worked hard to get our group home licensed. This process is a long and difficult one that requires lots of money, paperwork, inspections and meetings. The majority of the work is behind us now, as are the big inspections. We passed our big inspection in December with only a few small recommended changes.The licensing was delayed somewhat as we had to await some paperwork back from immigration concerning my application for Guatemalan residency, but that has now been submitted and we are back on track. We are now hoping to complete the licensing and open our group home in February or March.

While we have been awaiting licensing, we started a day care program in May which provides respite care for families with children who have special needs. This provides a much needed break for parents while helping us to prepare for caring for larger numbers of children with special needs. This experience has been priceless.

Finally, we have been working hard to keep up with the growth of our rural village ministry. We purchased our four-wheel drive vehicle in April of 2011 and began our work in villages the following month. We have been blessed (and sometimes overwhelmed) with the growth and provision we have seen for this work. In 2012 we worked with over 70 families in 17 communities, with 37 of those families receiving monthly assistance through our sponsorship program. Each month we purchase over 600 pounds of food that is weighed, bagged and distributed. We also purchase over $500 of medicine monthly which is given to families. Meanwhile, we have seen God provide in miraculous ways for this ministry. Currently we have a sponsor for every family that needs one, and each time we have needed repairs to our 4-Runner or funds for supplies or equipment the money has been there. We praise God for His faithfulness and provision!

This growth has caused some growing pains, however. Much of that has come in the form of an overloaded schedule for me. I love long days in villages working with families, but I hate long days sitting in an office. As we have grown, I have needed to do more of both. As a result, many late nights find me in my office after everyone else is in bed. However, I am pleased to say that help is on the way.

The Beyer family, long-term friends of ours, will be moving to Guatemala in 2013 and joining our ministry. They will provide some much needed relief for my schedule as Dale will begin leading a rural village team. This will enable us to multiply our ministry and settle our schedule somewhat. They will also assist with hosting teams, which will be a huge blessing. Finally, they also have a passionate heart for helping build strong families through biblical principals. They hope to provide education and discipleship to Guatemalan parents and families in order to do so.

Likewise, we recently found out that I will be receiving help on the administrative front. I am not yet free to share details, but will do so in coming days.

Learning

Because of how quickly things have progressed and grown, we have faced a pretty steep learning curve. As always, much of that learning has come through mistakes that we have made during on-the-job training.

Our primary focus is leading people to true relationship with Jesus. That has been very difficult in this culture, and I have had to re-learn how to do evangelism. I am spiritually gifted as an evangelist, but Guatemala is a whole new world. This culture is saturated with religion that tends to inoculate people to true relationship with Jesus. Almost everyone believes in Jesus, but very few people live out Jesus in their lives. So, we have been learning how to break through the barrier of religion that surrounds most families. I am please to say that we are making headway as God is opening more and more doors for us to talk about Jesus and the true gospel. To read more about this battle, click here.

Another area of learning for us is how to best help. We believe that God has called us to care for the least of these, including those with special needs. God’s Word makes that clear. We also know that it is easy to cross the line from helping to enabling. We don’t want to cross that line.

So many missionaries and mission teams come here wanting to help. They have the best of intentions, but end up hurting families by giving hand-outs without discernment. We are working hard at learning how to best assess a family’s needs and provide the minimum assistance necessary. We encourage parents to do all that they can do for their children and family and then seek to fill the gaps. We also regularly reevaluate families to determine if the assistance should be decreased or stopped, increased or remain the same. Finally, we are learning how to best connect people with opportunities to help themselves.

I confess that walking the tightrope of helping without hurting is difficult. I still don’t have all the answers and sometimes I fall off on one side or the other. But with each passing month we seem to be getting better at it.

One of the things we have learned is to establish trust-worthy people in each community that we can use as caregivers to other families. Between our visits, they provide contact with families and can even be used to distribute funds in the event of emergencies. Being Guatemalans who live in the community, it is much easier for them to discern real needs from people just seeking a hand-out. We are currently putting such people in place in each of the communities in which we minister.

Finally, we continue to learn more about the people and the culture that surrounds us. As we do, we are learning to love and appreciate this country in which we live more and more. This culture is not a book that you read, but rather an onion that you peel, layer by layer. It takes time to understand and appreciate it, and from what I can tell so far, I will still be discovering new and wonderful things if I live her for another 50 years.

Faith

Last, but not least, as the ministry has grown, so has our faith. I would like to say that is because of great discipleship on our part, but that would not be honest. We really haven’t had a choice in the matter. At times, our faith grows as God asks us to step off a cliff and trust Him to catch us. Other times He doesn’t ask, He just pushes. That is a good description of what He has done in the last year. Over and over He has pushed, and over and over He has caught us.

It has been challenging, at times, to trust in the face of such incredible need. God brings us more and more people and calls us to act. As a result, our budget each month gets larger. We have a special working relationship with our food provider, the local pharmacy, and the local doctor because of the large amount of business we provide. That network is expanding now to include doctors in villages, physical therapists and speech therapists. Hope for Home Ministries started in August of 2008 and we were struggling to come up with the money for paper and office supplies. When I look around now and see the growing ministry and budget I occasionally find myself becoming nervous. Should I slow things down? Will we make budget this month? What about the increased expenses that will come when we open our group home? (We anticipate an increase in our monthly budget of over $1000 a month to cover the cost of our social worker, physical therapist, doctor bills, medicine and food.) Can we keep doing this?

Over and over, though, God soothes my fears and assures me that He is our provider. Which is so good to know. And each month, our faith grows a little more, not just in God’s financial provision, but in His faithfulness to give us all we need. He gives us the wisdom, help, and strength we need to do this ministry one day at a time. This is encouraging since I feel so ill equipped to manage a growing staff and run this ministry.

One of my favorite quotes, which has provided me much comfort, comes from Hudson Taylor and simply states this:

“God’s work done in God’s way never lacks God’s supply.”

Looking Ahead

As we face 2013, there are exciting things on the horizon. As already mentioned, we will be welcoming the Beyer family in April (their tentative moving date is April 20th). They will provide much needed help for which we have been praying.

Likewise, Rachel McCray should be moving down and joining our team in the fall. She will be leading our maternity care program to help prevent disabilities though proper care and education of pregnant and nursing mothers. This is a part of our efforts to address the systematic issues which lead to extremely high rates of birth defects and complications resulting in special needs.

We will also be adding some more Guatemalan staff with the addition of another helper. Our desire is to train local people to do this ministry and surrender more and more of the responsibility to them.

Along with this growth in staff I will be seeking God’s wisdom to best manage them. Our desire is to have a close-knit group of disciples who pray, study, worship and grow together. We will meet together weekly as a small group for this purpose and to keep our vision sharp and focused on Jesus.

As already stated, we hope to open our group home in February, depending on the speed at which the government moves. This will be a huge step for us and will provide a whole new set of challenges, both physical and financial.

We have completed the process of applying for residency and are waiting for the immigration office to complete its work and declare us residents. We expect that sometime in the next three months. But, since we have applied, we no longer have to renew our visas and leave the country every six months. This is a huge financial help to us as those trips are expensive.

Meanwhile, we feel God quickening our hearts to expand our ministry into some new areas. There is a large piece of property next door to us to which I am drawn. It is handicapped accessible, has lots of space, and lots of rooms. With a little work it could be used as a facility to host medical clinics and a school for children with special needs. It could also be used to house families who need to come to the Antigua area for doctor appointments. (There is a Catholic run place that does this in Antigua called Casa de Fe, but I have seen them treating the families who stay there harshly. I don’t like housing our families in a place that will not respect them and treat them with love.) We have also discussed running a feeding program and hosting children’s ministries there in the spacious courtyard. Every time I go up onto our roof and look at that property I feel my heart quicken. As I look at it, I feel like it is ours. Part of it is currently being rented by some metal workers, but I have tracked down the owner, who lives in Oregon. I have started to communicate with her regarding the possibility of renting it and making repairs and improvements.

As we move ahead, we greatly need and desire your prayers in the following areas:

1. For God’s continued provision for our ministry. As already stated, our monthly budget will increase by over $1000 as soon as our group home opens. At present, we do not have the funds to cover that. We need faithful monthly supporters who will partner with us to meet this need. Please pray that God will provide.
2. Pray that the walls of religion that keep people from understanding and embracing the true gospel will be torn down. We are making headway, but there is still a long way to go. Pray that we will effectively communicate the good news of Jesus and that parents and children will come to true faith in Him.
3. Pray for the Beyer family and Rachel McCray as they fundraise for their move and ministry. Pray that people will respond in obedience and that they will be fully-funded quickly. Also pray for Rachel as she completes her training as a mid-wife. Pray that things go smoothly and she is able to complete her education on time.
4. Please pray for more workers. While we do have help on the way, we need more.
5. Pray for Emily Vance, our US Office Manager. She does a fantastic job of running our stateside ministry, but her responsibilities and workload increases each month. Please pray for wisdom and strength for her.
6. Pray for wisdom and direction for me as Director. I am in way over my head and have to rely on God every moment for what I need to lead.
7. And, as always, pray that we keep our eyes on Jesus and that God receives the glory for all that we do!

Thank you so much for all that you have done to make this ministry a reality! It is only because of your prayers, support and encouragement that we are able to do what we do!

Because of Him!

Daryl Fulp,

Director