April 2011 Newsletter

MINISTERIO “FLECHAS EN ALJABA”

Hugo y Gilma Caballeros

Our prayers and blessings of our God to all of you our friends who keep up with us.

We would like to apologize for our lack of communication and not keeping up with the newsletters, but we would like to share a bit of what we have been doing.

At the end of December Gilma came down with some medical issues and there was a lot of running around to hospitals and Doctors. Thankfully she is recuperating very well. It interrupted the normal schedule at the beginning of school around here, but now we are doing very good and almost back to normal. It was hard, but here we are by God’s mercy.

Our Family:

God has allowed for special things to happen with our family.

Ilse’s graduation

We are very thankful for God and you who have helped us along the way, especially with your prayers. We are Thrilled that our daughter has passed her exams at the University. After three years of school and internships at different places, she is graduating in the field of Occupational Physical Therapy.

Starting a few years ago Ilse started to volunteer at the Ministry called Hope Heaven. She is helping with the rehabilitation of patients in wheel chairs, and also helps in the design and construction of accessories to custom fit the wheelchairs to meet each person’s needs.

She now has a job for a season at Hope Heaven.

Not too long ago they went on a field trip to Port of Quetzal with the patients and had a good time. Ilse has told us about the special things she learns from each of them. Thanks be to God for the strong friendships she has developed with such beautiful people.

Rode:

Continues to attend University pursuing Architecture, works teaching English, as well as playing every now and then.

Andrea:

Studies in Antigua, and is becoming more and more independent. She now travels on the bus on her own. She excels in her studies, has good grades, and she is Gilma’s right hand at home.

Maria:

Has started University, she works hard on studying and homework, she is also taking computer classes near home.

Juan:

Is very smart and applies himself. He managed to catch up to Fourth grade just by taking exams. He now attends school half days on Saturdays. During the week he helps with the progress of the vegetable garden and greenhouse.

Dena:

Works hard at school, is doing a very good work. During the last few months she has developed a gift for photography, and enjoys capturing animals and landscapes. Dena also helps with the garden and greenhouses project.

Noe:

At times seems to be hyper. At school he is working hard this year. Like the whole family, he helps at the garden. He enjoys mountain bikes, and he has developed speed and strenght. With the bicycle below he is ready for an experiment.

Some family activities

We celebrated Dena’s 12th Birthday, not so little anymore.

And our wedding anniversary on December 31st.

Children’s program:

The children’s program was not suspended during Gilma’s illness. It was covered by Rode, Maria, Ilse and Andrea. This program has been a great blessing to the kids, their parents, and us. They have accomplished various things that we take for granted, and it lights up their face when they realize they have done it. It encourages and edifies us when we see kids that, even when coming from low resources, bring things to share with the rest of the other kids in the program.

Recently we had ARCAS INTERNATIONAL, an organization that rescues and relocates animals in danger of extinction, they loved the morning and enjoyed feeling textures of different animals and learned from the teaching. This event was planned because they are learning about creation.

We would love to, and are currently discussing the possibility of, taking the kids to the zoo in Guatemala city. Please pray for this.

Wood carving afternoons:

The idea is to spend some time with young kids, teaching them to work with wood and other materials like stone and bone, and is an informal way to share God’s Word.

After a year the program has developed some fruit along the way. A young man decided to join our Bible study on Friday nights, has participated on our small group, has brought friends over, and has shown interest in attending Church with us on Sundays.

The young man was very aggressive at home and school, and now his parents are overjoyed with the change and are encouraging him. His attitude at school has also improved along with his grades. We ask for prayers for him.

Small group:

To say that it is out of the ordinary is an understatement. We have it on Friday nights, we do exercises, in the middle of the routine we speak of different aspects of the Word of God, we pray, and share things like juice and snacks.

We are growing and almost don’t fit in the garage, it is great, and we enjoy it.

Bible study:

Also on Fridays, before small group, we are studying a book called: BIBLE STUDIES FOR A FIRM FOUNDATION. We just started and it is exciting. Everyone participates and an hour seems to be short. I really enjoy what is going on here and how the youth and kids share what they think about God and his Word.

The greenhouse and vegetable garden:

Is what we expect to be part of our effort to raise some of our support by selling plants, vegetables and accessories like pots, ETC. Some of the vegetables are also for consuming at our home. This project is going slow but is coming along just fine.

We are experimenting with some organic compost here, that is working very well, and has helped us with our harvesting. Recently we have harvested, Cabbage, Lettuce, Garlic, Radishes, Celery and Tomatoes. Thanks to God the climate has been favorable and we have produced some organic compost to sell to some other green houses.

The well has produced enough water for our vegetable beds. Potable water has been difficult to obtain some times. One of the photos above shows a holding tank that was donated by a family unexpectedly. That is how God works, he open doors

The well is 33 Meters in depth, there is a water pump made out of a bicycle and rope that we are trying to make work.

God is constantly blessing us, but at the same time we have learning and trying times. Some much harder than others.

Something that has burdened my heart for a while is the discrimination from people, even from church towards kids that leave the orphanage. This is something that they have to face every day, and we ask for your prayers for the ones that are with us and the ones that are leaving from the orphanages around the world. They have to face things that we cannot even imagine and a lot of them are completely alone.

Specific necessities:

Submergible water pump Q3,000.00

Four Dremel’s

Drawing paper

Forty Coloring Bible coloring books

Bible dictionary

General necessities:

The global economies is hurting all sort of ministries, families, etc. In the same way here in Guatemala, the Dollar has dropped, gas keeps going up, just like groceries. We ask for your prayers, so we can come up the moneys for the different expenditures. The hardest one is rent, which is Q4000 a month. We are thinking and considering of returning back to our own home in Antigua, is small, but we would not have the cost of rent on our budget, returning back to our home would be for a period of two years, while we raise the money to buy a property for the Ministry. At this time we have our home rented out.

School fees for Dena and Noe Q. 280.00

Andrea Q. 300.00

University Maria Q. 500.00 Includes transportation.

Water Q. 50.00

Electricity Q. 700.00

Gas Q. 700.00

Groceries Q.4,000.00

Transportation Q1,500.00

Truly, the necessities are relatively small compared to the great list of BLESSINGS and things which we thank our God for

We are thankful for each of you and for all the things you have helped us with, we bless you and pray for your family.

Thanks, to all of you for your support to our Ministry and the community. Your help has reached a lot of families and more will be added.

May God multiply everything you have and are investing in the Kingdom of God. He, in time will reward