The last few days have been a whirlwind preparing for and
celebrating Thalia's 15th birthday. We
had a Hawaiian-themed party and around 150 guests. As always, our local community came together
to donate and work preparing for the event.
The day was beautiful and Thalia loved every minute of her party. If you have ever met Thalia, you would know that the party reflected her personality, lively, colorful, and fun. We thank God for her life and know that He
has special plans for her future.
Thalia with her house parents
In the month of April, we received notification that our
foundation here in Paraguay had been approved by the president of the
country! The process here for forming a
foundation/non-profit is very difficult and the final step involves receiving
approval by the president of the country.
We have been working on this paperwork for nearly two years, but in
December switched to a new lawyer to see if the process could not be
expedited. In those short five months,
our paperwork was approved in all the many offices and we are now
official. Our foundation here is the
national counterpart to Serving Paraguay (called Fundación Sirviendo al
Paraguay). This exciting step will open
doors to fundraise here in country and we are trusting God to see amazing
things happen in this next phase of ministry!
For those of you that may not know all the details of our
ministries here in country, we would like to overview the various areas in
which we are ministering consistently. Our
property is divided into three main areas: the children's home (Hogar GANAR),
the farm, and the school (New Path Christian School).
In Hogar Ganar, we provide a home for 30 precious children
that have come to live with us via judge's order. Essentially, the children are living in a
permanent foster care home. The children
live with loving, Christian house parents that not only cook and care for the
children, but also have daily devotionals with them and disciple them in the
Christian faith, helping them to dream big with a firm foundation in the Word
of God. Our children play together,
along with other children from the community on our soccer field, track,
basketball/volleyball court, and playground.
Children learn practical skills in our on-site bakery and our garden. Children also attend church with their house
parents. Every child in Hogar GANAR
receives ongoing counseling by trained Paraguayan counselors and our house
parents have weekly meetings with us as directors and with the counselors to
learn how to better serve the children in their care.
House 3 with their house parents
Currently our farm holds our dairy cattle (providing all
milk for the homes), pigs, and fish ponds.
These areas are very difficult to maintain, as we do not have a tractor,
but our dream for the future would be to transform the farm into an area that
would help our homes become self-sustaining.
Pray with us for the provision of a tractor.
Dairy cattle on the farm
In the New Path Christian school, we have nearly 190
students from pre-school to tenth grade.
The children from our home attend school, and the remaining 160 students
are from the surrounding, impoverished community. To see more about how our school works, click
here. Our school is staffed entirely by qualified,
professional, Christian teachers passionate about serving the children of our
community. Our teachers arrive a half
hour before our students so that they can have a devotional together and pray
for unity and direction . Every morning,
the students' school day begins with prayer and each teacher starts their class
with a devotional. Weekly, all students
attend an age-appropriate chapel. Our
middle and high school students have and additional Bible class every week. We are confident in the quality of education
we are offering and we strive to challenge each of our students academically
and spiritually. This year, we continue
to provide a daily snack for our elementary school students and lunch to our
middle and high school students. All of
our school children are available for sponsorship at $30.00/month.
First Grade with their teacher, Mirta
It has been amazing to see how drawn the local youth are to
our children's home property, and many adolescents from our school spend each
afternoon in our homes playing sports and spending time with our staff and
house parents. Every Wednesday, we have
a Bible study/discipleship group for the youth of our homes and any youth from
the community that would like to participate.
We average about 30 young people on these nights and we are so excited
with their persistence to come and learn from the Word of God.
We thank God that not only are we ministering to children at
a distance, but we have become a part of their lives. Our community recognizes our facility as a
safe place with staff that they can trust and our testimony to them is already
bringing many to know the Lord as their personal savior. The children and teenagers in our homes at
Hogar GANAR are growing and changing in so many ways. Their humility and persistent faith tells us
that God will use them to reach many others with the message of salvation. As our staff share their lives and faith, God
is moving. We thank Him for all that is
happening in the ministries of Serving Paraguay and we trust that He has even
greater things in store for the future.
We ask that you would pray with us, for more children to
accept Christ as their savior, for more families to come to know Christ, and
for God to provide for the needs of our ministry. Having a staff of over thirty employees and
maintaining our 40-acre facility is not inexpensive, but we trust God to
provide for His work here in Paraguay.
If you would like to partner with us financially, please feel free to
contact us at servingparaguay@gmail.com. For frequent updates and pictures, please visit our Facebook page. May God bless each of you!
