The Hidden Work of Trenching

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Newspring Church, Anderson, SC

Spirit of Service, that is a good way to describe the the personality of every Newspring team member. On Monday morning they started by giving ESL conversational classes at the GIF English Academy.  GIF comes to the Engadi Center every week to teach English to our Derek Boys. 

Guatemala is known for its volcanoes.  Over the years the ash from those volcanos has mixed with the clay in the ground to form an extremely hard soil called, “talpetate”.  This team had the privilege of digging trenches for the sewer and water lines.  After a hard week of work we laid the pipe and filled in the hole.  It would seem as if they had done no work.  

Just like the work done in the trenches, Jesus is at work deep inside the Derek boys in ways that we may not see, yet.  We must lay pipes to bring the Living Water into their lives and flush the filth out. 

Another part of the team helped build some retaining walls to secure the backside of Classroom 1.  Little by little this project is coming together.  Their help in the construction project at the school is vital for the continued progress in the months to come. 

 

Thank you for working so hard: 

Haley Banfield

Supervising the job-site

Jake Beaty

Justin Brock

Kelly Broome

Mark Cornell

Glenn Dannelly

Molly Dannelly

Gabriella Lacouture

Sarah Meeks

James Walker

Sydney Wortham

Charisse Reichenbach

Happy Mom, Happy Home

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Mom’s Retreat

As you know a lot of the women here are beaten down, abused, neglected and never taken into account. Many of them are single moms with lots of kids doing all she can to get ahead.  No one ever encourages them or focuses on them.  We’ve felt the burden to do something.  Engadi’s primary ministry is to the boys, but we wanted to encourage the moms for their part in raising them.

Newspring Church blew us away with their generosity.  They started off with an amazing time of worship, in Spanish!  Sandra Medina, David’s wife, shared God’s word from her heart.  Several of the ladies gave their lives to Jesus for the first time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We then spent the afternoon pampering the moms with Nail polish, Hair Station, Handcrafting, where some activities that helped to see withered faces turned into shiny princess. About 30 moms where pampered and loved. 

 

Testosterone, Ropes Course & Hard work

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Avenue Men’s Team

This title sounds like a squad of special forces! In fact, they are SPECIAL FORCES.  They are spearheading all the projects we have this year at Engadi

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Our friends from Avenue Church in Waxahachie TX sent their brave and always willing Men’s Team.  This time they took on the challenge of the pouring an over 750ft2 concrete slab for one of the classrooms we are building in the Paraíso Neighborhood’s public schools.  Once you start pouring a slab you can’t stop.  Nine men, a concrete mixer, a pulley, lots of buckets and some Derek Boys worked hard to get the job done before the sun went down.  At 4:30 PM MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!  Incredible!  The contractor stood in awe of how quickly the job finished with so few hands working.  NO question about it, once again the Avenue Men’s Team has set the bar very high.  Thank you for your investment in the kids of Zone 18!

 

 

To unwind and relax the team took a day trip to the Fuente Georginas Hot Springs near Quetzaltenango.  Well worth the drive! 

 

Special Thanks to :

1. Mark Miller

2. Justin Burns

3. Dwayne Whitten

4. Paul Burton

5. Dale Sigler

6. Tim Gilmore

7. Corey Navarro

8. Josh Tompkins 

9. Will Oliver

Starting off the New Year with Adventure

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It can feel like the start of the year is a big, bad, wolf chasing you down with its mouth open full of sharp teeth.  With the assorted challenges awaiting ahead this kind of image was pounding in the minds and hearts of the boys we work with.  Engadi had the chance to spend those first few days of the New Year praying with them and spending time in God’s Word. 

“Keep your eyes straight ahead; ignore all sideshow distractions. Watch your step and the road will stretch out smooth before you. Look neither right nor left; leave evil in the dust”.

Proverbs 4:25-27 (The Message)

Our starting point was to seek God’s direction.  With the help of a well know App this verse of the Scripture got a new meaning in the lives of the Derek Boys  “Where do you find yourself today?”, we asked them. “Where do you want to go? Do you even know what is waiting ahead of you?”  We turned to God’s Word to find the answers for all of them. 

A men’s team from The Avenue Church in Waxahachie TX were eager to participate in a fun day for the Derek Boys.  They taught the boys how to build a trebuchet and proceeded to launch pumpkins.  Fun was had by all!

In keeping with the theme of facing every challenge head on the team and the boys went to an Extreme Game Park. Something totally new for the Derek Boys. There where several stations and challenges to conquer.  Every station had something to teach, a life lesson to be applied to real life events.  We used those stations to let them know that God will be there to help us in every obstacle that comes our way.  It was lots of fun! 

They had seen climbing walls and bungee jumps only on TV, but this was in real life… oh that was extreme!  Although skating doesn’t sound that extreme, none of them had had the chance to try it before.   With just a little practice they had a whole afternoon of fun.

What a blessing to invest in their lives and start the year off right!