Engadi Back to School

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Schools are a bridge to the community.  The Paraíso Neighborhood has four elementary schools with different levels of need.  By investing in the children we are helping them grow towards a brighter future. The academic school year in Guatemala starts in January and ends in October. Whether it be a single parent or there are multiple siblings, sometimes up to 8 kids in school, buying supplies for the kids is always a challenge. 

Engadi has developed a School Supply Program to help bring relief to these families.  Every year we reached between 50 to 60 families that represents about 120 kids that receive their school supplies bag. As more families hear about how our School Supply Program work more families want to get involved.  The numbers are constantly growing.

Having the supplies you need to learn is something many time we take for granted.  Putting these items in their hands at the beginning of they year can greatly impact their lives. 

Thank you to everyone that donated throughout the year! 

How does the program work?

Engadi invites parents to sign up at the beginning of the school year for the School Supply Program so they may obtain the benefit for the next school year. With the With this Program we hope to achieve three main aspects of our ministry within the community: 

  • Community Transformation: When parents sign up for the program they commit to work 20 hours of Community Service within the school their kids attend, or within their neighborhood. 
  • Family Transformation: Parents, also, have to attend four out of twelve Bible based value classes offered at the Engadi Center.  These classes help them learn how to be better parents and spouses.
  • Poverty Transformation: We don’t want to just give things away which can create dependency.  We want the families to buy into their own community. Requiring parents to complete 20 hours of Community Service and attending the 4 value classes they feel a part of the transformation in their own community.  They also become a living example to their kids.

Get Involved 

Here is a suggested list of school supplies you can collect along with your church, organization, or mission team Here is a suggested list of school supplies you can collect along with your church, organization, or mission team 

Student Supplies

Spiral Notebooks with Graph, Lined, Double-lined, and Blank pages.

Elmer’s Glue: Small Bottles or Glue Sticks

Erasers

#2 Pencils

Pencil Sharpeners

Kids Scissors

Pens (Red, Black & Blue)

Ruller

Color Pencils (Box of 12)

Crayons (Small individual boxes)

Color Markers (Box of 12)

Colored Paper

Geometric Rulers

Teacher Supplies

Hole Punch

Stapler

Whiteout

Whiteboard Markers & Erasers

Permanent Markers

Adult Scissors

Reward Stickers

Manila Folders with clamps

Tape – Masking & Clear

3-Ring Binders

Modeling Clay

Post-it Notes

Highlighters

Loose leaf paper – Blank and lined

Scientific calculator

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. 

 

2017 Engadi Year-End Update | Hope Overcomes Poverty & Violence

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This year felt chaotic to many people around the world. Confusion. Division. Fear. Did you feel the same way?

With that feeling in mind, try for a moment to imagine the oppressive sense of chaos, confusion, and fear that a child living in Zone 18 of Guatemala City endures. We’ve been heartbroken this year as we’ve seen illness, death, a boy lured in by a gang, and other seeming victories for the Enemy.

It’s overwhelming, isn’t it? Yet…

…we have SEEN the hope and victory that is in Jesus Christ! We’ve had the joy of sharing His hope in 2017.

  • 6 young men in our Derek Program follow Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior this year!
  • Our school sponsorships allowed 3 young men to attend high school outside the neighborhood (there are no high schools in the area)
  • Over 40 families enrolled in Family Values classes at our renovated Community Center
  • We organized medical clinics, which saw over 170 patients

The victory is His! I’m asking, if you have any room left, please consider loving on Engadi today for #YearEndGiving. Even one dollar will make a difference! (Click here for a convenient one-time gift. Or give monthly.)

Speaking to you plainly, the work here is difficult. But it is more important and more fulfilling than we can adequately express! We will not give up on these boys as long as we’re able to fight on with your support and God’s grace. In 2018, we’re prayerfully preparing to:

  • sponsor another 13 boys’ high school education outside the neighborhood
  • complete construction on new school classrooms inside the Paradise neighborhood, connecting with dozens of new students and training faculty to improve local education
  • expand our outreach inside the “Ratonera” (the Rat’s Nest), an especially dark part of Zone 18 which God is finally allowing us to access to reach new families and young men
  • continue to increase our medical outreach through specialized teams and systems

Would you consider making a donation of any amount you are able today?

Gratefully,
Nathan Hardeman & the Engadi Board
Engadi Ministries Intl.
*Registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization

Enter Paradise | story No.2 “Tony”

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His name is Ántoni. But you can call him “Tony.”

He was supposed to be one of the lucky ones. Unlike the overwhelming majority in Paradise’s virtually fatherless culture, Tony and his four siblings had a father who cared for them. Then he was killed. One fateful night four years ago, a drunk driver careened into him, and he was gone. Tony’s mother, Iris, was left to raise her children by herself. It was a dark, hopeless time.

Today, the grief is still palpable as Iris speaks and tears run down her face. But there is hope. She and her children live in a safer, cinderblock home built by volunteers. With Engadi’s support, Tony and his siblings (three sisters and a young brother) will be able to continue their education. Tony has excelled in school. And despite his family’s inability to afford books and supplies required for attendance, Engadi has seen him through to know — he is preparing to graduate and plans to attend university, where he will pursue a business degree.

Look into his eyes now, and you’ll see hope. Like so many of the boys in Zone 18 “Paradise,” there is huge potential here. In spite of giant obstacles and traumas, boys here are motivated and want to get ahead. Engadi is passionate about keeping that hope alive in boys’ hearts, to make the “impossible” a reality for them in a place where joining a gang and dying by age 24 is the norm. If the boys in this community can change, the impact on families and the entire community will be immeasurable!

The new Engadi Transformation Center (seen under construction in this video) is now a lighthouse in Paradise. Here 32 boys, including Tony, meet in safety to learn ethics and study the Bible, gain extra tutoring in their studies, and will gain access to the world outside the slum via a computer lab (coming soon as support is raised). It also serves as “headquarters” for the Derek Group’s community projects, through which the boys (with a huge amount of pride!) rebuild, paint, clean, and improve their own community in many ways!

Tony’s final year of high school and preparation for college will cost approximately $3,000. If you’d like to learn more about how to sponsor Tony, another boy, or upcoming projects including the Engadi Transformation Center computer lab, please contact Engadi at hello@engadiministries.org, or donate as you’re able right now.

Tony is a leader among his peers. We’re excited to introduce you soon to another boy (now a grown man and product of Engadi’s long-term work in Paradise) whose changed life is impacting Paradise remarkably. We will also be taking you behind the scenes into the public schools, where Engadi is strategically partnering to transform teachers’  and students’ lives from the inside out.

Please pray for Engadi’s school partnerships, and for the 32 boys now part of Engadi’s “Derek” group, where they experience hope and brotherhood.

The neediest boys in the Derek program are also candidates to enter the Benaiah House — Engadi’s boys home located in the hills outside Guatemala City, where they can enjoy a safe family life (under the care of house parents), guidance and counseling for traumas, and education catered to their special needs.

Thank you for supporting Engadi. Please watch for (and share!) more of these stories, as we introduce you to more real boys of Paradise soon…

#enterparadise
#hopeandbrotherhood 

screen-shot-2016-12-09-at-12-37-58-pm

 

**How can I share this story for the most impact possible? We’re answering that crucial question in our short video clip here. Watch now!…

tony

Enter Paradise | story No.1: “Juanes”

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He goes by “Juanes.”

He’s now 15 years old, but until today he has never been to school. It’s a common story. For one thing, 72 percent of the slum’s population has no access to education. (Police don’t even enter here after dark. In this “fatherless” culture, gangs appear to many boys as their only “family” — their only viable path to “survival.” The average recruit joins a gang at 13 years old. From there, his life expectancy nosedives to just 24 years. Murders. Drugs. Disease.

Juanes never met his father. The man — one of several involved in his mother’s life — died from cirrhosis of the liver in this community plagued by sickness.

There is one school within reach of the tin shack where Juanes lives — where he lives packed in alongside his mother, seven brothers and sisters, and several young nephews. Two of Juanes’ younger sisters attend the school. However, Juanes never received a birth certificate; so he was never allowed to register. As far as the system was concerned, it’s as if he didn’t exist.

You would have loved seeing Juanes’ face light up when Nathan Hardeman, Engadi’s co-founder and director, finally located an official form that confirmed Juanes’ birth. Just one more step toward hope for his brighter future!

Please pray for the 32 boys now part of Engadi’s “Derek” group, where they experience hope and brotherhood going together in weekly Bible studies, “gang up” to improve their community through ongoing service projects, and benefit from academic guidance in the new Engadi Transformation Center. (More about this exciting development to come!)

The neediest boys in the Derek program are also candidates to enter the Benaiah House — Engadi’s boys home located in the hills outside Guatemala City, where they can enjoy a safe family life (under the care of house parents), guidance and counseling for traumas, and education catered to their special needs. Juanes just returned from a weekend retreat at Benaiah House, a transitional experience designed to help some boys adapt to the possibility of a new life here.

Thank you for supporting Engadi. Please watch for (and share!) more of these stories, as we introduce you to more real boys of Paradise soon…

#enterparadise
#hopeandbrotherhood 

screen-shot-2016-12-09-at-12-37-58-pm

 

**How can I share this story for the most impact possible? We’re answering that crucial question in our short video clip here. Watch it now…

juanes

Enter Paradise | a story series (Intro)

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Thank you for your commitment to “Enter Paradise” and help us share the stories of these amazing young men! More to come SOON…

Click the VIDEO BELOW to watch an introduction.

If you would like to receive the Enter Paradise story series, too, make sure to sign up for the Engadi Newsletter (right column of this page). Then watch your inbox. Thank you!