Our Calling – Engadi Ministries

Our Calling

Engadi Ministries Intl. exists to provide a safe and nurturing environment to boys who have been trapped within the cycles of poverty and violence that characterize Guatemala City’s slums, helping them to achieve their full potential in Christ Jesus. We believe all children deserve the chance to pursue a brighter future, and we strive to make that hope attainable through community-wide services that include education, home construction, and healthcare. Specifically, we strive to identify boys with a drive to succeed, and to support their growth as “mighty men” who will value family, love God and change their communities for the better. A comprehensive, sustained approach is critical. So we serve boys’ spiritual, physical, and intellectual needs over the long-term, encouraging them to pursue ambitious goals.

Nathan Hardeman

“There are thousands of boys out there who need our help. We can’t give up. We can’t get discouraged. I have to focus on changing the life of one boy. Then two. Then maybe three. Never quitting.”

Nathan HardemanFounder of Engadi Ministries Intl.

The reason we are here

The median age of Latin Americans is lower than in the US, thus the percentage of young people is higher in comparison with older people. The majority of these kids live in a non-Christian environment. Many grow up without a father figure present in the home.

Reasons for family disintegration in Guatemala are many. Some more common ones are as follows: cycle of poverty, lingering effect of past civil war, high birth rate, rural to urban migration, natural disasters, and health issues such as disease and malnutrition. There are many others. Every family has its own story.

The result is that children and youth often look outside the home for protection, identity, hope and a future. Formal education is often seen as less important than is “street” education. Gangs are seen to offer what a dysfunctional family can’t—identity, protection and hope. We all know that this is a false hope which often leads to imprisonment or death through violence.

As followers of Christ we know that Scripture exhorts us to defend the rights of the poor and fatherless (Ps. 82:3, Deut. 10:18, James 1:27). Proverbs 24:11 takes it a step further and asks us to, “Rescue those who are being taken away to death, hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.” Zechariah 11:4, 7 take it even a step farther. It states, “Pasture the flock marked for slaughter…particularly the oppressed of the flock.”

Engadi Ministries is called to do just this—rescue and disciple those male youth who currently reside in the neighborhood called el Paraiso in Zone 18 of Guatemala City, Guatemala. A voluntary safe Christian refuge is being built in Zaragoza. Throughout their adolescent life, Christian mentoring is given as well as continual contact with the family. A supplemental Christian family structure is provided through house parents. While in Engadi’s healthy environment we hope the boys from troubling situations will become the Mighty Men of tomorrow that will transform Guatemala and the world from the inside out.

VISION

Helping Guatemalan youth in troubling situations reach their full potential in Christ.

MISSION STATEMENT

Transforming Guatemalan youth through Christian principles, a solid education, a loving home environment, and community service.

WHAT DOES “ENGADI” MEAN?

In I Samuel 22:2 David is joined by many young men from troubled situations at the cave of Adullam. Years later in his life those men became know as Mighty Men or Mighty Warriors. It was in the Engadi Wilderness where those troubled boys became the Mighty Men they were named for.