The Hastings Family

Hello everyone. You didn't think we could have our blog too long without sharing about the needs of the ministry, did you? Some of you have already heard about this but many of you are unaware of this particular need.
As you know, all of the 7,000+ children in our schools and childcare centers have individual sponsors from around the world. Some of you are faithful sponsors. One of the difficulties that comes up from time to time is when sponsors have to discontinue their support. We always understand that there are many different circumstances that can cause this and we understand that sometimes this is necessary. For younger children, we simply produce a new biography form and AMG's office in the US finds us another sponsor. Unfortunately, when children reach a certain age, it becomes very difficult to find sponsors. This age is around 12. Understandably, many people would like to sponsor a younger child as the opportunity exists to have a long term relationship with their child.
Our dilemma - These past few years, the number of older children in our projects who have lost their sponsors has grown. We currently have about 80 children who are 12 or over that are without sponsors. We keep them in the program but don't have sponsorship funds coming in for them. This causes financial strain on our budget and the individual projects.
The need - We are in need of sponsors for these older children. The cost is a little different for these students, $35 a month instead of the normal $25, as a "scholarship" is also part of their support. For children in Jr. and Sr. High, we give the family a small amount of money in order to offset some of the expenses that come along with their educational needs. Also, it is tempting for families to remove their children from school at this age so they can work and contribute to the family income. The scholarship helps as an incentive for parents to allow their children to continue with their schooling.
The photo above is an example of one of the children that is in need of a new sponsor. His name is Edvin, he is 12 years old and he lives in the small rural town of Oratorio, about an hour and a half outside of Guatemala City. Edvin's father died several years ago. His mother works very hard in order to support the family but her income is too low to provide what they need. Edvin and his family (3 brothers and 3 sisters) live in a small adobe house with tin roofing and a dirt floor.
If you, or anyone you know, would like to sponsor Edvin or one of these older children you can send us an email (bobh@amginternational.org or bobhast@gmail.com) and we'd be happy to answer any of your questions or get you started with the child sponsorship program.
Please pray with us that the Lord would provide the necessary sponsors and funds to help us to continue to help children like Edvin.

The majority of the work that AMG does here in Guatemala is through Christian Schools and Childcare Centers like these. Through individual sponsorship from people around the world, AMG operates 27 such facilities all around the country. Each center provides education, a hot meal, a school uniform, Bible classes, and a safe, fun place for the poorest children in Guatemala to be each day.

We have a lot of teams come to help with the work here. Recently, a team of 14 from Grand Rapids came to help build a new Childcare center in the little remote mountain village of Villa Laura. They also built a basketball court at another project called Oratorio. Here's a few pictures of their work:

Well, we have decided to join the world of blogging. Hopefully it will help us to be better communicators about many things - our family, the ministry, and our lives in Guatemala. For those of you who don't know us very well, we are the Hastings family - Bob, Robin, Adam(18), Melody(16) and Bethany(11). We are missionaries serving with AMG International in Guatemala. We moved here from New Hampshire in 2004. Bob serves as the Area Director of AMG's ministries in Guatemala. Our home church is Fellowship Bible Church in Chester, NH (www.fellowshipbiblechester.org) We know you are all busy and have many things to do and we appreciate you taking the time to read our blog. We will try to post on a regular basis. If you would like to know more about the ministry, you can leave a comment on our blog and we'll be happy to send you a PDF version of our ministry brochure.

Bye for now!