The Hastings Family

God's Provision

"The Lord is my portion, says my soul, therefore I have hope in Him"

Lamentations 3:24

Most of you know that this past year was a difficult one for us in the area of financial support. We are writing today to share with you the wonderful way that the Lord has blessed us. You may remember that a few months back we communicated about our support difficulties through a mailing and also through our blog.

Well, several things have taken place since that time and want to share with you that the Lord has provided for this need using many different people. Since sending out our letter, we have received one-time financial gifts from many people, some of whom we don't even know. Also, we have been blessed with some new financial supporters, again some of whom we have never met! Also, some of our supporting churches have sent extra funds. And just this past weekend, we were informed that our home church, Fellowship Bible Church of Chester NH, had it's annual business meeting and voted to both raise our monthly support and also to send an extremely generous one-time gift to us. Praise the Lord for the way that He has faithfully provided through working in the hearts and minds of His people, His church...the body of Christ!

Thank you to all. Please join us in thanking and praising God as He has once again demonstrated His unchanging and never-ending love for us through this answer to prayer.

By the way, have you looked at AMG's website lately? There have been many changes to the site these past several months. Please take a look so you can see how the Lord is working around the world through various ministry opportunities. There are recent news article links on the left side, even one about Guatemala!

www.amginternational.org

Much love in Christ, and for His glory.

The Hastings Family

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Happy New Year!

"Sing to the Lord, bless His name; Proclaim good tidings of His salvation from day to day." Psalm 96:2

Hello to everyone and Happy New Year 2008!

So many things to catch up about as we have not posted in over a month.

We were able to spend nearly 3 weeks in New England over the holidays. Thank you so much to family and friends who's generosity made this possible. We enjoyed spending most of our time in New Hampshire. We participated in our home churche's Christmas Eve service which was a privilege and a blessing to our family and also were able to get to know our home church's new Pastor and his family. Pastor Terry Wragg was called to Fellowship Bible Church this past Fall and officially began serving at FBC in November.

Pastor Terry Wragg, wife Rebecca and children Trevor(right), Austin(left) and Chelsea

Please pray for this family as they adjust to their new home, schools and ministry.

We also enjoyed spending time with our son Adam who is now living and working in New Hampshire. Adam is currently working at Radio Shack and considering returning to college this Fall. Please pray for him as he makes these decisions.

(above) Together with Adam in Woodstock, Vermont over the holidays. We had three major snowstorms during our stay in New England and two mornings with temperatures below zero! It was a very white (and cold!) Christmas!

(below) our kids with their cousins during our visit

Here in Guatemala, we received very exciting news from the immigration department this afternoon - our residency has been approved! For those of you who have followed this long story and have prayed for us we thank you for both your diligence in praying and your patience. This process has taken more than a year and a half and we are very thankful that it is over. We have been assigned numbers for our residence and will be able to pick up our ID's in a few weeks.

Our schools and daycare centers opened yesterday and it was nice to have the sound of children playing outside of the office window. All of AMG's 27 childcare centers and schools are back up and running for another year. Please pray for our 400+ workers as they minister spiritually and physically to the 7000 children and their families.

We want to share a photo of a group of our "cooks" who work in Guatemala City at our largest school of 800 children. You will notice that the ladies are wearing new aprons. These were a hand-made gift from a wonderful friend of ours, Sarah St. Jean, who offered to make new aprons for all of the cooks in our Guatemala City centers.

Just an FYI - these 5 ladies cook and serve a hot lunch for 800 kids every day! And they're still smiling! Thanks to Sarah and several friends who helped her to brighten the day of these faithful ladies. They couldn't believe someone thought of them in this way.

We have listed several new prayer requests in the right column of our blog. Thank you for faithfully supporting and praying for the ministry of AMG International, Guatemala.

May the Lord bless you as your serve Him this year.

Love from all the Hastings

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Family Visit to Guatemala

Dear Friends,

What a blessed Thanksgiving we had here in Guatemala. Bob's relatives (brother and family and sister and family) all came for a visit for the week......oh, and my neice's fiancé, Jordan, as well! (Carolyn and Jordan absent from above photo)

We packed a lot into this family trip as for many of them it was their first time here in Guatemala and we wanted them to see and experience as much as possible. We visited two of our rural childcare centers so both families could meet their sponsored children, spent two days working with 3rd graders at our largest school here in Guatemala City, saw the sights in and around Guatemala City...and of course enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving Day together.

The family prepared and implemented 3 different activities to share with the children during their two days at our school - crafts, games and Bible stories! They brought many donations from their churches, friend and relatives and did a GREAT job teaching and having fun with 65 3rd graders! Thank you to ALL who donated so many things! Here's a few pictures of part of their ministry - craft time.

On the first day all the kids made their own t-shirts by using stamps and fabric markers and stencils. On the second day the kids all made stamped cards for family and friends.

Wwe took a trip into the "ravine" one afternoon. Most of the children that AMG ministers to are very poor and here in Guatemala City many of them live in the ravine that winds its way through the city. On Wednesday afternoon, we walked to the home of little David, a sponsored boy here at our school in Verbena. My brother took pictures of David as he showed us the way to his home.....down into the steep ravine we went, all the way to the bottom, then up the other side and finally to David's small house of wood and tin. They had no electricity, no running water, no bathroom, no kitchen. Just a one room structure for shelter. It was a sobering reminder to us of the poverty that exists in most parts of the world. I wish everyone could experience the sights, sounds and smells of such a visit.

We want to thank our family for coming to share time with us this Thanksgiving. And we want to thank the staff members of AMG Guatemala who helped to make the time so special.

Love from all the Hastings.

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