Ups and Downs

"But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves: we are afflicted, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed"

II Corinthians 4:7-9

If we were all honest, we would admit that this life is often one of "ups and downs". As Christians, we have so many resources to deal with these "ups and downs", but still life can often feel like a roller coaster ride - smooth and steady uphill one moment, diving down and twisting in the next! Wouldn't you agree?

The ups: Here at AMG Guatemala we are gearing up for our annual Bundles of Love distribution. This is always a special time of year when we give each of the sponsored children in all 27 of our childcare centers a Christmas gift - a new uniform for next year, a backback, new shoes and school supplies....oh, and usually a little candy as well! All of the children come with their parents during the second week of December to receive their "Bundles". It's a great opportunity to meet with the parents, share the good news of Jesus, and just enjoy seeing the children receive their gifts. Please pray that many around the world would hear about the true meaning of Christmas through AMG's Bundles of Love distribution program.

You can read about how AMG International is involved in this program around the world in this month's online newsletter at:

http://www.amginternational.org/downloads/AMGnews1108.pdf

(there's also an article about two little boys here in Guatemala that we had previously blogged about if you scroll down once you open the link)

Another "up" - As a family, we recently had the opportunity to travel to New Hampshire to attend our home church's annual missions conference. The theme was "Mighty to Save" and the theme verse was

"… He saved them for the sake of His name, that He might make His power known." Psalm 106:8

It was a wonderful time to visit with family and friends, experience love and care from our home church, and to be spiritually refreshed and encouraged. Thank you Fellowship Bible Church!! Definitely an "UP" for us all!!

Here's a few pictures of our kids and their cousins during an impromptu photo shoot during one of our family get togethers. Even though the foliage was at its end, we still enjoyed the beauty that this time of year in the northeast brings:
Bob's sister Holly and our neice Sarah
Bethany and her cousins Jenny & Rachel
Sisters.....
Adam & his cousin Nancy (the photographer!)
Melody & her cousin Carolyn
Adam, Mel & Bethany

Today also brought a "down". This morning when I came to the office I learned that our Las Vistas School had been broken into last night. For the past year or so, we have raised funds and saved to be able to open a computer lab in this school. Finally, we purchased and installed the computers in October. The staff and children of the school were so excited to have the new computer lab. Eleven of the computers were stolen. We won't share all the details but today has been filled with meeting with the authorities from our contracted security company, writing and filing police reports, etc. It's hard to understand who would do this but it certainly is a sign of the times. Guatemala continues to experience a high rate of crime and it always increases around the holidays. We would appreciate your prayer that this would get resolved and that we would be able to replace the computers before the start of the new school year in January.

So, we "rejoice" and at the same time are "perplexed" (as the verse above states). Please pray with us that as Christians we would always be able to keep the proper perspective in dealing with all of life's "ups and downs". After all, it's all about God, His love and aswesome power...and His glory. He alone is "mighty to save", we just have the privilege of being part of it all.

To God be the glory!

The Hastings Family

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Family in Ministry


Involvement in Ministry
Often times people ask how the rest of the family is able to be involved in the ministry here at AMG Guatemala. I thought I'd take just a minute to let you know.

Robin has the opportunity to be involved on a regular basis and helps out in the following areas:

English Program - Robin works in our English Program once each week. The English teachers asked if Robin would spend time with them to help them improve their speaking skills so this year Robin has been meeting with them each Thursday afternoon so they can ask questions, review grammar and every day conversation skills, etc.

Translation - In the past few months, Robin has also been helping out with translation of sponsored children's letters. This gives her the opportunity to interact with our central office staff on a regular basis and also allows her to improve her Spanish.

All three of the Hastings girls also help when we have teams. Of course if the girls have school then their availability is limited, but they always love the opportunity to work with visiting teams whenever possible.
Here's a few pictures of the girls helping out with one of our recent teams at an AMG child care center here in Guatemala City:




Oh, and even though Adam lives in the states now, he also loved to help out with teams when he lived here:

And yes, from time to time I get to roll up my sleeves and help out as well! :)



Have a great day.

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More News!

Hello Friends,


No! The biggest news of the day isn't that John McCain picked a woman for the VP position! It's that AMG had their annual Bible Parade today! That's right, once again the students of AMG marched through the streets of the neighborhoods of Guatemala City showing what they have learned about this year in their Bible classes. We're not going to talk a lot about the activity as we want to post a lot of pictures so you can get a firsthand idea of all that took place this morning.


Matthew 19:14
Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."
Psalm 150
Praise the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens.
Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD.
Then Jesus said, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?" ...When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!"
John 11
One of AMG's pick-up trucks doubling as a "float" in the parade:
Parable of the Lost Sheep
Luke 15
....more sheep
The armor of the Christian
Ephesians 6
Learning the books and divisions
of the Old Testament...
....each student was a different book
The Wedding at Cana
John 2

Jesus turning the water into wine
John 2:1-12

Magale, one of our Bible teachers, explaining the different themes

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Galatians 5:22-23

Seño Carmen, our 3rd grade teacher, with her students

Ronny, our Maintenance Supervisors, receiving
"faith" (strawberries)...

...and I received a big dose of "goodness" (watermelon)

Some of our employees watching the parade...

...and off they went into the streets with all the parents following them.

Thanks for sharing in our parade today.

Together in Christ,

All the employees of AMG Guatemala.

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Two Very Special Cases

"this is pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father, to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world"

James 1:26


Hello everyone,

This verse from James is a challenge to us all. In our world today there is unfortunately an epidemic of broken families and uncared for children.

Often times we are exposed to examples of some of these situations in the ministry. Today we would like to tell you about two little boys, Juanito and Brian. Below you will find two reports from Alex, our Director at the Las Vistas school. We want to share these with you to help you understand the difficult circumstances that so many families experience in their lives here in Guatemala. Through Alex's interest in both of these little boy's lives, AMG has been able to enroll them in our school, help the family with some of their expenses, and provide spiritual and physical care for them.

None of this would be possible without child sponsors. Thank you to so many who already sponsor children in our programs. If anyone would like to consider sponsorship, you can see pictures of children here in Guatemala who are in need of sponsors right now at this link:


Right now we are in need of sponsors for more than 150 children!


Report #1 from Alex - Juan Alfredo Lux Vicente - "Juanito"

Can you imagine an 8 year old boy who cannot play soccer with his friends, cannot run, cannot play hide and seek, really cannot do much of anything.

I would like to introduce you to a little boy, Juan Alfredo Lux Vicente – “Juanito”. He is one of our new children enrolled at our school in Las Vistas, located just outside Guatemala City. Juanito has a very unusual circumstance with his health. He was born with his heart located outside of the normal chest cavity. In 2001, he had surgery here in Guatemala City to relocate his heart, but the doctors were not able to put it back into its proper place. Believe it or not, Juanito’s heart is now located just “below” his thorax. (for those of us who are non-medical people, his heart is in the soft tissue area just below the inverted “V” that you feel in the middle of your chest).
Due to his condition, Juanito has several complications relative to his health. The first one, and by far the most serious, is that his heart is unprotected. Believe it or not, you can feel Juanitos heart, and you can actually see it beating from the outside! Because of this Juanito cannot live like a normal boy. He cannot exert himself. He cannot have any extra physical activity as he cannot risk falling or being hit in the area where his heart is.
Juanito has poor circulation as a result of all of this. His heart only operates at about 50% capacity. This is noticeable in his color, especially the color of his fingernails and extremities.
He is on daily medication that our ministry helps his very poor family buy each month. They live in a very small house that does not have electricity or running water. Juanito walks about a mile each way to attend AMG’s school each day.

In this pictures you can see where Juanito’s heart relocation was performed:


Juanito's heart is now located just a few inches above his belly button. As you can imagine, his heart is completely without protection.

Report #2 from Alex - "Brian" Israel Avila - 11 years old

One day earlier this year I noticed a young boy hanging around outside of our school. I began talking with him and found out his name was Brian. Brian seemed to be a very nice young boy but he did not walk properly. He was wearing some type of brace and it appeared he had something wrong with his legs. As I talked with Brian, I learned that he had been this way for his whole life. While Brian didn't completely understand his disability, it was apparent that getting around was very difficult for him.

Brian told me that he did not attend school so I took the opportunity to go home with him and talk with his mom one day. Upon meeting her, I discovered that she is a single mother as her husband left her several years ago. She was a very sweet woman who was trying to do the best to raise her son. She explained that Brian's problem was a broken bone in his hip that the doctors thought was the result of an injury she had when she was pregnant with him. She also explained that the doctors told her that they could correct the problem with surgery but that they could never afford to pay for this.

I invited Brian to enroll in our school and his mom agreed. Following this, I spoke to my supervisors at AMG's central office and petitioned for help for the funds necessary to help Brian receive the much needed surgery. Fortunately, we were able to help from our "Medical Fund" and in June Brian had his surgery! The doctors believe it was successful and Brian is now in a long period of recuperation and therapy. Below are some pictures of Brian post-surgery in his very humble home.


Inside the home:
Brian showing the brace he wore:

The kitchen:

Brian's scar from the surgery:

Brian's mom is unable to work during this time. She sometimes does laundry for people for a few dollars per day. We have purchased food for the family, will continue to help with their medical expenses, and some very generous donors from the US have helped to pay the rent of their home.


A few weeks ago, AMG's leadership and some visitors from the US came to visit our school. Mr. Hastings asked if it would be possible to visit Brian as he had just recently had his surgery, so we all went to his home. Brian's mom could not contain her emotion. Through her tears, she told us "I knew I could never pay for Brian's surgery, so I have prayed every day that the Lord would provide a way. Now, He has provided so much more! I can only thank God for his faithfulness in providing more than I even asked for".

Brian's mom (far right) with the visitors from the states:


Will you join us in praying for Juanito and Brian? They both still face many challenges in their lives.

Here's a picture of Alex. I know he would also appreciate your prayers as he continues to labor in the ministry.


Thanks for taking the time to share in the ministry of AMG Guatemala.

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