Centro Educativo Precious Momentos, is a school in Colonia Santa Fe, Zone 13 of Guatemala City. It was opened for poor children, street kids and orphans by a Christian woman named Martha. Many of the poor people who live there couldn’t afford to register their children when they were born so they are unable to unable to attend public school.

  15 children who are orphaned or whose parents are unable to care for them live there permanently. The building is quite small, only about 800 sq. ft. but 150 children receive classes in the 6 small classrooms. Last year we setup a small computer lab in the school to help the students in their studies.

  In June we received a donation of 5 good computers from Tim’s father in Seattle WA. We are now able to  teach 7 students at a time and they are quickly learning basic computer skills touch typing. Tim goes to the school every week to teach English, computer and Bible classes to the children. It is amazing to see how quickly they are learning to speak English both through the Rosetta Stone language program and scripture memorization.

 

  The Bible says in Luke 6:38 “Give, and it shall be given unto you”. While I know this verse from a theological standpoint, this month I got to live it. We have a lady who comes by once or twice a week to help around the house as there is a lot of work with 6 kids.

  One day she arrived in tears asking my wife to pray for her, she has three small children and her neighbor, who she buys water and electricity from, had gotten upset at her and turned off her utilities. She is a good Christian woman who works hard to supply family.

   Our situation this past year has been very tough, living by faith as missionaries with 6 children is difficult under the best of situations, but our expenses have consistently outweighed our income and we’ve been operating in the red the past few months, we tithe %10 our income and give an extra %2 to other missions. I was tempted to say “Lord, we already give more than we can afford, when you supply more for me than I’ll start giving more to others”. But God spoke to my heart and reminded me of James 2:15-16 which says “If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food. And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?”

   The truth is that the money I have is not really mine, I’m only a steward of it, if it wasn’t by the generosity of others supporting us we couldn’t do our job here on the mission field.   So we gave her the money, not grudgingly or of necessity, but joyfully, and by a miracle over the next two weeks we received enough donations to bring us current on most of our bills. People who had pledged to support us came through with donations, individuals I had never met helped out and we had a few deposits that I have no idea where they came from.

   It truly is a testimony to the glory of God. I know in my heart that if we hadn’t given to someone in need, the Lord would not have poured out His blessings upon us.   It strengthened my faith in Christ immensely and was a wonderful opportunity to teach my children the wonderful spiritual truth that you never lose by giving!