Summer is flying by!                                                    JUNE 2013

The second team in front of Fatima's house

We have already had 2 work teams come to help with some much needed construction projects, and a third team is currently working to try to finish what wasn’t completed. Three families in our neighborhood have received new bathrooms and other home improvements. Fatima’s family, a family with children and elderly grandparents, received a new kitchen, bathroom, and her house now has all four walls, which will greatly improve the security in their home. Suyapa, a mother of 5 whose husband abandoned her and the children,  received a new bathroom, and the old dirt floors were replaced with concrete floors, which will be much easier to keep clean. Antonio, the young man who helped the teams with the construction projects, received a new bathroom and had electricity put into his home. Most importantly, the love of Christ was shown in practical ways to the people in our community.

Although the teams have worked really hard to complete all of the work, there is still work to be done, so we are hoping to have a few more people come down here this summer to complete the work that has already been done. If you have some time this summer, please prayerfully consider spending a week or two here helping! Send an email to us for details and an application!

School is going well, and we are seeing a lot of improvement in attitudes as well as academics, and we are so proud of all of our students! We are thankful for a generous sponsor who stepped forward to pay for our school lunches, and a big burden was lifted off of us.

Natalie teaching the colegio kids

Here are updates on our current programs:

*Feeding program for indigent elderly people – We do this one day a week, and our students LOVE it! It has been good for them to share, and our elderly neighbors look forward to the weekly visits. We have added new people to the list, and are now bringing food to 11-15 people each week.

*Tutoring – Gordon is still working with the colegio kids who attend the other colegios in the area. He has been a good father figure to the kids, and they enjoy spending time with him.

*English classes – Chantalle is teaching English in our school, and has two classes – one for colegio students and the other for younger kids. She also has a couple of students who are not in school who she is teaching. It has been exciting hearing the students speaking English, and a few students can understand A LOT of English.

*Bible studies – We are still doing our Ladies Bible study and the children and youth studies, and have added to our numbers in all studies. We are still praying for someone to lead the men’s study. 

*Lunch program – Our lunch program is going well, and we were blessed by a donor who has provided funding for the entire school year. For many of our students, this is the only meal they receive.

*Schooling – In addition to our school, we have 8 students in other schools who have sponsors in the USA who pay for their schooling. We ensure that each of them is working to their full potential and are doing their homework and school projects. Each student also receives a nutritional lunch every school day.

Prayer needs and Praises:

·         Residency! We are going to have to apply for residency within the next 6 months, which will cost $2500, and will provide residency for 5 years. If we are not able to get our residency, we will not be able to continue our ministry here. When we went for a visa extension, we were denied the extension and told that we would need to either apply for residency or return to the United States.

·         $500 to finish the projects that the teams started. There is an elderly man who is living in a makeshift shack that is not safe, and we can make his housing safe and stable for about $500. We have a few people willing to lead a work team in getting this project done, but need to raise money for the supplies.

·         Please Continue to pray for our school! This is a huge undertaking, and we need a lot of prayer both for our teachers and our students.

·         For more mission/work teams to come! There is A LOT of work to be done in this poverty stricken community, and teams can really change the lives of people here. Even if you don’t speak Spanish or have construction skills, if you are willing and able, we would love to have you! Contact us for more information. WE ESPECIALLY NEED PEOPLE TO COME THIS SUMMER TO FINISH THE PROJECTS THAT HAVE BEEN STARTED!!!!!

·         More teachers – if you are inclined at all to teach, and would like to spend some time in a beautiful environment, please contact us for an application! Because of the unique nature of our school, we need to maintain a very low teacher to student ratio so that each student can learn to the best of their ability.

·         We STILL need an electrician!!! We were able to get the electrical system fixed so that things are a little bit safer, but there is more work to be done. Our school assistant has a cousin who was able to help us out at a fraction of the normal cost, and things seem to be working well.

·         Extra sponsorship! There is a law in Honduras that requires paying all employees double their normal wages in the months of June and December, which makes these months a little bit more tight financially for us. If you can help out with these extra costs, please either send a payment through paypal or through our mission organization, Shepherd’s staff.

PRAISES:

·         The teams were able to accomplish a lot of work while they were here, and our community was really blessed by their presence.

·         We received funding for our full year of lunches, which is a huge blessing to our school!

·         We are finally starting to feel healthy after a long bout with influenza and colds. Yeah! 

Thank you to everyone who supports us in our ministry! We could not do any of this without your help!

Love, The Eytzen family J                                    

Email: jesushelovesme@hotmail.com

Blogsite: www.eytzenfamily.blogspot.com

Gordon on the zipline over the waterfall

 

 

May update

School is going great!                                                                                                                 MAY 2013

We just finished our first quarter at school, and things are going well! We are continually amazed at God’s faithfulness to provide for all of our needs, and are really proud of all of our students. We now have 4 students in Kindergarten, 7 in primary (1-2^ndgrade), 10 in escuela (3^rd – 6^th grade), and 4 kids in colegio (7^th grade). We hadn’t planned on teaching colegio, but the opportunity presented itself, so we jumped in, and those kids have been doing great.

Most of our students have settled into school and are really flourishing in the environment. We have high academic standards, but adjust the level to meet the individual student’s needs, which allows for each student to excel at their own level. We are seeing students excited about finally getting high scores on exams and looking forward to taking exams and coming to school. We are really pleased with the ACE program!

A group in Nebraska did a fundraiser for the school, and we were able to paint the walls and get desks built, and have the electrical work tidied up a bit, so the school looks pretty too! We were also able to raise the funds for our English program for the colegio level students, and classes for them are going well. It is fun hearing our students speaking English and understanding more every day.

Our niece, Jennifer, arrived last weekend, and we are looking forward to hosting two teams this summer, as well as some of our close friends who are coming for a visit. We are planning on completing 3 small building projects while the teams are here, and the team is also going to present a week long VBS program and spend some time with our colegio kids. We are all very excited!

Although most of our time is now spent working with our school, here is a brief update on each of our other ministries:

*Feeding  program for indigent elderly people – We are still doing this one day a week, and our students LOVE it! It has been good for them to share, and our elderly neighbors look forward to the weekly visits.

 

*Kindergarten program – Aly taught Kindergarten for the first quarter, and the students will return for the final quarter to prepare them for 1^st grade next year. They are a spunky group of kids! Alex, our oldest student (29) will continue coming to school 3 days a week to prepare for learning to read.

 

*Tutoring – Gordon is still working with the colegio kids who attend the other colegios in the area, and they enjoy spending time with him.

 

*English classes – Chantalle is teaching English in our school, and has two classes – one for colegio students and the other for the younger class. Later in the year, she plans on teaching the primary students.

 

*Bible studies – we have an English Bible study for local ladies and a Bible study/craft time for children under 12. We now have a mixed study for students who are 13 and up on Friday nights, and are praying for a strong bilingual man to start Bible studies for the young men.

*Lunch program – We are serving lunch to all of the students who attend our school as well as 4 others who lack resources to have proper nutrition. This program has been going well, and we try to serve a balanced diet to the students.

 

*Schooling – In addition to our school, we have 8 students in other schools who have sponsors in the USA who pay for their schooling. We ensure that each of them is working to their full potential and are doing their homework and school projects. Each student also receives a nutritional lunch every school day.

 

*Children’s Church – After lots of prayer, we felt that we needed to be attending church instead of leading children’s church. We found a local church that seems to be a good fit for our family, with a lot of English speakers, and are enjoying attending church as a family again!

 

*Worship team – Our new church does not have a worship team, but anyone who wants to is able to get together to sing, and the girls have enjoyed this time.

 

Prayer needs:

·         Sponsor (s) for lunch at school! We try to keep the cost low, but we are feeding 22 people in the school every day, and this is not in our budget. We would like to be able to have one or two people sponsor the cost of this ministry. We are able to keep this cost at around $100 per month; $10 per day. (We reduced it from $150!) We would love to have one or two people sponsor this cost for us!

·         Please Continue to pray for our school! This is a huge undertaking, and we need a lot of prayer both for our teachers (Aly, Natalie, Chantalle, Lisa, & Gordon) and for our students (Cecilia, Franklin, Jennifer, Flor, Kellyn, Gaby, Eneyda, Fatima, Estefany, Katerin, Ruby, Cindy, Maria, Jefer, Aslin, Estefani, Jose, Danny, Deyni, Alex, Angel, Ashlyn, Nahomi, & Jadiel).

·         For more mission/work teams to come! There is A LOT of work to be done in this poverty stricken community, and teams can really change the lives of people here. Even if you don’t speak Spanish or have construction skills, if you are willing and able, we would love to have you! Contact us for more information.

·         We STILL need an electrician!!! We were able to get the electrical system fixed so that things are a little bit safer, but there is more work to be done. Our school assistant has a cousin who was able to help us out at a fraction of the normal cost, and things seem to be working well.

PRAISES:

·         We were able to hire an ASSISTANT at school! Suyapa has been a huge help to our school, and we feel a little bit less exhausted at the end of each day. Thanks for helping meet this need!

·         We finally got our electrical system in the school fixed so that it is safer and there are lights in all of the rooms!

·         New students! We have been praying for a couple of local teens who for one reason or another were not in colegio and not making wise life choices. Over the past month, one after the other of them has come to us asking if they could come to our school. We have been thankful that we were able to admit them to school, and all 3 of them are doing well. These are all students we have worked with in the past, and we are so happy that they are starting to make better choices!

 

Thank you to everyone who supports us in our ministry! We could not do any of this without your help!

Love, The Eytzen family J                                     Email: jesushelovesme@hotmail.com

March Update

(When I went to post a new update, I realized that I had never actually published this.... oops!)

We’re off to a good start!                                                                                                 MARCH 2013

We had a good break from school, and are one month into the new school year. Thanks to a few generous supporters, we were able to raise enough money to start our neighborhood school. We have 21 students in Kindergarten through 6^th grade who are all eager to learn, and we are excited to teach them. In Honduras, there is no system in place for children who have any sort of special educational needs, and if a student struggles and is unable to pass one class, they are held back for the entire grade. This system, coupled with class sizes of 50-80 students, makes learning very difficult for some students.

 

Most of the students in our school have been held back multiple times and feel very defeated. All of them come from troubled backgrounds and have been victims of abuse and neglect. We are hopeful that our school program will help the students gain self confidence and be able to reach their full potential. We are using the ACE program (Accelerated Christian Education), which allows each student to work at their own pace and spend more time on subjects where more time is needed. We are also teaching everything bilingually, with extensive classes in learning English as a second language so that each student will be able to learn English fluently. Our entire curriculum is Christian based, with character training incorporated into each class.

 

While the need for education is somewhat obvious, it is even more important in Honduras. If a girl is not able to stay in school, there is a lot of pressure to marry, even if the girl is very young or doesn’t feel ready to take this step. One of our students was telling us how happy and relieved she was to have the opportunity to attend school again because her family was pressuring her to find a husband, and at 13, she did not want to have to marry. Girls are also often victims of slavery, and staying in school can help them avoid this. Thank you to all of our supporters who are helping these kids have a better future!

 

We have had to scale back some of our other programs, but are still running most of the programs:

 

*Feeding  program for indigent elderly people – we are doing this one day a week for now with our school kids.  Some of the children are collecting food donations from neighbors, and the children are helping with the cooking and delivery of the food. We are also keeping track of anything that is needed, and the older kids will be helping with projects around the house as needed.

 

*Preschool program – All of the children who were in Natalie’s preschool program are now in Kindergarten with Aly three days a week.

 

*Tutoring – this is the first thing that we started, and kids come every day after school to get help with their homework and to use the internet for educational reasons. Gordon has taken over this ministry, and it has been good for the kids to have a positive male role model.

 

*English classes – Chantalle is teaching English in our school, and as soon as we receive the new curriculum for teens and adults, she will be teaching classes to our colegio students and adults in our community.

 

*Bible studies – we have an English Bible study for local ladies and a Bible study/craft time for children under 12. We also have a study for girls 12 and up, and we would like to add more studies soon. We are actively looking for a young man to help with the study for young men.

 

*Lunch program – We are serving lunch to all of the students who attend our school as well as 4 others who lack resources to have proper nutrition.

 

*Schooling – In addition to our school, we have 8 students in other schools who have sponsors in the USA who pay for their schooling. We ensure that each of them is working to their full potential and are doing their homework and school projects. Each student also receives a nutritional lunch every school day.

 

*Children’s Church – We are in charge of the Sunday children’s programs at our church. We have about 40 children, birth to 12 years old, who we teach lessons to, do crafts with, and love on.

 

*Worship team – Also at church, Natalie and Chantalle help lead worship for Friday and Sunday services. They have really enjoyed being able to serve in this way.

 

Prayer needs:

·         Sponsor (s) for lunch at school! We try to keep the cost low, but we are feeding 22 people in the school every day, and this is not in our budget. We would like to be able to have one or two people sponsor the cost of this ministry. We are able to keep this cost at around $150 per month ($7.50 per day). Please pray about the possibility of helping us in this way.

·         Sponsor for an assistant at school. We would really benefit from having a full time assistant at the school to help with cleaning, lunch preparation, Kindergarten, and odd jobs. Having a special needs school requires the full attention of each of us, and it is very difficult having to try to cover this need as well. The cost for hiring someone would be $100 per month.

·         Please pray for our school! This is a huge undertaking, and we need a lot of prayer both for our teachers (Aly, Natalie, Chantalle, Lisa, & Gordon) and for our students (Flor, Kellyn, Gaby, Eneyda, Fatima, Estefany, Katerin, Ruby, Cindy, Maria, Jefer, Aslin, Estefani, Jose, Danny, Deyni, Alex, Angel, Ashlyn, Nahomi, & Jadiel).

·         For more mission/work teams to come! There is A LOT of work to be done in this poverty stricken community, and teams can really change the lives of people here. Even if you don’t speak Spanish or have construction skills, if you are willing and able, we would love to have you! Contact us for more information.

·         We need an electrician!!! If you have the ability to help with re-wiring our house and the school, we could really use your help! The wiring is in very bad condition, and is not safe nor is it very functional and we really need someone or a small group to come help us get the electricity in working order. Please let us know if you could possibly come help in this way! There are very few trained electricians in this area, and those that are here are extremely expensive.

 

Thank you to everyone who supports us in our ministry! We could not do any of this without your help!

Love, The Eytzen family J                                     Email: jesushelovesme@hotmail.com

If you would like to contact us, our contact information is:

Lisa and Gordon Eytzen
c/o Roberto Diaz del Valle
9 KM. Carretera la Guama a Pena Blanca
Hotel Finca Las Glorias, Pena Blanca
Santa Cruz de Yojoa, Cortes
Honduras, Centro America

(it takes about 2-3 months to receive mail)

It’s not fair!                                                                                                                        

Anyone who has worked with kids (or adults, for that matter), has heard the cry, “It’s not fair!” repeatedly.  We hear that when we’re working with kids quite a bit, and it has sparked a lot of interesting conversations with the family. It is easy to start thinking that our situations aren’t “fair” and usually we spin things to favor ourselves – we aren’t getting enough or the quality of whatever we are receiving isn’t good enough. Rarely do we use the “unfair” cry when we feel we are getting too much or what we are receiving is more than we deserve, but isn’t that more often, the case?

Fatima’s House

Is it fair that I was born into a loving Christian family who wanted me and took care of me, took me on vacations, bought me everything I needed and most of the things I wanted?  Is it fair that Fatima was born to a mother who has repeatedly told her that she wished she had never been born, who never has taken care of her in any way? Is it fair that at six years old she was left alone with only her seven year old brother, to take care of herself? Which situation is more fair? Did I do anything that made me deserve the privileged life I was given? Did Fatima do anything to earn her station in life? In reality, we all probably “deserve” the life that a lot of the kids down here live.

Although we came here because we felt called by God, and we know that we are being used to help reach the people here and bring them hope, being here has also been an intensely life changing experience for each of us, and helped us view life in an entirely different way. I believe that I am no better than any of the people here and it is solely by the grace of God that I was given a much easier life. The people here have touched our lives and shown us new ways of thinking, and convicted us of many things that we have had to change in our personal lives. Sometimes the challenges seem almost more than we can handle, but sometimes the blessings just seem to overflow, and the road is easy.

A lot has been happening here in the past month! Gordon and Chantalle returned from their time in the states, and it has been great having them back. They were able to visit with a lot of family & friends and had a nice time traveling around. We dealt with a huge strep outbreak in our community, and had several sick children stay with us because they either had elderly people or babies in their home, or they didn’t have anyone to care for them. It was a draining time, but by serving the kids in this way, we have developed closer relationships with them and their families.

Our new mission house, just down the street

Tuesday night church, with up to 30 kids!

We have not moved into our new house, and things have been delayed due to lack of finances, but we are slowly getting things done. We don’t have to start paying rent there until March, so we are hoping to complete everything by then. Some of the kids’ dads have done a lot of tile work and repaired the walls, and most of the painting is done. We will be beginning the electrical rewiring soon, and that is one of the biggest projects. Jennifer, Chantalle, and I will be doing most of the work ourselves, and we have a couple of men who have volunteered to check our work and make sure that everything is done correctly.

We have done a lot of preparation for our new programs, and will be kicking off the new programs while our kids are out of school. Our “summer break” is from December until February. Here are the programs that we are working on:

*Feeding  program for indigent elderly people – we are starting with one day a week and hope to be able to do more days later. Some of the children are collecting food donations from neighbors, and the children are helping with the cooking and delivery of the food. We are also keeping track of anything that is needed, and the older kids will be helping with projects around the house as needed.

*Preschool program – Natalie is teaching some of the kids who are not yet in school, and they come every day to learn colors, numbers, shapes, and the basics of reading. They are learning a lot, and really look forward to class every day.

*Tutoring – this is the first thing that we started, and kids come every day after school to get help with their homework and to use the internet for educational reasons. Kids also enjoy having time to color and play with our toys.

*English classes – Chantalle is teaching English one on one to the kids who have shown the most aptitude and interest in learning, and they are also using Rosetta Stone to advance their learning.

*Bible studies – we have an English Bible study for local ladies and a Bible study/craft time for children under 12. We also have a study for girls 12 and up, and we would like to add more studies soon.

*Lunch program – some of the kids who don’t get adequate nutrition at home can come and get lunch every day.

*Baking program – Jennifer is working with some of the older girls in a program where the girls bake cupcakes, brownies, and cookies, and the girls go out and sell their baked goods to bring more income to their families. The girls are all very excited about this, and it will be great for them to have skills to bring more money into their families.

*Bead making – We are working with several of the kids at making jewelry that we can sell when we are in the states, so that they will have skills to help with their family income.

*Schooling – We have found sponsors to help send several kids to school, and we make sure that all of the sponsored kids are doing well in their classes and taking their studies seriously. We feel that education is very important, and encourage the kids and their families to stay in school, study hard, and think about their futures.

*Children’s Church – In addition to the programs in our community, we are in charge of the Sunday children’s programs at our church. We have about 40 children, birth to 12 years old, who we teach lessons to, do crafts with, and love on.

*Worship team – Also at church, Natalie and Chantalle help lead worship for Friday and Sunday services. They have really enjoyed being able to serve in this way.

Prayer needs:

*Please continue to pray for our kids. Franklin, Kevin, and Daniel are still struggling, but we have made some headway with Franklin recently, so we are encouraged by that.

* We are only lacking one sponsor right now, and that is for Cecilia, whose father died recently, and her family does not have a lot of money to send her to school.

*We are praying about starting a very small private school. This idea came about because there are a few kids who are extremely far behind in their education, and will not be able to complete even elementary school without intervention. There are about 6 kids who we are considering schooling. There are two girls, who are 12 and 13 and both just in first grade, and another 13 year old who is in fourth grade, as well as some students who are struggling in the Honduran system of education, where there are often 60 children in a small classroom with one teacher. It is a big commitment, and we want to make sure that the children as well as we are able to fully commit before we decide to do this. We are looking for sponsors to help pay for the cost of the materials & the fee that the government charges for starting this kind of a program (very much like home-schooling). We are hoping to start with 3 families, and see where things go from there.

*Monthly sponsors – Every month it is extremely hard to make ends meet, and we are dependent on people from the states sending in support. We have a few people who have been very faithful supporters, but we need more people to join with us.

*Money for our new home – Please pray about helping us get our new home finished. We still have a lot of work to do, and have volunteers available, but are just lacking the funds!

*Mission teams – we would really like to have multiple mission teams come here to see what we do and to help us accomplish some bigger goals. If you are at all interested in this, please contact us!

If you are looking for a Christmas gift for someone, consider sponsoring a child in their name. We try to have the students write letters to their sponsors regularly, and this is one gift that won’t be forgotten! Contact us for more information!

Thank you to everyone who supports us in our ministry! We hope that you are able to enjoy the Christmas season!

Love, The Eytzen family J

If you would like to contact us, our contact information is:

Lisa and Gordon Eytzen
c/o Roberto Diaz del Valle
9 KM. Carretera la Guama a Pena Blanca
Hotel Finca Las Glorias, Pena Blanca
Santa Cruz de Yojoa, Cortes
Honduras, Centro America

(it takes about 2 months to receive mail)                      Email: jesushelovesme@hotmail.com

Please take a few minutes to read about some of the children we would like to help!

Student Profiles:

Fatima Gisele

Fatima Gisele – Fatima is a lively 13 year old girl who has had a rough life from the beginning. Her mother tried unsuccessfully to end her pregnancy with Fatima, and she has been repeatedly told that it would have been better for her not to have been born. She has been passed from relative to relative, and lived with only her brother for almost two years when she was 6-8 years old. Her rough life has made her into a very determined young lady, and she wants to be able to complete school and have a better future. While she was on her own she wasn’t able to attend school, so she is currently only in the fifth grade. We would like to be able to enroll Fatima in our private school so that she can receive the one on one instruction that she needs to catch up.

Esly Eneyda –  Eneyda is a very spunky 11 year old girl who is one of 12 children, and doesn’t get a lot of attention. She is extremely small for her age, even in Honduras, and is the size of an average 5 or 6 year old. Because of her size and a learning  disability, Eneyda is often teased in school, and punished by her teachers when she doesn’t understand. She is very bright, and has shown a real gift in speaking English, and we are excited to see what can happen for her when she is given the attention she needs to learn.

Gisele Kellin –  Kellin is very sweet and quiet, and is Eneyda’s older sister. After their father lost his hand in an accident last year, she has had to mature and help more at home with all of the children. She is a good student, and enjoys learning. She often gets sad and has trouble opening up to others. We are hoping that she will get a sponsor to enable her to have the smaller class size that she needs to fully reach her potential.

Danis – Danis is one of the youngest in Kellin and Eneyda’s family, and he is not off to a very good start in school. He was not allowed to attend Kindergarten or first grade because of his test results, and he shows signs of a learning disability, but responds well to one on one instruction.  For Danis, the only hope he has of academic success will come from private schooling, and we are hoping to be able to provide that for him.

Jefer – Jefer is a small, sweet boy who has moved around within his family throughout his short 8 years. He struggles in school, and is facing his third time going through first grade, unless he is able to be homeschooled or attend private school. He is a bright boy who enjoys learning, but has some areas that he struggles with. In the Honduran system, if a child fails one class, they have to repeat the entire grade, which has really held Jefer back.

There are three other students who we are praying about at this time, and if we receive sponsors for these, we will pursue finding sponsors for Deinis, Cindy, and Estefani.

The cost for each student is $30/month or $360 for a year, and includes meals, clothing, and all educational costs.

We are way overdue with an update! Sometimes it feels like time just flies by with everything we are involved with, and this has been a really busy year for us!  So much has happened here, but I will give a brief overview.

We have been blessed to have some wonderful friends & relatives come for visits. Kaileen came for 3 months to visit from March through June, and she was able to help us with a lot of things. We were able to do a lot of fun things with her, and she gave us some fresh insight that was helpful. In June, Jennifer came, and stayed until August, when we went back to the States for a visit. She returned with us in September, and will be with us at least until December. She has been a huge help to us, and lifts our spirits when we are feeling discouraged. In July, Meghan and Kelly came for a week, and it was so wonderful having them here! We were able to go to the BMDI (Baptist Medical & Dental Mission) near Teguchigalpa and see what they are doing on the other side of the country as well as see some old friends from Nebraska.

In Tapachula, Mexico

Kelly with Estefani, Eneyda, & Kellin

We had to leave the country for our 90 days in April, and when we got to the border of El Salvador, the guard told us that we needed to leave the region, and he took our visas out of our passports and told us we needed to get on a bus to either Mexico or Costa Rica. We opted for Mexico, and spent an exhausting 42 hours on busses, but ended up having a nice time while we were there, and it was an interesting experience for us. A week after returning home, all of the ladies were able to go to Teguchigalpa to a Women of Purpose Ladies retreat. A group of people come from the states twice a year to put on a conference/retreat for missionary women, and it was a great time of fellowship & renewal for each of us. We can’t wait to go to the next one in November!

In August, we had the opportunity to visit the states. Since our ministry has grown so much, we didn’t feel that we could leave all at once, so we took turns. Natalie, Alye, Lisa, and Jenn, left mid August and were able to visit friends and family in Colorado, Memphis, Indiana, Nebraska, & Florida. It was really nice being able to visit a lot of our loved ones, and to restock some of our supplies. Some of our friends sent clothes & shoes & school supplies back with us, and that was really nice.

At a Colorado Rockies Baseball game (in the rain)

Gordon and Chantalle went to the states the same day that we left, and will be returning in late October. They have been able to travel to most of the same places where the rest of us did, and have had a great time there. It has been hard being apart for so long, and we’re all really excited to be all together again soon.

We found out that we will have to leave our home. At first we were very discouraged, as we thought we would be able to live here for a long time, and there aren’t very many houses available for rent; especially large enough for all of us and our ministry. We drove around with our cousin Chris, and saw a lot of possibilities, but nothing super close to where we are now. A few days ago, our landlord painted a big sign outside stating that our house was up for sale, and we had A LOT of neighbors come by who were very concerned about us leaving the neighborhood. We minister to a lot of families and small children who wouldn’t be able to go very far to us. Anyways, one of our neighbors brought us the keys to his son’s house that is vacant, and although the house is in very rough condition, it has the space we need and is right on the same street where we live, so we could continue our ministry with the people we know God has called us to help. We are excited to get to work on fixing the house up to livable condition, and a lot of people have already volunteered to do all of the labor for free, so we just have to pay for supplies. We started work this week, and it has been encouraging to see so many people show up to help us with the work! We are hoping to move the beginning of November, and are hoping that we are able to raise the funds necessary to put in the plumbing, electrical, and kitchen so that we can live in the house.

Our community center & youth programs have really grown, and it is exciting to see new children coming around. We are now averaging about 20 kids every week, and the older kids are learning to lead the younger ones. We have the older kids help with the younger kids’ mid-week class, and they are getting really good at it. The kids go around our neighborhood collecting various fruits and vegetables for Aly to make food that we serve to everyone, and it is nice seeing everyone getting involved.

 Kids Night

We have resumed our Ladies Bible Study for English speakers, and we all really enjoy that every week.  It is really nice being able to spend some time speaking and learning in English! We are getting ready to start a new study with teen girls, and are hoping to get one started for the teen boys. We would like to start a Ladies Bible Study  for the women in our neighborhood as soon as we are confident enough in our Spanish.

We are hoping to start a couple of new programs after we are settled into our new home. We would like to start a baking co-op and involve the teen girls. We will teach them how to make various baked goods and candies, and they can sell them during soccer games to earn some money for their families.  The girls are all really eager to start, and it should be fun. The children also had the idea of starting a sort of “Meals-on-Wheels” for the elderly people in our community. There are several elderly people who have trouble getting healthy meals, and don’t have family to take care of them. We would like to have the children prepare simple meals to bring to them each day during the week. It has been exciting to see our neighbors pull together to help one another.

It has been really exciting to see a lot of the kids growing and learning new skills and how to be respectful and helpful, and seen a lot of positive changes in them. We have also had the relationships with our neighbors grow and develop, and it is great seeing such a huge change in only a year. A lot of the kids want to make wise choices, and we are seeing more kids excited about going to church and learning about God.
 

Thank you so much for your continued support. It would be impossible to reach these people without your help.

Love,

Gordon, Lisa, Aly, Natalie, Chantalle, & Jennifer

Prayer Needs:

*Please pray for the kids who are currently being sponsored to be in school: Jessica, Darwin, Efren, Byron, Fatima, & Carla are all doing well in school and thriving.

Carla is in first grade

Jessica recently celebrated her quincinera

Darwin is in his first year of colegio & is a really hard worker

Fatima has turned her grades around, and is doing well in 4th grade

 

*Please pray for the kids who are hoping for sponsors for next year: Cecilia, Jennifer, and Josie are still waiting to be sponsored, and will be finishing sixth grade in November.

Cecilia - the oldest child in her home. Her father recently died,

 leaving her mom struggling to provide for the family.

Jennifer (above) and Josie (below) are sisters who live with their mother and several siblings in a one room house. They will both be completing 6th grade in November and are hoping to attend colegio.

*Please pray for our kids who are struggling:

Franklin has had a lot of trouble making the right choices, and if he doesn’t start making better choices, it will seriously jeopardize his future. We have worked closely with him in the past, and he is going through a really rough time. He comes from a pretty rough family, with no father, and a mother who has a lot of health issues, and is working to provide for her 8 children.

Franklin

Kevin was one of the neighborhood bullies when we moved in, and we were all afraid of him. He would drive by and throw rocks and yell profanities at us. After reaching out to him several times, he has softened, and is no longer mean to us. He still doesn’t want to go to church or Bible studies, but he would kind of like to go to colegio.

Daniel will be graduating from elementary school soon, and he doesn’t have very much ambition. He comes from a very abusive home, and he has stolen from us, but he is also struggling between knowing what is right, and the pull of doing the wrong thing. His sister, Kimberly, has been out of school for 2 years, but would like the opportunity to attend colegio now. We are giving her some work to do to see if she can be committed to school.

Daniel

*Please pray for us to have the funds and energy to get our new house ready to live in. A lot of people where we live have offered to help with the work, and we just need to raise the funds to purchase supplies. If we can raise about $5000 we will be able to put in electrical, plumbing, paint, and make the house secure. The location is great, and it has a lot of outdoor living space, which is very nice. Most people around us don’t live with electricity as we know it, and they don’t have inside bathrooms, which are things that we would really like to have.

*Please pray for our health, as we seem to have more than our share of health issues. Currently Jenn and Lisa are fighting pneumonia, and Aly has had a stomach bug for a couple of weeks. We are looking forward to a healthy fall!

If you would like to contact us, our contact information is:

Lisa and Gordon Eytzen
c/o Roberto Diaz del Valle
9 KM. Carretera la Guama a Pena Blanca
Hotel Finca Las Glorias, Pena Blanca
Santa Cruz de Yojoa, Cortes
Honduras, Centro America

(it takes about 2 months to receive mail)              Email: jesushelovesme@hotmail.com