A Team Together

by elfaro | Nov 6, 2015 | Sports

A Team Together

Brittany Dozier is raising up future leaders in the girls she trains on a weekly basis in the soccer academy at El Faro. She not only invests in her players through the physical training of soccer, but she also is invested in their lives through her relationship with each one of the girls through movie nights, parties, house visits, and lots of social activities where they can have fun and also talk about the Bible. In July Brittany’s home church, One Church in Ohio, came down to serve in the ministries that Brittany and her husband Gavin are involved in. In addition they brought down suitcases full of clothing to give out to families in need that Brittany and Gavin work with. When the church left, Brittany still had a lot of donated clothing leftover and so she came up with an idea where she could get rid of the clothing and also bless the community through the soccer girls. Have a garage sale for her soccer team! Each girl brought Q5-10 (roughly $.75-$1.00) as a donation and then they had the opportunity to search through the clothing one by one until everything was gone. “Some girls brought exact change, some brought extra to give as a donation, and some even brought enough to cover a friend who wasn’t able to bring money. In total the girls raised Q190.00 ($25.00) and with that money they were able to buy food for a family in need.

The purpose of this project was to help the girls realize it is better to give than to receive. I want the girls to get involved in the communities and have the mind set that they can make a difference in helping others even though they are young. I want them to think outside of themselves and undersntad the privelage and blessing of helping others.

Brittany Dozier

The team traveled with Brittany to the store in the village to figure out how much things cost, do the math, and pay with the money they had raised. The following week they went together to the village of Baltimore where they were able to pray for a family, read the Bible, give them the food, and spend time with them. Overall, this experience went extremely considering it was the first time that many of the girls had ever done anything like this. They were shy and a little nervous, but now that they have experienced it they are hungry to do more. Brittany’s goal is to do something similar each month by dividing the girls into smaller groups to make the experience more intimate and personal.

This is just the beginning and now that the girls have this flame ignited within them to help their communities we are excited to see what they accomplish in their next outreaches. If you would like to support Brittany and the girls outreach projects please click HERE.

Reaching The Nations

In 2012 the founder of El Faro, Phil Ephraim, presented a challenge to the staff of El Faro. A missionary had recently traveled to his church in Chicago and shared about the issues the local church faces in Cuba. Because of the oppressive government, the churches’ are regulated by the government and are very limited on what they can speak about. However, if a church service takes place in a “home” that is owned by a pastor, they are free to do what they want and speak about. This missionary presenting the project explained he was helping pastors purchase “church homes” with the support of churches around the world.

Each ‘casa pastoral’ cost around $3,000 and so we made it a goal at El Faro to take up offerings during our Monday night services and also raise money through “Pacas”, garage sales, to go specifically toward the church in Cuba. This year we finally met our goal and actually surpassed it and we had the opportunity to send one of our own all the way to Cuba to give the money to the pastors. Jonathan Lopez has been an employee at El Faro for four years and works in the office alongside his wife Brenda. Since being at El Faro his life has been transformed and God is doing amazing things through him especially with young men in the villages. We chose him as our ambassador and he traveled with a pastor from Guatemala City to meet with various Cuban pastors to hear their stories and provide financial assistance to help with their churches. Over the course of five days he met with six pastors in different areas within Cuba. Before going Jonathan really didn’t know what to expect. “I thought Cuba would be similar to Guatemala with a lot of churches and also a lot of Christians”. Jonathan was shocked when only after a couple of hours of being in country he saw the oppression. “Many of the pastors are in a constant struggle and it is hard to be a Christian there.” One pastor, Armando Lezcano, has a very small and shabby ‘casa pastoral’ and has 50 members in his church. The day that Jonathan arrived he was able to listen to the needs of the pastor and also learn about the Church in general of Cuba. The pastor had no idea that Jonathan was going to give an offering from El Faro and when Jonathan was presenting the donation he was in shock. He shared with Jonathan that God’s timing is perfect because it took him two years and a lot of money to receive the legal papers to construct a new pastoral house and he had only five days left to begin construction. He had no money to start and with the donation he was able to break ground.

It took some time and a lot of garage sales, but we are so thankful that our goal was met and we were able to bless the church in Cuba. Thank you to those who also gave clothing for us to sell and also gave in our offering box during a service at El Faro. We see this as just the beginning and we look forward to coming together as a community at El Faro and help our peers around the world.

We have so much and yet do so little…the people in Cuba do so much with the little that they have

Jonathan Lopez

It Takes a Village to Change Another

Aldea Nueva is a village tucked into mountains of The Cerro San Gil of Izabal. From El Faro it is a good 30-minute drive and then a good hour hike in deep mud straight up until you reach a small community of about 40 families, a one-roomed schoolhouse, one church, and of course a soccer field. Many of the men of this village used to work in a teak wood farm near El Faro but two years ago the trees were cut and the farm is now in the growing stage which requires little help leaving the men of the communities without jobs.

Pastor Gerardo, the pastor of the Evangelical church of Punta de Palma and pictured above in the red shirt, gets together with all of the pastor’s once a month to have their denominational meeting. It was in one of the these meetings he heard direct from the mouth of the pastor of Aldea Nueva that the people there were in great need. He took it upon himself to speak with the members of his church and starting five years ago they began to travel to Aldea Nueva to bring what little they have to bless others.

The beauty of this project is that it began in the heart of the local church. They have seen how El Faro has helped many of the villages including theirs and decided to do something themselves. Last December pastor Gerardo approached Luis Pedro Rios, the director of missions, to see if we had any shoes, clothing, food, toys, or children’s activities we could donate to them to give to Aldea Nueva. Throughout the year we have many teams donate clothes or leave clothes behind and we wash and save them to sell to raise money for missions projects. We still had a lot of clothing left over from the year and were able to give them three big duffle bags full of clothing and shoes and the church of Punta de Palma raised money and bought members of their church to travel and bless Aldea Nueva.

It has truly been inspiring to see this small church make such a big difference in another community. The people of Punta de Palma don’t have much and yet they are giving so much. They are looking beyond themselves and their circumstances to recognize that God can use them as much or even more than the people of El Faro.

The fact that there were older men whose foot size was a 7 or 8 at the most trying out shoes that were sizes 12 tells me that they don’t have enough resources to keep their daily needs taken care of. We need to pray that God strengthens the church in Aldea Nueva and provides them with work, health and education.

Luis Pedro Rios

We want to help Gerardo’s church and encourage them to be the difference. They dream of doing various outreaches each year and we want them to dream big without boundaries. Saying this, there is a huge physical need of the people of Aldea Nueva and the surrounding villages that are even more remote. Puerto Barrios is too far for these villagers to travel to receive health attention so many have lived many years with pain.

In January we would like to team with Gerardo’s church and reach out to these remote villages to meet their physical needs. We will be teaming up with a nursing team from the states and also partner with Guatemalan doctors and dentists to see as many villagers as we can in two days. In order to do this we need help purchasing medical supplies and medications, the hosting of the doctors, and also transportation to the village. These people need to know that they are not forgotten.

If you would like to help support this medical trip and bring physical healing to those who have never seen a doctor before please click HERE

The Touch of Love

by elfaro | Aug 16, 2015 | Health

The Touch of Love

Living with a disability is a huge disadvantage all over the world, but especially in Guatemala where 14% of the population lives with a physical or mental disability. With almost no government help, those with disabilities live very isolated lives. According to the World Health Organization, people with disabilities make up 15% of the world’s population making them the largest minority group with 80% of them living in developing countries. Children comprise approximately one-third of the world’s disabled population and approximately 65% of the disabilities affecting children are preventable (Community Based Rehabilitation, M Peats).

Mayra Duran began working with children with special needs at El Faro in 2012. Toward the end of last year Mayra became aware of two special cases in the village who were in desperate need of physical therapy. At the same time that Mayra was to start working with them a group of physical therapy students from Shenendoah University traveled to El Faro with the purpose of meeting the disabled children to teach them and their families exercises. With God’s perfect timing intertwining Mayra and Shenendoah, Mayra knew that God was opening up opportunities to work with these children. In addition, a young girl from the village named Elsa began her first year of physical theraphy school and was able to team up with Mayra to work with the patients.

Mayra traveled with the team to the houses where she was taught specific exercises to do with the patients. A second team came from Shenedoah later in the year and with the progress that Mayra and Elsa had done with the patients already this year were able to add additional exercises.

Karlita is a beautiful young woman who is 22 years old. When her mother was 8-months pregnant she contracted hepatitis causing Karlita to be born deaf, blind, and with cerebral palsy. She can sit up, but she doesn’t walk and has to eat all her food in liquid form because she can’t swallow. When Mayra and Elsa first began to work with her, Karlita would not let them touch her without her mother also there and fought against the therapy exercises. Today Mayra and Elsa arrive at the house where they immediately have her feel their faces to know who they are and she is able to perform her exercises. Shenendoah provided leg braces and exercises to strengthen her legs and since she has been making progress towards walking someday.

Melvin is 18 and when he was seven months old contracted meningitis causing him to have cerebal palsy and also loss of his motor skills. He never has walked and had never received any kind of therapy until Mayra started visiting him. Spending all his life in a hammock has caused him to be extremely limited in his movements and that is specifically where Mayra and Elsa focus. They are working on exercises to strengthen both his arms and legs and have seen much progress especially since he can now stretch his legs.

Elsa meets with the patients three times a week walking from her house which sometimes takes an hour. The distance doesn’t affect her because she is so excited to work with the patients and continue to learn.

Karlita and Melvin are just two stories of the hundreds that exist across the county of Guatemala. We applaud Mayra and Elsa for the time and love they invest in the lives not only of the patients, but of their families. We are also so grateful to Shenendoah University for the teams they have brought down because they are helping make a change for the disabled community of Guatemala.

If you want to know more about Mayra and how you can support her, please click HERE

The Missionary Experience

In 2011 when Luis Pedro first came to El Faro to serve as a missionary God put on his heart to begin a project to prepare missionaries for their work around the world. That same year he designed a 10-day “missionary group experience” program that he was able to present at different churches and missions conferences in Guatemala City. Much to his disappointment there was little response and the project fell through. However, two years later when he least expected a church in Guatemala who remembered the presentation contacted Luis Pedro to bring a group from his church who were interested in missions so they ended up coming for four days. The following year the same church came again for four days but this time brought 80 people with them.

Luis Pedro realized that’s God timing for the project had finally arrived and just a few months later two youth with missionary callings who had come with the church arrived to El Faro to start their missionary experience.

The purpose of the missionary experience is the give a person the experience so that they can be prepared spiritually, intellectually and emotionally for what is ahead by having different scenarios of what the mission field will look like and be able to solve problems that will happen when they are abroad.

“I think God is about to do something with this project because we haven’t done any publicity and He is sending the people.”

What Luis Pedro is most excited about is that Guatemala is sending out their own missionaries to different parts of Latin America for a short period of time to do missionary work and this will open up spiritual doors for them. “I see this project coming alongside churches, colleges, and missionary agencies for them to send us their missionary candidates for 3-6 months so they can prepare themselves not only in a classroom, but in a field where they will encounter situations that they will have to face in their mission field: a different culture, a different language, a spiritual challenge, disciple making opportunities, living in a close community, live with roommates, etc.

Raquel

I went to El Faro because we believed it was wise to have a time of separation from my family before I traveled all the way to Cambodia. I had never left home before and I am very close to my family. I also went to learn from the different missionaries at El Faro through seeing and listening about their experiences, work, troubles, and spiritual life.

During my time that I was at El Faro I was able to help in different ways with my gifts that God had given mi through education (tutoring and library), hospital visits, Crafts, sports, bible clubs, and most important to me being able to share with young girls and encourage them to grow in their faith.

In reality it was an important time for because God prepared my heart, body, soul, and spirit to be able to serve in Cambodia. It was a time of preparation where God equipped me in the areas that I needed help.

Juanito

It was in El Faro in a youth camp where I decided to follow Christ with all my heart and changed the way I was living my life. It was also in El Faro where I had my first experience getting into missions as a volunteer beginning the first stage of becoming a missionary. I was able to take what I learned in El Faro, a place where the presence of God is present and a place where there is opportunity to serve God in the communities . I can’t think of a better place being surrounded by missionaries and people that love Him and encourage you to serve Him.

During my time that I was at El Faro I had the great opportunity and blessing to help the already existing ministries that the missionaries work in. That included being with kids, bringing food to the elderly in the village. It was time of a lot of work and service to the community where you can see normal people reflecting God’s love to people in need. If I could sum up my time in three words they would be love, service, and friendships

I can’t imagine how difficult my transition to Israel would have been without the preparation that I had in El Faro. They opened up their doors for me to be a volunteer and wanted to help my spiritual life as much as much as for the people in the villages. I experienced times of good advice, teachings, and missionary work that have remained with me during my time in Israel.

Who is the right person for the missionary experience?

Someone who has a calling from God to go to the nations and make disciples, that is strong in his/her faith, and that already has a plan to go to a specific mission field even if they don’t have all the details sorted out yet.

If you are interested in coming down to do the missionary experience or have a calling and want to explore more what that means, please contact Luis Pedro at misiones@fundacionephraim.org

A Team Together

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Reaching The Nations

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It Takes a Village to Change Another

The Touch of Love

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The Missionary Experience

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