Motivating this family to do their part continues to be a struggle for us.  Aminta has made food to sell a few times but not enough to create a sustainable income.  The difficulty she has is that the older girls (Nancy and Lidia) aren’t very motivated to help.  When they got to a point where they had no food, instead of doing something to earn the money, we discovered that they went out into the streets to beg for food.

We have been helping them with bags of food every month, but continue to encourage them to do their part and not rely on the ministry to provide everything.  Aminta struggles to take authority in her home, despite the continued coaching of our missionaries, the pastor, and her brother.  Lidia and her boyfriend are living there and while they at first promised to help by paying rent, there has been little work for him and we haven’t heard that he is contributing much.  The previous bags we have given them have had “a little extra” to help as we know that Aminta refuses to not share with some of the other adults in the house who aren’t contributing.  We’ve told them that from now on they won’t be getting extra as 1) they are to be rationing what we give them as it is only meant to help, not sustain all of their needs and 2) they need to do their part to sustain themselves.

Please continue to pray for this family as they need to learn how to do things on their own (which is our ultimate goal as a ministry).  Sadly, we were just getting to the point of getting Aminta’s tablecloth sewing business up and running but the country shut down due to COVID.   The vendors they were getting their materials from have stopped selling, and the public transportation closing has prevented them from going into Guatemala City to see if there are any other vendors selling products for them to use.

Please also pray for us as a ministry as we are doing our best to discern how to help this family sustain itself.  We are continually evaluating how to help this family (and all the others) in a healthy way to overcome their deep-seated emotional wounds and fears that prevent them from moving forward.