Giving Tuesday, 2018--Reason #8 to support Reason to Hope, Inc.

GRANDMA MARGARITA 

AND HER FIVE GRANDDAUGHTERS

For Christmas 2018 Reason to Hope is partnering with Love Guatemala, Canada, to provide Christmas to a family whom we have come to love.  Margarita is caring for her five granddaughters after her own daughter died in childbirth with the last little girl, and their father disappeared for parts unknown.  Furthermore, we are hoping to help the oldest granddaughter, who recently graduated 9th grade, continue her studies to pursue her dream of becoming a chef.  This is not typically what our ministry does, but when God leads, we try to follow.  So here's the back-story:

A neighbor lady is helping to care for the baby
to give Margarita some support.

Last June, Westside Church in Omaha adopted our ministry as their mission's project for their Vacation Bible eXperience.  As part of the project, they wanted to build a house for a family in Guatemala.  While we aren't really in the house-building business, we wanted to honor their desires, and I immediately contacted my friend, Judy Bergen, who runs Love Guatemala Canada.  They build houses, but only as part of over-all, on-going ministry to the families they serve.  She knew just the family for us.

She took me to the poor village of San Luis Carretas, about 45 minutes from where we live, to meet Margarita.  About six months earlier, Margarita's daughter had died in childbirth, leaving behind five little girls.  Her husband, unable to withstand the loss and the pressure of raising his daughters, left for parts unknown.  That suddenly left Grandma Margarita to care for her five granddaughters, with the help of her married daughter Angel--who looks to be no more than a child herself.

Angel, the girls' aunt is helping to care for them.
Samuel, their uncle, leaves home at 4:30 am each day,
returning at 8 in the evening, to support five children
who are his only out of love.

They were living between two cement block houses, but their house was primarily made of corn stalks and black plastic.  Grandma has significant health problems, including vision loss due to her diabetes and high blood pressure.  Suddenly she was once again momma to five girls, ages newborn through 14.  And she assumed this responsibility without complaint. So, with the help of Westside Church's Children's Ministry, and the collaboration of Reason to Hope with Love Guatemala, this family received a clean, safe and secure new home.

Because of the relationship we have formed with the family in this process, we are continuing to partner with Love Guatemala and visiting this family and supporting them as best we can. When I visited most recently, the oldest girl, now 15, said she had given up her dream of becoming a chef because they could only afford to send her to the nearby public school for high school, and they did not offer this program.

The young lady on the right dreams of studying cooking
to one day be a chef and help support her sisters.

You have to understand, in Guatemala very few girls have dreams for their future.  As one put it, their future "decides itself" by what happens to them.  So to meet this bright young woman who continued to dream in spite of losing both her parents was unusual to say the least.  To have her dream die for lack of resources was heartbreaking, so we will, with Love Guatemala, be searching for a sponsor to pay for her education, and are investigating cooking schools in the area which she could attend.  We estimate the cost of her education will run about $100 per month, including transportation expenses.

Can you help this young lady find her dream?