Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. With sadness but also with complete trust in our sovereign God and optimism for what is to come we have to announce the elimination of the project 001 Haven of Hope Center in Escuintla, Guatemala. Funds have been limited as we need to increase our number of monthly donors and we were not receiving enough donations each month starting at the end of 2016 and entering into 2017 to be able to pay salaries to our staff operating the center. After informing the staff and giving them two months payment to help in this transition they decided not to continue the work although we were going to continue to offer monthly support to this center as The Hope Movement is the founder and operator of this center and just operate with volunteers as we do with our other centers and less days a week. So the center under The Hope Movement will temporarily close and we will work on raising funds to reopen in Escuintla in another location if it's God’s will and focusing more on planting a church, evangelism, Christian education in a school for children with the greatest financial needs and nutrition. In the meantime we have three other projects in Guatemala which are providing the same services in Nuevo Amanacer (Project 003), San Juan Sacatepequez (Project 004) and Villa Lobos (Project 005). We will also be working on evangelistic missions to many areas including Escuintla. Along with our work in Guatemala we are now caring for orphans and widows in Africa and expanding our spread of the Gospel to many nations including the United States.
The building in Madrid in Escunitla, Guatemala was the same center that our founder helped build the foundation as a child when he was in Guatemala in 1994 as a 16 year old boy. After he left Guatemala we sent letters to the people every year but none of his letters arrived. During that time all programs had stopped and the building being in financial difficulty was paid off by loving missionaries. 8 years later his last letter arrived and the pastor and Jonathan committed to work together. Years still passed and The Hope Movement without a center did many evangelistic activities, missions, provisions for children and families including the pastor as well as help in upgrading the building which was being used at the time by the pastor and his family. In 2011 The Hope Movement's application was approved and we received a grant from the Zimmer Family Foundation for $11,000 and we remodeled the building investing in total $12,324.06 in in construction and labor and $5,628.98 in paying rent of the pastor and family totaling $17,953.04. The Haven of Hope Center opened in 2012 and over the years we have provided tens of thousands of meals, provided counseling and education to hundreds of children and adults, gave wheelchairs to those in need, provided medical care for the pastor (Over $5,000) and others in the community and conducted many community outreaches to preach the Gospel. Over the last several years over $178,313.32 has been utilized with great stewardship to the work of Jesus Christ in Guatemala. Although we are no longer affiliated in anyway with the pastor in Escuintla do to a variety of reasons, we praise God for the time we were able to bring God glory by sharing the Gospel and helping those in need in Escuintla. To God be the glory for none of this could have been accomplished without His provision. Also we are grateful to every person who donated and supported this project over the years. During that time your sacrifice made a huge difference in the lives of the people in Escuintla and more importantly the seeds of the Gospel were planted in their hearts. Continue to pray that the Holy Spirit uses those seeds to regenerate hearts bringing them to salvation through the grace of Jesus Christ.
During this time of transition The Hope Movement led by our president will continue conducting evangelistic and mission activities in Escuintla as we have a deep commitment to the people and for our president the children consider him family and he will not abandon them. After much prayer although we wish things were different for this is not what we wanted we also feel peace that God's sovereignty is involved in this process, moving us, guiding us to fulfill His will. His plan is perfect and He is in complete control of every step we make. So let us remember 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.