vacations? yes!!!!

Gracias Dios! Thank God!

He has been so good to us, He is the reason why we do everything with so much passion. He bless us with health, with protection, provision, love for each other and love for others, and the list goes on and on… I am humbled by the all the opportunities He has granted us to work for Him.

Let me share some challenges and blessings with you:

The challenge: I feel like I am so not a good mom, I noticed Miguel having hard time to read but I thought is was just part of the process of learning to identify the letters, but then I noticed some other things he had trouble to identify, so I finally decided to take him to the optometrist, and wow he does need glasses! I took him to the ophthalmologist  and after some tests, she told me that he has astigmatism and needed his glasses, I was a little worried as they are not cheap…

The blessing: I got a NOT expected donation towards me and Miguel and it solved the financial worries, giving him his glasses makes me feel a little less guilty for not been aware of this before.

Challenge:

Working so hard and going to university at the same time has kept me too busy this year and felt almost like going to crash, Miguel also complained a little about me not been with him as last year.

My brother in law is a marine and he will be deployed over seas again, this is the 3^rd time he will serve overseas and my sister will be with the 2 kids by herself, I wanted Miguel to meet his uncle Billy so bad… but we could not get a flight affordable.

Blessing: Billy and my sister live in San Diego, so we got a flight to Tijuana, Mexico that we could pay! So we will spend New Years with my sister and Miguel will meet his uncle Billy!!!

I am worried about flying into Tijuana, it is about 20 minute walk from the border and my sister will meet us there, (the military can not go into Tijauna) pray for Miguel and I the night of the 26 of december please!

We love to serve God the way we do, we love to serve Him with you serving with us, I honestly can not do this by myself, it is thanks to you, thanks to your prayers, your love and gifts.

Blessings to you all!

Serving with joy

Miguel Angel and Betty Merida

thanks given

Once upon a time….

There was a little girl whose daddy did not work most of the time and her mom had to go to work selling chickens at the local market. The little girl loved to help her mother and grandmother work at the market. Her mother sold chickens and her grandmother sold bread.

it seemed like the family had found who was going to continue the “Cycle” of no school and sell at the market.

Though the little girl dreams, it was looked down upon in her family and dreaming was not encouraged.  The little girl once saw a commercial on TV advertising cars for only $100 per month. Thinking about this commercial while going for a walk with her daddy, the little girl held

One day the little girl was going for a walk down a dusty road with her daddy. She remembered a TV commercial that advertised a family driving away with a brand new car for only a hundred dollars a month! Thinking of this commercial the little girl looked up to her daddy and asked why they did not own a car. Her dad became very upset and screamed at his daughter. With anger he asked why she would ask such a thing and doubted her happiness in their family. Ashamed, the little girl felt so stupid for asking this question. She felt so happy holding hands with her daddy and walking down the dusty road together. Her dad started to walk so fast she had to run just to keep up with him, determined to do her best not to mess up again. At that moment she decided to forget the dream of having a car and understood that their family was not the kind of family that could have a car.

The girl grew up to be a beautiful teenager with a strong personality just like her daddy, and a hard worker just like her mommy. She had non dreams just as her family had taught her. Thankfully, her mother required her to go to school. This is what would one day break the cycle in their family. The teenage girl went on to become a physical education teacher! She did not dream of having a car because of her long lasting belief that that was not for a girl like her, but only for other families. Instead, she just wanted a moped!

Shortly after becoming a teacher, she became a Christian. Although she had a new life and spiritual family, it was not enough to change her way of thinking about cars and dreams. As a hard working teacher she had enough money to put a down payment on a car, but instead she bought a motorcycle. Still, she believed that she did not deserve a car.

As a young adult she struggled with much hurt insider her heart. God had to speak loudly to her for her to understand that she did in fact deserve a car. God held her and told her, “My Child, I love you and you do deserve a car like the other families.” To get this message to her, God used four armed guys that took the motorcycle from her.

Soon after, she finished another four year career as an English teacher. She also worked hard serving the Lord Jesus as a missionary and had two years of training at seminary school. Meanwhile, her daddy struggled very much. He was separated from her mother, had a heart attack, survived, moved in to live with his daughter, and after a few months of surviving each other’s strong personalities, the daddy accepted the Lord Jesus in his heart! Praise God. 

Then, the daddy got to see his daughter buy her first car. It was a 1991 white Toyota Corolla. To this day, the girl has been thanking God for His love, provision, care, and the privilege to serve Him and share His blessings with others.

Today, this woman is the mother of a little boy. Two years ago he asker her, “Mami, when can we pick up a truck?” She looked at him, smiled and explained that God is the one who gives everything and that they would have whatever car He decided to give them.

This note is written to share with you the joy of a mother breaking bad family cycles. God LOVES that family and there is no dream so big that God will not provide.

This is my story and my thanks giving today goes with all PRAISES AND GLORY to my GOD, who blessed me, and many others so I could give a down payment for a brand new Toyota, and the faith that He will take care of me the rest of my life.

Miguel and I thank God for you and the many people He had used to bless us, even for the 4 armed guys that took that motorcycle from me… it was a blessing!

PRAISE GOD

PRAISE GOD!

We have so much to thank God and we need to share it with you, because it is thanks to your prayers that miracles like these happen!

We want to share that the 3 orphans that finished 6^th grade, are going to go to a Christian School next year!!!! Thanks to your prayers and donations, we reached the goal of $6,000 to pay for school and transportation for them! A family of missionaries runs the school; they will have devotional everyday as well as a tutor for an hour in the afternoon.

The Church in Sumpango is doing great, we are getting ready for our Vacation Bible School the first week of December where I will be teaching “the missionary story” I am not sure who´s story I will be sharing with the kids. We are expecting about 60 kids during that week. Please pray that the Lord provides for a teacher and snack for 24 kids that come to the church to learn how to read and write or to get help to be successful at the local school. Remember that the chances these kids have to go to school are very limited, pray that we can be the light of Jesus in their lives.

Miguel and I are praising God that he got his visa; it is good for 10 years! we are dreaming now about going to US; he wants to see Mickey Mouse, play with snow and meet the rest of his family (in that order!). My time to take vacations is very limited and the tickets are quite expensive… so we are dreaming right now! I am thankful for Next Step Ministries, they invited me to a 3 days retreat, where I got connected again with the need of sharing God´s immense love with others, be remained that there are so many ways to share His love without even talking.

Also thankful that in 3 weeks I will be finishing my last 4 classes of the 40 classes I had to take to become a licensed Psychologist, I still have to take a huge test in May, with 3 licensed Psychologist asking me questions, if I pass that one, will turn in my thesis in September and will graduate in October of 2017 !!! and I will be serving in a much more needed roll at the orphanage and to the community of Sumpango! Thank you for your support, prayers and have walked this road with me during the last 5 years, I am so excited but also very tired.  Please continue praying for me as I walk this last part of the road in School.

NEED	HAVE	STILL NEED
Schooling to 3 orphans	$6000.00	0  PRAISE GOD!
Church School (teacher salary and will provide a small snack for the kids)	$0.000(for 2017)	$ 3600 for the year 2017,
Breaking Cycles	$100.00 monthly support	$2400.00 monthly support
GOD	BLESS	YOU!

Thank you for your prayers, our personal requests are:

Safety, health, energy and wisdom,

I hate your mom, and you... those words are horrible to be heard from Grandma...

Heidy is 15 years old, she just finished 6^th grade and here is part of her story,

Born into a very difficult family, as she was the daughter of an affair that her mom had, reason why the mother and her husband got separated. In her early years her mom died of AIDS, and her biological father took her into his house, he did not have any other children. He was also in bad condition because of AIDS. Heidy was badly treated by her father´s relatives as they all hated her mom and Heidy for the illness that was taking the life of her father who eventually died of AIDS.  The way the grandmother treated her got worse. Heidy run away at the age of nine, and found her family on her mom´s side who took her in with love but very limited financially to provide what she needed.

That is how she ended up at the orphanage, she has a grandmother that loves her and 2 half brothers that come to see her twice a year as they live 7 hours from here.

Pray for Heidy, and pray for Breaking Cycles, we are still looking for $3,000 to provide one more year of schooling for her, Mishelle and Ignacio.

I don´t want to let her down, I know God cares for her, do you want to walk with me this next year, next to her to SHOW her God love, and not just talk about that love! Pray for us, we need your prayers!

are they staying or not?

Education for the 3 orphans for 2017 is  looking great, we have the school, is a private Christian School, where Ignacion, Heidy and Mishell will have a devotional every day, good and caring teachers.

And as I got the permition to share their stories here they are:

Heidy, 15 years old, great students, she just finished 6^th grade because when she came to the orphanage she was 9 and never attended school in her life before.

Mishell is 13, accepted the Lord last summer with the pastor of a team that came to share the gospel with her! 

Ignacio does not have any family, he is a very good kid, but he is a slow learner that is why we need to pray extra for him.

We need to raise lots of money for them!

If you can please pray about that, we want to offer them to stay, the nuns are worried about them, I am too but I can't promise them anything if  I do not have the money by the 3 weeks from now.

after summer stuff!

God has been good to us, after a summer full of blessings we are in the process of following up with all the ministry that were able to do during the summer.

Some fun facts are that the orphanage got its garbage dump, the stored room finished, the children at the orphanage really enjoyed the teams that came, Mishell the girl that got burned in the accident at the kitchen is doing so much better thank God!  If you came to Guatemala and want to know how is ¨-------¨doing, let me know, I can get back to you about each child.

About the 4 kids that have to leave the orphanage because the nuns can not provide more education to them, 3 of them decided to stay at the orphanage, one girl is going to go to live with her relatives. When we accepted to help these kids to go to school, we thought it was going to be about $1,000 per kid, when we went to school, and added all the other expenses, turned out to be $200 per month per kid.

We have raised $400.00 from the $6,000 that we need for Heidy, Mishell and Ignacio (Nacho) this 6,000 will cover school, uniform, books and transportation for them for one year. Please consider help these kids, this is the only chance they might have to continue their education, please consider been part of their life by praying for them, financially help them and come to visit! Please let me now soon if you want to help, we need to know if we can provide this help to them by October, if not we will have to send them to relatives home and will not continue education.

Church, it is doing great, the group of children that come to learn how to read and write are encouraged, loved and eager to continue learning. We praise God because God provided to run the program during 2016. The school year is ending and we are hopping and praying for the year to follow. We praise God for the provision to finish the upper room for the children; they will have their own devotional now!

I am doing good after a really busy summer, I am taking my 10^th semester to become a psychologist, this is going to me my last semester, and I can´t wait to get to the end of the semester!  Miguel is finishing kindergarten and we are very excited, please pray for us, we are going to try to get his USA VISA in October 3^rd at 9:30 am, he is so excited and if he does not get it he and I will be very sad! Please keep us in your prayers.

We praise the Lord for the opportunity to serve Him at the orphanage, at  the church and the community around us, God has bless us by making a small ministry an on going growing ministry and dream! It is called Breaking Cycles, it has grown so much that it needs a secretary, a social worker and an office, and even though Betty and Miguel have been supported by great friends and family, we can not pay for all this, it means another $2,500 monthly support needed, but it will really help us to serve better the community of Sumpango, could you please consider start donating towards this ministry?

If you want to help financially to any of the following needs please let me know,

Partnering... the best!

I was wondering, what would my friends and family would like to know, about us? We are still alive! And blessed more than what words can say.

First let me share the great news: the non-profit in Guatemala Rompiendo Ciclos (Breaking Cycles) has been approved and we are a legal ministry now! PRAISE THE LORD. Please continue to pray with us for my sister Cynthia who is doing all the paper work to get it done in US as well, she fells overwhelmed and discouraged so please have her in your prayers, we are almost there.

We have been doing good, Praise the Lord, Miguel is growing up so quickly, he is very unsecure still, but been in a small school has helped him a lot, is doing really well in school and he has good loving teachers.

My story is not that great, I do not have loving teachers! However, I have been doing well in school! I just started my 10^th semester, four more classes and I will be almost there. I officially finished my internship but I will continue there until October because it has been a great learning experience. Next year I see myself more involved in giving therapy to the kids and not so much English classes.

There is just a bit that you can do by yourself but when you let God work and are willing to share the blessing of partnering, then WONDERFUL THINGS HAPPEN. We want to break the cycle of lacking of a home, and thanks to Next Step Ministries, Stonewood LLC, Grace Church, we have been blessed with 10 teams that will come from June 6^th to August 14^th, finances and a team in Guatemala that will lead to build:

8 homes

1 storage Room at the orphanage

1 garbage dump room at the orphanage

1 big room for the children at the church in Sumpango

pour cement floor at a low income neighborhood

more than 70 home visits 

All of the above would not make any sense if the name of the Lord Jesus would not come to the mouth of those hundreds of people that see that God cares for them.

Want to be part of the change?

Please pray for us, keep in mind our safety, health, family and the non profit in USA, please.

Come! Encourage us with a visit! Make a family trip to help us change someone`s life.

Donate towards our ministry here!

let the missions teams begin!

It has been a very interesting year so far, we had 2 children from the orphanage that went with someone that will give them the things they need but most important, that will give them the love and care they log for. One is Henry who as I have told you got adopted, and the other one is Jesus a 12 year old boy.

Some of you that had visited me in my house before got to know Alex and Isaias, both teenagers that used to come to my house to help me, I would pay them or help them pay their school, their mom cooked for some of you, her name was Letti, and after battling cancer, she became very sick January, unable to get up and it was between the boys, her mom, neighbors and I took care of her during the day, as the husband would go to work from 5 am to 9 pm.  I thank God for the opportunity to serve them and let the family know that God was with them, Letti lost her battle last week.
 I was honored to deliver a message at the funeral.


Internship has started; I am serving in another orphanage for children that are HIV+ and that is a great thing! Some of you might be asking: why to serve in a different orphanage if the need is in the orphanage I have been serving? Well, I am required by my university to have my internship supervised by a licensed psychologist, and that is the lack we have here right now and the reason I went back to school! So please pray for me, I really feel overwhelmed with all that is going on in my life right now.

My mom and my trip to NY, the dates I could fly to NY there was a storm that forced the airports to close in NY, I tried in different dates but the flights were full, my mom was feeling much better, the doctor gave her permission to fly, so instead of me flying there she will be coming to Guatemala by the end of February,! And I have an open ticket to USA that I need to use this year, maybe I can visit you?

We had our first group that came to bless Sumpango and the orphanage,  praise God for Wooddale Church and the James 1:27, I think that the biggest impact was to donate bunk beds to 12 families that came to a required 4 night seminar to be able to get the bed, it is a way to encourage those families to live healthier, and to break the cycle of incest, cycle that sadly is very common in Sumpango,


God aswered our immediate need of continue supporting the school at the church in Sumpango, 23 children that do not have any other way to learn to read and write need support , please pray if you feel lead to help, we still need $2,500 to provide a snack, pay the teachers and some school supplies, please join us in prayer for this.

Karen is an orphan, she is still living with the nuns at the orphanage even though she is 18 years old, she is in school but needs to pay $400.00 for her school, for the whole year, can you please continue praying for this?

As for my family, please pray with us for health, energy, safety, financial help specially this last year of school for me, but mostly pray that my ears are open to hear God speaking to me and that I would be an obedient servant.