Guatemala Final Support Request
(Note: We’re sending out this letter to family and friends this week as we approach a month before our family departs for Guatemala. Since I consider many of you to be family and friends, I thought it only made sense to send it to you as well via today’s blog post.)
Dear Friends and Family,
Hello! We hope everything is going well with you. It’s hard to believe we’re already into July. The summer is sure to rush by quickly. We hope you’ll have time to relax and enjoy time with family and friends this summer. We wanted to reconnect with you, and let you know about some of the great things that are happening in our family.
We have already been busy with summer activities. Hannah finished up her first year of high school with a great overall experience, and she has already started cross-country practice for the fall season. Isaac will be starting his last year in middle school in the fall. In the meantime, he continues to work on his trumpet and piano skills over the summer. Both the kids are active in the youth worship team at our church. Leanne continues to work part-time as a behavioral therapist for a couple of preschool aged children, and she recently found out that she will be teaching at a preschool in the fall as a four-year-old classroom teacher. And I continue to work at Siemens. Running, blogging, and volunteering with our church’s youth group have kept me busy.
By the time you receive this letter, our family will be less than a month away from taking a trip to Guatemala. August 4th – 11th, we will be traveling to the village of Santo Domingo Xenacoj in Guatemala where we will meet up with others from around the country and Dave Sgro of GO! Ministries to serve in this small village located an hour and a half northwest of Guatemala City. Last summer, Hannah and I journeyed to Xenacoj with a team from our church’s youth group. While we were there, we built a house, installed stoves in the homes of widows, and we led a sports/Bible camp for kids from the village. (To see a video that recaps our experience go to: http://youtu.be/OQ_mQioXHqY)
This year, we will again be ministering to the children and widows in the community. We will help with a feeding program to children in the village. We will also be ministering directly to the ~200 widows in the village. From our experience last year, we learned that Guatemala is home to the 4th highest malnutrition rate among children five and under in the entire world. Most people in the village live on a couple of dollars a day, and there are many who struggle with basic health issues. By returning to Xenacoj, we hope to make a difference for people in the village as we share the hope of Jesus Christ through actions and words, and we anticipate God using this experience in the life of our family as a milestone event.
This trip provides an opportunity to meet the physical and spiritual needs of a community that is desperately in need. More than anything, we would value your prayers for our team and those whose lives will be touched by God through us. We believe that God answers prayers, and we’re asking you to pray for safety, good health, smooth travel, and financial support. Just knowing that you will be praying will give us peace as we go to Xenacoj.
Beyond your prayers, if you are led to join us by financially supporting this mission, we would be grateful. We still need to raise just over $1,000 to cover the total remaining cost of the trip. We have been creative to raise the rest of the money required to make this trip a reality, and we want to extend an invitation to you to participate to help us reach this goal. To give towards our trip expenses, go to goministries.info. At the bottom of the page, choose option 1. After you enter your payment information, enter a special note to the seller. The note should read “Stolpe Family Mission Trip”. This will ensure that your donation goals towards our GO Ministries expenses. It will also ensure that your donation is registered as a tax-deductible donation. (You can also give money to us which we would utilize for our airfare and other travel expenses or we’ll turn over to GO Ministries to pay for our expenses in Guatemala.) This is a journey that God has called us to and we would greatly appreciate any level of support you are able to offer. (Any money raised above the $1,000 will be used to help further fund the feeding program in the community.
Again, we really hope things are going well for you. We’d love to hear an update on what’s going on in your life if you have the time. Thanks so much for taking the time to read this letter, and if you have any questions, please let us know. Take care, and we hope to hear from you soon!
With gratitude,
The Stolpe Family
(Jon, Leanne, Hannah, and Isaac)
For more information about our trip, visit Jon’s blog. Here are links to a couple of the posts that explain our trip:
http://www.jonstolpe.com/2013/01/07/another-leap-of-faith/
and
http://www.jonstolpe.com/2013/01/15/guatemala-update-whats-the-big-deal-about-lunch/