Rafael & Maria Francesca

Sponsor:  Alex Dunlap

 

We met this family through Rafael's mother, Petronila.  She asked us to come take a look at where they were living one day, so we stopped by for a visit.  They had just had a baby only a couple of days earlier, and Maria was in bed with the baby.  Their other 4 kids were also there - some in the bed with them, and 2 of the older ones helping out.

 

The living situation was just sad.  A small shack made of tin and cornstalk.  There was barely enough room for a bed, which all 6 of them crammed into together.  Like usual, the floor was dirt and the stove they cooked over burned within a few feet from their bed, leaving a 24hr a day smoke to breath in.

 

One of the more special things about this particular home is how they ended up being sponsored.  While visiting Guatemala over a year earlier, a good friend of ours, Alex Dunlap gave his life to Jesus.  When he returned again to Guatemala, he was baptized in a local simmimg pool at Florencia park.

 

As we visited this family together one day, Alex asked Maria Francesca where his husband worked.  She answered that he cleans the pools at Florencia park.  At the time, it was just a neat coincidence, and we shared how that is where Alex had been baptized just a couple days earlier.

 

But Alex couldn't stop thinking about it, and ultimately felt like God wanted him to help this family.  He decided to donate the money to have a new home built for them!

 

Thank you Alex...  and praise God for speaking to us in such creative ways!  This family has received a gift that will drastically change their lives.