THE HERNANDEZ HAPPENINGS


February 2010

"Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations. " (Psalm 100:4-5 NIV)

What a MIGHTY and AWESOME God we serve!! He has been SO gracious and loving to us and we have SO many things to be grateful for. Let me take a few moments to share what God has been doing these last several months.

The Hernandez Family

God continues to provide for our needs. He has taught us to COMPLETELY trust in Him for everything! Even when times have been tough God has given us the strength and wisdom we have needed to get through the storms. And for that I am truly grateful.

Sarah and Mark continue to grow up. It is hard to believe that my “babies” are 8 and 9 years old. They are both excellent students. Sarah LOVES school and is very responsible with her homework. She also LOVES to read!! Mark on the other hand would rather be playing his X-Box or watching cartoons. However, he is very smart and is getting good grades. They are both involved in a soccer program for 8 weeks. They are very excited about that.

We have been fighting different health issues these last couple of months. Guille hurt his shoulder playing volleyball. He was in therapy and under treatment. That seemed to help a little bit. Now he just has to be patient and allow it to heal completely. That includes not playing sports, which has been the difficult part.

Sarah suffered from a bad toothache for a couple of weeks. We finally took her in and she had an infected tooth. The dentist pulled it out and she is doing much better. Thankfully, it was a baby tooth.

My sinuses have been acting up unfortunately. The weather down here can get crazy sometimes. It can go back and forth from cold to hot several times within the same day. The changes can be pretty drastic and that is what makes my sinuses go a little crazy. It can be pretty painful at times but thanks to sinus medicine I can keep it under control.

Prayer requests:

1) Health

2) Pray that God would give us the wisdom we need to find a balance in our lives. Ministry can take up so much of our time that family tends to get pushed to the wayside. We want to make the necessary changes so that family becomes more of a priority in our lives.

Iglesia Biblica Cristiana (Christian Bible Church)

Our church continues to grow slowly but surely. We have recognized that there are a lot of things that need to be taught and dealt with in order for our church to grow. There is some healing that needs to take place. There are obstacles that need to go. Pride needs to be replaced with humility. There is forgiveness that needs to happen. Therefore, our church is “under reconstruction”. In the past we have tried to “remodel” our church. But God has revealed to us that a complete reconstruction needs to take place. We are VERY excited about this! We know God has BIG plans in store for our church; however, we need to be obedient to Him. We will be spending the next while focusing on this reconstruction. I will be leading a Women's Retreat on February 27. All the women in our church, young and old; single and married, are invited. It will be a special day filled with a lot of different things – worship, Bible study, prayer, food and fun. This is a kick-off for a complete Bible study we would like to do with these women for at least 8 weeks. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE pray for this retreat, as well as the work we will be doing these next several months.

Caminito de Jesus School (Pathway to Jesus School):

There are a lot of exciting things happening at the school. First of all, we are finally starting to see some of the fruits of the work that has been done. As most of you know, we have 2 major goals at the school. We exist to provide the BEST Christian education we can to less fortunate children. We also exist to provide an opportunity for all the families represented at the school to learn and experience who Christ is. Over the years we have offered Christian workshops, a weekly community Bible study and we have tried to maintain a good Christian testimony. Over the last couple of months we have had several parents participate in the weekly community Bible study. A few of them are really seeking God and are hungry and thirsty for the Word. A couple of them have even started attending our church, including the Sunday school classes that are offered beforehand. This is VERY exciting!!!

Something else that is exciting is the construction project of the new school building!! Construction is in progress. The walls of the first 3 classrooms are almost completely done. The next step will be to put the concrete roof on top. We hope within a month to have that completed. We have learned that God's timing is PERFECT!! I have placed this whole project in HIS hands and I know HE will complete it according to his perfect plan. We just have to trust in Him and continue to seek HIS will.

The beginning of January we were able to make an addition to our staff. Carrie Hoekstra, from Lansing, Illinois, has started teaching English to the Kindergarten-3rd grade classes. She has been a GREAT addition and the kids just absolutely LOVE her and her classes. The parents are very excited to know that their children are receiving English classes. Her goal is to also help us develop a Kindergarten-8th grade English program that we will be able to use for many years to come. She has made an initial year-and-a-half commitment to work with us and we are grateful that she is here.

We have come to the conclusion that we won't have to promote next year's registration. It is only the beginning of February and we almost have enough names on the waiting list to fill the vacant slots. It is UNBELIEVABLE!!! We have to be very careful this year in terms of how many kids we accept. If we accept too many, there won't be enough space to put them. Unfortunately, that means I will have to say no to some kids. This is definitely not my strength. I would LOVE to accept every child that walks through our doors; however, we have to make sure we don't sacrifice the quality of the education we provide by putting too many kids in each classroom.

Prayer requests:

1) Pray that the parents will come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

2) Pray that the construction project will continue to progress.

3) Pray that the staff will continue to grow both professionally and spiritually. Pray that there would be UNITY at all times amongst us.

4) Pray for Carrie's transition. Pray that she will be able to feel at home soon and that she will be able to pick up the spanish language quickly.

Thank you for all your prayers and support! We appreciate everything you have done for us. Please continue to pray that God would be glorified through the work we are involved in.

To Him be the Glory!!!!

If you would like to know more, please feel free to contact us at guille73shelley71@yahoo.com

shernandez_71@hotmail.com

I have been having some problems with my hotmail account. I don't always receive the e-mails. If you send me an e-mail to my hotmail account and you don't hear anything back right away, please try sending it to the other one. Thanks!!!

Blessings,

The Hernandez Family