Recently, construction began on the 2nd level of the Transition Home…which is actually the Second Home! It is so amazing to be up there and realize how far we have come. From up in this second home, now well underway, you can really see all that is going on at the Casa de Gracia site…and believe us, there’s a lot going on! This all leads us to the big question… How did this happen? How did we go from a 3 acre farm field full of coffee trees and sweet potatoes to all that is

There are conversations that transcend languages, and there are friendships that inspire beyond words. In one of the most heartfelt and heartwarming episodes of our podcast, our director, Edwin Smith, shared an intimate chat with a close friend. Although it was recorded in Spanish, this episode is full of reflections, learnings and moments that touch the heart. Because when two friends meet to talk honestly, there is always something valuable to take away. The story told in t

Did you know that our Casa de Gracia team records Podcasts that you can listen to on Spotify? The themes vary from current construction status to the critical importance of breaking generational cycles in the context we are living and working in. Coming soon, we will be focusing on the impact and importance of mentoring in light of this topic of breaking cycles and serving these young people well. We are incredibly grateful for the team that God has created for us and all

May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us; establish the work of our hands for us-yes, establish the work of our hands—Psalm 90:17 At a recent all-team meeting, Edwin led us through Psalm 90, a powerful prayer. It was a good reminder of all we have to be humbly thanking God for... We thank God for the literally countless hours of planning that Byron and his talented wife, Julia have put into every detail that will be Casa de Gracia. And we thank God for each person working

Jeremiah 29:11 says, "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope." It's one of the most read and repeated verses of the Bible, and although it sounds hopeful, it is sometimes hard to truly believe. Yet when we have young ladies living at Casa de Gracia, this will be a verse we would like our girls to study so that they can come to understand and believe the fact that God's thoughts for their live

Beginning stages of construction are going extremely well on the first Transition Home 🙌🏼 Footers for every wall are in with A LOT of rebar already cemented in creating a super strong foundation for this home! We are loving seeing all this incredible work being done to make this Home as safe and sturdy as possible! We are committed to every aspect of construction of Casa de Gracia...from strong and lovely homes to strong and well-equipped staff to Gospel centered programs t

Construction is underway on the first Home! It’s been a long process full a so many more steps than we ever could have imagined. It is beyond exciting to be able to ‘walk through’ the first Transition home with our Architect and site manager, Byron! He is talented, thoughtful and thorough and we are truly grateful for him. The house is all marked out on the ground and it’s so fun and feels like such progress to be able to picture it all better. We can’t even imagine what it

This Team👊🏼 We are really loving learning, laughing, planning and praying together! We are growing and going strong! At our last all-team meeting we were blessed to have the first of several training sessions with Nicodemus Latin America Ministries. We enjoyed the interactive learning on this hugely important topic of Mentoring. We are super thankful for this time and we look forward to continuing to learn from their expertise!

It’s hard to see from these photos but things have changed pretty dramatically in the last 2 months. Besides building , delivering and installing the septic tanks and getting all the Well Drilling equipment into place, excavation is almost done!! What does that mean? Because of the slope of the property (being on the skirt of the Agua Volcano), levels have had to be created . Platforms for each home and building are now done!! So we are all leveled up now at Casa de Gracia

Zechariah 4:6-10 "This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: ‘ Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord Almighty . “What are you, mighty mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become level ground. Then he will bring out the capstone to shouts of 'God bless it! God bless it!'" Then the word of the LORD came to me: The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this temple; his hands will also complete it. Then you will know that the LORD Almighty has sen

These February 2025 drone images show how much things are changing and how much work is going on every day now. This Dream is Taking Shape a little more each day and we couldn’t be happier or more excited!

And we couldn’t be happier about it! It's been a huge team effort and we are truly amazed at this talented team! We are rejoicing over all the many details that needed to happen and how God has orchestrated it all. He has used many hands, heads and hearts over the last year to bring us to this point. So after months of waiting on everything from permits to clear pathways to be able to get all the equipment onto the Casa de Gracia property and then get these huge trucks to the

2025 is off to a Great Start 🚜 Lots of movement going on at last! Excavation, surveying, prepping for the well drilling and infrastructure work all going on! All the much needed things to get everything ready for construction to begin in February! To every person who visited, prayed, donated and encouraged us to this point...THANK YOU! We are honestly blown away by the GENEROSITY OF SO MANY! The Lord Himself has used each of you to get us to this place at this time. Our he

The hardest part of waiting is feeling like nothing is happening . 2024 was a year of waiting. And God is working in the waiting…always! Even when we don't see what He is doing, He is always on the move! The Lord has been teaching us this in deep and powerful ways this year. The Bible study we lead each Wednesday morning with the young people in a nearby village is teaching ALL of us so much! We are studying through the Gospel of John and looking closely at how Jesus deals

Making known the forgotten or invisible around us. We really like the way our architect and site manager, Byron, talks about what Casa de Gracia means to him and why this mission matters so much. In his words… There is a population here in Guatemala that is largely unseen. The Forgotten Ones, he calls them. They are often invisible in this society. They are typically uncared for and therefore very vulnerable. This is not God’s plan. God has a lot to say about caring for orpha

A little {intentional} play on words here to talk about our ministry partner, Redeemed Steel. The entire month of October, 2024 was a really fun and exciting time of visits from different members of their network to our work site where they will be building a state of the art trade school for welding, knife forging, wood & leather working! We also were able to attend one of their forging events that they did all over Guatemala! We love watching the way they can forge a beaut

With all the Permits in place and Funding coming in, construction is underway and we couldn’t be more excited about it! So far it is primarily excavation work to prep for the well drilling rigs to be able to arrive and beginning excavation for the first Transition Home to be able to begin being built in December 🙌🏼🙌🏼 The other work currently being done is preparing the giant hole and cement casing for the Septic tank to be installed as soon as it’s finished being built

God has completely blown us away! First, by Two Generous donors who have stepped up with matching grants up to $100k!!!! Doubling Your Dollar’s Impact because every $5 or $50 or $500 given they will be matched dollar for dollar with their own donation up to $100,000!! Unbelievable!! And This came on top of a huge donation that encouraged us tremendously and has allowed us to get all kinds of work started at the site now that we have all the permits! So when asked, “ how’

Sometimes we hear God giving us a clear message through the prayers of His people. We have been humbled in these last months to hear the prayers of those who have come and visited our Casa de Gracia site. In different months and from different people of different ages, we have heard the same words spoken as they prayed over this entire Casa de Gracia project… “May this place be a Place of Power!“ These are humbling words! And when you hear different people utter the same exac

We are so excited to announce that we have finally been granted the needed permits to be able to continue construction!!! The process took a lot longer than expected {big under statement here 😅}, but we are praising God that in his perfect timing we are moving forward! We are beyond ready and beyond excited! So now that we have the ‘Go Ahead’…here’s the order we're planning to start construction: FIRST: drilling a well and installing the septic! Much easier said than done in