Ruth

Anyone who has served at The Servant's Heart in the past few years knows Ruth. Those of you who have never been here, you may have heard Ruth's story. Ruth is a beautiful young woman of twenty years. I've never seen pictures of Ruth that were taken before she came to the ministry, and I doubt she would want me to. Ruth used to work in the garbage dump alongside other members of her family, rummaging through the garbage of Guatemala City looking for objects that could be sold as recyclables, perhaps even looking for food to eat. Difficult, dirty, back breaking work, to say the least.

Well, yesterday afternoon we were honored and privileged to attend a worship service upstairs in an old building around the corner from her family's small cement block shanty just yards from the dump to celebrate Ruth's graduation from High School! Called Diversificado in Guatemala, graduating from this level allows Ruth to teach in the primary grades, so she has moved to the level of teacher in our ministry's after school reinforcement program. What a delightful occasion!!

Ruth had put up balloons, made little construction paper figures of a Precious Moments girl graduating, little graduation hats hanging between the balloons, and "Bienvenidos a Mi Graduacion" (Welcome to My Graduation) was strung across the front of the room, now a church. Songs of praise were sung for over an hour, after which the pastor stood up to honor Ruth, telling her how she had not "thrown in the towel", but had worked so hard to prepare to serve her Lord and Savior. We sat there as proud as parents, so honored to be included in this beautiful day.

Ruth is a perfect example of "from garbage to grace" as she has found God's purpose for her life. We pray she will continue to serve Him with her whole heart, growing in faith and love each and every day.

Marina

Marina. A sweet little girl barely as big as her 4 years. Marina has Downs Syndrome, but that doesn't stop her smiles and waves when she sees you. She is one special little girl. Gladys, who works every day at the ministry cleaning both of our buildings with Dalila, is Marina's mom, Raymundo's sister, Adrian and Astrid's cousin. It's taken a very long time, a very special school, and an awesome God, but Marina's been making such amazing progress this year. Gladys will often stop by to tell us one more word that her little girl can say or one more thing that she can do, for each is quite an accomplishment and cause for rejoicing!

The past few weeks, however, Gladys has stopped by more often to express her concern over tests that Marina will be having this week. They think there is a hole in her heart and the family is so anxious about the results of these tests. We cry, we hold each other, and we pray for this sweet little child of God...Marina... Please join us as we lay Marina and her family in the hands of their loving Lord...