Bilingual education sponsors needed

The bilingual school year has begun in Honduras, and we have six students in need of partial sponsorship. Some of these students are new to our program for the first time, while others are returning students whose sponsors were unable to give this year.

Below are the photos and needs of each student. Please take a look and consider a one-time or monthly amount to contribute toward their costs. The one-time amount listed is the remainder needed to cover the student’s books, school supplies, uniforms and enrollment fees for the year. The monthly amount listed is the remainder needed for their monthly tuition, transportation, after school care and activities.

If you would like to contribute but are unable to donate the full listed costs, please consider partial sponsorship! Some of our students have one sponsor who takes care of all their needs, while others have several different sponsors who each give smaller amounts to round out their full costs. Simply fill in the one-time or monthly amount of your choosing in the donation link, and it can be applied to their overall needs.

If you have any questions, please contact courtney@bchonduras.org. Please also reach out via email if you would like to contribute but prefer to do so via check. Thank you for considering supporting these future world-changers!

Adiel

Grade: Kindergarten
Needs: $100 monthly

Adiel is new to the program this year. He is the son and grandson of long-time church members and community helpers. He is joining the program this year with his two siblings. Adiel needs $100 monthly to round out his full monthly support costs.

Diego

Grade: Second
Needs: $700 one-time;
$100 monthly

This is Diego’s first year in the program after completing Kindergarten and first grade in the public school system. He is joining along with his two younger siblings. He has partial monthly support, but still needs $100 monthly as well as a one-time sponsor.

Yireth

Grade: Fifth
Needs: $400 one-time

Yireth has been a part of our sponsorship program, along with her older brother, for several years. Her upfront sponsor was only able to do part of her support this year, so she needs help rounding out the remainder. She is excited for fifth grade!

ESAU

Grade: Kindergarten
Needs: $700 upfront;
$155 monthly

Esau is the youngest son of some of our most beloved church/community members and helpers. This is his first year in the bilingual program, and he and his family are so excited to start his journey. Esau has partial monthly sponsorship, but still needs $155 monthly and an upfront sponsor.

genesis

Grade: First
Needs: $100 monthly

Genesis is in her third year of our bilingual school program, having already completed pre-k and Kindergarten. Her two older sisters have graduated private school, and her older brother is currently in the program. One of her monthly sponsors was unable to continue this year, so she needs an additional $100 in monthly support.

emely

Grade: Kindergarten
Needs: $700 one-time

Emely joined the program last year and completed pre-k. Her two older sisters have been in the program for years and are fully sponsored. Emely has full monthly support, but she needs a one-time donation of $700 to cover her upfront school costs for the year.

Please consider sponsoring one of these 5 students!

Throughout the past two years of the pandemic, the number of teens in our building and students in our education program mostly remained consistent. Due to health safety and logistics, we couldn't take on very many new people, and all of the schools were conducting classes virtually.

This year, though, that has changed. Honduras has opened up significantly, including beginning in-person classes at the elementary, secondary and university levels.

We had three new teens join our ministry in January as well as one former student who is now wishing to pursue his college degree. We also have a private education student who just made the jump to bilingual school.

Each student needs $100 monthly to cover their costs. Please take a look at their profiles below and consider contributing. Your support would do wonders to support their goals.

You can sponsor by clicking the links beneath each individual profile to sign up for a recurring monthly donation. You can also email courtney@bchonduras.org with any questions or to get set up sending monthly check contributions to our P.O. Box.

Thank you in advance for your generosity!

SARAI
Sarai and her brother and sister have been a part of our education program for the past several years. This year she is in fourth grade and just made the jump from a traditional Spanish-speaking school to bilingual school. She has a regular sponsor, but she needs increased supplemental support to offset the higher monthly cost of her new school.

NEEDS: $100 monthly

DONATE

HERMER
Hermer came to Breaking Chains in January of this year after aging out of an area children's home. He is 19 years old and is currently studying for the entrance exam for the public university. He hopes to study psychology. He needs monthly support to cover his education costs and a portion of his monthly living expenses at BC.

NEEDS: $100 monthly

DONATE

GABRIELA

Gabriela is another of the new faces at Breaking Chains this year. She is 18 years old and finishing high school. After high school, she wants to go to college to study nursing or radiology. She needs $100 monthly to cover her high school tuition and a portion of her food costs.

NEEDS: $100 monthly

DONATE

WALKIDIA

Walkidia is 19 and came to Breaking Chains this year at the advice of her friends who are already a part of our program. She has finished high school, and now her goals are to go to college and study law. She needs support to cover her education expenses and some of her living expenses at Breaking Chains.

NEEDS: $100 monthly

DONATE

JEYSON
Jeyson lived with us for a couple of years previously and is now back. At Breaking Chains he completed his high school diploma, left on good terms and went to live and work closer to family in another town. The factory he was working in shut down, though, so he is shifting his goals. He now wants to further his education and earn his college degree. Jeyson needs support to cover his education expenses and a portion of his living expenses.

NEEDS: $100 monthly

DONATE

Please pray for our college students!

It’s an exciting time for extending education around here. Three of our BC teens and two of our private school students who graduated last year have already begun or are set to begin their college journeys this summer.

Ricardo and David are each began taking core classes at a local university this month. Then, they’ll transfer those classes to the public university where they’ll pursue their respective majors. Jordan came to Breaking Chains this year with a good amount of college courses already under his belt. He hopes to graduate college and continue studying foreign languages.

Henyi graduated from Santa Monica in December and passed her entrance exam for the public university. She will begin classes late summer or early fall and study international business. Jose graduated from bilingual school last May, but due to the pandemic has had to wait until now to begin his courses. He is starting at the public university this summer studying engineering.

We are grateful to all of the sponsors who are supporting these students! Getting a high school diploma is a huge feat in and of itself. Taking college classes will no doubt be even more challenging and more rewarding for their futures. Please continue to pray for each of these students as they seek to steward well the educational opportunities God has given them.

Coming to the end of a full year of virtual, bilingual school

When in-person learning shut down in March of 2020, the idea of virtual school seemed impossible. It seemed especially impossible for our bilingual students, many of whom did not have technology access at home or parents who could help with that level of learning.

At that time, we thought it would hopefully be for just a few weeks - how cute and naïve of us. If we had known then that remote learning would last not only the rest of last school year, but also the full 2020-2021 school year, we might have just called it quits. Thankfully, we didn’t. And even more thankfully, our kids and their parents have grown and succeeded in ways our limited minds couldn’t have imagined.

In just a few weeks, our bilingual students will complete one full year of virtual schooling. Thanks to generous sponsors, each child has a tablet or phone with internet access to be able to connect with their teachers and complete online assignments. Early into the school year, the schools also figured out a way to do “homework club” and tutoring online. That was a game changer for our students so they could get extra support to learn difficult subjects and do well on tests.

A few of our students have struggled with motivation in working from home and have needed lots of extra pushes from our staff and their teachers. However, many others have thrived. Several of our students made the honor roll for the first time and are doing better in their classes than they even were while in person. Some of them only had a year of bilingual school under their belt when the pandemic started, and yet they rose to the challenge and completed their work in English without in-person support. Nearly all of the students are on track to pass on to the next grade without issue.

While we are incredibly proud of our students, we are equally proud of their parents. Any parent who has done virtual school with a child in the States knows how difficult it can be. Many of our parents in Honduras dealt with the same thing, but with a much lower level of education themselves. A few of our students’ parents cannot even read, yet they made sure their kids signed into class every day, did their assignments and helped them as best they could. We feel like their child passing the year is just as much a success for the parents as it is for their children.

Thank you to the many sponsors who helped each of our students during the year through encouragement and financial support. We are grateful to have so many people in their corners, championing them from afar. Things are on track to start virtually again in August, but we are hopeful that at some point during the year they can return to in-person learning. Until then, we ask that you continue to keep each of these students, their parents and their teachers in your prayers!

In August, we will start five more students in bilingual school. Each child will need $250 monthly to cover their tuition, transportation and tutoring costs. Please consider if you may be able to help one of these children with monthly giving of any amount. If you are interested, please contact courtney@bchonduras.org to see the profiles of the children awaiting sponsorship.

Praising God for our wonderful Honduran team

Over the past year and a half during the pandemic, one this is clear: the ministry would not have survived without our incredible Honduran team. We have always been grateful for them, but this difficult season has made us even more acutely aware of how special they are.

The pandemic brought a lot of chaos and challenges. For various reasons of family, health, country closures, etc., our U.S. missionaries were all out of Honduras for significant, alternating chunks of time. Everyone continued communicating, coordinating and serving full-time, but many aspects were done remotely while our Honduran team ministered on the ground.

Our Honduran team ordered, organized and distributed 300 bags of food per week for a year, and they served their neighbors in the process. They made sure our education students had the supplies, technology and support they needed to work remotely. They ministered to families in need of extra benevolence support for rent, medical bills and funeral costs. They helped our teens and families stay safe during back-to-back hurricanes. They loved, taught and provided counsel and companionship to our teens dealing with stay-at-home orders and virtual school.

Public transportation was shut down for much of the pandemic. However, thanks to the blessing of our ministry bus, Rafa was able to transport our staff to and from work every day and take care of any other errands needed. Our team cared for each other and their communities and drew closer to God when things could have easily fallen apart.

We are so grateful to God for His faithfulness in bringing people into our lives. If the pandemic had struck several years ago when we were in the midst of team transitions and growing pains, I’m not sure we could have survived it. But God knows what we need and when we need it. We needed this team during this time, and we are blessed and honored to call them family.

Thanks to your support, we were able to keep everyone employed full-time and pay their regular salaries during the pandemic. That is huge for us as a ministry and for our staff’s individual families. We are so grateful to everyone who has given financially and continues to support the work in Honduras.

COVID support transitions: laying hens

We were blessed through generous support to distribute 300 food bags per week for a full year during the COVID-19 pandemic. As people began going back to work in Honduras, we wanted to transition out of food bag support by giving families a way they could help sustain themselves. Our team member John researched and found laying hens that we could give to area families so that they could have their own food source.

A few women from the communities we work in helped us coordinate the families who would be receiving the chickens, and John and Rafa took turns driving the chickens out to the families. The families were grateful for the gifts and to know that they can count on having eggs of their own now. The hens have already started producing daily. There is a real esteem that comes from being able to provide for yourself and your family, and we thank everyone who helped get the ball rolling for these families.

We are grateful to everyone who gave toward this effort and toward food bags for the past year. It has brought such peace of mind to many families during the pandemic. More than that, though, it is a reminder of God’s family across the world and a testament to His love that people would care about their brothers and sisters in another country even as the whole world is in crisis. We are blessed beyond measure to know so many wonderful people in both countries who come together to love and serve on another.