────────────────── About Us ──────────────────
Our Vision
To assist young Guatemalan women in becoming mature, Godly, productive, self-sufficient Guatemalan citizens.
Our Mission
To foster ongoing educational development through personal interaction, spiritual development and direct financial support.
IN THE BEGINNING
In August 2004 after several years of prayer and consultation, we, Kay and Jim Hines, made the decision to leave our home in Corpus Christi, Texas and relocate to Guatemala for full-time ministry service. I, Jim, closed my practice of Internal Medicine, the move to Antigua Guatemala was accomplished, and we began to study Spanish. After 5 months we began to work in two medical clinics which served very poor people.
TIME IN GUATEMALA
The Hands of Hope Clinic was in a Mayan village approximately one hour from the capital, Guatemala City. Clinica Esperanza was a new clinic that had just been completed on the campus at Prince of Peace Home for Girls in San Cristobal, a suburb of Guatemala City. The clinic was designed to permit the very poor people in the surrounding community to receive medical care at minimal or no cost. Kay is a teacher by training but she quickly learned how to function in the clinics serving as the nurse, the lab technician, the pharmacist, and the counselor.
As we continued to work in the medical clinic at Prince of Peace, we became more and more involved in the lives of the girls who were residents at the home. Prince of Peace is a home for abused and abandoned girls who are sent there under court order for protection. It is impossible to be around the girls for very long before they become very dear to your heart. The work in both of the medical clinics continued the whole time that we were in Guatemala but more and more time began to be spent at Prince of Peace working with the girls. Eventually our involvement would lead us to become the Directors of Prince of Peace.
There are normally 50-60 girls in the Home from the ages of 5 to 22 years. The ministry is supported entirely by donations from North Americans and although the directors have been North Americans the staff is composed of Guatemalans, many of whom have a great heart for God and desire to minister to these Guatemalan children and young ladies.
RETURNING TO THE UNITED STATES
In the spring of 2012 a number of circumstances changed which necessitated our return to the United States. It was a very sad time for us and even though we no longer lived in Guatemala, we continued to have very dear feelings for the girls at Prince of Peace and also for the Guatemalans who had become a part of our lives.
In the fall of 2012, Kay and Jim returned to Guatemala to attend the high school graduation of Lesdenia, Joselin and Odillia, three young ladies who had worked very diligently to achieve their goal. This is a monumental accomplishment for these girls (equivalent to college graduation in the United States) and it was a great joy to be a part of it. While there, we visited with a small group of girls who had been away from Prince of Peace for a year or more and were no longer receiving support from the home. They all desired to continue their education but survival had become the priority.
Often while serving in Guatemala, we would hear about the difficulties that girls have after leaving an institutional setting. We found that it is a problem common to children’s homes in Guatemala and many are looking for solutions. We had heard of some of these young adults, having no family, joining gangs as they exit children homes. The Lord had been speaking to us about helping some of these girls who had left Prince of Peace and who were struggling to find a way to live independently.
LIFE FOR YOUNG WOMEN IN GUATEMALA
The young ladies may or may not have family members upon whom they can rely. Although some do live with family, they must often pay room and board to the parent/family member, who may be the same person who was not faithful to visit them at Prince of Peace. They have to walk or use public transportation to get anywhere. Finding a job is very difficult. If they try to finish high school or attend a University, they find that night classes end later than the last bus run and they must find a way to get home safely in a very dangerous city. They find taking a taxi to be prohibitively expensive. Often, they work during the week and attend school on Saturdays or Sundays for 6-8 hours. If they lost their job then they would have to drop out of school to find another one. This often means losing a whole year of school. Each girl we spoke with told of finding, after much struggle, that she was barely able to maintain herself month to month and certainly not getting ahead. Most were patient but very discouraged.
A NEW OPPORTUNITY
Then the Lord seemed to be putting together a plan to help this group of girls. The plan was to interact with each girl individually and together set attainable goals based on her dreams, ability to work and ability to achieve in school. We would agree to raise and receive funds that would be dispersed monthly to these girls in line with their goals and progress. This would be an agreed upon amount that each girl could count on. However, each girl would need to work as the amount would only be supplementary and not enough to live on. The young ladies would need to be regularly involved in Christian fellowship and study. As we explained to each girl, we wanted to work with them as they work toward achieving their own goals. When higher education or an education in a skill is achieved, each girl would pass out of the program to hopefully live a richer and fuller life using what she has learned to move forward in life. Our goal was for them to become self- sufficient women in a patriarchal culture and then give back to those coming after them.
Initially we worked through another mission organization, Partners in Missions, which is an established non-profit entity. They received the donation for the girls and then we distributed the funds to each girl starting in January 2013. In 2014 we began the legal process to become incorporated in the state of Texas and then in 2015 completed the process with the IRS to become a recognized non-profit organization.
HESED LIFE MINISTRIES
Thus, in 2015, Hesed Life Ministries was born. Since 2012 we have continued to visit Guatemala twice each year to evaluate how the young ladies are doing and to encourage them. We are in frequent communication with them through social media and texting. Soledad is a Guatemalan teacher who we worked with at Prince of Peace. She is our “boots on the ground” to help the girls when they are struggling or in crisis and to also help us when we are facing difficult decisions regarding the girls. She is a Godly woman who has immensely blessed us and the girls.
Initially all of the girls had completed high school and were attending various universities but as we have grown we have had girls who were only in the eighth grade when they started with us. In the fall of 2017, one of them graduated from high school. It was amazing, as she told us, “No one in my family has ever graduated from anything”. We have had a total of 16 different young ladies with 11 currently active. One or two should finish the university in the Fall 2018. If you have never lived in a third world country and have not been exposed to deep, cyclical, poverty, it is difficult to comprehend what an outstanding achievement this is.
Hesed is recognized by the IRS as a 501(c)(3) non- profit organization. All donations are tax deductible.
The funding necessary to continue helping these young ladies comes from your donations.
Your participation in the lives of these wonderful young ladies is greatly appreciated.
Officers of Hesed Life Ministries
Chairman James Hines
Vice-Chairperson Kay Hines
Board Member Bruce Brockman, CPA