Category Archives: Newsletter

2016 Year Ministry Recap

January 5, 2017 Brent

Our Children

Karla, our youngest girl, turned 12 years old last year, and she’ll be going into 6th grade when the new school year begins in two weeks. She’s been a true joy to have with us, and we’re happy to have her in our family.

Celia just turned 18 and she finished 9th grade. This is a big accomplishment here because many children are not able to go to school this long. So they have a big graduation ceremony, and she’s the first one in her family to finish 9th grade. This month she starts vocational training to be a preschool teacher. Alfonso is now 17, and he also finished 9th grade last year. He is also about to start 10th grade and will receive training in computer programming. In some ways he can be our most challenging child, but we’ve enjoyed seeing our relationship with him grow tremendously during these last few months. It’s wonderful to watch him start to fully understand how much we love him.

Flora is now 23, and she is working in a store near our house. This has been her first year to be working, and she enjoys making a salary! She transitioned into her own apartment about two months ago and now lives about a quarter mile from us. It’s wonderful to be able to continue help and counsel her, and to see her continue to seek the Lord’s will for her life. And Carlos is now 26, and he continues to work at a pure water distribution company. He’s such a sweet and easy-going guy, and he continues to seek the Lord’s will for his life.

The new school year starts in two weeks, so right now is the best time for our home to grow. We’re currently talking to two families about caring for their kids and giving them an education, and in both cases we’re receiving resistance to the idea by the parents. We’ve met the kids through the orphanage, Casa Shalom, and they’d really like the opportunity to go to school. But they’ve been sent back to their parents by a child-services judge, and the decision is up to the parents. Please pray for God to work on their parents’ hearts so that they can come to live with us.

Shoeshiner Ministry

2016 was a very exciting year for the ministry to the shoeshiners and homeless. We continued to meet them every Sunday morning to share food and God’s love with them. And we started a bi-weekly meeting on Monday nights to have a more formal Bible study and dinner together. It’s been so great to get to know them better, and to have a more focused time of ministry with them. Every Sunday we feed 100 people, and 20 come on Monday nights. We now have a better place to hold our meetings, and this year we’re changing to weekly meetings. It’s a much bigger time and financial effort, but it should provide more consistent attendance.

The teens and young adults that we have helping us are very dedicated, and they raise the majority of the finances through people of our community. I hope to continue to minister with them and to them. It’s so easy to get so focused on the physical needs of the people around us that it’s easy to forget about their much greater need of a Savior.

Trip to Texas

In early December we were able to take a trip to visit our home church in Austin, Texas. We had a great time staying and fellowshipping with our pastor and his family, and it was so wonderful to reconnect with lots of old friends. The trip was extra special because our dear friend, Edwin, was able to go with us. He grew up at Casa Shalom, and I was his houseparent when he was a teenager. It’s been great to work with him these past 12 years and watch him grow into the man he is today. (Goofy story: I was so shy to talk to Yuliza when I was trying to get to know her, and Edwin helped me!) During our trip Edwin was able to visit his mother who lives just south of the border in Mexico whom he hadn’t seen in many years.

Thank You!

We’re blessed to be able to serve in Guatemala, and we’re so grateful for your continued generosity through the years. Thank you so much!

Our daughter Margaret turned 4 in November and is such a joy to have. She’s as happy and playful as a child can be, and she’s become a aficionado of slides. We can’t pass one without her wanting to try it out!

Please pray that God would continue to fill us with His love and wisdom as we minister in Guatemala. Please pray that both our past and present children would continue to seek the Lord’s will for their lives. And please pray for all those that will come to live with us in the future, that our home would be a place of refuge, peace, hope and love.

Two big prayer requests for January:

Please pray for the families of the kids that would like to come and live with us.
Please pray as we search for a van. We’ve been generously donated the money, but finding one has been challenging. It would be a huge help to both our children as well as the shoeshiner ministry. We currently drive a small sedan.

Thank you so much for your continued support and prayers!
Brent, Yuliza & Margaret

Guatemala, Newsletter

Summer Newsletter Update

June 2, 2016 Brent

PottersHome-May2016

Our Family Continues to Grow

We’re excited to continue to grow as a family, and the newest member of ourfamily is an 11 year old girl named Karla. Our wonderful helper, Erika, was Karla’s teacher last year, and they became close friends. Erika learned that Karla was being raised by her grandmother who was going through a very tough time financially. She wasn’t sure if she would be able to provide for Karla to go to school this year. So we decided to invite Karla to come live with us! It’s been great to have her in our family. She’s incredibly bright and dedicated to school, and I’ve never met someone who enjoys Bible trivia more than her. She’s a whole lot of fun.

Celia is now in 9th grade at school, and she continues to be a really sweet girl. Here in Guatemala students pick a vocation for 10th grade to study, and she’s thinking about learning to be a teacher.

Flora graduated from high school last year with a degree in business administration. She received a job at a dollar store in the mall in our town. She’s learning a lot about the working world, and she’s enjoying getting her first paychecks!

Alfonso is in 9th grade with Celia, and he continues to do well. He also needs to pick a vocation for next year, and he’s thinking about either graphic design or computer programming.

Carlos has recently started an apprenticeship to Erika’s brother to learn to be a metal worker. He has some learning disabilities which has made it very difficult to succeed in schools, and so he’s very excited with this new opportunity.

Shoeshiner Ministry

The shoeshiner ministry that we’re involved with continues to grow. We’ve been ministering to the people of our town’s park every Sunday morning for almost two years now. We provide a simple meal and share God’s love with all who will receive it. The largest group that comes is about 50-75 shoeshiners ages 8 years old and up. We also get to minister to the poor, homeless, disabled and
alcoholics who come by for a hot meal.

And this year we’ve started a Bible study and dinner on Monday nights to allow us to spend more time together and to grow spiritually. We typically get 20-25 people come to the service, and it’s such a blessing to be able to share God’s Word and His love with them!

Construction is Finished

We’re so grateful for your wonderful generosity! I wrote in our last newsletter about our financial need in order to finish building the second story of our house, and I was incredibly blessed and humbled by your generosity. We received all that was needed to finish the construction, and it’s finished It’s such a blessing to have more space, and Margaret is so happy to have her own room now!

2016.May Newsletter.7 Now that we’ve finished the construction we have more rooms
available, and we’re praying for new kids who might come and join our family. We’d appreciate your prayers for this as well. We want to be a help, example and blessing to more, and we’re trying to follow God’s leading as to who should come and be part of our family.
We also have more space for visitors, and we’d love to have a few teams come and visit us. Our faithful intern, Diamond, is coming to stay with us again this summer, and a couple named Phillip andNataly will be visiting next month. I know how transformative my first trip to Guatemala was to my life, and we’d love to help others who want to explore what God’s will is for their lives.

Thank You!

We’re blessed to be able to serve in Guatemala, and we’re so grateful for your continued generosity through the years. Thank you so much!

Thank you so much for your support and prayers!
Brent, Yuliza & Margaret

Guatemala, Newsletter

Fall Newsletter Update

November 13, 2015 Brent

PottersHome-November2015

Flora’s Graduation

Our school year has just ended. Celia & Alfonso have finished 8th grade, and Flora has finished high school. Last week was her graduation, and we enjoyed celebrating her achievement. She’s already found a job, and this week she started working at a dollar store near our house. She’s such a wonderful young lady and she has lots of hopes and dreams for her life. We’re so happy to have her in our family, and we’re excited to see what the Lord has prepared for her future!

Welcome, Carlos

Carlos is the newest member of our family, but he’s actually someone that we’ve known the longest. He came to live in Casa Shalom in the year 2000 at the age of 10. He was only able to finish 4th grade because of a serious learning disability, and he left the orphanage when he was 19 in order to work. For the past 4 years he’s lived and worked for his step-brothers in their taylor shop. It’s just a few blocks away from our house, and we’ve had regular contact with him over the years. In September he told us that the family was tired of him living with them, and that he didn’t know what to do. So we immediately welcomed him in to our family!

One thing that we greatly admire about Carlos is that through all the difficulties and problems in his life, he has consistently sought the Lord and faithfully goes to church. And in our nightly devotions he wants to read the Bible even though it’s difficult for him. He’s very inspirational and we’re so blessed to now have him as part our family!

Under Construction

In September we started building the second story of our house! We currently have 3 bedrooms in our house which serve as our room, the guys’ room and a guest room. The second story would allow us to give Margaret her own room, have more space for more guys, and move my office out of the living room.

We’ve just finished building the walls and we hope to finish the cement roof in December. Then early next year we’ll finish the stucco and waterproofing of the walls, putting in the floor, doors, windows, electrical wiring, and bathroom appliances.

Please join us in prayer for the remaining $6,000 that we need in order to finish the final steps of the construction. Please pray that God would continue to fill us with His love and wisdom as we minister in Guatemala. Please pray that both our past and present children would continue to see the Lord’s will for their lives. And please pray for all those that will come to live with us in the future, that our home would be a place of refuge, peace, hope and love.

Thank you so much for your support and prayers!

Brent, Yuliza & Margaret

Guatemala, Newsletter

Summer Newsletter Update

June 29, 2015 Brent

Newsletter – June 2015

June 2015 Update

We’ve been really excited this year to have a full house! We have four kids with us now. Celia is still with us and is in 8th grade this year. We love her sweet and quiet spirit.

Flora came to us in December of last year, and she’s finishing her senior year of high school. She’s one of the hardest working kids that we’ve had in our home, and she’s full of hopes and dreams for next year after graduating. Flora also delights us with her great desire to grow in her relationship with the Lord. Celia and Flora live next door to us in a house that we’re renting for the girls, and our friend Erika is helping us again to take care of the girls.

Alejandro also came to live with us in December. He turned 18 and graduated from high school last year, and so he had to leave his orphanage. In January he was accepted for a job as a bank teller in a town near us. It’s been a big change for him as he adjusts to the working world.

And our newest member is a fifteen-year-old named Alfonso. He had left the orphanage to return to live with his mother, but money was tight and he wasn’t continuing to go to school. So we received permission from his mother to take care of him and send him to school. He’s currently studying in eighth grade along with Celia.

One of the primary goals of our home is to create a family. With kids coming from so many different backgrounds, it’s difficult for them to know how a mom or a dad should act. They don’t know what a good marriage looks like and they don’t know how a family should interact. This is a huge job that is oftentimes very difficult because it means that all eyes are on Yuli and me all the time, examining how we act and how we react. But our hope is that all of them would one day have a family of their own and be ready to be a mother or father to their own children. We would greatly appreciate your continuous prayers for us, that we would model God’s love and be faithful to Him in all that we say and do.

We received big blessings on Mother’s Day and Father’s Day as the older guys surprised both of us with a visit. Nothing brings joy to our lives like spending time with Edwin, Benjamin and Elias, and continuing to encourage them in their lives. Please continue to pray for them that they would continue to seek the Lord in their lives.

Teaching

For the third year, I’m helping at Celia & Alfonso’s Christian school as an English teacher. This year I have two classes: middle and high school, and it’s a great experience to interact with a lot of kids. Along with teaching grammar, vocabulary, reading and speaking, I also try to involve the Bible in the teaching experience as much as possible. The students regularly have to memorize Bible verses, and this past month they had to read the book of Esther. I love the book of Esther because it portrays a young lady in a very difficult and unfair position who instead of being consumed in self-pity decides to trust God and believe that He is in-control of the situation.

Shoe-Shiners

We continue to serve and minister to the shoe-shiners in our town on a weekly basis. As we got to know them better, we saw the rooms that they were living in. Many were sleeping on the ground, while others slept of boards on cinderblocks. We found an organization in

Guatemala dedicated to providing beds for the poor, and they donated bunkbeds for over 50 shoe-shiners. It’s been a great opportunity to minister to their physical needs, and as our

relationships developed, also minister to their spiritual needs. One man, Don Victor, has accepted Christ as his savior, and a group now come to our church. We’d appreciate your prayers as we seek God’s will for how the ministry should continue to grow in the future.

Construction

We have a full house, and it’s time to expand! Next month we’re starting construction on the second story of our house. We currently have 3 bedrooms in our house which serve as our room, the guys’ room and a guest room. The second story would allow us to give Margaret her own room, have more space for more guys, and move my office out of the living room. We’re currently fundraising for the project, and we would greatly appreciate any help that you could provide in order to finish it.

Support

We feel very blessed to be serving God’s kingdom through loving these kids. We hope and pray that God will continue to work through us, allowing us to continue to be a blessing for these wonderful children. If you wish to partner with our ministry, please see our support info page.

Thank you so much for your support and prayers!

Brent, Yuliza & Margaret

Newsletter

Our First Newsletter

January 6, 2011 Brent

We hope that you have had a good Christmas and New Years break!

As we start this new year, we are starting a new phase of life as we start serving together in Guatemala. We have a blog athttp://www.casashalom.net/potters/ which we will be updating regularly with news updates.

The drive down from Texas to Guatemala was an experience that we’ll never forget! We are so grateful to God for His protection all the way down. The journey was about 2,000 miles, and it took us 5 days. We were blessed to not have any problems, and the car drove great. Mexico was fascinating, and we’ve posted a bunch of pictures of the journey on our blog.

After arriving on December 20th, we’ve spent a fun and relaxing time with Yuliza’s family over Christmas and the New Year holiday. Now as we’re busy getting geared up for this year. Personally, we have a bunch of items to arrange for our life in Guatemala. We’re going to apply for permanent residency for Brent, just like we had to do for Yuli in the United States. Without it, we have to leave the country every 3 months, which is obviously inconvenient. Similarly, our car needs to be imported as it also currently only has a tourist permit. We also now have to buy a bunch of necessary items that wouldn’t fit in the car to bring with us. We are blessed to be staying at Yuli’s sister and brother-in-law’s house, so the number of things we need is greatly reduced.

The children at Casa Shalom return this weekend from their Christmas vacation. Each year they are sent to stay with extended family members or with families that take them in for about a month. This allows them to enjoy a time away from the home, and also gives the workers a break to spend with their own families. The school year starts in January, so they’re soon going to be returning and preparing for the upcoming year. We’re excited to see them soon!

We are currently working to get in contact with a few children that used to live at Casa Shalom, but now have either returned to live with family members or are now adults and have moved out on their own. We had lunch today with two brothers named Santos and José. They’ve returned to live with their grandparents very close to where we are living. Schooling isn’t free here in Guatemala, and continuing their education can be hard because of the economic hardship. So we’re going to get them enrolled in a good middle school nearby. We would greatly appreciate your prayers for them and for others that we are going to be connecting with. We want to see all of them succeed in the real world, and we want to help them in any way necessary. We are also looking at houses and land for sale that we could use to start a half-way house ministry for kids coming out of orphanages.

Prayer points:

– Praise that God has brought us here to Guatemala safely.

– Prayer for Casa Shalom and all of the kids under their care.

– Prayer for the kids who have left the home, that God would provide for all their needs.

– Prayer that God would continue to direct us and guide our ministry.

We have a phone number in the United States that gets routed down to us here in Guatemala. So we can be reached at 512-551-4334, and you don’t have to worry about making an international call!

Thanks for your support and prayers!

Brent & Yuliza Potter