Evento comunitario para niños - Kids Community Outreach Event

Over the last 2 weeks, we have been visiting families in remote villages.  We have spent countless hours each day meeting new families, praying for their needs, and providing help when required.  Our other purpose was to invite them to our kid's event on Sunday.  For any family with kids we would give them invitations for all their kids ages 3-12.  

We handed out about 200 invitations over a 2-week period.  We visited countless homes and got a very good sense of the village, and its very tough living conditions.

We were welcomed almost always with open arms.  Everyone stopped what they were doing, chatted with us was welcoming, and many we prayed to understand their needs.

Lots of preparation went into the event, getting food ready for the kids (12 giant watermelons - the largest you have ever seen) 200 frozen jello packs, and preparing a drama of the good Samaritan, craft for 100+ kids, slip and slide, and all the things that go into planning an event.  In tandem with our favourite Guatemalan Sonia!

On the day of the event over 100 kids came plus their families!  Here is a video of the event.

Here are a few pictures of the event:

Zilkie Missions Trip 2024

 Zilkie Mission Trip 2024

We are delighted to announce an exciting new chapter in our lives.   On December 31^st 2023 we will be flying to Manzanillo, Mexico, and making a short trip a few hours away to a place called Colima.

We will be spending the month of January serving at the Hogar D’amor orphanage and school, http://www.hogardeamor.org/ or https://www.facebook.com/hogaramor.  We will be helping with projects, ministries, teaching and loving and serving children at the various schools.

If you have heard of Colima before that’s because Val & Wayne went to Colima to serve at this same orphanage in 2001 for 6 months. In 2012 Erin took a team of youth to Colima as well.  The team in Colima is very excited to welcome our family as they haven’t had Canadian visitors in several years, and there is lots of work to be done.

On January 30^th we will be flying from Guadalajara Mexico to Guatemala City, Guatemala.   We than drive about 4 hours to a small town called Guazacapán, (Poza de Agua in Guazacapan) which is surrounded by mostly rural communities and villages.

After hearing from over a dozen people who had been to Guatemala and a place called Fe Viva, we felt the Lord prompting us to explore further.  The founders are from Kelowna and Jay went to school with their daughter-in-law.  There were too many connections not to ignore God’s direction and after meeting Kim & Lynn Weller ( they were here in Kelowna in September visiting family) we were absolutely sure this is what God has planned for our family. 

Fe Viva -   https://www.feviva.org/ , has numerous ministries including, clean water filters, smokeless stoves, schools, soccer programs and much more.  They have a large compound and employ nearly 20 full time staff.   This is one of the poorest areas in the world, and the 3^rd most common cause of death is smoke inhalation (many children) which is why they provide a smokeless stove program to thousands.

It takes a lot of planning and sacrifice to get to this point.  The Lord has blessed us with an amazing and supportive company Jay works for to allow us to go and be supportive.

Our WHY:

We feel called by God to go and serve and live out our faith in Jesus in places of extreme need.  We want to sacrifice our time and our comforts to meet the basic needs of people living in poverty.  We want to experience this all as a family.  From Izaiah, Amara and Micah, we want our kids to see how fortunate we are living in Canada, and how little people have and live with, and how content they are. 

How to get involved:

1. You can donate to our church to get a tax receipt - this will help with some of the costs of our trip and will go directly to the https://www.powerscreekchurch.com/giving (just add in the notes section where you want it to go)

2. Colima, Mexico - You can donate directly through Hope for the Nations Charity and receive a tax receipt.  This will help fund the valuable work they are doing here: https://www.hopeforthenations.com/agents/hogar-de-amor-y-proteccion-al-nino-ac/

3. Guatamela - Fe Viva - You can donate directly to Fe Viva on their website, just click donate and under the Canada section you can donate through Pay Pal and receive a tax receipt.   https://www.feviva.org/

 

PRAY:  

-          Prayer that we would be helpful & useful to each ministry

-          For our family- that we would grow together and deepen our faith

-          We would have opportunities to make deep connections with people we are working alongside

-          For safety/ protection/ health as we travel & day to day ministry.