Recently, Amaury offered a new class in the men’s prison called “Corazon Quebrantado” or “Broken Heart.” The class participants analyzed a book written by Roger Fernandez, a Dominican pastor from Santo Domingo, of the same name. Every week, the participants had to turn in two chapter summaries.

The following summaries were written by two students in the class, and we wanted to share them with you. We hope you are as blessed by the lessons they learned and in turn teach us as we were! English translations follow each summary.

Resumen 1/Summary 1

El corazón quebrantado reconoce la gloria del señor.


Un corazón orgulloso es un corazón que no puede ver lo hermoso y lo grande que es Dios.Y un corazón quebrantado puede reconocer que solo Dios hace hay hombre feliz.Cuando nos movemos con el corazón lleno de orgullo demostramos que nada a nuestro alrededor tiene importancia pero cuando quebrantamos nuestro corazón aprendemos y reconocemos el amor a los demás. Quebrantar el corazón es humillarse a Dios y entender que si n el nada somos. Qué triste el de corazón orgulloso porque no puede ver lo hermoso de la vida. Qué lindo el de corazón humilde porque ve todo con amor.

A broken heart recognizes the glory of the Lord.

A proud heart is a heart that cannot see the beauty and greatness of God. A broken heart can recognize that only God makes men happy. When we live with a heart full of pride, we show that nothing around us is important, but when we break our hearts, we learn and recognize the love of others. To break the heart is to humble yourself before God and understand that without Him we are nothing. How sad is a proud heart because it cannot see the beauty of life. How beautiful is a humble heart because it sees everything with love.


Amaury reviewing one week's worth of summaries!

 Resumen 2/Summary 2

Cuando hablamos de corazón quebrantado nos referimos a un corazón que ha sido debilitado. El quebrantamiento provoca en el corazón una actitud que hace humilde al hombre, carente de altivez, y libre de todo tipo de temores. Eso le permite escuchar la voz de Dios.

Quebrantarse es difícil porque en el hombre implica rendir todo a Dios y depender totalmente de él. Para citar un ejemplo del quebrantamiento hablemos de “Job.” Humanamente diríamos que no tenia de que arrepentirse porque era un hombre justo que conocía a Dios, buscaba el rostro del señor día a día, y el mismo señor decía que no había otro hombre como Job. Sin embargo permitió que Job fuere quebrantado.

When we speak of a broken heart, we refer to a heart that has been weakened. The breaking process provokes in the heart an attitude that makes a man humble, devoid of arrogance, and free of every type of fear. This permits him to listen to the voice of God.

Brokenness is difficult because it means a man must give everything to God and completely depend on Him. For an example of brokenness we can talk about Job. From a human perspective, we say he did not have to repent because he was a righteous man before God, seeking the Lord’s face every day, and the same Lord said that there was no other man like Job. However, He allowed Job to be broken.

Pastor Fernandez spoke at the graduation for this class, which was a special blessing for Amaury and the class participants. He had the opportunity to congratulate them on their successful completion of the course and pray with each of them – it was one of the most memorable graduations to date for the classes in the men’s prison! There are more pictures of the graduation and of other areas of our ministry below, including pictures of Amaury baptizing Argeny - the young man who was featured in our last blog!

As we are now in the midst of the Christmas season, may we remember to completely depend on the One whose birth we celebrate, allowing ourselves to be broken before Him so that we can "see the beauty of life” around us and be “free of every type of fear” as these men have learned to do through this course!

May God bless you and your family this Christmas season!

 With love in Christ,
Amaury and Catherine

Below are recent pictures from different areas of our ministry ...

From the "Corazon Quebrantado"graduation ...

    commentary given by one student and a special song performed by another ...



      Amaury and Pastor Fernandez with all the graduates and with those who received medals as special commendation for submitting the best summaries!



     Graduation in the men's prison of the "Financial Harmony in the Home" class  ...



Argeny's baptism!




Our Drama Group in their Navidad Con Mama shirts and rehearsing for the production ... 

The wedding of one of our Drama Group members - Amaury was the "Padrino" or "Godfather" of the wedding!

 

At the end of September, Catherine took her students at SCS on "pilgrimages" to Santo Cerros (Holy Hills), outside of Santiago, following the example of Chaucer's pilgrims in The Canterbury Tales.  They wrote stories that taught lessons about problems they saw in society that they told as "entertainment" along the way and dressed up as "pilgrims" for the trips - they were fun days that also taught many life lessons!
 

Amaury taught a "Financial Harmony in the Home" class at a local Christian conference in October, and in November he taught a Protocol and Etiquette class for the parents of children at Project Manana - a Christian school where 115 children are blessed by the education and nutritional care they receive!