Oscar & Brenda Quiñonez (Guatemala)
“I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself” Jeremiah 30:12
We are Oscar and Brenda Quiñonez. We’re both Guatemalans and truly have a heart for our country. Before we were married, I (Brenda) was a missionary helping with children and other ministries and Oscar was (and still is) working as an accountant. We met back in 2017 and started dating in 2018. After we got married in 2020, the calling to continue helping children was huge in my heart and Oscar jumped into the vision God was giving me but COVID hit and everything had to be paused. Because I had good relationships with the kids I used to minister to, during the pandemic we delivered food baskets and school supplies to some families and that was the moment we noticed the kids were having a rough time with schoolwork as they were only given study guides. If you didn’t know, Guatemala’s illiteracy number is really high among adults which was the case for most homes.
Back in August 2021, we decided it was time for me to go out and start helping those kids, so that is when Semillitas was born. I went three times per week to each of the houses to tutor the kids explaining the topics, helping them with homework, and providing the materials we could. We spent all those months going back and forth until God provided enough to rent a storefront, move all the material we had, and welcome the kids. We had to keep small groups as COVID restrictions were still strong so we had different groups in the morning and in the afternoon three times a week, helping with homework, teaching them different ways to learn, homeschooling some, and even building their self-esteem.
We also have done different activities as a ministry such as women’s retreats, days out with the kids, movie time, cookie sales to fundraise, and also school supplies fundraiser. Now we’re almost reaching our third year of helping kids in a steady place and even though sometimes kids come and go, we know the seed we planted on those kids, someday will grow. God has given us a special calling to focus on the quality more than the quantity of kids enrolled in our program.
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