Dear Children of Marine View,
At Vacation Bible School in late June you were challenged to raise $320 to purchase a cook stove through the Hands for Peacemaking Foundation to help a family in need in Guatemala. Over the course of that week you brought in your dollars and change and, by Friday, raised $321! We want to let you know that within about a week of raising those funds your stove was installed in the village of San Carlos las Brisas at the home of the family of seven who are living in very humble conditions, especially when compared to the standards in which most of us live.
The mother of this family, Petrona Diego Esteban, is raising five children while her husband is away a lot of the time, struggling to find enough work to support everyone. Your gift was a true blessing to this family as it replaced an old stove that burned a lot of wood and was emitting harmful smoke into their home with a new, much more efficient stove with metal piping that sends the smoke outside. Not only was the family grateful, but the leader of the village, Don Jaime, came by to join the family in expressing their deepest thanks to all of you for your donations – you have made a difference in the lives of that family for many years to come.
Now, as with stoves, sometimes it takes but a spark to light a fire. Your gift of a stove was that spark. I’ll tell you why. The Marine View stove team, which installed about 120 stoves in the village of Montenegro back in April, was blessed with having some funds left over for our project that we were going to save toward helping another village next year. However, due to your generosity you inspired us to use some of these funds to purchase another 20 stoves and water filters for the village of San Carlos las Brisas. These were given and installed on Aug. 14 by Hands for Peacemaking staff in Guatemala to some of the most needy families in that village. So you see your gift of just one stove not only made a difference to one family, but grew to help many others. Our hope is that you will take this lesson of love, giving and sharing that was part of your experience at VBS and remember it as a lesson of serving others, just as Jesus did by taking five loaves of bread shared by a young boy, blessed it and multiplied it to feed a crowd of 5,000, washed the feet of others, healed the sick and lame and would go on to make the ultimate sacrifice by giving his life on the cross.
I would also like to share that other funds we raised continue to help the villagers of Montenegro where we worked. Just this past week some shelving we purchased for the school was installed, the last of many things we did to help that school. We also made a decision to contribute toward the purchase of some land where there’s a water spring that will allow the village to draw more clean water to the benefit of everyone living there.
In conclusion the Marine View 2026 team would like to thank you once more for both your gift and for your inspiration – it really mattered to many, and also encourages us to continue with our work toward helping other villagers today and tomorrow. Perhaps some day you can join us in Guatemala to take part in our projects. In fact we are starting to form a team already for next year’s mission from April 15 to 25. While you may still be a little young to go, if you know of someone who may wish to join – a parent, a teacher, an older sibling or relative, please have them get in touch with us so that we may include them in our planning. If anyone reading this letter would like to otherwise help with our 2027 fundraising, please consider a donation (choose the Guatemala Mission option).
On behalf of the Marine View stove team and the Hands for Peacemaking foundation, we’d like to thank you and our donors from the bottom of our hearts. Also, much thanks to Marco Tulio Maldonado, Alex Castandeda Velasquez, Jeff Hager and the entire Hands for Peacemaking staff for their work (and these photos).
Sincerely,
Marine View Stove Team 2026