The Virag's plan for 2011! Please partner with us.

We had a great 2010 in Guatemala!

Quick recap of 2010:

-Relief work when tropical storm Agatha ripped through Guatemala...repaired and cleaned homes, provided beds, stoves, food, water, clothing and much more.
-3 office addition for local school
-Repair toilets at orphanges
-Regular maintenance for local orphanages
-Construction of library at orphanage
-Electrical and plumbing repairs at orphanages
-Painting
-Provided food, clothing, medicine, shoes, candy and toys to local orphanges
-Started a youth ministry which meets every Saturday with free skateboarding, biking and inline
-Built a portable skate park which is used for our Saturday bible studies as well as big events throughout our city.
-Obtained land through a donation for our permanent skate park
-Started construction at skate park...cleaned land and installed fence posts
-Dramas at local schools telling about the Love of Jesus!

Salvations!

As Emma and Carsten performed dramas in schools, hands went up all over the gym to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior!

I remember the time we spent the day skating with locals. Before everyone left for home the Word was shared and 5, rough and tough, tattooed and broken skaters, accepted Jesus! With heads bowed, knees on the concrete in the middle of the city, they invited Jesus into their hearts!

In 2010 we had the privilege of sharing the Gospel with 100's of people. We were honoured to have been a part of over 250 salvations this year in Guatemala!

When we left Canada in 2009 we had little idea what we would end up doing for God. 

We now know what we are doing, the direction we are going and the things God wants us to do.

In 2011 we plan to:

-Continue our monthly support to local orphanages with food, clothing, medicine, shoes, candy, toys and more
-We are currently working with 2 local churches with construction projects. We will continue these 2 church projects into 2011
-Our skate ministry will be a big focus for 2011. We plan to complete the biggest indoor skate park in all of Central America.
-We will continue our weekly bible studies with the youth every Saturday and provide a free and safe place to skate and bike.
-Chantelle and I are planning to complete our Pastoral Training in order to become Ordained in 2011.

We are so excited about what God has for our family and ministry as well as the local Guatemalans in 2011!

We will be doing things that have never been done before in the history of Guatemala. We are expecting good things in 2011 but we can't do it with out your support.

Would you please consider supporting us in the upcoming year. Without support it is impossible to continue God's work.

Our biggest project for 2011 is our indoor skate park. The projected cost is $150,000. There is such a need for this park. The youth tend to hang out in the streets because there is no where else they can go. This park will act as a recreation center for our city. It will be a safe place for the youth to come and hang out, as well as receive the Word of God, help with life choices and encourage them to be all that God has made them to be. Please consider helping us make this a reality.

You can help us in 2 areas, prayer and financial donations. Both are vital and necessary.

We thank all of our supporters that contributed in 2010. We thank you for your prayers and financial support. YOU are a part of our team. Even though none of you have the last name of Virag, you are all a part of The Virags and Missionaries in Action. We are a team and each one of you have a part is what was done in Guatemala in 2010.

For Donations please read below:


Thank you all again for being a part of something huge in Guatemala and making 2010 AWESOME!

The Virags
Missionaries in Action
SoZo Skate
www.thevirags.com

Mail Canadian donations to:
WIA
151-10090 152nd  St, Suite 314,
Surrey, BC
V3R 8X8
write VIRAG on separate paper 
tax receipt provided
or use PAypal at www.thevirags.com


Make US donations to:
Shining in Florida Inc.
PO Box 120966
Clermont, FL 34712
tax receipts provided 
or  through PAYPAL at www.thevirags.com

Merry Christmas Everybody and Happy New Year!!!!

Thanks to my dear friend Barbara I am back to blogging again.  I know my friend Barbara will be reading this even if no one else is and we will have an amazing account of our journey on the mission field. We hope others will share this experience with us.  Your interaction with us is vitally important.

We have been in Guatemala for 14 months now and it has been delightful, painful, fulfilling, overwhelming, joyful, easy, eye opening, extremely difficult, and ultimately life changing.  This is the experience of a missionary family and we wouldn't trade it for the world.  I can honestly say there is life to be found in serving others.  This is the way Jesus designed life, ^" He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it." ^{Matt 10:39}


Personally speaking, Shawn and I are attending a computer based Bible School and are studying to show ourselves approved with the goal of being ordained as Pastors.  We are thrilled to dive deeper into the Word and are grateful to both Pastor Brad and Pastor John for leading us in this direction.  Thank you.  We are very proud of Addison, Carsten, and Emmariah.   Addison is committed to being apart of our missionary family team until he goes off to University in two and a half years.  We are believing God to give him clear direction and guidance.  Carsten is passionate for missionary work in Japan and has spent three weeks on his own with YWAM training and ministering in Guatemala City and Livingston, Guatemala in preparation for going to Japan.  Thank you to all of you who helped make this happen for Carsten.   It is encouraging to see God birthing a movement and a plan in our son.  It is just a glimpse as to how God longs to reach the lost all over the world.  Oh, how He loves us.  Sweet Emmariah is as content as could be living out her dream to be a missionary in Guatemala.  She has a huge heart for children and we can see her with a house full of her own one day.

Skate Event November, 2010...3 salvations that day!!!

Ministry wise, God is up to something big here.  We had three big skating events this year ranging from 150-403 people.  Xela is made up of 40% youth and there is a huge need to reach them with the love of God, the gospel.  God has provided a place to store our ramps and do weekly Bible Study Skate groups through a dear man here in Xela who has become or friend.  We have already outgrown that location and a small church has offered FREE LAND to use for four years to build our Sozo Skate Park on.  We are so in awe of the God we serve, Who "is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think."
Eph 3:20

We look forward to continuing to work at the orphanages this coming year in whatever ways we can best serve them.  We have all been busy helping to build a new library in San Marcos and helping to set up a new library in Cantel.  Emmariah and I are looking forward  to weekly book time with the children in Cantel.  All of these children are so precious and have so much love to give as well as receive.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJj-1k2kOhE  Here is a link and our Christmas greatings to you.

WHAT WE NEED!

We need continual prayers and financial support.  Please do not feel pressured.  I know many of you would love to do so much more and can not do so.  That is okay and we appreciate every bit of support, communication, and prayers that we receive.   We know that we are where we are suppose to be and we are looking for you to prayerfully consider partnering up with us so that we can meet our family's financial budget and give to the youth and children in Guatemala.  We can not have an impact on people here if we can not continue living here.  God has been faithful every step of the way.  Will you please be His hands and make a difference here where we live by helping us help them?

Thank you so much for sharing this experience with us.  Your interaction with us through email, Facebook, telephone, and this blog are inspiring and keep us connected to the world we left.  You are a part of us being here in Guatemala.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

May you experience the joy of knowing Him like never before in 2011.

Merry Christmas!
Shawn & Chantelle, Addison, Carsten, and Emmaria

Mail Canadian donations to:                                                     
WIA, 151-10090 152nd  st. suite 314,                                      
Surrey, BC V3R 8X8                                                                 
write Virag on separate paper                                                                                
tax receipts provided                                                                     

Mail US donations to: 

Shining in Florida Inc.,   

PO Box 120966 Clermont, FL    

34712  

make checks out to Shining in Florida Inc. 

tax receipts provided                                                                                            

All donations can be made at PAYPAL at www.thevirags.com

Check out our new website!

It has come to our attention that most people aren't able to follow our blog. We have decided to create a new website in order to keep you posted and updated. You can follow by checking us out at:

www.thevirags.com
www.facebook.com/people/Shawn-Virag
www.facebook.com/people/Chantelle-Virag

Thank you to all who support us through prayers and finances. You are helping many people with your generosity. We will occasionally update our blog but most of our updating will be focused on our website.

The Virags

I am a slacker

I am so sorry for not blogging regularly. We have been extremely busy with life. I will be back at it in about 2 weeks when life slows down a bit.

Thanks for keeping us in your prayers,

The Virags

ps check out our new website we are getting going

http://sk8guatemala.yolasite.com/

No Water in the Evenings!!!!

Some crazy spider we found in a house.

So we have been in our house for a couple of days now and we discovered every night around 5-6pm the all the water in the house is gone. Not sure what's up but all water usage and activity ends around dinner time.

1st Skateboarding outreach

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yp5DXC4Xfh4

click on the link above to check out our first skate outreach. We had over 125 people come. We got to pray with the kids when the session was over and many of them didn't even know we were in a church. After they found out, they were very surprised because the churches don't accept them here. We had a great time and we look forward to doing it again soon and regualarly.





Please continue to pray for us.


We covet your prayers. We also ask that you please prayerfully consider supporting us financially. We can not do what we are doing without your prayers and financial support. Thank you so much friends for the prayer and support that is already being sent. We are so very grateful for your help.

WIA
151-10090 152nd st
suite 314
Surrey, BC, Canada
V3R 8X8

If you are donating and would like a tax receipt make the cheques out to WIA. Do not put our names on the cheque, simply drop in a quick note allocating the funds to the Virag family.

The Virags

New house for us

As most of you know we have been living at a friend's house for 3 months now. Our friends, who are missionaries, went back to Texas to have their baby and spend time with family for the holidays. Our 3 months is almost up and we had been looking for a house for a few weeks now.

It is very important to live in a safe area here in Guatemala. Finding houses in unsafe areas is not only easy but its cheap, but we need something safe and cheap. We looked at houses that were unclean but safe, unlivable but safe, too far away from things, etc. There was one house that was really beautiful and safe but was too much money for us. The owner really wanted us to rent it from him because he liked us and knew we would take care of it for him. The owner had two other offers for the house but he refused them in hopes that we would take it. We finally told him that the house was beautiful, safe and everything that we wanted but it was a bit too much for our budget. We continued looking at houses which proved to be harder then we thought.

We finally found a great little house within our budget that we said we would take. We went back a couple days later for Chantelle to measure for curtains when we found out a few things: there would not be water in the house when we moved in, probably no cabinets either and the rent price was wrong, it was actually %50 more.

We decided to go and speak to the owner of the other house that was out of our budget. He was doing some finishing work on the house before he left back to the USA the next morning. We told him what had happened with our house hunting adventures and to make a long story short...he gave us the house for cheaper then he originally said it would be. It's really cool that God gave us this house. We were willing to live in a different area, in a different house, and make it work but God is so cool to give us the house that we really wanted and at a lower price.

Thanks again to all of you who are supporting us through prayer and financial support.

Please continue to pray for us as we start a new year with new adventures here in Guatemala


We covet your prayers. We also ask that you please prayerfully consider supporting us financially. We can not do what we are doing without your prayers and financial support. Thank you so much friends for the prayer and support that is already being sent. We are so very grateful for your help.

WIA
151-10090 152nd st
suite 314
Surrey, BC, Canada
V3R 8X8

If you are donating and would like a tax receipt make the cheques out to WIA. Do not put our names on the cheque, simply drop in a quick note allocating the funds to the Virag family.

The Virags

danger in Guatemala

We heard a story yesterday that reminded us that we live in a dangerous country at times.

The lady came banging at our door. We opened it and there she stood, crying and hysterical. She needed money right away or they were going to hurt her son, her only son. The police picked up her son and we don't know why, but they wanted money now or they were going to hurt her son bad. The lady said something about a knife on the back of her son's neck. They gave her the money that she earned for working with them for the past 2 weeks. She took her money and was driven to a local store to buy cell phone minute cards. Beleive it or not the police wanted minutes for there cell phones. While they were driving, she got a call from the police asking if she had all the money. Through all the tears she managed to tell them that she only had 1/4 of the money. The police told her it wasn't good enough. In spanish she told them it was her only son. She left the car, ran to the store and bought minutes. That's where the story ends. I'm not sure what ever happened to the son but we pray everything is fine.

Just a reminder that we are not in Canada anymore.


We covet your prayers. We also ask that you please prayerfully consider supporting us financially. We can not do what we are doing without your prayers and financial support. Thank you so much friends for the prayer and support that is already being sent. We are so very grateful for your help.

WIA
151-10090 152nd st
suite 314
Surrey, BC, Canada
V3R 8X8

If you are donating and would like a tax receipt make the cheques out to WIA. Do not put our names on the cheque, simply drop in a quick note allocating the funds to the Virag family.

The Virags

A guest for dinner

Today started out like any other day. Wake up, brush teeth, kids start homeschool, check emails, kiss wife and kids, go to school to help with construction, come home, eat almuerzo (lunch)...and that's when things changed. We had all just about finished when the doorbell rang. I answered the door and saw a boy with a dirty black box and his hands almost the same colour. He asked me in spanish if he could shine my shoes for Q2 ($0.25). I was wearing a pair of sneakers so my first thought was, no thanks. I decided to ask Chantelle if she had a pair for him so we could bless him with some money. Chantelle said her shoes were up stairs and while I was getting them I found a pair of mine as well. I brought them down to him and he said if I could give him some water and soap he would wash my car too. Some of these kids will do anything for money while others will do almost anything. Before he started, Chantelle and I decided to invite him to sit with us and eat. I showed him where he could wash his hands and it looked like he thought I was crazy. These kids are not used to having soap and water or food for that matter. He sat down at the table and looked uncomfortable but we served him carne rez, ensalada, tortillas, y papa fritas (beef, fried potatoes, salad and tortillas). He took off his baseball hat, made the sign of the cross, prayed and ate. He ate so fast it was like he hadn't eaten for days. He kept his head down low almost touching his plate and shoveled his food in as fast as he could. We spoke with him as best we could. This is what we found out:

His name is Javier
He is 14 yrs old
He has been working for years in order to get enough money to go back to school and live
He needs money for books, a uniform and shoes or he can't go
He has no father
He speaks no english
He is a hard worker
He has almost nothing
He has 2 older brothers
He lives in a town about 30 mins away
He works 7 days a week
He likes tortillas and hot sauce
He doesn't get to keep all the money
He only saves a little of the money for school and lives off most
Sad thing is...he only needs Q800 ($100) for school
Even sadder thing is...I didn't have it to give to him.

After he ate he said thank you, immediately went outside and started washing the car and shining the shoes.

We could have told the boy no because the truth is, we didn't need our shoes shined. We are here to be a blessing and show the love of God so we let him our shoes, wash our car and eat our food. We also let him teach us all a lesson. Not everyone is as blessed and as lucky as we are. There are people in this world that need help and if we can help, then we should. I thank God for this boy. I thank God that I had shoes for him to shine, a car for him to wash, food for him to eat, time to spent with him and the LOVE of God to share. I did have some money but not enough to pay for all his school. He told me he would come back again to wash my car and shine my shoes. I hope he does come back and I also hope the next time he comes I have enough money to help this boy get back to school.

We covet your prayers. We also ask that you please prayerfully consider supporting us financially. We can not do what we are doing without your prayers and financial support. Thank you so much friends for the prayer and support that is already being sent. We are so very grateful for your help.

WIA
151-10090 152nd st
suite 314
Surrey, BC, Canada
V3R 8X8

If you are donating and would like a tax receipt make the cheques out to WIA. Do not put our names on the cheque, simply drop in a quick note allocating the funds to the Virag family.

Thanks to you all for your prayers and support. This is just one of the many stories in Guatemala.

The Virag's (Shawn)

P.S. found out after I posted this that Carsten gave the boy his allowance money and Emma cooked him marshmallows. We are very proud of our children and the things they are doing in Guatemala.

Problems with the van

Just wanted to let everyone know how our van is holding up on the Guatemala terrain.

Our van has had the following things happen to it since we have been here:

Kids put crayon all over the side of the van (not ours)
someone backed into the front right side...made lots of dents
we ripped off the wiring harness
some of the trailer lights fell off
the entire exhaust system was torn off
the van over heats regularly
the front center cap was stolen
we have a hole in the drivers seat
the transmission is not functioning properly
the drivers side door lock doesn't work
the wipers stay on when you turn them off & stay off when you turn them on
all the radio stations are in spanish (guess thats not really a problem)
shocks are gone
windows and van are always dirty due to dry season

More things have happened but I can't remember them all.

Hope you all have a blessed New Year's

We covet your prayers. We also ask that you please prayerfully consider supporting us financially. We can not do what we are doing without your prayers and financial support. Thank you so much friends for the prayer and support that is already being sent. We are so very grateful for your help.

WIA
151-10090 152nd st
suite 314
Surrey, BC, Canada
V3R 8X8

If you are donating and would like a tax receipt make the cheques out to WIA. Do not put our names on the cheque, simply drop in a quick note allocating the funds to the Virag family.


The Virag's