Four-year-old Juan wouldn’t be able to tell you the definition of “sustenance,” but he’d let you know when he wasn’t getting it. One of the problems that stood in the way of Juan getting the food he needed to sustain his strength was his mother’s kitchen. Put together with bamboo, plastic tarps, and a lot of spit, it just didn’t get the job done, especially during the rainy season. The plastic roof leaked so badly Mom couldn’t keep the fire going, so Mom couldn’t cook enough food for Juan and his family.

Juan’s dad, Cesar, didn’t have time to upgrade the kitchen because he spent every waking hour in the fields, earning just enough money to buy the food for the family. Sadly, this home of wood, bamboo, plastic and rock was the best they could do. Cesar would never have the money to build a home equipped to sustain his family. That is the plight of so many in so many villages in Guatemala. Things rarely change, and life is hard.

But, for Juan and his parents, something did change. A missionary family lived nearby and couldn’t eat another meal in their comfortable home while watching their neighbors suffering to cook a decent. They missionary family reached out and BUYONE BUILDONE reached back. During a time when hurricanes and tropical storms are pounding away at Guatemala, Juan is now getting three warm meals a day. There is a roof on his new house and above his mother’s kitchen. There is a concrete floor under their feet. The family has an in-house bathroom for the first time in 47 years.

Webster defines “sustenance” as “the maintaining of someone or something in life or existence.”