Hilda
Paul Tonetti - Missions for Life
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Sunday, July 6, 2008
July 2008 - New Exciting Ministry News -
Greetings from Guatemala:
I will try not to make this too long, but some wonderful opportunities have presented themselves to the ministry here, and we are going to need your help. The first quarter of this year really did not produce any news, more or less business (ministry) as usual. We did receive an international team of missionaries in April and will receive more groups later this month. However in June, after seeking direction for the ministry, we have been presented with an opportunity to start a local Christian TV station here in Puerto Barrios, Guatemala. The exciting part is that we would be the first and only Christian TV station here! We have already obtained the permissions and are partnering with CTNi for the content and programming.
So what’s the next step? A fundraiser! We have begun a campaign to raise the money needed to begin the transmission. We had a week long marathon and rose just over $1,000 USD locally, and that’s when we realized we would need outside help to start this ministry, the technology here is more expensive than it is in the USA or Europe. A local company has a microwave system (studio to transmitter link) in their warehouse that we may be able to use, that would be a huge savings for us.
So What do we need?
In short, we will need a computer for editing video, a computer for control, a 4 channel video mixer, a 10 foot satellite receiver, and a DVD player. That will get us started, but of course in the future we will need a camera, and a studio (live) desk or some sort of live set. There is also a piece of land in front of us that would be perfect location to install the satellite dish and covert into a parking lot, currently every one just parks on the grass in the back yard, but it has become somewhat of a mud hole with all the rain we get! We also need to see the finish of a new studio construction project. We have seen a lot of support, but we have taken this as far as we can here in Guatemala, now it is time for your help and for you to be a part of what we are doing here!
Bottom Line –
Would you please consider partnering with us for this TV project? If you have ever been blessed by watching Christian TV programs, imagine living in a city where the channel just did not exist. For such a small price we can impact the community and the city of Puerto Barrios. Shofar Ministries has over 10 years of ministry here and has the respect and trust of the local pastors and churches, I can not think of a better way for this ministry to give something back to the community that has supported us for so many years. Please pray how you can help. Below is a list of current projects and the costs:
$5,000 for equipment to start the TV channel. (not including camera or studio furniture)
$5,000 to buy the land in front of us for the dish and a parking lot.
$10,000 is needed to finish a building project for the new TV studio, and conference room.
You can give on our website with your credit or debit card, http://www.shofarstereo.com/ click on DONATE on the left side bar. please contact me directly for bank info if you care to send a check, or wire transfer, my direct e-mail is paul@tonetti.us and I have a Vonage line here in Guatemala, it is a Florida phone number, and you will only be billed for calling to Pensacola Florida, it is +1 (850) 932-8086 please leave a message, I check messages daily as I am not always in the office.
Thanks for your time,
-Paul Tonetti
Director – Shofar Ministries
I will try not to make this too long, but some wonderful opportunities have presented themselves to the ministry here, and we are going to need your help. The first quarter of this year really did not produce any news, more or less business (ministry) as usual. We did receive an international team of missionaries in April and will receive more groups later this month. However in June, after seeking direction for the ministry, we have been presented with an opportunity to start a local Christian TV station here in Puerto Barrios, Guatemala. The exciting part is that we would be the first and only Christian TV station here! We have already obtained the permissions and are partnering with CTNi for the content and programming.
So what’s the next step? A fundraiser! We have begun a campaign to raise the money needed to begin the transmission. We had a week long marathon and rose just over $1,000 USD locally, and that’s when we realized we would need outside help to start this ministry, the technology here is more expensive than it is in the USA or Europe. A local company has a microwave system (studio to transmitter link) in their warehouse that we may be able to use, that would be a huge savings for us.
So What do we need?
In short, we will need a computer for editing video, a computer for control, a 4 channel video mixer, a 10 foot satellite receiver, and a DVD player. That will get us started, but of course in the future we will need a camera, and a studio (live) desk or some sort of live set. There is also a piece of land in front of us that would be perfect location to install the satellite dish and covert into a parking lot, currently every one just parks on the grass in the back yard, but it has become somewhat of a mud hole with all the rain we get! We also need to see the finish of a new studio construction project. We have seen a lot of support, but we have taken this as far as we can here in Guatemala, now it is time for your help and for you to be a part of what we are doing here!
Bottom Line –
Would you please consider partnering with us for this TV project? If you have ever been blessed by watching Christian TV programs, imagine living in a city where the channel just did not exist. For such a small price we can impact the community and the city of Puerto Barrios. Shofar Ministries has over 10 years of ministry here and has the respect and trust of the local pastors and churches, I can not think of a better way for this ministry to give something back to the community that has supported us for so many years. Please pray how you can help. Below is a list of current projects and the costs:
$5,000 for equipment to start the TV channel. (not including camera or studio furniture)
$5,000 to buy the land in front of us for the dish and a parking lot.
$10,000 is needed to finish a building project for the new TV studio, and conference room.
You can give on our website with your credit or debit card, http://www.shofarstereo.com/ click on DONATE on the left side bar. please contact me directly for bank info if you care to send a check, or wire transfer, my direct e-mail is paul@tonetti.us and I have a Vonage line here in Guatemala, it is a Florida phone number, and you will only be billed for calling to Pensacola Florida, it is +1 (850) 932-8086 please leave a message, I check messages daily as I am not always in the office.
Thanks for your time,
-Paul Tonetti
Director – Shofar Ministries
Monday, June 30, 2008
June 2008 - Meet Nancy
Meet the Staff,
I want to send out a meet the staff one a month so you can meet the wonderful people I work with here. Every Radio Station has an official male and an official female voice, well, Nancy is the official female voice of Shofar, if you have listened to the radio you would have heard it many times, Nancy is a great person and a pleasure to work with and we are all grateful for here service to this ministry. Nancy's dad also has a program here weekday's in the afternoon, the program is called " The Old Trails" and he has become know as Mr. Halleluiah, and well if you listen you will understand why. God bless you both for reaching out to our community through radio!
-Paul
I want to send out a meet the staff one a month so you can meet the wonderful people I work with here. Every Radio Station has an official male and an official female voice, well, Nancy is the official female voice of Shofar, if you have listened to the radio you would have heard it many times, Nancy is a great person and a pleasure to work with and we are all grateful for here service to this ministry. Nancy's dad also has a program here weekday's in the afternoon, the program is called " The Old Trails" and he has become know as Mr. Halleluiah, and well if you listen you will understand why. God bless you both for reaching out to our community through radio!
-Paul
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Praying for one of my kids
I will keep you updated on my kids from time to time, one for prayer is Elio Muñoz . He is 18 very bright, but only has a 8th grade education (primary). I was set to pay for him to start double time in school to get caught up because he wants to be an architect. But 2 weeks ago his father was on the motorcycle and was hit by a car; breaking the leg in 3 places, he has a titanium plate, 8 screws and can not leave the bed for 6 months. Elio has 7 brother and sisters, he is the oldest and the mom is pregnant about two weeks away, Elio now has the responsibility to work to support the family; school is out of the picture. Elio wants to help me in ministry but timing is bad with the accident. Elio says he has many problems now including his friends all want to drink and smoke. It is hard not to have any good Christian friends at 18. He is now working about 60 hours by week to feed and support the family. In the other mail I sent you was a photo and on my blog, in the photo of the kids at McDonalds eating – Elio is in the bottom left with the straw in his mouth.
Monday, December 31, 2007
A HARD LESSON LEARNED:
This is long over due and I apologize for the lack of communicationut I have some important bad and good news to communicate and it won't be easy to put in words, so please take a few minutes and read this update:
A HARD LESSON LEARNED:
In March of this year I moved to Guatemala to buy a property and start a youth camp and retreat center. In May of this year after one successful month, the center closed. I discovered that the friend (ex-friend) who had helped me with the transactions to buy this property had not been honest with me and that he had been telling people that the property was his. He took his lawyers and made a claim on my money and the property, and because of the way he helped me make the transactions, the bank believed he was buying the property and not me. While my name was on the deed, it had not been filed properly, partly because he was making a claim on the money used to purchase the property. For some reason the bank did not protect my transaction and they went along with him. This is a person who I had known for ten years. I had asked him to help me start the youth camp and I found out that he was sleeping with his girlfriend in my house and drinking alcohol during camps in the property. The problem started when I asked him to leave my house, that I would not stand for these things in ministry. I first met this guy when I was in Guatemala with Mercy Ships many years ago. The hard part is to believe a friend would make these actions against me and steal the property and the money all givin to me for ministry. Well, that is not all; the bank told me I had to pay him extortion (a very large amount of money) to receive a signed paper from him and the bank would then release my money or property. Unfortunately I paid the extortion, very sadly a large amount of money, but the bank found some other reason to not give me all my money or the property back. In total I have lost a lot on this deal, the hard part is that $282,000 was a loan from my bank in the States. It has been a hard lesson learned..
SO WHAT HAVE I BEEN DOING?
In July of this year I moved from the Pacific coast of Guatemala to the Atlantic Coast. I have been partners in a radio ministry in Puerto Barrios for 6 years. In July my partner bought a new radio station in a city in the northern part of Guatemala, about 4 hours away. So what does this mean, well I have taken over the radio station and the ministry of Shofar Stereo 95.1 FM. I am now the 50% owner and the General Manager and Director of the radio and the ministry. Lots of big changes here, more or less God has honored my time here in Guatemala and now I have brought this radio to the next level of professionalism, so much so that the directors of the other radios here in the city came to see what was happening! I am sorry the web page is a bit out of date, but have a look or a listen at http://www.shofarstereo.com/. and as always my web site is http://tonetti.us/ and my e-mail has not changed I have two; mailto:paul@tonetti.usand paul.tonetti@gmail.com and my phone number is +1 850 932-8086 yes the same number since 1991. It is a US based number, you will pay for a normal ( local ) US call, but this number will follow me where ever I go! Gotta love technology!
SO WHAT NEXT?
Well, I have a great youth ministry here in Guatemala; I have about 25 kids that all call me papa Paul. I have seen the lives of them all change in amazing ways, and are now all serving God in ministry.
Here is a photo of some of my kids
Here is a photo of me, my kids and some friends visiting me from Mercy Ships as we all have breakfast in McDonalds here in Guatemala. Yes, you heard me right, not one, or two, but a group of friends from all over came to make an outreach here in Guatemala and ended up visiting and helping me with an event in the park for the street kids. These guys are from different cities and countries and I know them from three different ships, what a great time we had!
SUPPORTING MY KIDS:
The reality is that things are not free in this world; I do not know a ministry in the world that does not need help with personnel or with finances. It is true when you hear that $1 per day can change a life, from time to time I pay for a month of school for some of my kids and it is about $30 by month, $70 if you include food for a teenager. All of my kids are in School, but sometimes they are told they can not take exams because the parent's don't have money to pay the school. Three of my kids want to take a YWAM DTS (Discipleship Training School) which runs about $1500 depending on location.
Would you please pray about helping me support my kids, it is easy to help http://tonetti.us/donate and follow instructions for checks or credit cards. If you send a check, please let me know so I can have someone look for it in the mail
Thanks for you time, and As I am looking through my address book to send this out, I am praying for each and every one of you for the new year… God Bless
-Paul
A HARD LESSON LEARNED:
In March of this year I moved to Guatemala to buy a property and start a youth camp and retreat center. In May of this year after one successful month, the center closed. I discovered that the friend (ex-friend) who had helped me with the transactions to buy this property had not been honest with me and that he had been telling people that the property was his. He took his lawyers and made a claim on my money and the property, and because of the way he helped me make the transactions, the bank believed he was buying the property and not me. While my name was on the deed, it had not been filed properly, partly because he was making a claim on the money used to purchase the property. For some reason the bank did not protect my transaction and they went along with him. This is a person who I had known for ten years. I had asked him to help me start the youth camp and I found out that he was sleeping with his girlfriend in my house and drinking alcohol during camps in the property. The problem started when I asked him to leave my house, that I would not stand for these things in ministry. I first met this guy when I was in Guatemala with Mercy Ships many years ago. The hard part is to believe a friend would make these actions against me and steal the property and the money all givin to me for ministry. Well, that is not all; the bank told me I had to pay him extortion (a very large amount of money) to receive a signed paper from him and the bank would then release my money or property. Unfortunately I paid the extortion, very sadly a large amount of money, but the bank found some other reason to not give me all my money or the property back. In total I have lost a lot on this deal, the hard part is that $282,000 was a loan from my bank in the States. It has been a hard lesson learned..
SO WHAT HAVE I BEEN DOING?
In July of this year I moved from the Pacific coast of Guatemala to the Atlantic Coast. I have been partners in a radio ministry in Puerto Barrios for 6 years. In July my partner bought a new radio station in a city in the northern part of Guatemala, about 4 hours away. So what does this mean, well I have taken over the radio station and the ministry of Shofar Stereo 95.1 FM. I am now the 50% owner and the General Manager and Director of the radio and the ministry. Lots of big changes here, more or less God has honored my time here in Guatemala and now I have brought this radio to the next level of professionalism, so much so that the directors of the other radios here in the city came to see what was happening! I am sorry the web page is a bit out of date, but have a look or a listen at http://www.shofarstereo.com/. and as always my web site is http://tonetti.us/ and my e-mail has not changed I have two; mailto:paul@tonetti.usand paul.tonetti@gmail.com and my phone number is +1 850 932-8086 yes the same number since 1991. It is a US based number, you will pay for a normal ( local ) US call, but this number will follow me where ever I go! Gotta love technology!
SO WHAT NEXT?
Well, I have a great youth ministry here in Guatemala; I have about 25 kids that all call me papa Paul. I have seen the lives of them all change in amazing ways, and are now all serving God in ministry.
Here is a photo of some of my kids
Here is a photo of me, my kids and some friends visiting me from Mercy Ships as we all have breakfast in McDonalds here in Guatemala. Yes, you heard me right, not one, or two, but a group of friends from all over came to make an outreach here in Guatemala and ended up visiting and helping me with an event in the park for the street kids. These guys are from different cities and countries and I know them from three different ships, what a great time we had!
SUPPORTING MY KIDS:
The reality is that things are not free in this world; I do not know a ministry in the world that does not need help with personnel or with finances. It is true when you hear that $1 per day can change a life, from time to time I pay for a month of school for some of my kids and it is about $30 by month, $70 if you include food for a teenager. All of my kids are in School, but sometimes they are told they can not take exams because the parent's don't have money to pay the school. Three of my kids want to take a YWAM DTS (Discipleship Training School) which runs about $1500 depending on location.
Would you please pray about helping me support my kids, it is easy to help http://tonetti.us/donate and follow instructions for checks or credit cards. If you send a check, please let me know so I can have someone look for it in the mail
Thanks for you time, and As I am looking through my address book to send this out, I am praying for each and every one of you for the new year… God Bless
-Paul
Sunday, April 1, 2007
The Beginning
Well, it is April 1st and we have been going crazy just trying to find all that we needed to open the doors. I spent all day yesterday in the market just trying to find tables and chairs for 40 people. Not a bad deal, I walked out at $13 per table!!! The picture shows us getting ready to open, we have two groups today, 40 people just for the pool, and another group of 5
families as overnight guests. The carpenters were here until 4 am putting the bunk beads together, and the little snack bar is stocked with drinks and candies, and Felix’s grandma is ready to cook, well, gotta run the first group just showed up!
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Adjusting to the New Culture
I am really enjoying it here, although getting the ministry up and running is quite a bit more than I expected. We are getting a good response from the community and our TV ads. On a pesonal note it is hard to realize that the nearest real grocery store is 35 minutes by car, however it is owned by wal-mart, so I can find products I like. I have adjusted well to the low carb diet and it is doing well with me. I have discovered I can have 1 flour tortill
a or 2 corn tortillas and a ½ cup of black beans. I have trained our cook ( Felix’s Grandma ) to cook with olive oil so it is more healthy. She loves to cook with garlic and I love to eat garlic, must have picked that one up from grandpa Tonetti. I have gone to the last hole in my belt and will have to make another one, not sure how much weight I have lost, but this is the second hole I have made in my black belt and the first hole in my brown one, so something is working. By the way, our pool finally went from brown to green to clear!!!
a or 2 corn tortillas and a ½ cup of black beans. I have trained our cook ( Felix’s Grandma ) to cook with olive oil so it is more healthy. She loves to cook with garlic and I love to eat garlic, must have picked that one up from grandpa Tonetti. I have gone to the last hole in my belt and will have to make another one, not sure how much weight I have lost, but this is the second hole I have made in my black belt and the first hole in my brown one, so something is working. By the way, our pool finally went from brown to green to clear!!!
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