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