In 1982 Wally and Mary Sharp, from the United States, came to Guatemala. Their vision was to partner with the Verbo Churches in Guatemala to open a home for abandoned and orphaned children. They opened their doors to receive children for the first time in Antigua Guatemala. After two years they moved to Palin, a small town about 28 miles from Guatemala City. There they received more children and started to work officially as FUNPRONI (Foundation for the Protection of the Orphan Child). They formed a board of directors and named the orphanage "Casa Bernabé", House of Barnabas (meaning House of comfort). In 1984 legal foundation status was granted under the Guatemalan Acuerdo Gubernativo 571/84.

A piece of property consisting of 11 city blocks, located on the outskirts of Guatemala City on the road to El Salvador was donated for Casa Bernabé.

This provided a permanent site for the ministry. Used trailers were brought in for "temporary" use. Volunteer teams from the United States worked side by side with brothers and sisters from the local Verbo Church to construct the first story of a permanent concrete building. This building at different times has been used to house children, staff, and work teams, and to provide facilities for kitchen, dining, laundry, school, clinic, and office space.

FUNPRONI, "Casa Bernabé", has legally operated for 15 years. During this period we have cared for hundreds of children. Over the years some of these children have been able to return to their families. Others have been adopted by families in Guatemala, the United States, Honduras, Mexico, and Canada. For others Casa Bernabé is their permanent home.

During this time many changes were made. We have come through many difficulties, especially in the area of finances. In 1993 the Board of Directors decided to close the orphanage due to lack of funds. But God had other plans! Pedro Hernandez, a Verbo Pastor, and his American wife, Donie, had been directing a similar ministry, Casa de Samuel, since 1983. Upon learning of the impending closure of Casa Bernabè, Pedro offered a solution. The Alliance for Children Everywhere would assume responsibility for Casa Bernabé, uniting the two ministries!

A phone call to the Alliance for Children headquarters in the United States set many things in motion. Letters were sent. Calls were made. But most important of all, prayers were sent up to our loving God Who is intimately concerned with the plight of His little ones. Pedro and Donie were suddenly responsible for the existing children and staff of Casa Bernabé as well as that of Casa de Samuel! But God had already spoken to them about the work that He had placed in their hands.

True to His Word, God has continued to faithfully provide. Although there have been a number of times when they didn't know where the next meal was coming from, God Did! At one point the staff had not received pay for five months! When asked by church leaders what he planned to do, Pedro answered, "Trust God!" God had promised to meet their needs, and He did! Within a few weeks the full amount for all of the back pay came in one donation! Hallelujah!

In 1996 Casa Bernabé started their own Christian school with approximately 30 students. By 1997 the population had grown to include about 50 children! And in 1998, as a result of their desire to help the many children with learning disabilities, they began to implement a more personalized education to help meet the individual needs of each child. This system is bilingual which will be an additional benefit for the children!

Because of the dedication of our teacher and the arrival of special education teachers, Dora and the implementation of the PACE program taught by Vivian Douglas, and the many short term missionaries who have spent hours working individually with the children, we are beginning to see great progress in a number of our students. Also a number of older children have begun a correspondence course which will allow them to progress at their won speed without having to be in class with he younger children during the day. This allows them to help on campus while at the same time learning work skills that will prove invaluable to them in the future.

All of the children are being exposed to different areas of music, art and dance and quite a few of them are seriously taking advantage of the wonderful opportunities they have to get involved in. We just happen to have some wonderfully talented full time staff as well as short-term missionaries who are more than willing to teach these youngsters all they know!

We have seen the mighty hand of God in many other areas also! The trailers housing the children were literally rotting out from under them. At the end of 1995 a Forward Edge team came to do the necessary repairs to patch them up enough to get through the "first year" until some houses could be built. Well, the patches now have patches on top of the patches, but finally, four years later, the first house is actually being lived in by Hugo and Gilma Caballeros along with their four daughters(and another on the way!) and thirteen little boys ranging from six to nine years old.

Two more houses have been completed and are occupied. Carlita and Brenda Garcia are carring for toddlers and preschoolers in their new beautiful home!

Also the work has gone forward on the second floor of the main building! Little by little, block by block, the second story has grown. And then a special donation was sent especially designated for the building! Things have begun to move much faster! The work is almost completed and we will have a large, four bedroom, two bath apartment now where Josue and Betty Zepeda(co-directors of Casa Bernabe) live with their five children and sixteen girls from six to fifteen years of age! That’s twenty-one years all together! There are also two large dormitories with baths for the groups that come to help, and four or five offices including Social Work and clinic, and a large reception area or meeting hall, where we have church every Sunday! In addition a new septic system has been recently added to handle all the new houses!

Meanwhile, back at Casa Bernabe II, formerly Casa de Samuel, and often known as the Hernandez household, things haven’t exactly been stagnant. In addition to the office and guest room that formerly made up the entire upstairs, the hole house now has a second floor! A large learning center, and four more bedrooms have been added on! Glory!

Many work teams, families, and individuals have come to help, either long term or short term, in all of the different areas -building, painting, cooking, cleaning, child care, teaching, etc. etc. Others have supported with prayer and finances. So many of God's people have contributed in one way or another. All of these miraculous additions have been made possible because of God’s faithfulness and the prayers, hard work, and selfless giving of so many different churches, groups and individuals, who love children and want to help be a part of the solution to their suffering! We are so very aware that we are just a part of a much larger family and that without the help of the rest of the Body of Christ we could never have come this far!

All of us at FUNPRONI and Friends of Children Everywhere are so grateful to God for loving these children and all of us as He does, for His faithful care and provision, even in the face of adversity! The staff, from Guatemala, the United States, and other parts of the world, are living and serving here in Casa Bernabé I and Casa Bernabé II (Casa de Samuel) with a great desire to lift up the name of Jesus Christ, and to love and care for these precious children whom God continues to bring to us. Every day we witness the loving, and at times miraculous provision of our God, and His gentle healing power in the lives of these children.