To anyone who is still monitoring this blog, I am now making all of my new posts at www.RealMenDefined.com

This is a new site that God has called me to create.  Not sure what it will turn into…  Make sure to become a fan on Facebook and share with your friends!

Godspeed,
Omar

After having our International, Non-Profit, Humanitarian Mission Trip to Guatemala canceled by our host missions organization due to major safety concerns (i.e. recent kidnapping / death threats related to the organization), we started calling American Airlines in hopes of minimizing our losses on our canceled tickets… ($1,800.00 in fees and penalties - Keep in mind this money came from donations and fundraisers.)

First off, American Airlines is very clear about their cancelation policy of $150.00 and I know that American Airlines doesn’t “OWE” us anything.  That said, because of the nature of my team’s situation, I figured I would give AA an opportunity to go “above and beyond the call of duty” and do right by a non-profit organization and help us out.    Thus, we gave them a call…

During our three calls with International Reservations Supervisors at American Airlines, we explained that our trip had been canceled due to safety issues in Guatemala, we explained that we were missionaries, that the finances for these tickets came from fundraisers and donations, and that we were going to Guatemala to build a house for a poor family in mountains above Guatemala city.

They weren’t impressed.

Thus, we made the business case to them…  We stated that they could sell these tickets for a higher fare as these tickets were on heavily booked flights and that we were trying to cancel asap in order to give them more time to resell these tickets.  Additionally, they would gain our loyalty and future business by helping us out.

They were still unimpressed.

When I asked them what motivation a customer had to cancel early as opposed to wait until the last minute, the International Reservations Supervisor told me that “they didn’t care”.  He actually said “if we can’t sell the seats, we will just take on more cargo, it’s not a loss for us.”

A different  International Reservations Supervisor suggested that we should go ask 6:8 Ministries to cover the fees…  (Seriously?!?!  ”Don’t ask the BILLION DOLLAR Corporation to help you out!!!  That’s not what we do!!  Instead, you should ask the non-profit, humanitarian, missions organization!!!!)

As if saying “no, we can’t help you” wasn’t bad enough, two of the three Supervisors we spoke with were terribly rude and completely unprofessional. The one Supervisor who was nice was also the one who suggested we ask the mission org to cover our fees. (nice / incompetent)

After having flown with American Airlines faithfully for over 20 years, I was completely disappointed with their unwillingness to help us out.  Especially since we weren’t asking for a refund, but simply a voucher (without penalties) for future travel (we have another house-building trip scheduled for Costa Rica in August with our Youth Group).

Thus, I sent the following email to the CEO of American Airlines:
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Dear Mr. Arpey,

I am a Mission Team Leader for 6:8 Ministries, Inc. and I want to share a very, very negative experience in hopes that American Airlines might save a future relationship with my nonprofit organization, our business and community supporters, and the 12 passengers included in these two reservation records.

Our organization has had to cancel a mission trip to Guatemala because the risks of violence have recently escalated and we can no longer assure these volunteers’ safety.

While I acknowledge AA has no obligation in this matter, we believed in your “FlightPlan 2020” that was recently published and the tenet to earn customers’ loyalty. Unfortunately, we’ve had to deal with three reservation supervisors who obviously don’t support your plan and instead prefer to belittle us.

In this matter, we believe our request for voucher refunds without penalties was consistent with your plan’s two important tenets, to earn customers’ loyalty and to fly profitably. Our request enabled AA to retain the revenue already collected, enabled AA to reap additional revenue from the resale of our 12 tickets on already heavily booked flights, and gave AA the opportunity to show they understand the financial hardships volunteers endure to help nonprofits. But instead, your three supervisors advised us that AA is not interested in our proposal because seat spoilage is not a concern to your airline, since you can replace any lost passenger revenue with additional cargo revenue. I find this very hard to believe, based on the constant policy changes your carrier makes to limit seat spoilage.

The three conversations thus far can be characterized as nasty, short, uncaring and nothing like my past experiences with AA. In my previous Distribution Business Management role with Texas Instruments, I had the opportunity to work with many fine AA Sales and Marketing representatives and I find it very hard to believe this is how you now want AA portrayed.

This matter was also escalated to your Group and Meeting Travel manager for his review, but he responded that the appropriate procedural steps have been taken and unfortunately AA is unable to make any exceptions. I hope you’ll disagree with his decision.

In closing, if you think we can turn this situation around to put AA back in a positive light, I hope one of your representatives will contact me in a timely manner. I think you’ll agree, these passengers and our business and community supporters include some of the most attractive marketing segments and shouldn’t be disparaged, but instead should be courted.

Sincerely,

Omar Jesus Bravo
6:8 Ministries

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To date, I have received no response.

This past week, we received the email below from 6:8 Ministries, effectively canceling my team’s upcoming mission trip to Guatemala due to the increase in safety risks.  As much I hate when God closes doors, I believe now as I always do that His plan is greater than ours.  The toughest thing for me to deal with is that our team has been working hard to prepare themselves spiritually, emotionally, mentally, and physically for this trip.  They are totally bummed.

The icing on the cake is that our plane tickets have already been purchase (through American Airlines) and there is a $150.00 cancellation fee.  As we have 12 people in our group, that comes out $1,800.00 worth of fundraising dollars down the drain.  I’m going to appeal to American Airlines to see if they might have some mercy on us since we’re a group of Missionaries.

Here is the 6:8 announcement:

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We need to inform you that 6:8 Ministries will no longer host mission teams in Guatemala. Last week the 6:8 Ministries board of directors made a decision to terminate operations in Guatemala. This decision was made primarily over concern for the safety and security we are able to provide to the short-term mission teams we host.

The fact is that Guatemala is significantly more dangerous than Costa Rica. Continuing to host mission teams in Guatemala creates an unnecessary risk, a risk we were not willing to take. We believe that we can better accomplish our mission through an increased focus on Costa Rica.
We believe that Guatemala is dangerous and have reason to think that it will only become more dangerous. While, we understand that we can never guarantee complete safety for our teams, the increasing level of violent crime, corruption, and organization of gang activity makes Guatemala especially dangerous.

While, we have not experienced any serious security issues, some of the local Guatemalan people we work with have. One of the families we are associated with have been forced into paying off death threats on their children. Since our arrival we were made aware of organized vigilantism within the proximity of our team house. These men are the Guatemalan equivalent of a”neighborhood watch”. This group of men are heavily armed, and wear trench coats and ski masks. They patrol the streets in efforts to keep out dangerous gangs.

Our staff on the ground, Amy Mikul has been communicating “feeling unsafe”. Amy has been coming to Guatemala for the past five years and has a good understanding of the area. She has informed us that she believes that the crime is getting worse, to the point she now feels unsafe to live alone. All of this, combined with reports in the media, have led us to believe Guatemala is no longer a right fit for 6:8 Ministries. To give you a further idea of why we feel this way, I’ve included links to a few articles written by various sources over the past few days:

One final note. This decision was not made in conjunction with deepStream Ministries. Neither the Johnson nor the Schmidt families were consulted or brought into the decision process. While, we believe that it’s too dangerous for 6:8 Ministries to host short-term mission teams, we don’t feel that it is too dangerous for hardened missionary families called to serve in Guatemala. These missionaries know what to look for and how to avoid dangerous situations. We applaud these families for stepping out in faith to follow what they believe to be God’s call on their lives.
While we are disappointed, we are not discouraged. We will continue to focus on Costa Rica and everything God is doing through 6:8 Ministries.
Please feel free to contact Spencer with any questions you may have regarding this decision.

In Christ,

Spencer Boulter
Executive Director - 6:8 Ministries
Spencer@6:8 Ministries.com
(904)342-6286

Here is the latest…  Since making the decision not to move to Costa Rica (on 12/30/2009), God has continued to open doors and provide as He always has.

First off, He provides a sweet little 1940’s two bedroom house in a great little neighborhood, complete with a hardwood floors, coffered ceilings, a really cool screened-in front porch, and a fenced in backyard for the dog.  And Bonnie is able to use the second bedroom as a studio (an answer to prayer).  Not only is the place wonderful, it’s cheap too!  One bedroom garage apartments in this neighborhood run for about $900.00 / month, but we were able to get this house for only $850 / month!  Talk about a blessing.

After searching for a job for a little over ten days, I had made it to final round interviews for three seperate positions:  1) as a Community Organizer  2) as an Administrator (COO) of a local non-profit and 3) as a Web Design Instructor at the local technical school.  By January 20th, I had received two verbal offers, to which extent I cancelled my final round interviews for the Community Organizer position.

That said, I am doing my best to accept both the Web Design Instructor position and the Non-Profit Administrator position.  I actually started working with PTEC (Pinellas Technical Education Center) this past Wednesday on a part time schedule (hourly - max of 28 hours / week).  The Administrator position is a full-time position (salary - 32 hours / week with Fridays off), but they are ok with me trying to pull off both gigs initially.  Though the instuctor position is cool and it has allowed me to get through the door of the Pinellas County School Board, my priority is with the non-profit.  Not only is it a COO position (with a transition plan to CEO), but it is an amazing program that I have no problem selling my soul to.  Plus, they’ll pay for me to go to USF (Univ. of South Florida) to take weekend courses and get a certificate in Non-Profit Management!

The name of the non-profit is Resurrection House and it is a very well established organization here in St. Petersburg.  Established in 1987, the program is a community, faith-based, transitional housing and self-sufficiency program for motivated families with minor children who are homeless or at risk of being homeless.  And because they take absolutely no government funding, there isn’t all the red tape to deal with and you can actually be effective!  At this point, this position isn’t a done deal, yet.  As there was no job posting (the CEO approached me directly), no other applicants and I’ve received a verbal offer, I’m thinking I have a good chance, but I don’t want to jinx it.  They are still waiting for the results of my background check.  :)  Hopefully, by the end of next week I will have a written offer.

You can learn more about Resurrection House here:  http://www.floridaresurrectionhouse.com/

Bonnie has put in a couple of applications for teaching positions that start in the Spring, but hasn’t had any hits yet.  We’re thinking since God gave her a home studio, she’s probably just supposed to focus on making pots.

With that, I want to thank you all for your continued prayers.  They mean more to us than we could ever express!

Love you all and can’t wait for you guys to visit!

God Always Provides,
Omar

PS.  As if that wasn’t enough, I got my cat LoJack back!!!  One big happy family.

Dear Supporters,

After a solid 4 months of fundraising, Bonnie and I now have approximately 15% of our budget raised with an additional 20% pledged.  At the beginning of this journey, we prayed that God would provide us with confirmation through our fundraising efforts.  As such, we believe we have received a solid “no” to the question “should we move to Costa Rica full-time?”

Through discussions and emails with the 6:8 Board of Directors, I believe we are all on the same page…  This is not the end of our relationship with 6:8.  Bonnie and I are still scheduled to lead two teams from our home church (Guatemala - March, Costa Rica - August) and I am still responsible for the website.  Additionally, we are completely open to the possibility of serving with 6:8 here is the U.S.

Next up is the question of “what to do with the support we’ve already raised?”  Bonnie and I would like to use this money to fund our trips in Marchand August with the excess being distributed at the discretion of 6:8 (to build houses, feed the homeless, send kids to school, etc).  As for the automatic monthly payments, we will be cancelling those asap.

If you would like a refund of your contribution, simply let us know and we can have that arranged.

That said, we are so grateful for each of you who have supported us in this journey.  We have truly been heart broken by this decision but we have full confidence that God has an even bigger plan in store for us.  As of now, we are preparing to live here in St. Peterburg, FL indefinitely.

God Always Provides,
Omar & Bonnie Bravo