Hogar's Helping Hands
Aguacate isn't just where we serve — it's where our hearts have been for nearly two decades.
Where It Began
“Will you stay with me forever?”
Karen Rodas was seventeen years old, volunteering at an orphanage, when a child looked up at her and asked that question. It never let her go. That moment grew into a thirty-year commitment to the children of Aguacate, Guatemala.
Today Karen and her husband Estuardo direct Hogar Miguel Magone, a children's home caring for around 80 children at a time, ages 2 to 18, who have been orphaned or rescued from abuse. The home provides food, shelter, clothing, health care, psychological counseling, tutoring, English, music classes, computer training, trade skills, life-skills training, and Biblical teaching.
Hear her story
Karen · director of Hogar Miguel MagoneThe Home
The Guatemalan government provides no funding, so Hogar Miguel Magone relies entirely on donations and sponsorship programs. Every meal, every class, and every night of safe sleep is made possible by people who choose to help.
The trade school · opened January 2026Every child receives
The Name
The home is named for Miguel Magone, a student of Don Bosco in 1845. Don Bosco believed that faith, education, and the opportunity to learn a trade was the combination for changing the lives of troubled children.
That conviction still shapes everything the home does — from the classroom to the chapel to the trade school.
The Guatemalan government provides no funding for Hogar Miguel Magone. Every meal, class, and night of safe sleep depends entirely on donations and sponsorships.
The Village
The home's services extend to families in the nearby village of Aguacate, where many live in extreme poverty — dirt floors, corrugated-tin structures, malnutrition, and limited access to education.
Each year we help needy families in the village with food donations and various construction projects, collect hundreds of shoes and supplies, host a daily Vacation Bible School for 200 village children, and take the Hogar children on an annual amusement-park day — spending time showing them how much they are loved by God and all of us.
Mission Leaders
Executive Director and Mission Director
Carrie first traveled to Guatemala in 2013 with her husband Scott and their two children. The trip proved life-changing and deepened her family's faith. She serves in the spirit of Acts 20:35 — “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
Officer and Mission Director
A pastor's kid, Scott grew up around service — including his family's “Be like Jesus” community project in 2010. After the 2013 trip, he and the Bevilacquas took over leadership of mission week. He calls it “the highlight of my summer, every year.”
Mission Team Leader
Stacey's childhood dream of becoming a mother led her and Mike to adopt four children from Russia. Her first visit to Guatemala in 2010 changed everything — she committed to do whatever it takes to help Karen and Estuardo fulfill their mission.
Mission Team Leader
Founder of Mammoth Restoration, Mike's mission work began as a way to teach his adopted son gratitude for the life he has in America. It became life-altering — reshaping his family's perspective and his business's purpose: to bring as many people to Christ as possible.
Every sponsorship, donation, and mission trip writes the next chapter of this story.
