Birthdays and Other Family Updates

It has been too long since I have posted here so wanted to give a quick family update. We have had a few birthdays over the last few months. First, Ben turned 40 in April and Luke turned 18 earlier this month. I mentioned earlier this year that this is a big birthday year for us. Below are a few pictures from our birthday celebrations.

 Ben's 40th Birthday

 Luke's 18th!

 We took him to a pizza place that had this jeep and spent some time in their playing.

Below are some other activities over the last month or so. 

 Jennifer and the boys on Mothers Day!

Levi participated in the ministry's rally day in which they did an obstacle course like event. Lots of fun! (Read and see more about that day here)

The Faithful Prayers of a Mother, Godly legacy and the Providence of God...

My mom recently sent me a letter. (see below) It was a letter written by her in 1984. I was 6. (Yes I am old and turned 40 this year ;-) My parents were headed to be missionaries in Peru before I was even born. They worked hard to raise support and then left for language school. While in language school my father became sick. He was eventually diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's Disease or Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.  

He battled this disease for many years and eventually passed away. They finished language school and then returned to their home state in New York. After my Dad passed away my mom considered going to Peru but as you can see in the letter below decided to not go. In the letter there was something that stuck out to me. Something she told me when we shared with her our desire to move to Guatemala as missionaries. Here is the sentence I read that confirmed what my mom had told me. Seeing it in writing though gave me chills and reinforced once again in a challenging time of ministry the calling God has on my life. So here is the sentence: "Perhaps some day I will have the privilege of sending one of my boys to replace their dad on the mission field." I have tears in my eyes as I write this and think of all the ways God has worked to make this possible. I never thought this would be the direction my life would take but God in his providence had something different planned for me.

God is so good and gracious. One of the things that Lord used to bring us to Guatemala was this. As I mentioned above my mom shared with us when we were in the process of deciding to come and preparing to come. She told me that she had prayed ever since my father had passed away that one of her boys would become a missionary in a Latin American country. It was another confirmation of this calling that we could not shake.

God is always good and knew that in this time, I needed a reminder of my calling. Calling is a hugely important thing as we follow Jesus. It is easy to forget our calling and become discouraged in challenging times, instead of allowing the Lord to remind us why we are doing what we are doing and that all of it was his plan. I am grateful for this reminder and for a praying mom and the God is guiding my life!

To God be all the glory!

Baptism

I mentioned here about a house church we have started. It has been a lot of fun and we have begun to see the Lord move in hearts and lives. A few weeks ago we were able to have our first baptism. We baptized 5 people. Two of them were our two youngest sons, Joel and Caleb.

Thank you for continuing to pray for this new work. Our vision is to see lots of house churches planted in this area and beyond!

Mayra

Joel

Caleb

Andrea

Katherine

We are so proud of these big step of faith for each of these people. Please pray for the Lord to continue to work in their hearts and for them to continue growing in their faith.

Joel's 10th Birthday

It is hard to believe that Joel is now 10 years old. I remember the day he was born. I had been sick and missed a few days of work and the morning I returned to work Jennifer went into labor.

Joel loves to have fun and is tender-hearted. He like to give hugs and snuggles which is unusual for boys. We had a fun day celebrating his birthday. We got him a bike and then we went to the park in the afternoon and then we had his friends over for dinner and apple pie. This was his choice of desert.

We are praying that the Lord will use Joel's life in a big way to impact this world!

Iglesia Nueva Vida

On January 31st, We started a house church in our apartment. We are excited to see how the Lord uses this church to further our mission of making disciples who make disciples. We will be focusing on this through house churches that multiply.

 Please pray with us as we serve the Lord in this way that he may use it to bring Glory to God though the building of His church.

Thanks for praying with us!

This is a little dinner we had together this last week on Valentines Day.

We have our first baptism planned for February 28th. Please pray for this and those being baptized!

2018 Theme

What do you do at the end of each year and the beginning of a new year? I often set goals and review the previous years goals. I don't usually have a word for the year but this year was different. I felt as if the Lord was impressing a word on my heart that I was not really sure I wanted as my word for the year in 2018 and I am still not sure.  But I do know from Scripture that it is something we are all called to as believers and that is SACRIFICE.

Sacrifice is one of those things we don't want to do but must do to follow Jesus as he calls us. I started this year challenging myself, our family and our staff here at Love Guatemala to sacrifice for the cause of Christ.

Here is the passage of Scripture the Lord brought me to when thinking about this word. "Anyone who loves their father and mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds their life will lose it, and who ever loses their life for my sake will find it. Matthew 10:37-39.

Not an easy passage to wrestle with, in fact maybe one of the toughest to study, read and even more difficult to put into actions. I am not sure how we have somehow arrived to the conclusion especially as American Christians that the Christian life is supposed to be easy and better. Like we are supposed to have more money and be healthier. This is found nowhere in the New Testament.

In the passage from Matthew 10 Jesus says real life is found in giving up our lives. Many of us have never experienced all the Lord has for us because we are not willing to sacrifice. For each of us sacrifice means a different thing. Maybe it is time, money or giving up a comfort. Not so we can somehow earn more from God or earn better Christian status, No! We have all God offers in Christ. But let's sacrifice because we Love God more than anything else in our lives (including our own families) and we know what He offers is better than anything else and we want everyone else to know this!

So I am desiring in my own life to sacrifice in this new year to make the gospel known. I want to lead my family to sacrifice and our ministry we are leading all to sacrifice to make Jesus known.

Trip with Carlos

Many of you know that Carlos and I (Ben) were able to take a trip to the states over the last part of November and the first part of December. It was mainly a fundraising trip and we saw and share with lots of people and also had some fun. Probably the funnest thing for me was to watch Carlos experience snow for the first time!  Below are some pics of our time there.

Our first church visit at Emmaus Church in Jacksonville, Florida

Carlos sharing at our friend Jana's classroom in Macon, Georgia 

Our time with the Capstone youth.

Carlos with some of our Love Guatemala board at his painting expo.

At Indy Metro Church

Sharing at Calvary Church in Plainfield, Indiana with our friends the Cheeks!

We got to take a quick tour of Washington, DC! Beautiful City.

With our friend Kim in the beautiful mountains of Virginia.

Carlos experiencing snow for the first time!

Dinner with our friends from Virginia!

Doing some site seeing with our friends, Tom and Cindy!

Thanks for those that prayed and gave! We had a good trip and shared about all that is happening here at Love Guatemala! Please continue to pray with us for the rest of the funding for 2018 to come in. You can give a year end gift towards our 2018 needs here: https://loveguatemala.org/give/