Crazy July, Jennifer's Birthday and More...

We have had another busy month here serving the Lord in Guatemala. We have had a few groups here serving with us. We generally don't have back to back teams but the Lord knew what was best for us in July. We had these groups planned for several months and then the tragedy of June 3rd happened with the eruption of Volcano Fuego. Then when we begin to receive support we knew why the Lord had these two large teams scheduled this way. We were able to build two homes with these two teams and help this area in San Juan a lot more with these two teams. Thanks for your support Bridge and Piedmont Church!

Here are the videos that Pabel (Carlos Son) made for the teams:

• Bridge Church in Virginia:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_fSUGwKd5U
• Piedmont Church in Georgia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGgijt0qYQs

We also had our friend and Pastor, Aaron Story and his family down to serve with us a bit as well. We enjoyed our time with them. Below are a few pics of this as well.

Our groups left a few days ago and today we are celebrating Jennifer's 40th Birthday today. We are grateful for her and her life! She is an amazing Mom and Wife!

We are also preparing for a trip back to spend time with family and friends and get some rest hopefully. The kids are getting very excited. 

Thanks for all you do to make it possible for us to be here serving.

6 years in Guatemala!

It is hard to believe we have been here in Guatemala for six years. There are many thoughts running though my head today. God has done so much and taught us so much in these years here but yet we know he has so much more he wants to do through us. In our church, New Life Church, we have been studying the book of Ephesians and tonight we will be studying Ephesians 3:20 which says, "Now to (N)him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, (O)according to the power at work within us" We have seen him do just this in these 6 years and we are excited about whatever else he has for us here!

Thanks to so many of you for your prayers and financial support over the years that have allowed us to be here and serve. Below are some family pictures over the past 6 years. It is crazy to see how we came here with babies and now they are growing into young men, one of which is now taller than me!

This is in 2012 when we left.

Not only has God changed our family, but has done some amazing things in and through Love Guatemala and now New Life Church here. Below are a few pictures of these changes as well.

This is where we used to meet and where the art school was.

This is where we now meet. This was our inauguration of the building in 2015 that God miraculously provided.

This is the new art school.

This is the new building the Lord provided in 2014.

This was our staff before.

This is our team now.

These are some of the lives that have been changed through the gospel!

Here are some of the teams and people who have served with us!

This is the ground breaking ceremony we had in March of 2014!

 Here are some of our previous graduates.

 Some of our 2017 graduates.

We have been blessed to see the Lord do some incredible things. We are excited how he will continue to use our family in the months and years to come. Thanks again to all of you who pray and support us in anyway! We seriously could not be here without you!

To God be all the glory!

"To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen." Ephesians 3:1`

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!