Easter, Birthdays and other celebrations in April 2026

Recently we celebrated Sofia's 9th birthday and also easter and a few other things. Check out some pictures below

Easter 2026

Emma has a mind of her own ;-)

Sofia is getting all grown up. This was the immediate family celebration and the cake above was with extended family on Easter.

Egg hunt with the cousins

Birthday gifts

Grace losing more teeth

Anything for free chickfila

Muffins and Moms at the girls school.

A trip to the children's musuem during spring break.

The girls climbing trees in their pajamas.

Pastoral Retreat in Waukegan with Iglesia Jesus El Buen Pastor

Ben had the chance to travel with 3 of the pastors from the Indianapolis area up to Waukegan, IL where we serve another church called Jesus El Buen Pastor or Jesus the Good Shepherd. It was fun to hang out together and serve together. See some pictures below.

Left is Manuel from Living Hope Church in Indianapolis, then myself, Harol from New Life Church in Indianapoli and Leslie from Mt. Pleasant Christian Church. In front is Maribel and Jose who serve at the church there in Waukegan.

This is the same group with some of their leaders there. This church is located in a strategic area of a town that is over 80% hispanic. We are praying for a discipleship movement in this area!

Harol preached at their service Friday evening.

We each shared "un saludo" with the church.

I love getting to serve this man (Jose Juan) and his family. 

On Saturday morning we served the church by doing some training on how to mobilize and form a ministry team and how to form a ministry plan.

It was fun to serve alongside these men.

I am grateful to get to serve churches in these types of ways!

Family Visits, Birthdays and More

February 15th, Joel turned 18. It is hard to believe we have another adult in the family. A few weeks later he finished highschool. He is still finishing his culinary class. He has not yet decided on what is next so please pray with us about that. Here are a few pics from the celebration:

In March we have Alanna's Birthday, Sofia's gotcha day (March 4th for both), and Ben's Mom's birthday. We were happy to have Levi and Alanna visit this past weekend so we could celebrate them and spend time together. Here are a few pictures from the weekend:

And of course some park time with the girls and Levi and Alanna while they were here as it was a beautiful weekend.

Here are some pictures of Ben's Mom's Birthday:

We surprised her with a visit from 3 of her siblings which was fun. Here are some pictures of that time together.

Trip to Guatemala Feb 2026

Ben had the chance to travel to Guatemala with one of the Pastors he serves with here in RNV USA, Abraham Barron. We mainly went to help put on a Pastors Retreat for the pastors at RNV in Guatemala. Ben was also involved in some meetings at Love Guatemala with Katy and Amy Goldsmith, the LG Board president. Check out some pictures and videos below.

The first few days we visited with the different pastors now involved with RNV Guatemala. Above is Pastor Salomon who serves in a community called Santa Maria de Jesus. The 2nd picture is me with a Bible he gave me that is Spanish and Cakchiquel. He helped work on a version of this translation. This language was the very first translation that the Wycliffe Bible Translators started years ago before it was Wycliffe.

Above is Pastor Josue from a community called Sumpango.

Below is Pastor Yosimar who serves in the church we started in Magdalena.

The next few days were spent loving and serving this group of pastors and leaders below. This is the team now in RNV Guatemala.

Below was a beautiful time of ministering to them at the end of our retreat.

You can watch a 2 minute video of the retreat here.

We had lots of good meetings with Love Guatemala too. The one above was with the LG board in Guatemala and Amy and myself who are on the board here in the US as well.

I always have to visit the nutrition center when I am there.

This is the LG board in Guatemala.

We had a dinner with the staff our last night there as well which was fun to catch up with everyone.

Amy, Katy and I spent 2 days in meetings talking about all the happenings with LG and talking about the future. Katy is doing an amazing job and we have some amazing plans for the coming months and years. I am more excited than ever for the future of LG!

Here is another video of the whole trip.