Ministry Is Done Better Together...

Ministry...Mission...Living out the Gospel is not something you can do alone.  God has taught us this over and over again over the past couple of years, really for many years.  We have been involved in ministry for many years, really all of us as believers in Jesus should be and are about his mission whether we are doing it full time or not.  But as we have gotten more involved in ministry over the years God has taught us the need to come along side others and ask others to come along side us.  This is not natural!  We are all programmed to do life alone and think at times that we don't need others but we do.  We are not meant to do life and ministry alone.

We have many different partners involved in different levels with our family and Love Guatemala .  Some are churches that are involved in supporting the work here financially and relationally through sending teams and supporting our sponsorship program.  Some are companies who want to help us with our micro loans and business training program. Some are individuals. Some of those are here, other missionaries, Carlos and Thelma, who we work with closely and other teachers and staff of Love Guatemala.  There are others of you who are back in the states and partner with us financially which is a huge part that allows us to be here doing what we are doing.  Some of you are involved financially with the sponsorship program and others are working to promote and plan Love Guatemala stateside.  Some have committed to pray.  You are all partners on different levels and in different ways and for this we are truly grateful!  We can't do this alone and God doesn't want us to do this alone!

One example of this partner in ministry is with another ministry here who we work with closely.  It is called The 12x12 Love Project.  This ministry is run by our friends Chris and Holly Steed.  We have become good friends with them. The main ministry they do is build homes for families here and we have worked with them in the past to build homes.  For just $3,000 they build a complete home for families here who many times are living in a house made of just corn stalk and have dirt floors. 

Another part of their ministry is providing stoves for families here who are in need.  Many times families cook over open flames here which creates safety and health issues as you can imagine. The stoves they provide keep the smoke out of the house and keep the family healthier. They recently helped us provide 2 different stoves.  One was for our cooking school.  Many of the women in the cooking school don't have regular stoves so they need to learn how to cook with these wood stoves.  We also provided one for a family connected in the art school.  These stoves were paid for by our last Indy Metro Team that was here in March.  They built a kitchen while they where here and we were able to give them a stove as well.

 Stove in the Cooking School

Stove in Vilma's new kitchen that the Indy Metro Church team built in March

The 12x12 Love Project also builds bathrooms.  These bathrooms help keep the families healthy as well. We were grateful they chose to provide a bathroom for one of the students in the Art School.  It is a beautiful bathroom!  

Thanks to each of you who partner with us in many different ways!  We could not be here without you!