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!

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. 

Red Nueva Vida Pastors Retreat 2025

 

Our 2025 Pastoral Retreat is in the books. This is an important time of connection and growth for all of us. I love the privelege of getting to lead this group. Please continue to pray with us for all the Lord has done and will do through the ministry of Red Nueva Vida in the USA. Check out more pics and info about the retreat below.

We started our time sharing together about praises and challenges in ministry and prayed for each other

We had some time of worship together too

Pastor Jonathan shared the word with us and talked about fervent prayer which was our theme for the retreat.

Of course we had a bonfire together and shared.

More prayer time early Saturday morning.

Pastor Randy Spacht shared with us Saturday morning. He is a great expositor of the word! He talked about how Christ is building his church and what the statement, "And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of heall shall not prevail against it" from Matthew 16:18 means and its implications for us as pastors.

This was a workshop we did further building out and applying the message on fervent prayer on Friday night. Pastor Daniel Godbey led us in this workshop.

I got to finish our time with a conversation together about what it means for us as a team to form and execute the vision God has given us as a hispanic disciple-making network in the USA. We will continue to work on this in the weeks and months to come.

A Special thanks to Daniel, Jonathan and Randy for sharing at the retreat. Also a big thanks to Piedmont Church who helped sponsor part of the retreat!

Trip To Guatemala February 2025

 Ben had the opportunity to travel to Guatemala to serve alongside Carlos the new National Coordinator there. They held a pastor's conference, Ben was able to perform a wedding of couple he baptized and disicpled while living there. Love Guatemala also had a 10 year celebration of officially being a recognized ministry in Guatemala. And of course many visits with friends who are like family. 

Always fun to hang with the feeding center kids at Love Guatemala. The team continues to improve and disciple these kids.

The pastor's retreat which was held at our friend's ministry property.

Lots of time to share and worship together.

It's not a retreat without a campfire

10th anniversary of Love Guatemala

Prayer of thanks for 10 years and praying for many more faithful years serving the community of Magdalena and beyond.

Carlos and Telma the founders of LG

It was fun to hear many staff members share about their memories and experiences of working and serving at LG. This is Guicho our very first full time employee who is still working as Security.

The new staff at LG. They do a great job with Katy leading them.

Wedding time! This is Pedro and Silvia, Telma's brother and sister in law. The gospel continues to bring about restoration to their family. What a testimony to many there!

This was a special time of praying for them with their kids.

Ben enjoyed doing this wedding. Such a picture of the work of the gospel in a family. 

Getting some snuggles from Killian Caleb, Katy's son.

The best sunrises are in Guatemala!

Fun to hang out with the pastors one afternoon in Antigua!

Always hard to say goodbye!