Ministry Trip to East Coast of Guatemala

 

(Carlos, Walter, Ben, Yosimar, Jose)

We had the opportunity to take a trip to the east side of Guatemala to explore some ministry opportunities for New Life Network Guatemala. We are excited for all the connections and open doors that we find there for ministry and planting churches. Please pray for wisdom and resources to know how, when and how to walk through these doors.

David the 2nd from the left is the director of El Faro the ministry we visited that is doing some great work in that area. (It is close to a city called Puerto Barrios which is on the east coast of Guatemala just north of Honduras)

Here we are praying for a missionary couple that is working in Greece with refugees from Iran. It was a great divine connection as we look to mobilize missionaries. I hope to visit them there in Greece.

This is a sweet girl in a village we visited called El Naranjal which I will share more about below.

This is the name of the ministry where we stayed.

This is the trip to the town I mentioned above, El Naranjal. It is an 1 1/2 hr boat ride from El Faro.

This is the school that El Faro built for this community. They were starting some leadership training with this community. This is one place where we would like to help plant a church.

Introducing ourselves

Carlos was leading the leadership training as it is training he has done many times at Love Guatemala.

On the way back we made another divine connection with Quique a Pastor in Livingstone. He has a fire for his people and the Lord which was noted only after visiting with him for 15 minutes. He invited us to come back and we may have him come and share with our church too. We were praying for him here.

It is a beautiful part of the country!

This is a discipleship group that Jose and Norita started at El Faro. Jose and Norita are our friends that leave here close but go to El Faro once a month for a week and serve there in pastoral care. He went through the discipleship route with us last year and now is leading this group there in El Faro.

The pic above was a meeting we had with Laura and Miguel who I mentioned above are missionaries in Greece. This was an amazing time of hearing their story and how God is using them.

This is part of the staff from El Faro plus our four.

I am grateful for this opportunity and excited to see how the Lord uses these connections.

Kunkel Home Assignment in 2023

 

In June of this year our family finished 10 years serving in Guatemala. It has been a great 10 years and we have seen the Lord do some amazing things which we talked a little about here if you are interested. We have sensed for a time that there is a need for us to take an extended time stateside. Since we have transitioned from Love Guatemala as of July 1 of this year we thought that now would be a good time to take an extended time stateside. We sought much counsel on this decision and with unanimous counsel on this decision and also the blessing of the leadership at New Life Network we have decided to take a one year home assignment for the year of 2023. We will be back in the states December of this year and plan to be back in Guatemala in January 2024.

Here are several reasons why we feel it is necessary in this season to take a year away from Guatemala:

• We have not all been back as a family for 3 years.
• We will have two grown children (Levi and Jacob) in the US when we come back and they need some more time and attention in this season.
• We want and need to spend some extended time with our our family especially our parents.
• We desire and need to further develop our relationship with New Life Network senior leadership that is currently located in Indianapolis.
• We desire to connect with all of our current ministry partners
• We need to raise some more financial support for our family. (We lost about 25% of our monthly support while transitioning from LG to NLN)
• We need a period of rest which is part of the plan you can see below.

What will we do in this year stateside? (No it is not a year long vacation ;-)

• Ben will be connecting with the senior leadership of New Life Network and be held accountable for the time stateside.
• We will focus on further building relationships with NLN leadership.
• We will stay connected virtually with team in Guatemala and still meeting regularly and supporting as much as possible from a distance.
• We will be supporting Love Guatemala and Katy regularly meeting with them for support and coaching as well as continuing to serve on the board.
• Ben will make a few trips to Guatemala for leadership mtgs/retreats and other needs.
• We will also be doing fundraising as indicated above which will require some travel.
• We are planning on taking a 3 month sabbatical where we will do very little ministry related.

How you can help and pray for us:

• Pray for a fruitful year in all the ways listed above.
• Pray for a great recharge of batteries for the next 10 years of ministry.
• Pray for financial provision and success in fundraising.
• Pray for transition for Jacob to states.
• Pray for transportation for us while we are there.
• Pray for health insurance options while we are there.

Praise the Lord with us for:

• A home to stay in. Thanks Cheek Family!
• Plane tickets purchased.
• A visa for Sofia. (We plan on pursuing citizenship for her while we are there)
• Great teams in Guatemala to lead the ministry as we are away.

Thanks for your prayers and support!

Please feel free to shoot us an email with any thoughts, questions or concerns you might have: benjamin@rednuevavida.org

Jennifer's Birthday and our 24th Anniversary

 Jennifer recently had a birthday. We won't say how old she turned. She is more beautiful than ever though! Unfortunately we were in quarantine dealing with Covid at the time of her birthday.

We still got her a cake though.

All her kiddos except Levi.

Selfie of the whole fam.

We also were able to get away for a night to celebrate 24years of marraige. What a gift our marriage is. 24 years we have had 7 kids, adopted 1, lived in 2 states in the US, two different countries, planted churches, established ministries, schooled kids, sent one of our kids to US and much more!

Of course we had a tag along this celebration. Next year for our 25th we are planning and saving for a trip without kiddos!

What is the Kunkel Family doing now?

This is the question we continue to get so since it does not yet seem clear to all about our role in Guatemala I wanted to take some time and explain exactly what we are doing in our ministry in Guatemala.

In January 2018 we planted a church. It began with 10 or so people in our apartment and now it is a church with a leadership team, Guatemala leadership and pastor and self-supporting. But the goal of this church was never just one church but a church that plants churches. A movement of churches all throughout Guatemala. 

(our first discipleship group that finished the 2yr discipleship process)

We began this church in cooperation with New Life Network. New Life Network exists to "Form and reproduce disciples, healthy churches, and servant leaders that are faithful and trained all among the Hispanic community globally." For more information on New Life Network you can visit our website here.

In each country where the network exists the network president has assigned a country coordinator. This is our role in Guatemala. Our job in this role is to expand the network here in Guatemala by establishing a a multiplying network of churches. So what does this mean?

• Coaching and encouraging pastors and leaders: Right now there is only one completely establish church and so I can coaching and encouraging this pastor, Carlos Lopez.
• Training New Pastors and Church Planters: We have a group of about 5 guys that are in the pipeline to become church planters. We are training these guys and other leaders through a variety of ways. 
• One way we are training is our Bible institute which contains two one year programs. The first year is how to plant a church and the second year is how to pastor a church.
• Another way is through our pastors school which gives more theological depth to those we are preparing.
• We have also established a program that includes our discipleship route, retreats, books and other things to help train several guys in church planting. Here is an example of one such retreat.
• Looking for potential areas to plant new churches.
• Develop Pioneers Program: This program allows existing churches to enter the network and use the tools and training we have developed.
• Form and develop operations team/staff in Guatemala that will serve to help us carry out training, processes developed, and coaching of church planters.
• Form and develop the board of directors in Guatemala that will help with the legal side of things. (We are autonomous and yet in related with New Life Network International)
• Communicate with and represent New Life Network International in Guatemala.

                                                                      (This is our institute)

In addition to these responsibilities. We are working on some missionary mobilization training to help begin mobilize more leaders Latinos to global missions. 

This should keep us busy for a while ;-) Thanks for your questions, prayers and support. It means a lot. Please let us know if you have any questions!

Pastors and Church Planters in Training

 One of our main roles in this new season is raising up new church planters and pastors. We have several guys that are on track for these roles and we are so excited for all God has in store for them. One of the things we are doing to train and prepare these men is some half day retreats. Some of these are time to go deeper in some of the discipleship topics we are covering and then other times we discuss church planting topics. We had our first one this past weekend. The team that was here from Piedmont Church was able to help and Pastor Chris talked about Evangelism with them. Please pray for this group of guys that the Lord will raise them up to be passionate for Him and for the work unto which he has called them. 

We are praying that from these guys comes many new churches to make God's glory known among the nations!

10 Ways we have seen God's Faithfulness in the last 10 Years Serving in Guatemala...

 

It is hard to believe that we are completing 10 years of serving the Lord in Guatemala. It has been an amazing ride and we are grateful the Lord has allowed us to be a part. I have been reflecting on this the past few weeks and want to share some ways we have seen God being faithful to our family and the ministries we have served with here since June of 2012.

One Scripture that stuck out to me in a recent reading was from 2 Samuel 7:18b. It is a pray of David in which he says, "Who am I, Sovereign LORD, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far?" This is the same thought I have had recently. Who am I and who is the Kunkel family that you would call us and use us here in Guatemala. But we are grateful for his calling and using us. We are also grateful to so many people that the Lord has surrounded us with during these 10 years to pray, support, work with side by side.

Here are 10 ways we have seen God working in our family over the last 10 years. 10 ways we have seen God's faithfulness evidenced in our lives. (There are many more but had to narrow it down)

1. Calling: You can read about this in our very first blog post here. This happened in 2010 and 2011 when God called our family to sell everything and move to Guatemala with our five boys. What a journey it has been! God is faithful!
2. Financial Provision: God has faithfully provided for our family and ministry for over 10 years. We began raising funds for our family and then for Love Guatemala and we have never missed a meal or ever had to lay off an employee or close a program at LG because of financial issues alone. God is faithful!
3. Safety: We live in a majority world country with a fair amount of crime and natural disasters etc. We knew our calling included risks for our family but God has kept us "safe". We have never had a major accident or health issue to deal with while living here in Guatemala. (Safety and security is not the goal nor should it be for all of us as believers, but we are grateful for God's protection) God is faithful!
4. Direction: We have also seen the Lord faithfully guiding us in these 10 years. He guided us as we moved here, He guided as we expanded the ministry, He guided us as we looked for land to expand, He guided us as we built the LG facility. He has been faithfully guiding. God is faithful!
5. Provided teams: God has brought just the right people into our lives and ministry over the past 10 years as well. Some have been brought into our lives in "ordinary" ways and others in "extraordinary" ways such as dreams and divine intervention. It is incredible to see how God has brought so many people around us and Lg and now New Life Network to do the work God is calling us to do. Teams both in the states and here in Guatemala. God is Faithful!
6. Provided the Facility for LG: You can see the entire story here, but God miraculously provided for the current LG facility that houses our schools and ministry and a church. 
7. Expansion of Love Guatemala: With the new facility we were able to grow our programs and reach. We started a feeding center, English school and eventually, primary, middle and high school. Later in 2019 we were able to expand and build on some land we had bought a few years before. We built a multi-purpose facility that we are currently enclosing and expanding a little more. Little did we know how much this space would help us during the pandemic since it is open air and larger. God is faithful!
8. New Life Church: Through one of those divine connections mentioned above, Carlos and I at the end of 2017 connected with a Pastor who was launching a Hispanic church planting network throughout Latin America which would become known as New Life Network. This led to us launching a church in early 2018 in Guatemala. This has now grown and is multiplying into various churches and works in the coming months and years. See one of the first posts about New Life Church here. God is faithful!
9. Growing Family: In 2018 we were blessed to have our first girl, Grace Christina. See this story here. In 2020 we adopted Jimena Sofia. Her story is here. In 2021 God surprised us with another little girl, Emma Jane. (I guess I was too tired to write a blog about her birth) And what is even more amazing is that God has given us the energy most days to keep up with these three little ones. God is faithful!
10. Changed Lives: The main reason God sent us to Guatemala was so "The whole earth would be filled with his glory." Ps. 72:19b And this happens as people encounter him through gospel proclamation. (Romans 10:17) We have had the great privilege to see the Lord transform many lives. Here are a few of the lives we have seen changed: Baptisms, Walter,  Other baptisms,  Julio and his transformed life, Eswin's Baptism.

Glory to God for all He has done in the last 10 years. He truly is faithful. Thanks to each of you who have been a part through encouragement, prayers and financial support!

Transition Dinner, Prayer and Celebration

We had a special weekend celebrating Katy and what God has done in her life. We had several guests down to celebrate with us including representatives from our board of directors. It was a special time. 

Amy (LG board president) giving words of encouragement and praying for Katy

Katy's parents giving words and praying for her. 

Ben giving words of encouragement. We all believe in her so much and can't wait to see how God uses her in this new season of Love Guatemala. Please pray with us for Katy!

Time of prayer over Katy officially installing her as the new general director.

Amy encouraging the LG team.

Katy had a special gift for Amy that was a painting of the first school in Magdalena.

Ben got to share some words with the staff and express how proud he was of them all. They had all shared how they arrived at LG and how God was working in their lives. Almost all of them shared how much they had grown in their faith in their time at LG. It was a special time.

They all then circled Ben to pray for him as he transitions out of LG.

Thanks for all your prayers during this time of transition!