Medical Team Visit

We have had a busy March so far and one of the recent things we were a part of was a medical team that came down to bless the community here.  Most of them came from Jacksonville, Florida and a few from South Carolina.  It was a great team and they were used to serve over a 140 kids here in the two communities closest to us, Buena Vista and Magdalena where we live.  This team was mainly focused on helping kids under the age of 5 and some pregnant women as well.  Guatemala is the fourth worst country when it comes to malnutrition and there are many more health issues and concerns and health care is not the greatest here to say the least.  Enjoy a few pictures from the visit below.  Please pray for all that were seen that they will get better physically and that they will know the the hope they can have spiritually through Jesus. 

A big thanks to the team for coming and serving here!

 The check in station.

 A sweet little girl.

 Waiting area...

 Dr. Manny

Dr. Jo

 One of the home visits we did...

The clinic we held at Educate BV.  Big thanks to Mark, Gina, Brit & Jodi for hosting!

30 in 3 Sponsorship Campaign

As many of you have seen we started a campaign at the beginning of February.  The goal of our campaign is to get 30 new sponsors for 30 of the students here in one of the Love Guatemala schools in the next 3 months.  I wanted to give a  quick update on this. You can here or here to learn more about our sponsorship program.

We have had a lot of people get on board and pray and be a part of this campaign.  We are just 24 days into the campaign and we have 21 of 30 sponsor goals.  We are hoping and praying to get this done much sooner that anticipated.

The sponsorship program makes a huge difference in the lives of the students here and give us the resources to minister here through the schools.  These schools provide more than education or training but give these young men and women hope for the future.  Hope that they can do something with their lives and break out of the cycle of poverty.

Thanks for making a difference and being a part.  If you have not gotten involved you can go here to do so: www.loveguatemala.org/sp2/

Fun with the Camera

We had a very busy weekend!  We had our friend Carl Bunso come down with his friend Brandon to do some video work with us. It was a lot of fun but a lot of work.  I am so grateful Carl and Brandon gave of their time and money to come and help us.  We will have videos of all the different aspects of ministry here.  The above pic is just outside the cooking school where we did some general video of the school and interviewed Antoinetta, the cooking school teacher and a couple of the students.

Enjoy some more pics of the weekend below:

 Carl micing up one of the students in the carpentry school for an interview.

 More interviews

Carl and Pedro the carpentry school teacher.

We had a lot of fun and got a lot of great footage.  I am looking forward to seeing all the finished products. Please pray we can get everything edited well and get them ready soon.  These will be great tools to help promote the work of God here.  We even got some crazy videos of what it is like to drive here by mounting a camera to the front of my suburban :)

El Evangelio

El Evangelio = The Gospel

The gospel is the whole reason we moved to Guatemala.  The gospel is the reason we can live and breathe and have hope for a future with Jesus. Gospel = Jesus.

One of my goals when I started learning Spanish was to be able to share the gospel in Spanish without help :).  I have been working towards this for over 7 months now.  It was a joy to be able to do that this morning at one of our schools here, the carpentry school.  This year we have begun having regular devotionals in each of the schools.  We are focusing on three words that we want the students to learn and apply in their lives.  The words are integrity, love and respect or integridad, amor y respeto en Espanol.  

This week we have been talking about the word love and what that means and what the Bible teaches about love.  I shared a common scripture from John 3:16 and shared how Jesus sacrifice for us on the cross was the greatest act of love ever.

Thanks for praying for the ministry and students here.  We are praying that God will do a mighty work in each of their hearts this year and many will come to know Jesus and his love for them!

(Below is a picture from last year's Carpentry School Class and our friend Carl who started the Carpentry School and the Current teacher Pedro on the bottom right.)

First Week of Schools

As we mentioned in a previous blog the art, cooking and carpentry schools started this past week so I thought we would post a few pics.  These are from our opening session Monday morning.  We started with a gathering of all the students from all three schools and the teachers.  We covered the rules, shared a devotional and prayed over the students and teachers as they started the new year.

Carlos reviewing the rules with the students...

 We are excited that we were able to start an afternoon class in the art school.  We are also excited that Jacob & Levi are attending the Art School.  This will be huge for them to be able to build relationships with the kids there and help them learn Spanish.

I was able to give a little devotional from Jeremiah 29:11 and share with each of them that God has big plans for each of them for this new year.

 

Thanks for everyones prayers for the first week. Please keep praying that God would do big works in all the students and teachers this year!  We are so excited about all that God has in store.

A New Year, A New Start...

We are so excited about starting a new year with the schools here this Monday! We have lots of exciting things happening around here this year!  We will be starting the new year with about 30 art school students, 12 cooking school students and 10 carpentry school students.  We are going to be able to make some big changes to the Carpentry School because of the generosity of Mosaic Church in Indianapolis.  We are going to purchase some new equipment to be able to teach the students even more skills. 

We are also going to be looking for a piece of property because of the generosity of Indy Metro Church!  Our classrooms are overflowing and we need more space so we will begin with buying a piece of land and go from there.

Most importantly we are excited about all the opportunities we will have to show and share the hope and love of Jesus.  Jennifer and I will be sharing devotionals on a regular basis in each of the schools as well as investing in the teachers and staff of Love Guatemala.

 

A big THANK YOU to all of you who make it possible for us to be here doing what God has called us to do!

Adopt a Family for Christmas Pictures

As many of you may have seen in a previous post we asked others to come along side us for Christmas and adopt a family for Christmas.  Here are some pictures from our time on Christmas Eve passing out all the goods.  It was a lot of fun to be able to bless so many families because of those who gave to make a difference!  Enjoy some photos:

 Caleb being a big helper!

 We were able to pray with every family as well.

 This sweet family has a new born that I enjoy holding :)

 I like babies :)

 

We have become pretty close with this family as their son (Milton) bottom center is good friends with Levi.

 We were able to provide a prepared Christmas dinner, gifts for each of the kids, blankets, and some extra food for future use.

 

A beautiful sunset as we were walking back from passing out the gifts.

 

We are grateful for Jesus and his birth.  It was great to be able to share his love with some many families because of Jesus and his followers on Christmas Eve! To God be the Glory!

 

Thanks to everyone who gave to make it possible for each of these families to have a Christmas!

 

John 1:14 "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."