2018 Theme

What do you do at the end of each year and the beginning of a new year? I often set goals and review the previous years goals. I don't usually have a word for the year but this year was different. I felt as if the Lord was impressing a word on my heart that I was not really sure I wanted as my word for the year in 2018 and I am still not sure.  But I do know from Scripture that it is something we are all called to as believers and that is SACRIFICE.

Sacrifice is one of those things we don't want to do but must do to follow Jesus as he calls us. I started this year challenging myself, our family and our staff here at Love Guatemala to sacrifice for the cause of Christ.

Here is the passage of Scripture the Lord brought me to when thinking about this word. "Anyone who loves their father and mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds their life will lose it, and who ever loses their life for my sake will find it. Matthew 10:37-39.

Not an easy passage to wrestle with, in fact maybe one of the toughest to study, read and even more difficult to put into actions. I am not sure how we have somehow arrived to the conclusion especially as American Christians that the Christian life is supposed to be easy and better. Like we are supposed to have more money and be healthier. This is found nowhere in the New Testament.

In the passage from Matthew 10 Jesus says real life is found in giving up our lives. Many of us have never experienced all the Lord has for us because we are not willing to sacrifice. For each of us sacrifice means a different thing. Maybe it is time, money or giving up a comfort. Not so we can somehow earn more from God or earn better Christian status, No! We have all God offers in Christ. But let's sacrifice because we Love God more than anything else in our lives (including our own families) and we know what He offers is better than anything else and we want everyone else to know this!

So I am desiring in my own life to sacrifice in this new year to make the gospel known. I want to lead my family to sacrifice and our ministry we are leading all to sacrifice to make Jesus known.

Trip with Carlos

Many of you know that Carlos and I (Ben) were able to take a trip to the states over the last part of November and the first part of December. It was mainly a fundraising trip and we saw and share with lots of people and also had some fun. Probably the funnest thing for me was to watch Carlos experience snow for the first time!  Below are some pics of our time there.

Our first church visit at Emmaus Church in Jacksonville, Florida

Carlos sharing at our friend Jana's classroom in Macon, Georgia 

Our time with the Capstone youth.

Carlos with some of our Love Guatemala board at his painting expo.

At Indy Metro Church

Sharing at Calvary Church in Plainfield, Indiana with our friends the Cheeks!

We got to take a quick tour of Washington, DC! Beautiful City.

With our friend Kim in the beautiful mountains of Virginia.

Carlos experiencing snow for the first time!

Dinner with our friends from Virginia!

Doing some site seeing with our friends, Tom and Cindy!

Thanks for those that prayed and gave! We had a good trip and shared about all that is happening here at Love Guatemala! Please continue to pray with us for the rest of the funding for 2018 to come in. You can give a year end gift towards our 2018 needs here: https://loveguatemala.org/give/

19 years and counting...

Jennifer and I celebrated 19 years of marriage on the 1st of August.  It seems like just yesterday that we got married.  So much has happened in the last 19 years.  There have been a lot of awesome good things but also some very challenging things.  Jennifer has been a faithful, sweet and loving wife through it all.  I can say without a doubt that we are best friends and our marriage has never been stronger.

Sometimes I pinch myself wondering how I am I so blessed to have married such a great woman.  We enjoy each other and our family.  Thanks to each of you who pray for us and our family.  We know that without prayer and the Lord it would not be possible to have a strong marriage.

We also know that without work, marriages fail.  We try to consistently put in the work through date nights, time together, communication etc.  One thing we used to do regularly was marriage conferences. Well since we live in Guatemala that has been challenging for us.  However we were grateful for a free marriage conference to go to here in Guatemala.  It was a sweet time away to refocus, renew and re-energize our marriage.

Marriage is hard work, but such a blessing and strength.  I love you Jennifer!  Thanks for being a great wife!

"Who can find a virtuous and capable wife? She is more precious than rubies." Proverbs 31:10

The day I got kicked by a horse...

About a month ago we had a group here from Indianapolis visiting and serving with us.  One of the things we sometimes do is climb an active volcano about an hour from here called Pacaya.  I have done this a bunch of times but this day was different.

Everything was normal as we went up and enjoyed this beautiful place.  We enjoyed the sites and sounds and even roasted marshmallows at the top on hardened lava that is still warm enough to roast marshmallows on.

On the way back down is when things began to take a turn for the worst.  My horse was acting a little weird (I would too if I had a 240lb man on me ;-) Especially when my horse got close to another horse that Steve was riding.  Here is Steve on his horse that was maybe a little small for him ;-)

Well apparently Steve's horse had had a little much of my horse and he decided to go up on his two front legs and kick back.  One of his hoofs landed right on my knee!  Yes I screamed a little like a girl!  The result was about 7 stitches and still to this day 6 weeks later is not completely healed.  Here are some pictures below that are a little graphic so only look if you can handle that sort of thing.

This last one was about a week later after it began to heal.

So there you have it.  One for the story books.  I got kicked by a horse coming down the most active volcano in Central America! Fun times!

5 years in Guatemala!

It is hard to believe we have been here 5 years!  It seems like just yesterday we were selling everything and getting ready for our move here.  Much has happened in 5 years - the boys have grown up, we now have young men in our house.  Love Guatemala has grown and been used to transform lives.  God provided a building for Love Guatemala miraculously. Levi's surgery, many teams have come and visited, started new trade schools etc...

One of the cool things to sit back and watch is how our kids have grown both physically and spiritually.  Here are some pictures of how they have changed over the past 5 years:

Thanks to all who have prayed and supported us over the years!  We could not be here without you!  Please continue your prayers and support. We need them!

This is our prayer for you:

Philippians 1:3-6 "I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."

New Team (Glory Train) From Indy visits Love Guatemala

We had the privilege of hosting this great group who named themselves the "Glory Train" from our home town last week.  The group was made up of 3 churches from the Indy area.  It included my mom and many friends from the church Jennifer and I grew up in and got married in.

It was a special week as we reconnected with old friends, served with my mom, served many people, the students of Love Guatemala and had lots of fun (minus getting kicked by a horse, but that is another blog post).

Check out some pictures from our week.  It was really awesome to see my kids serving along side my mother.  God is so good and gracious!

 I loved having all our boys involved with this team!

They served in the schools. 

 Devin my long time friend! It was awesome to serve along side him and his girls!

 Steve another long time friend who led the team.  He is awesome and a great leader!

I loved how this team connected with our kids especially Caleb and Luke!

The guys!

The Ladies!

Jennifer and I with Steve and Rebecca Smith the leaders of the team and great friends!  It was great to reconnect with them and get to know them and see their hearts for the Lord!

 This gives you an idea of how everyone included Luke in the activities, even picture taking!

The young men of the group with Levi.  The guy on the far right, Alfonso was a great blessing as he handled the majority of the translating which was a huge help to me.  All of these young men and the young ladies were very mature and worked very hard and had lots of fun!

It was a fun week and we accomplished a lot to the Glory of God! 

Birthday & Beach Trip

We had another birthday celebration this month.  Luke loves life and enjoys watching tv, listening to music and going anywhere.  He loves having people over and being with people in general.  It is hard to believe he turned 17 a little over a week ago!  I can't believe we have been parents for 17 years.  The Lord has used Luke to teach us many things in our lives.  We are grateful for him and the Lord has entrusted him to us.  Luke wanted to go go-karting for his birthday and to eat at KFC.  Jennifer also made him pizza bread and cake.  We had a fun day, well actually a few days of celebrating.

We were also able to get away for a few days to the beach this past weekend.  We are grateful to live fairly close to the beach and to be able to go every once in a while.  We have seen that these breaks are necessary for our family.

Joel and most of the boys enjoy getting in the ocean although they can only do so up to their knees because it is so rough!  But it is still beautiful!

 We usually have at least on beautiful sunset while we are there!