The Birth of KBI

There are so many exciting things going on here it is tough to pick which thing to post about next. Today we are working on preparing for a service tomorrow where we will get to help a new national friend with a new work. This work will be in Spanish and is 30 minutes outside of La Libertad, a city on the other side of Santa Rita. Please be in prayer for that!

Also today Jimmy is starting a formal doctrines class with Lico since God put it in his heart to pastor a church... maybe the church in NH! Please pray for that. Last week Lico went with Jimmy for the first service in a campo blanco. It is really exciting to see God work in Lico's life!

What I wanted to share today is about KBI (the Kekchi pastors' institute). While we were on furlough we wanted to begin to raise the money to buy the land for the farm, the dormitories and the classrooms for the Institute. This was $47,500. (We had already received $2,500.) We were not very good fundraisers and we didn't have any strategy at all. We had no ideas to get people involved, nothing really other than sharing it in our presentation.

After one of those presentations, the pastor of the church came up to Jimmy and said casually, "How much were you guys needing for the land... well I just wanted to let you know it's paid for." What?!!! We wanted to shout it from the rooftops then, but they asked to remain anonymous. God just used these people's heart for missions and took care of it. He didn't need any gimmicks.

We were overwhelmed! The way that God did it reassured us that He is completely behind this endeavor.

Once we got back Jimmy started to narrow down the land options. He is still looking for the best piece to purchase. He also began meeting with the men who he felt would be great leaders in the institute. These are the men who will be on the board of directors, plus Jimmy and Pastor Andy.

{Santiago, Carlos, Mateo, Domingo, & Manuel}

Missionary Domingo is the president, which is great because he has a huge passion for campos blancos (white fields). He works in over a dozen each month and this is the purpose of the institute, to train new pastors to go reach the unreached village.

Pastor Mateo is the vice-president. He is the current legal representative for the Kekchi pastors' association. He has worked very hard and now pastors the largest church among the Kekchi in Petén. He is a great leader among the other pastors.

Professor Manuel is the legal representative. He has been in charge of the training they have now for the current pastors. This is what we want to expand on and add to for the new pastors. He is very educated and has a lot more work in front of him now, so pray for him! He is willing to move his family 2.5 hrs to San Pancho in order to head up the curriculum.

Pastor Carlos is the secretary. He writes very well in both Kekchi and Spanish, so he is great for this job.

Jimmy is the treasurer. We had to put him somewhere... haha!

Pastor Andy is the Vocal I. He has an equal heart for Petén. We work with his mission agency a lot in the radio ministry, so beyond being a great encourager and friend he will be the liaison with his agency as well.

Pastor Santiago is the Vocal II. He is the current treasurer for the Kekchi pastor's association.

All organizations have to have long names in Spanish, but we tried to keep ours relatively short. Nonetheless, it is a big trend to have an acronym that you say instead of spelling. Ours is "IBiKeP." Instituto Bíblico Kekchi de Petén.

All of these men (aside from Pastor Andy) have never missed a training session. They were picked by Jimmy and Domingo because they have proven themselves to be trustworthy over time. They are very involved and want to see the rest of the Kekchi in Petén reached with the Gospel. None of them will be paid except for Manuel eventually as a professor, yet they were still looking forward to investing their time into this. They were all very excited about the vision. They used the word, "magnífico!"

After the board of directors met together they presented the Institute to the rest of the Kekchi pastors who were able to attend the monthly meeting. They were just as excited. They will be sending men and teens out of their churches to attend this seminary. They said it was a privilege to be a part of something like this!

We are so thankful to be able to work together with these men to reach the rest of their people. Soon we will have pastors for the village that call into the radio station asking for someone to come to their village to tell them more about this God.