A Pickup Full

I know it is hard to believe, but there has been another threat made from that wonderful first guerrilla community we just love to keep going back too! We have stopped paying to have a bus go in there to bring people to church. We were concerned it would actually cause a lot of harm to our church and to us to continue bringing them. There are all kinds of dark things going on that just make it unsafe for our family. I don't foresee us ever going back in there this time. It is so oppressive. There have been victories and there are people who are now living victorious Christian lives outside of that community. I honestly don't think it is possible inside that place. 

Anyway this has happened before, but it seems like whenever a door is closed God says to us, "Well here are some other people who ARE ready for the Gospel!" 

The very next week families from the village next door to the institute started piling on the pickup that brings the students to church! I think Y(the institute cook) has a lot to do with that. She is such a beautiful lady inside and out, I think she has a gift of bringing people to Jesus! 

And so begins another chapter with a new group of people! I am so thankful for those God brings into our lives. There is no church in their village... maybe there will be soon!

And yes this is the village where the cops told Jimmy he was on his own if things went bad! 

So Many People Hurting

Our church family needs a lot of prayer today. Yesterday afternoon, a one year old little boy of a family who has been attending our church drowned. This is a family who already lost their mom. This was their stepmom's baby with their father. The entire family comes to our church and God has been working in their lives. As far as we know, none of them have claimed to have put their faith in Christ yet, but they were coming every week seeking. Due to them being from NH, we are very concerned for them as they mourn. That community loves to destroy families. They are going to try and place blame and tear them apart, it has already started. Jimmy missed the service last night to be with this family and Juan preached. The father had asked Jimmy to come. Jimmy had to leave once the drunks started coming out due to being forbidden to be inside that place anyway and there being so much hostility. After church Juan, Nick, and Norma went to be with the family as well. 

The mayor of the town close by donated a casket. They washed the little boy and placed him inside with it left open. Everyone just sits quietly in a room with him while children walk up and look and touch the dead body.  It is all so sad. Jimmy did get to talk to the father a lot, but I am very worried about the mother. She isn't from there and I know she is completely alone.

We have the promise that sweet little Estephen is in the presence of God, but we still mourn. Please, please lift up this family in prayer. Please pray that this tragedy doesn't tear them apart. Please pray that somehow this will draw them to the Lord. Estephen had 3 brothers and 1 sister who loved him very much. Please pray for them all!

We had a 13 year old Christian teen who attends our church show up at our house this morning. His parents are drunk and kicked him out telling him that they hope that he dies on the street. Obviously he was in tears. There are so many people hurting! 

Together Again!

Two Sundays ago I looked out over the people in our evening service and I saw our story. All of our last 5+ years in Petén were represented in that building. 

When we started the church plant in San Pancho we intended it for just the people of San Pancho. First last April the people in SR (the 2nd ex-guerrilla community where we were kicked out of) started coming headed up by Marcos. Then people in NH heard about it and Lico organized them together and last week they started coming as well (that's the 1st ex-guerrilla community we were kicked out of). 

I wish I would have taken another pic after everyone who was outside talking came inside, but you can get a pretty good idea. This was two Sundays ago. I really couldn't believe it, that's why I didn't post it. But, they came back this past Sunday too. 

27 people loaded up a pickup from NH and came. It was people we hadn't seen in years. God is still at work in their lives! I took a couple photos afterwards. 

Alquilino and his family came (Alquilino was outside talking with Jimmy). 

Here is Elda and Lico's new baby girl!

Rosa Olivia was there. At the time we left I was praying with her that God would give her a child. She and her husband had been trying to have a child for years. Well I found out that He did give her a daughter since then, but she passed away at 8 months of age. I was crying when I heard. Elda kept telling Rosa, "Shelley prayed for years for her children and now she has 3, don't give up hope."This just makes me sick. I wish someone would have called us when her baby got sick and we could have kept it out of the government hospitals. I cannot imagine her pain. My children are such a gift. 

Mercedes was there too! She is from SR but lives somewhere else now, so she is going to start trying to go there on Sunday nights to catch the micro. This was her first time meeting Eden! Unfortunately Eden didn't meet Mercedes! Sundays exhaust my children. 

Believe it or not, Quincho was even there. He is living in the capital now and was just back for a short time. Please pray for him. I want him to keep growing and he doesn't live close where we can encourage him. 

Hector, his brother is a Christian now too if you remember. He is really trying to grow in His walk with God. He came both weeks so far. Seriously... Eden is so charming in all of these photos! My riveting kids' time must have knocked her out.

What an awesome blessing for God to give us the privilege to work with all of these people again! Please pray for all of us and we seek to know God more everyday and strive to become more like Him. Also, please pray for those who are still making decisions about becoming Christ followers. And Rejoice! No one can write a story like this but God!

In Due Season

We still aren't allowed into SR to visit, but Marcos does it for us. He was the one Christian in there when we arrived and he had been praying for a church. He goes around to all the Kekchi families visiting them and inviting them to our church in San Pancho. He has made the town leaders so upset that they keep spreading lies about him. They even have called the police a couple times saying he is chopping down trees and illegally hunting. He has had to appear before a judge several times. He just tells the truth and they let him go. Please pray for him and the other Christians that are being persecuted in there. There is an entire community of believers now! 

Poor guys, I made them look into the sun for this photo!

Just within the last 2 weeks a man that Jimmy had been witnessing to for years came to know the Lord as a result of Marcos' burden for him. Francisco came to our adult Bible studies in SR and even would sit outside the kids' time listening to the stories. We loved his kids. I am SO thankful their dad now has a relationship with God! Heaven is Rejoicing!

When God Changes Your Future

We made one last trip to the capital this week for paperwork that I will share more about later. While we were there this time we got to meet up with an old friend. 

She was a teen that came to our Bible study very faithfully when we worked in NH, our first ex-guerrilla community. At the time we were kicked out she still had not accepted Christ. We knew she was in a very bad home situation but there was nothing we could do to help her until she turned 18. About a year and a half ago she called Jimmy and asked if there was some place she could go if she left home. Jimmy immediately got her on a bus and in contact with a wonderful Christian women and children's shelter in Guatemala City. 

A while back she messaged us that she had accepted Christ. This day was the first time we had seen her since the day she left Petén. Just looking at her I knew she was different. There was so much joy and peace. She was one of us, a sister in Christ. What a change! She spoke of a discipleship class she had just completed at her church and how she goes on visitation to share Christ with others. It just blew my mind. NH was such a dark place. I cannot believe she was able to come out of that. She said that she thought it would take leaving there for someone to be able to believe the truth. She doesn't even like visiting there anymore because she can sense Satan's stronghold on that place. 

This is a testimony of God's work in someone's life. The time we had with her was such a blessing to us. I loved seeing the hope that God had given her. She was so happy and had purpose. She also has a big burden for her mom. Please pray for her and her mom.  She is sending a Bible back for her. It is not safe for us to go back inside NH, but her mom will be coming over to our house to pick it up.

I hope you are rejoicing with us over the new life God has given her. We knew what her future was going to be, and to see what her life is now, makes you want to shout! It is because of stories like this that we love our life here. We seriously have the best seats in the house!

The Devil Tried to Keep God Out But...

There is a large Kekchi community inside Santa Rita, the ex-guerrilla community we were kicked out of in March of last year. For some reason there is some type of bond there between us and them. Many of them stuck up for us and we appreciated it. We were not ready to stop working with them when we had to leave.

Jimmy wanted to give them the opportunity to attend the new Kekchi church plant in San Pancho. It is about 15 minutes away by car. He planned on hiring a micro bus each week to go by and pick them up. We were really looking forward to going back into this community and inviting everyone ourselves.

Marcos came by our house one day and told Jimmy that he didn't think it would be safe for us to go in. Beyond that they didn't want those responsible for getting us kicked out to know that the Kekchi were attending church... especially "Jimmy's church". So we didn't get to go invite them ourselves, but Marcos did. He told everyone! They asked us to send 2 micros in order to fit everyone, but we didn't believe that many would come. We sent 2 anyway.

We were so surprised Easter Sunday morning! 28 Kekchi adults from Santa Rita came, plus a slew of kids, plus 12 adults from another guerrilla community close by that also wanted to come.

I was in the kids part, so I didn't get hardly any pictures. There were so many familiar faces!!

{Our cupcake tombs for Easter}

{This is what Jonah and Silas do during the lesson. They are old enough now to participate during the craft time. There are plenty of adult volunteers to hold Eden... haha!}

I cannot express the thankfulness we feel to be with these people again. So many of them have not accepted Christ yet and others are very new believers. We got a second chance!! They came back last week too!

We were supposed to be out of their lives forever, but God worked it out. We bought land in San Pancho for our forever house and were planning on starting this Kekchi church long before we ever had a hint of anything going wrong in Santa Rita. I guess it was all part of His plan to make a way.

Our old friend Mateo from New Horizon, our first ex-guerrilla community, lives in San Pancho now, so he started coming!

Please keep praying for this new mission as it grows! And please praise the Lord with us for this opportunity!

Alleluias Rose From the Banks

If you don't know Lico's story, it is here. Since New Horizon would not allow baptisms or for us to be called a church, not to mention kicking us out, we weren't sure how Lico would ever be baptized. He has been meeting with Jimmy every Saturday for months now for their discipleship class.

He has a strong desire for his new relationship with God to grow. We mentioned that when we got back from furlough we found out that he and his family had been walking 45 minutes to a church in the next town down from New Horizon. There aren't many churches around here with the truth, but we really liked this one. A couple weeks ago the pastor of that church contacted us and said that Lico wanted to be baptized and wanted Jimmy to be the one to do it. So he invited us to attend the baptismal service this past Sunday.

{Jimmy & Lico with his pastor}

So early Sunday morning we met them for a worship service on the banks of a river. We had been out late the night before in a Kekchi village, so our boys were exhausted!

This is the group who had put their faith in Christ and were desiring to take this first step of obedience.

Jimmy prayed with Lico first before he baptized him.

Here is a video too if you want to watch. I was standing on the edge of a 3 foot drop off into the river, holding one boy, trying to keep the other one from falling in the river, and taking photos and video. Everyone was asking me for photos. And we're keeping it real because half way through Jonah starts to cry. Poor little missionary boys, we had worn them out.

This is Lico with his wife Elda, daughter Paula, and son Luis.

Please pray for Lico as he continues to grow in Christ and lead his family. We are so thankful for this opportunity. God opened a path for obedience. He made a way! We are so thankful for this day and everything it means to Lico and our family! It was Jimmy's first baptism in Guatemala and it just so happened to be our first convert from over 3 years ago.

Visiting Santa Rita

The first week we got back we visited Santa Rita. We technically are not supposed to be in there, so instead of walking up and down the streets, we just stopped by a couple of friends' houses.

Bernabe was the first person we visited. We had photos and videos of her daughter and 3 grandchildren she has never met. She didn't know that we had located Berta in KY, so this was a complete surprise to her. Her eyes filled with happy tears while she watched her daughter's message to her.

I was wondering how Jonah and Silas would do back in this environment. They were a little cautious at first, but then started seeing familiar faces. Before we went to the States they only understood a little of what was said to them in English or Spanish. Once they were around only English for 3 months, it seems as though they understand every word now and even say a couple. Here it looks as though they lost all of their Spanish, so it will take some time.

They had fun chasing the duck around in Bernabe's house and playing with the other kids.

Bernabe was roasting coffee beans! I hadn't seen that before here, I thought it was interesting.

Of course we stopped by to visit with Fabio. He wasn't the first to tell us about 2 of the town leaders who had written up the act to get us kicked out being thrown into jail for being accused of stealing from the community. As our Kekchi friends say, God is the Big Judge.

As soon as the community finishes legally splitting up the land, the portion that Fabio gave us will be in our name and we can do whatever we want on it... like start a church! We told him about the work starting back up again in New Horizon. He said, "They are so lucky to be able to learn about God, we have nothing here." He is very eager to get the Bible study up and going again. He is thinking about hiring a lawyer to speed the process up so that we can start meeting again before the land gets divided. We are thankful for his hunger for God. All of our friends who saw us asked if we were coming this week to hold services. We want to, we just don't feel that it is safe. Please pray for all of these people and that the door will be reopened very soon.

Silas and Jonah were happy to be reunited with their Blanca and Mercedes! While we were playing in the micro (it was crazy muddy outside) a whole group of people came up and surrounded Jimmy asking to see the video and photos from Berta, Bernabe's daughter. Eulelio, her dad, had heard and came to watch. He cried too when he saw his daughter's face. Everyone there was so excited to hear from her. Evidently they all new her. They kept asking, "Jimmy... you know Berta?!" We were just doing something for a friend, but I think it went a long way with others in the community.

CRAZY ITEM OF THE DAY: We have been hearing about more rumors being spread about us in New Horizon. We have been gone from that place for 2 years now and they are still talking about us. That sort of makes me happy. I hope they never forget what we tried to do in there and what we shared with them. So the newest rumor is that the plane that went down in their village 4 years ago was Jimmy's plane and that he was trying to burn down their pine tree project. Haha! They know that plane was a drug plane, so I'm not sure how many believe it or if they are just desperate to find something bad to say about us whether it's believed by anyone at all.

The Story's Not Over Yet...

Coming back from furlough I was a little discouraged. I felt like we might as well be going to a different field. We were almost starting from the same place as when we arrived 5 years ago... learning a new language, starting a new work, knowing hardly anyone. We had already invested into 2 communities only to be rejected in the end. Now we would be working with the Kekchi exclusively. That meant that until I finished learning the language I wouldn't be able to have what I thought of as hands on ministry, so what good was I. Jimmy at least had the pastors' training, but I had nothing but an out of date Kekchi grammar book who no one could help me understand. Plus all of my national friends were in a village I was no longer allowed to enter and the two missionary families we were friends with would be leaving Petén soon. So that was my mind's talk, not from the Lord or even true, but still in there none the less.

Jimmy and Lico had to run an errand together the other day which provided them with lots of time to talk. We knew Lico had been going to church somewhere while we were gone because last week he called from the hospital where he was visiting someone from his "church".

{The church in Santa Ana Vieja}

This church he mentioned is located in Santa Ana Vieja, about a 40 minute walk from New Horizon. We found out that now there are 5 families attending this church from New Horizon, all families from our Bible Study! Alquilino is one of the men who takes his family. The first time we met him he was wearing a hat because he didn't want Jimmy to sneak up on him and put 666 on his forehead and after the Bible Study was over he asked Jimmy to prove to him that he wasn't the Anti-Christ. Didn't have a course on that in Bible College! Walking his family 40 minutes one way on the highway to church is a long way from that day and we are so thankful.

Jimmy also found out that Lico is taking classes so that he can be baptized next month (something we were not allowed to do in NH)! Then he casually said, "I don't know exactly why, but I just have this feeling that I should be a pastor," and he asked Jimmy to teach him how! So now they will have weekly lessons at our forever house to give more foundational doctrines.

Then we found out that since these families are coming to the church Lico is attending, the church felt led to try and reach out to the rest of New Horizon. Churches and even Bible studies now are illegal, BUT... the farm next door has recently become available to buy in small pieces and the church got a piece. Brilliant! Remember, we had tried to get a piece of the farmland across the street from NH and were turned down.

It's about a 15 minute walk from the houses, but still much closer. On his days off Lico has been helping put up a covered area on that spot so that soon they can start holding outreaches just for New Horizon.

This is so unbelievable to me. I honestly thought God was done with New Horizon. I thought that they all had rejected God for the last time. I had no desire to go back into that dark place, so I figured God didn't either. Why does God let me be a missionary?... because God is as long-suffering with me as He is with those in NH!

Because of all this Jimmy stopped by with Lico to meet the pastor. He immediately knew who Jimmy was and our story with New Horizon. (Is it good to be known as the ones crazy enough to work in NH... haha!) He is even going to let Jimmy baptize Lico next month, so that is very special to us. We offered to help in any way we can with the church's outreaches to New Horizon. Be looking for more posts about this endeavor in the months to come. We are excited that God isn't finished with this story and has brought somebody else alongside to reach out to these very hard-hearted people. We are also excited about Lico's tremendous growth and his future in ministry. (You can read more about Lico's story here.)

CUTE ITEM OF THE DAY: Ever since Jonah and Silas were little when we ride in the car they like for me to be touching them.

When they were younger I would hold the sides of their heads and then they could fall asleep.

Now I guess they are "big boys" so they just reach over and grab my hand instead. Wherever we go I usually have a hand in each of mine. I know this will end one day, so I absolutely cherish it now.

From a Dirt Floor to the Suburbs

Before we came back to the States for Jonah and Silas' birth, Bernabe asked us if we would try and find her daughter.

Bernabe is a wonderful lady and a dear friend of ours who lives in Santa Rita. Her daughter Berta was working with a human rights group during the Guatemalan civil war. Due to threats on her life along with other violent events she was given an immediate visa to the States to protect her. Bernabe and the rest of her family fled to Honduras during that time. Over a decade has passed since they have been able to contact each other. All we had was an old address in Louisville, KY. This trip we made it a priority to go through Louisville on our way back to FL.

This afternoon we made it to the address Bernabe gave us. No one was home. As Jimmy was walking back to the van, a car pulled up. It was the couple who lived there and they were very kind to the stranger they found in their yard!

It turns out that they befriended Berta when she first came to the States. She lived with them a while and they took good care of her and got her on her feet in this new country. Thankfully they have stayed in touch with her over the years and gave us a more current address.

We drove about 30 minutes to this new address but sadly no one was home.

As we were driving away a Spanish family a couple doors down was just getting home. We thought they might be friends with Berta's kids, so we stopped and asked them if she still lived there. It turns out that they were relatives of her boyfriend. They said that they had just ran into Berta at Walmart and that she would be home any minute.

We were really excited by this point. We wanted this to work out for Bernabe's sake. About 10 minutes later Berta and her entire family pull into her driveway.

We explained who we were and that we had pictures and paperwork (documents that she had left behind) from her family in Petén. I know that her leaving Guatemala and all the events that surrounded that must have been very traumatic. So here we were... surprise... you now have to process this all in a matter of seconds. She was very kind to us and invited us in.

I cannot imagine her life and what all she has been through. I think it was difficult for her to look at photos of her family. She misses them. All of this took her back, to moments good and bad. She was very happy to hear about all of them. I took photos of her beautiful family to take back with us.

We videoed a message from her to her mom, dad, and siblings. Bernabe and Eulalio have 3 grandkids they have never met. Berta is applying for citizenship this Friday and then she will be able to get a US passport.

God just brought all of this about. We are so thankful and cannot wait to get back to Guatemala to see Bernabe!

They Kicked Us Out

I was trying to wait and post this until I wasn't as sad and we had some type of plan, but I still am and we don't.

The town meeting on Saturday was supposed to be a chance for Jimmy to share and then let everyone vote again. Since there was going to be a new vote we didn't even address the fact that the last meeting was done in secret, based on complete lies and that several of the signatures appear to have been forged.

The lady from the town council in charge of the meeting was one of the 8 that spoke out against us. One of the other 8 was the one choosing who got to speak. After the first several people allowed to speak were found out to be against us, the lady in charge was still saying we were going to vote again.

Then those for us started speaking up. Several people from the community improvement committee spoke up about how we had helped out the village in several ways. They said that they were embarrassed about how we were being treated now. Some spoke out about land rights and how if they were now truly the owners of their property then Fabio has the right to build a Bible study on his. Others spoke up about those who wanted us kicked out and the lies that they were telling. Others pointed out that they don't kick out criminals yet want us to leave and how unjust that was.

Fabio was the only one who mentioned God though. He spoke up boldly. There are many new believers, some who couldn't be there that day, some who spoke up trying to share arguments that would appeal to those against us, some who were too afraid to speak up at all, but more than for anyone else in SR we want to fight this out for Fabio's sake. This 70+ year old man has learned about God and has given all. We saw him being mocked during the meeting and it broke our hearts. We cannot leave him there alone.

When the lady from the town council saw that there were not enough people against us to get a majority (when someone's watching the legitimacy of the signatures) she changed her story and said that the original "act" stands. She refused to hold another vote.

José's wife, the matriarch of the Kekchi, who was against us in the past had a change of heart. We have tried to reach out to her family several times because we really love them. She must have seen that. She let our opposition have it! That was surprising.

Those who actually spoke out against us specifically said all kinds of elaborate lies. Lorena, who we knew was only nice to our face from the beginning, with intentions of hurting our cause ended up describing it beautifully. She said, "Fabio, you speak so much of God now. They (meaning us) don't know how you used to talk before they got here." He has changed. He is a new creature in Christ. That fact right there makes ALL of this worth it.

So tonight was our first Monday night not being in SR. The act only said "Jimmy", so Jimmy tried to get me to go by myself tonight. I'm not 100% sure he was kidding.

What they did is against the laws of Guatemala, but that doesn't mean it would be the best decision right now to continue on like nothing happened. Please pray that God gives us wisdom. When Jesús gets back he could even keep the services going possibly. (He is in Guate working right now.) Jimmy is still talking with our lawyer. The people in SR are very upset about this for many reasons. It is a violation of property rights, so those who don't even care about God are effected by this decision. They might take care of the fight for us.

So we don't know anything other than that we are still in the middle of the story. It feels like Satan has been victorious. We feel like years of work have gone up in smoke. We feel lower right now than at any other time in our ministry, but the Truth is more powerful than our feelings. Our faith is strong and our God is real.

No matter what, people who wouldn't have heard did, many are now new creatures in Christ. We are gone, but the Holy Spirit is still at work in their hearts.

Please keep praying for Santa Rita.

Pray

February and March are the hottest months in Petén. This team is working so hard and doing some pretty glamorous stuff too!

Like Jacob and Matt chipping a hole for the tube on the seats for the outhouses (we are building Fabio a new outhouse too).

Jimmy spent most of the morning trying to get lumber since our original supplier was almost a week late getting it to us and still couldn't come up with it. He found some!

Mateo, the pastor in Poptún is a carpenter. He engineered the top 2/3rds of our building since it will be out of boards.

The wood was still wet, so between each board they had to wipe the blade down with diesel. (That is what pastor Tim is doing in the photo above.)

Here is Ian chiseling a notch for a support beam.

The team got 2 complete sides done and will finish the other 2 tomorrow!

Over the last couple days Jimmy has found out about more of the lies that were said about us during the last meeting and their sources. This will help when he speaks in the meeting tomorrow.

During lunch time José went to the store to buy a drink. He overheard a couple men talking about how they should get a bunch of guys together to go tear down our building. He came back and got all the men together to pray right away.

Each evening we take the team to Flores for a nice meal... so we can get more work out of them the next day!

Pastor Tim let Silas try out his hat. The middle part is mesh, so he could see through it = the coolest hat ever!

Jimmy got to spend a lot of time around our Kekchi missionary friends. This is what they do, start churches in campos blancos (white fields/places with no Gospel). Jimmy asked if it is always this hard to get into a village. Domingo said, "No, you just pick the hard ones!"

Domingo and José both told several stories of places where after they had gotten something going, the towns people got upset and tried to kick them out. They spoke of how the new believers would persevere. Each story ended with the same phrase, "There's a church now." Please pray that our new Christians persevere.

Mateo said that there is a saying among the Kekchi, "Raizes amargas, fruto dulce." (He said it in Spanish.) It means "Bitter roots, sweet fruit."

Please pray for our meeting tomorrow at 2:00 (CST). Please pray for wisdom as Jimmy speaks, that the new believers will persevere, and that God's power will be made known.

Thank you to everyone who let us know you are praying. You all have a part in this.

"Fear not, for they that be with us are more than they that be with them." ~Elisha