Just the Beginning of the Story

Since we live in a developing country we are surrounded by those in need. It is tough to know when to help and who could benefit the most by the resources with which we have been entrusted. We take these decisions very seriously, because poor decisions in this area can really hurt your ministry. Good intentions alone don't always lead to happy endings.

Before Christmas we were presented with a need in Santa Rita. Their county government, I guess you could say, laid down gravel on all of their previously mud dirt roads.

Their roads were so bad before that during the rainy season we could not pass them in our micro. By foot was completely disgusting. It was sticky mud that made you taller with each step. We chiseled mud off of our shoes regularly.

The added height of these new roads caused flooding problems in people's dirt floor houses. I cannot even imagine what living in that would be like on a daily basis... a swamp. They have been reorganizing the government in Santa Rita so I don't know an English equivalent for this committee, but one day a sort of community development committee came to us with a solution to this problem. They needed to purchase concrete pipes to provide drainage throughout the village. This part right here is why we have a lot of respect for Santa Rita, they said that they already had the concrete and men to do the work, they just didn't have enough money to buy the pipes.

Jimmy did not make any commitments that day, but later when we could talk about it alone we both were sort of reluctant to tell the other that we really wanted to help with this project. We took the fact that God led both of us separately to the same conclusion, as a green light.

We invested a couple months of any of the extra funds we could scrape together into this and then one of our supporting churches in KS (who is coming in Feb) went in with us for the other half.

Here is what they look like installed... and they fixed the problem! It effects people's lives in a positive way on an almost daily basis.

There are no secrets in this town. Everyone immediately new that we had helped with the pipes. One day when we were visiting Maria she told us how thankful she was for those pipes. She is a personal friend, so that meant the world to me that God gave us this opportunity to help her.

God orchestrates everything so beautifully. This happened at the same time that a man who attends our Bible studies announced he was giving us land for a permanent place for a "prayer house." (That is what he called it.) The whole community knew about it before we did really. This committee that came to us with the need ended up telling us when all was said and done that they wanted to support us being in the community openly. (That is a big step in case you haven't picked up on that!) We thought it was just some pipes, but this was a turning point I believe in our future there. There is so much more to the story... I cannot wait to share!

It Was His Decision

It seems there has already been several times since we have been in this country where we have to go to a meeting to find out our fate. We started working in the school this morning at 8 in Santa Rita. We had a meeting with the newly elected town council at 5. We showed up nice and sweaty. I had blue paint all over me. We had to wait outside the office for about 30 minutes while they finished dealing with some other issue. We knew in a couple minutes we would find out if we could leave or could stay, if we could have our own meeting place or have to keep using the salon. We had to cancel our adult Bible study last Saturday because they were using the salon for a dance. Anyway, it was all up to God. We honestly love Santa Rita and have bonded with many of the people, we didn’t want to leave. I was planning on what we would do instead, trying to prepare myself... just in case. These guerrillas can wear you out, so I was thinking “more time to learn Kekchi”. But then Jimmy was saying how there were no other works in Santa Rita. They have no Gospel. I really do not see how anyone could reach them without a work inside their village.

The meeting started off with Jimmy going over again why we were in the village. Churches are prohibited, so he explained that we did not want to start a church, just hold Bible studies. He then asked if anyone had any questions for us. The one lady who is against us (she is the town nurse) spoke up and said that the old town council had only given us permission to host the Weekend for Everyone and not to host our Bible studies every Saturday. (That was not true) She then labeled us evangelical and said they are divisive. She accused us again of starting a church and then said that we should have to go before the entire assembly and be voted on. This was not a good start! Jimmy addressed all of her accusations again and then asked if we could store our stuff in and meet in Lesbia’s house since she had offered it to us. There was silence for a while. Finally Rosa, the very first lady we met in Santa Rita spoke. She said that since it is was private property and the owner gave us permission, she didn’t think there should be any problem with us using her house to store tables and chairs in. After a little discussion everybody agreed.

Then came the hard discussion. Where we would meet. Some thought we should stay in the town hall. Jimmy explained that if we stayed there, and they planned a meeting or a dance or some other kind of activity, we would lose our gas money we spent that night, and all of the people who come to the Bible Study wouldn’t know about it. Eventually, nobody thought that would be a good idea. They started looking at other solutions, that ended up not being one. Finally Jimmy said, “Well, we could always just meet in the Catholic Church since it’s not used on Saturday nights!” That about knocked me out of my chair, but it made sense. The nurse knew she wasn’t going to win the battle to get us kicked out (especially because our team spent $5000 fixing up their school this week) but her worst nightmare would have been for us to actually get to meet inside her church! Fairly quickly it was decided that the best option for everybody would be to just let us meet in Lesbia’s house.

They only thing they asked for to make it official is a letter from Lesbia saying she is loaning us her house to meet in. Once we hand that in we can start meeting there with no problem at all.

The final thing the new president had to say was how happy he was that we are here teaching people the Bible. He said his daughter really likes it and she was very glad when she received her Bible last week. He thinks it is wonderful what we are doing and that the people that come get to have their own Bible they can read for themselves.

Thank you all so much for praying for this. It was a stressful time not knowing, but God has kept the door open and blessed above that. Thank you also to all of you who gave sacrificially to buy Bibles and tables and chairs for this work. It has also been neat to see how God worked out this team to be here at the perfect time so that our meeting with the new town council corresponded with the massive renovation going on at the school.

Ok, we’re pooped and going to bed now...

Quick Prayer Request

The mayor of Santa Rita wants us to meet with the town council tomorrow to ask permission to use Lesbia’s house for our new meeting place. There is one person on the new council that is against us. They think meeting in a place of our own would make it seem more like a church, and she is against that. We want for things to stay peaceful in SR. We have never been given an opportunity to address issues like this in New Horizon, so we are thankful to get to speak for ourselves. Please pray for this meeting. It will be tomorrow around 5pm.

We have loads of work left to do this week while the team is here. Please pray that a miracle takes place and it all gets done!

Some Very Important Prayer Requests

It is the time of year for both of the villages we are working in to vote on new town council members and officers. Santa Rita is finished with their elections. We do not know all of the results yet, but we do know of at least one of our friends that is still on the council and also the new president, Julio, has a daughter that has been coming to our Bible studies.

FIRST PRAYER REQUEST: Lesbia is going to meet with Julio tomorrow morning to ask permission for us to use her house for our Bible study. If he says yes, we could start meeting there as early as next week. It is already an answer to prayer that Lesbia wants us to use her house!

Lesbia’s house

SECOND PRAYER REQUEST: The elections in New Horizon will be in the next couple weeks. They are EXTREMELY important. Tania, the current president, has been our ally. God had the right president at the right time for us to get into and stay in the village. When the hippie, Marc, had us voted out, she wouldn’t write the letter asking us to leave. Please pray that one of the few who are still against us is not elected.

We had a blast in Santa Rita today. Carlos has been going with us to visit too. We have been learning where everyone lives in the village and who is part of which family. Just like in NH everyone has 2 names. It is like a giant puzzle. I am enjoying it! So far SR has been much more friendlier than NH (I think it is because they don’t have atheist hippies living among them.)

Josué, German, & José

Jesús, Rosalino, & Heriberto

I wish everyone could meet Bernabe, she has the most beautiful heart and a smile to match! Guatemalans don’t usually smile for photos unfortunately.

We looked at the property in San Francisco again today (where we want to build a house). The owner really wants to sell it to us and gave us an even better deal today. We think it is too small to have a one story house and a garden. There is property next door that would make it almost half an acre. If they decide to sell their property too, then this could be it! Please keep praying. Finding and buying land is a long process wherever you are.

The little plot next door.

God Is Keeping the Door Open!

Thank you so much for praying for tonight! We have good news. First this is the letter that Jimmy sent out in an email update if you did not receive it. At the bottom I have the rest of the story.

Dear praying friends and family,

Thank you so much for the emails and response we received. God worked because of your prayers for us tonight.

Fernandez, the voice for the Town Council came into the meeting asking us to leave until June, and then we could request a vote in the next town meeting to be let back in. That did not sound good since it was in the last town meeting that they voted to kick us out.

He spoke for the first 20 minutes about how we had just come in and started this work and were leading everybody along with our ideology from America. He said, “Our religion is Marxism and Socialism and we don’t have a God.” His next 20 minutes were all the reason he didn’t like churches and the sneaky ways they brainwash you. I explained why we had come and that from the beginning we had gone before the town council to receive permission and kept them informed of what we were doing so we could avoid these problems. He is new and did not know about this, and Tania was there to affirm it so that took care of point number one.

I agreed with him that many churches fight and say they are better than everybody else. There are a lot of problems in churches and he is right to ask me questions about who I am. The truth is that every man is equal. We have all sinned and Jesus died for us. The difference between Christians and non-Christians is that we are sinners that have been forgiven. I also reminded him that everybody is free to choose and some of my best friends in the village are people that don’t believe in God. I don’t show favorites just because somebody comes to the Bible Study. So that satisfied him with point number two.

He then asked if I was going to bring in large campaigns from the States and convince everybody to pray a prayer as a large group to start a church. I said no. He said ok, Point three.

After that he changed his mind and said that we would leave things the way they are right now. They are finally going to let me attend the next town meeting in June. The town can ask me anything they want until they are satisfied and then we can stay. At the end of our meeting today I actually saw his heart softening towards us. You may never know how much your prayers moved God to work tonight.

Thank you so much,

Jim and Shelley Dinsmore

We were able to have both Bible studies tonight at their regular times. We had two new ladies come. One was Rosalia!

Towards the end of the council meeting, Ofelia’s husband showed up. He started complaining about us causing him to fight with his wife. He said that Ofelia comes to our Bible studies and he doesn’t want her to and that causes them to argue. Jimmy did not even have to say anything, Fernandez, who started off against us, told him that was a personal problem that he needed to take care of on his own.

Rafa, one of the town council members’ son who received a Bible tonight for attending faithfully. One of the other kids took the picture for me... not bad!

As soon as we arrived in New Horizon two of the town council members’ sons were there to help us unload our stuff for the Bible study... one of them received a Bible tonight. They told us that Marc, the Spaniard who started all of these lies, is leaving New Horizon for good in 10 days. Just the thought of this was a huge encouragement to us. Marc has been there for several years. We will see what happens.

Please understand that Jimmy having the opportunity to speak to the town council and later in the town meeting is a huge blessing. This is what we have always wanted. We are not hiding from the truth. Our biggest fight is Marc’s lies and what other people have told them what following Jesus is supposed to be.

Please rejoice with us and with the many people in New Horizon who get to make their own decision about God.

Some of our people tonight, the kids take much better photos than I do!