Campos Blancos

I got a nice surprise the other morning (it was on my b-day) when I heard someone yelling outside our gate. I knew Domingo and José were coming over, but Domingo decided to bring his entire family. I had never met his wife before.

We work with a group of Kekchi Baptist pastors who were saved as a result of a work started in Cobán. They have come to Petén because it is still unreached. Domingo and José are the Kekchi national missionaries in charge of this half of Petén. There are only 4 national Kekchi missionaries in all of Petén, so the need is great. We do not know of any other group, Guatemalan or foreign, who are planting churches among this people group.

Our heart is to work alongside these nationals in ways that will strengthen their own efforts and not later stifle their progress.

Right now we are helping in the areas of education and outreach. As far as outreaches go this is our first Kekchi evangelistic outreach with a team. This will be to give a clear presentation of the gospel and help build the missionaries' relationship with these new contacts in order to evangelize, disciple, and plant a church in these villages.

We have a youth group from Daytona Beach flying in on the 22nd of this month. They will be doing puppet shows (which is what they are prerecording in the photo above, in Kekchi), songs, testimonies, games, skits, and showing a movie. We were very excited to hear about the villages where this team will be going:

San Miguel Alto Uno: Population 70 families, 1 family has accepted Christ.

Mojarra: 40 families, Campo Blanco

Santa Amelia: 150 families, Campo Blanco.

Santuario: 80 families, 1 family has accepted Christ.

Monja Blanca: 40 families, 1 family has accepted Christ.

Santa Cruz Compuerto: 200 families, Campo Blanco.

Nacimiento: 70 families, 1 poorly attended evangelical church. 1 family saved.

Esquipulas: 40 families, Campo Blanco.

(Campo Blanco means "White Field" in Kekchi and is the way a village is described here as having no churches and no Christians. There are also no services that have been held before in these villages.)

If you do the math you will see that we will be ministering to a total of 750 families. At the low end that would be 4,500 people, but probably closer to 6,000. You can assume most people in the village will be there to watch what is happening. Out of those 6,000 people, we will be ministering to less than 30 Christians. For many this will be their first exposure to the Gospel. 99.5% unsaved.

Please begin praying for these villages, this outreach, Domingo and José, and this team. We are very excited about this opportunity!

CUTE ITEM OF THE DAY:

We used to get all kinds of unpleasant but still slightly humorous things written in the dust on our vehicles in New Horizon. In contrast, after leaving Santa Rita, here is what our back window currently reads, "Yona, Sayles, Sheli vonita, Yimi". Coffee on us if you can figure it out... you have to come to Petén of course to collect!