Lock-Down

I thought I would post our March Update here in case you don't receive it. It is basically a Covid-19 update.

The view from Jimmy's tractor

Thank you to everybody who reached out to us asking personally how things are going during this unsure time in the world. With all of the families living at the institute counting on being paid each week for their hours, it really has given us an opportunity to practice true faith in a way that glorifies God. When you stop and process the what if’s and how’s, it can be scary. Right as churches were closing in the States and we were realizing our support would be down, Jimmy got a call from a farmer offering him the job of mowing his large property with the institute’s tractor. It took Jimmy 3 days and soon after he was actually paid for it, which often doesn’t happen here. That got us through last month except for our personal power bill. Then later a friend we met on furlough texted and said God put it on his heart to meet a financial need we were having. His gift covered the light bill. I have no idea how God will continue to take care of us all here, but I believe with all my heart He will.     

The owner of the property took this shot with his drone. You can see the tractor and the pretty rows between their saplings. He was happy because this was the first time he has not lost a tree when someone mowed.

 Guatemala has been slowly increasing restrictions on everything, usually without warning. The local government and police seem to be taking things the president puts in place to an extreme. Churches and schools were shut down first. Then a 4PM to 4 AM curfew was put in place where you would be arrested if you left your house during those hours. Businesses were pressured/forced to close and lay people off. Then due to the government fearing Holy Week and how much people usually travel during this holiday, they said you couldn’t leave your department and now the local government is not allowing us to leave our town. There are lots of talks of 24 hour lock-downs due to the hysteria, that could last for weeks. I don’t know how my own family will get groceries or how we will be able to continue taking them to the institute to stock the store. Although they do have plenty of live chickens and chocolate fruit, ha! The people making the laws, do not live in rural places or understand how most people in this country financially live from day to day, and not close to a grocery store. They plan on trucks coming buy with meat and veggies to sell. So many families are becoming desperate. They just want the right to provide for their families.
 

The first year students completed their chicken class and got their baby chicks delivery right before the shutdown.

 We are at a very low risk of Covid-19 infection and our pastoral students are at an even lower risk, living and studying at a private farm. Honestly due to this being a backpacking tourist area, I believe the virus came through here in January, but there are no tests to prove it.
We are used to local laws changing for no reason, even when there isn’t a perceived crisis. We are used to the grocery store being out of essential items and making great food from home with whatever random ingredients we can find. Long lines to get something done, while annoying, are pretty standard. Our regularly scheduled homeschool schedule will finish next week without missing any days. Our kids don’t notice anything being different other than missing their friends from local school. It is sad that our church outreaches to the neighboring villages have been cancelled with no way to do them online as the access of our people to technology is limited or non-existent.
 

The energy company has been giving free power to poor people so to make up for it they raised everybody’s rate by 12%. This not only affects how much we pay personally at our house, but also greatly increases operating costs at the Institute. This is especially hard right now during the dry season where the majority of our energy cost is running our well to water trees, chickens and students! The forecast for the next 10 days is 105-107 every day.
 

In good news, this has reinforced for all of our students the need to be self sufficient. One of our graduates starting his church in the village of Sepur spoke with Jimmy today. He is still working in different AG projects in the village as a day laborer. His chickens are large and fat and he is selling them to the village who can’t travel to buy meat from other markets. Jimmy asked him if he needed any help and he turned him down. “We have everything we need.” What a beautiful testimony. Before Jesus calms the storm Giovani is honoring God with his faith!
 

As members of God’s family, we are all in this together. I hope and pray that we will recognize God’s hand in all of our lives as He cares for us and that He will use it to do great things for His Kingdom and that none of us will get in the way! Thank you to everyone who continues to pray for and support the work here in spite of the uncertainty in your own financial future. Your families are in our prayers as well!

Jimmy preaching last Sunday

This is the funny I included in our update:  Jimmy set up a live feed from our house to the institute. The students can watch from a couple different places on the farm. This past Sunday while Jimmy was preaching he could see video from the salon where there is a TV set up. Raul was in there watching the service and Jimmy saw him get up and start beating something with a broom. He asked about it later. It was a pit viper!!! I’m not sad I missed that service!

Eden Turns 8!

Her 2nd Grade Classmates

Last Saturday we threw a party just hours before the president of Guatemala’s announcement to lay low. Not sure when E will get to see her classmates again but so thankful they all came that day to celebrate her 8th birthday with her! 

 

She picked a Cinderella theme with a Cinderella cupcake cake. I don't usually need to make any suggestions, she has a head full of ideas at all times! 

Looking for the key to unlock the attic!

 My favorite part about E's birthday parties are planning them out with her and all the excitement leading up to them! 

 There was also a Cinderella manicure!

 

I had my normal ups and downs while making her cake, trying to get Cinderella blue. Eden said in her typical encouraging way, "Mommy, I don't know why you don't like it, but I love it, and that's all that matters!" Eden has a nurturing, encouraging spirit always. I just love her! 

  As usual, Jimmy was very supportive of our party planning. It's a tradition that he carves something out of a watermelon. This time it was a crown!

Eden wanted her brothers to celebrate with her too!

 We played lots of games like Princess Bingo and roll the dice to Build Cinderella's pink dress that the mice made for her.

Pin the slipper on Cinderella.

None of the girls would hit the Cinderella piñata hard enough to break her open, so E's brothers finished her off!

We are so thankful for our sweet little princess God blessed us with. She is such a bright loving nurturing smart sparkly part of our family. We all had a blast putting this together for her.

Profesor Henry

Today was Henry’s first day of teaching at the institute. He is a very gifted communicator that we believe will be a great blessing to the students!! (He is a graduate.) My first day teaching classes I was SO nervous. I remember praying out loud all the way to the farm. Jimmy actually was physically ill his first day. This pic is completely staged because they finished before my class was over and very kindly posed for this pic. They said someone’s going to see this photo and think those students don’t even have any books. Don’t worry we have books and notebooks to spare. Also these are all the first year students! If you only knew how hard the devil fought to keep each one from coming. These are the ones that persevered.

First Day of Spanish 2nd and 4th Grade

 I'm so thankful my kids have the opportunity to go to a great school in our town. The director/founder has a beautiful heart and wants all of “her kids” to have the very best.

 
J, S, and E have been counting down the days! Eden was especially excited that she will have the same teacher as last year.

 
Jimmy was invited to kick off the year in prayer again so he sent me a couple pics from this morning. This is their second year at this school and its third year in existence, it truly is a gift from God for my kiddos.

They attend school from 7AM to noon. We still homeschool in the afternoons for about 2.5 hours but this offers them friendships, fluency, and lovely cultural experiences.

Preparing for New Students

Jimmy was able to find a lumberyard opened that was stocked which is quite a task in January (It took up most of Monday) when many businesses are still closed for the holidays. 

He and several men at the farm have been building more bunk beds for the single guys’ house! Elias has been doing a wonderful job managing the construction of new houses for families. (I’ll have to take more photos of the new and redone houses.) 

We are praying for all the men calling in who said God was drawing them to study and the institute! Please pray that they will persevere through all that the devil will use to try and discourage them. Each one represents and entire village that will have the opportunity to hear the truth!

Bible Studies Have Begun

Rodrigo and Mari have already been hosting Bible studies in their new home in Agua Chiquita. We are so excited for them. Please pray as they share the truth, that God would draw more people in the village to a true understanding of His love and the freedom that He offers. Their hope is that with the first couple families that put their faith in Christ they can become a mission and then grow into a reproducing church.

 Last night a believer from a village we visited several times before the institute existed called and wanted to either have his son come and study to be their pastor or have a graduate come... they are so hungry for more about God! His son is a little young still but his village is close enough to Rodrigo and Mari that they will be able to visit their too. Maybe that will be the first spot for a 2020 graduate. We will see!! Villages like that are what God used to show us the need for the institute - Discipled families that can go and disciple other families!

The 2019 KBI Graduation

At the end of the year we had our 3rd graduation at Kekchi Bible Institute!

Mari, Rodrigo, Henry, Gerson, Angelina, Giovani

I wanted to share a little bit about each graduate's plans. Mari and Rodrigo each completed the full 3 year program of 60 courses. In mid December they moved to the unreached village of Agua Chiquita. They have a son whom Titus will miss very much.

Jackson and Titus

Giovani came to the farm as a single student, met the cook and got married! He completed the 3 year program and Angelina didn't begin studying until later, but completed the certificate program of 20 classes (she actually completed 35 classes). They also moved in December to the unreached village of Se Pur. They have one son as well. Since moving they have already faced some opposition among the village leadership but God cleared the way for them to remain in the village. 

Graduates with all of the men and women who teach at the institute. (Oscar's face is behind Eulalia, but we really appreciate him too.)

Henry was in the first group of students to ever come to the farm. Besides Elias, Jimmy has probably spent the most time with and feels the closest to Henry. When he left 3 years ago, with one semester to go, that was a very low point for us personally. He returned this past year, with his wife Ana. She is still completing the program, so he will stay here for a while. He will be teaching some first year classes at the institute and is our translator for all of our materials that we want to be put into Kekchi. He is a gifted teacher and translator, so we wouldn't mind if God's plan for him was to partner with us long-term, but God will reveal that in His own time. When I try to predict things like this, I'm always wrong!

There are a couple missing from this photo, but these are the other men beginning their 2nd and 3rd year at the institute, plus Gerson and his brother.

 Gerson is the first student to graduate single. Like Jimmy said in the graduation video he made for the students, it isn't for lack of options, haha! Gerson is waiting for a girl that wants to serve God along side him. He lives the farthest away out of anyone and is one of the only students who had a dad that truly supported him studying at the institute. His dad is a pastor in the department south of here and Gerson returned to his church to take over the youth ministry he start during breaks at the institute. He spoke of coming back once he is married to partner with our association to begin a church plant in Petén. (It is just an association to be legal in Guatemala, each mission once it becomes a self supporting church will file paperwork to become it's own association.) Can't wait to see what God has for him!

 Each year we learn so much about how to better prepare each student. We adjust and readjust constantly. This is the first year we worked outside the umbrella of an existing association for the church plants. These 2 families are pioneers. If they persevere and are successful, this will serve as proof of concept for other graduates who want to be autonomous. Please pray for them!

Another adjustment for the upcoming year is we have learned that many students (not all) move out of their parents' or inlaws' house to move onto the farm property. That means that when they leave the institute, it is their first time truly outside of a big family situation (We consider the farm community a big family!) where they are setting up their own house and won't have someone around to help them all the time. It can be overwhelming. Day one at the institute will be different for new families. It's hard because you want to fix everyone's problem immediately if you can but in some cases that will stifle their future. Please pray for our upcoming year!

This upcoming year will be our first where the ladies have a uniform too. We were all pretty excited about it!

It is such an honor to share 3 years with these individuals who sacrifice so much to follow God's call. The farm is such a unique environment. Everyone is there to grow, us included!

Connection

I remember when the first family left the institute to go begin pastoring a new work. We were all on our front porch saying goodbye and praying over them. I remember not knowing what to say to the wife. Her husband began his journey at the institute as a single student and she came later. I never really connected with her, she was so shy and probably still felt like the new girl when she left.

That day I purposed in my heart to do better. I wanted to build a strong sense of community with the ladies at the farm even though sometimes there seems like overwhelming obstacles to a true connection. When they graduate these families go to areas where there are no other Christians, I want them to have a strong support system of people who know what they are going through. I want them to always be part of our community.

Then God sent Mari. She is one of those friends who you never struggle with what to talk about. Building that friendship was easy. I probably have never been around her when we didn’t laugh at least a couple times. She leaves in a few weeks to move to their new village, her journey here is coming to an end. I’m so happy for her family. They are going to be wonderful partners in ministry. Still, thinking about them leaving makes me sad.

I appreciate Mari. I feel like God used her friendliness to show this introvert it’s possible! I have nothing more in common with Mari than any other lady at the institute, but God offers us this beautiful gift of family and friendship that overcomes any shortcomings on my part inside His community. Connection is something I will work at forever, here where God has placed me, but I know it’s possible.

Last night we celebrated Mari’s little boy’s 3rd birthday. Tito is going to cry as much as me when they leave.

Salvation Testimony Week

The 2 in the middle are 2 of the ladies who became part of our big family this past weekend!

Last week was the one in Personal Evangelism class where everyone has to share their testimony. We were concerned about a couple of the new students just because we had never gotten a clear testimony from them, even though they claimed to be Christians.  

 One of the new ladies who married a student before his second year, stood up when it was her turn and shared what her church told her Salvation was. She then concluded with, “So I know now that I am not a Cristian, but I want to put my faith in Christ.” This gave 2 other new wives who shared similar stories the courage to speak out as well. All 3 put their faith in Christ this past weekend. We are so excited for them! 

One had such a drastic change in her countenance. There is absolute demonic oppression going on in these village where Satan wants to keep them in bondage even in the ones where it appears the Truth has already been there. Those usually become the most difficult to reach. But what they have isn't the Truth, it's an evil counterfeit. Each time God delivers someone from Satan's kingdom it is a powerful testimony of who He is! 

So many people are looking for the Truth. We are very excited ever time it reaches one of them!

Where the Battle Lies

     The purpose of our Bible Institute isn’t just to have people who know more about their Bible, it is to have people trained to teach the Bible to others. The 3 families that have graduated so far, are in full time ministry. 2 are pastoring new missions, and one is our dean of students. Their experiences so far are helping us learn how to better aid our students as they graduate and then transition into ministry. There are 4 couples and a single guy scheduled to graduate this year. One couple is staying and in charge of translation work and teacher training in existing churches.

   It’s a tricky situation because legally you have to join a pastors association to form a church, but these pastor associations have become political machines that tax churches rather than helping them. They are also full of syncretism and idolatry where half the pastors are also the village witch doctor. There is a significant lack of biblical training. Not all of the churches involved are corrupt though. Many are sincerely searching for truth and know the current system is failing them. Many call into the Institute desiring a pastor who can lead them to the Truth. In one such church, La Balza, Jimmy and Elias were able to lead them to Independence. They legally formed an independent association just for their church. This allows them to pick their own pastor and also frees up their money to be used to reach the unreached villages around them. 

Taking 1st Semester Finals

   La Balza has relationships in 7 of these unreached villages, and have 1-3 people in each village who have accepted Christ because of their witness and radio station. This became an obvious partnership, to have our 3rd year students begin formal works in these villages. As each church is formed, each will create their own independent association.

   The 3rd year students are visiting their assigned village once a month during their final year at the institute. They spend Saturday traveling, Sunday preaching in the village, and Monday traveling back to the Institute. Our prayer is that their hearts will be tied to these people and their need and that they will leave straight from graduation to pastor in these villages. 

   The village of Purulá has 30 families and only one Christian. It is hard to get to (hour and a half walk from the road) and even harder to live there. During the dry season, the people get all of their water from a cave. They have to walk down 36 meters of steps to get to the water. The people take turns, 4 families at a time, carrying down their laundry, washing their clothes and then coming back up to switch with four other families who take their turn.

   Henry and Teodora visited this village this month. They just got married in December, so since they don’t have to carry kids with them, we thought the young couple could handle the hardship of travel and carrying their water. It was a hard first weekend. The Christian family was open, but didn’t want to take them anywhere else because the people in the village can be hard and closed. We thought they would be discouraged so after the visit we talked with them alone. Teodora said, “I knew who I was marrying and the call he has. If this is where God wants us to go, I’ll go there with my husband.” Henry said, “Yes it’s hard. But how are they going to hear about God if I don’t go? I’m motivated by how lost they are, not discouraged about how hard it is.”

   The village of Ak’ Tela’ has 400 families. It’s more of a town than a village, even though it’s 3 hours from the highway. There are 3 Christians in the village, so we sent Giovani, his wife Angelina with their 9 month old Joel, and our only single 3rd year student, Gerson, to this village. Gerson is one of the vocalists in our church, so the Christians asked him to sing a Christian song. They didn’t know any. He sang two and they asked for more until he ended up singing our entire songbook to them. Then he taught the kids while Giovani taught about the Bible. The Christians there were very happy about what they learned that day. They said that no one had ever opened up the Bible to them like that. 

Mari y Jackson

Rodrigo and Mari went with their 2 year old Jackson to La Balza, the mother church of all of these missions. The pastor of La Balza took Rodrigo to the village of Joventé on his motorcycle. It has 50 families and 2 Christians. There is some dispute about the land that was bought for a church building, so we are not sure if they will continue there or not, mainly because La Balza is putting a lot of pressure on Rodrigo to visit them every month rather than Joventé because they want more Bible training. Unless he becomes their pastor, we don’t want to continue down that road, because without the authority that comes with being the pastor, you can’t change much in an existing church. Please pray that God gives wisdom in the situation.  

    This is a fluid situation, depending how a village responds and how God leads each student. I listed all of their names so that you could pray for them specifically. Satanic attacks are common, he wants to keep these villages as captives in the kingdom of darkness, so please lift them and this work up in prayer! Thanks!

What Tools Would It Take To Reach the Rest of the Kekchi?

Missions is a third year class at the institute. Is is a study on cultures and what missions strategies have been effective and which ones have been destructive. One of the weeks Jimmy assigns them a chapter from Steve Saints book, The Great Omission, about dependency. They were to answer the question: "What are the tools the Kekchi need to reach and disciple the rest of their people without any outside help."

3rd year students. There are also 2 more wives and 2 kids that travel with them.

We really like Giovani's answer, he put a lot of thought into it and I think it could be really effective. I wanted to share it here:

1. Radio: We have a little radio that reaches 5 kilometers. For anything larger than that, you are required by law to buy a $125,000 radio frequency. That frequency would give us the license to build a tower and infrastructure to reach from Mexico to Belize covering all of the unreached areas. (Petén alone makes up 1/3 of the entire country of Guatemala.) This is something we want to do in the next 5 years. It would probably be pretty easy to get the equipment donated once we had the frequency. The guys here enjoy this kind of work and are already familiar with how to put together broadcasting. We would also put many of our Institute classes over the airwaves so that every person would have access to reliable Bible teaching.

Assigning villages for 3rd year students to work in during their final year of classes.

2. Cars: It is so difficult for them to get around. Each time our 3rd year students visit the 3 villages they have started in, it's costing the institute $400 round trip. We are looking into purchasing motorcycles for them instead but we don't like the idea of wives and babies traveling on the motos too. After paying micros to take them to the main town, they have to pay a private vehicle to take them out as far as possible, some still have to walk another hour and a half to get to their mission. 

3. TV Station: Giovani was sad because as tv's are becoming more popular in villages, usually in tiendas, so many false messages about God are being spread. All "Christian" messages are preached by tel-evangelists asking poor Kekchi people for "seed money" and promising big returns. He wanted someone to share the truth through this medium. I don't know about a TV station, but I think a YOUTUBE channel and a Facebook page where people could hear truth relevant to their culture and share it with others would be really effective. Nearly every family has a smartphone now. The phone company here offers free internet for the FB app.

There is one video some organization did about condoms that is all in Kekchi. Even though we don't agree with the message, it was really well done. That got viewed and shared thousands of times on Facebook because it was cool to see Kekchi people speaking Kekchi in a video. We want to connect with someone who could train our students how to put together quality videos with an iphone or some other basic equipment that would be a realistic sustainable ministry for the nationals here. 

Something no one mentioned but we believe is a big need is the Bible put into the alphabet they learn in the schools. We have been working on the permission for that for quite some time. We (the institute) have already started translating study materials. We will be working on that until we're dead!

So these are some of our next ministry goals. Maybe you have expertise, experience, or an idea in one of these areas. We would love to hear from you!

A New Name

Before Rigo came to the institute he had been a Christian for a total of 3 months. He was 21 and up to that point had come to be known as a drunk. Being a talented mason he used the money he earned to buy alcohol. He grew up without a father, but had a loving mother. She taught him about Jesus, only he rejected it.

He got a job working on a church building. While he was there he was contemplating suicide because he knew his life was missing something and everything he was trying to fill it with was just making it worse. He began to remember the things he heard growing up. He realized at that point, that God was drawing him into a personal relationship with Him. He put his faith in Christ that day leaning over a barrel of water used to mix concrete at the job site. I think it is beautiful the way that God so clearly drew Him to Himself.

Rigo introducing himself the first day of classes.

 A lot of people didn't believe that Rigo could change, but after that day his entire life was different. He never drank again. When he heard about the Institute from a national pastor, he contacted Jimmy about coming to learn more about God. Jimmy asked him, "How do you know you are called to be a pastor, when you've only been saved for about a month?" Rigo responded, "I have a burning inside me to tell others what I know." Jimmy approved his application and he became one of our first students. 

The first group of students who came. I'm pretty sure Rigo's shirt was soaking wet in this picture because he had just washed it and we did not plan on taking this photo that day, haha! (He is the 1st one on the left.)

Despite never finishing the 3rd grade, Rigo dedicated himself to not falling behind and thus never failed a single class. Beyond his studies, he memorized Bible verses on his own time in both Spanish and Kekchi. That is what I always think of when someone mentions Rigo, that he knows a LOT of scripture. His passion for the Bible also led him to be a successful evangelist, winning several families to Christ in the village neighboring the farm.

After studying for 3 years at the institute and leading Juana to Christ, who would later become his wife, he began his new life of ministry in the village of Agua Negra this past June. He had shared with Jimmy his concerns about not having enough food to eat. He had been serving in his home church for a while doing mason jobs during the week to save up money for his first work. Even up to the last week before he was scheduled to move to Agua Negra he was thinking about postponing it two more weeks to have time for one more job, just in case they needed money. Well he decided to go.

I'm so glad that he did because the church had been preparing for their arrival. They had been calling Jimmy for months asking for someone who knew the Bible to come teach them. Rigo and Juana were greeted with so much love! The church had a big celebration. They had a special handing over of the keys to the church ceremony. They signed an official creed to make him pastor, Juana signed it too because she is very much part of the ministry, they are serving God together.  

Parsonage

And as far as them having food to eat, the members had gathered 12 sacks of corn and had them waiting for them in the kitchen along with a financial gift. Here they are praying a prayer of dedication in their new home. You can see some of the sacks behind them.

The people were so grateful that a trained pastor chose to move to their village (There is a huge need here!) that they all brought fresh fruit and vegetables to show how dedicated they were to treating their pastor well! This is when Juana started to tear up.

I am so thankful that God brought such a great couple and a village hungry to learn more about Him together. As passionate as these members are to know God, Rigo and Juana are just as dedicated to faithfully completing the task God has for them! 

A couple weeks later Rigo called and said that he had 7 chickens that members had given him to eat and that he felt bad for having such an abundance. Haha! I wonder if God is laughing too. He takes such good care of those who are serving Him. 

God has greatly blessed him, but more importantly He has given Rigo a new name. Before he was known as a drunk but now he goes by Pastor!

New Life and Waiting in Line

It seems like so much time passed before this line formed. God has blessed this church! I was so thankful to wait in line for the Lord's Supper on Good Friday! I remember when it is was basically our family and the first 4 students who came to the institute. I remember before that working in villages where we weren't allowed to have baptismal services or form a church and I wondered if we were just wasting time. Now there is a big family of believers, who share their faith!

 This was the baptismal service the week before Easter. 

The girls on the right told their cousin in teal that she needed to put her faith in Jesus too. This is the second time I have seen a baptismal service where new believers get baptized along with other new believers they have already brought to Jesus!

There are a couple churches sprinkled around the villages next to the farm. In order for someone to "become a Christian" and join their church they have to pay over $1,700. That is the newest trend around here. The man in the photo above said, "I know your church is going to be more expensive than that, but it is worth it to me." Thank God, the Gospel is free and Jimmy, Elias, and Gerson got to tell him that! 

 There are so many people searching. I feel like this is a very important time for Iglesia Bautista Ak' Yuam. We are moving into our new building soon. We carried chairs over there to use it for the Good Friday and Easter services even though it doesn't have permanent lights or bars on the windows yet. It is in on the very corner of the farm property, closest to the villages, which makes it seem more theirs than the institute. Please pray that people who are so close to taking that step of faith will and for the members to continue sharing their faith! We want to keep growing.

The Good Friday foot washing service is always a favorite among the members. It builds community. It's not hard to wash someone else's feet, but it is very humbling to have someone wash your own.

The Art of Teaching class students built the tomb!

All the ladies at the farm got up before sunrise to start cooking breakfast for the church on Easter morning. We made beans, rice, eggs, salsa and tortillas.

 
Once the sun rose, more ladies from the villages came to help too.

 It was a beautiful service!

 So this is a moment in time I want to remember. What the devil whispers is a lie. Nothing for God is ever in vain. God can take what we might feel is wasted or not even close to enough and build something living... something that continually reproduces itself! That is the miracle we were celebrating on Easter - the miracle of new life, that's free and that only Jesus can give!