The People of Las Majadas

Las Majadas is about 30 minutes outside of Xela. The Boggs started this church and Jaime is the pastor. He graduated from the seminary and has been working very hard. He walks about an hour up a mountain with his bike, then rides his bike into town and catches a bus to his secular job.

{Our truck window}

{Kids that caught a ride with us to church}

{Jimmy giving his testimony in church... pastor Jaime on the far right}

{Ladies in church service}

{Frisbee after church}

{On the way to pastor Jaime's house}

{Me and Job}

Maribela, Jaime's wife, made lunch for everyone including the Boggs’ 21 member medical missions team from the States. It was delicious! They are both humble, giving people that always have a smile!

The red necklace around this little girl’s neck is supposed to protect her from evil spirits. This is a Mayan belief.

This is a shower. The people only shower maybe once a month. You go in this room with a fire and sweat. Afterwards you just dry yourself off.

This was the toilet. After several hours in the middle of nowhere, I was very excited to see it!

Today and tomorrow is the medical clinic. Please pray that God will use this outreach to bring more people in to hear the gospel and be saved.

Clips From Jimmy's Parents' Visit

These 3 videos are of Jimmy’s parents’ visit. These are basically for our family members and to have as a memory, but you are welcome to watch. Hopefully some of you will start thinking about planning a trip to visit us. When we get to the Petén there will be many opportunities for teams or families to come down and minister. We have all kinds of strategic ministry ideas planned, we just need more willing people and creative minds!

Back Home

Thank you to everyone who prayed for our trip. We left at 7:00 and were back by 5:15. We would have left earlier, but our bathroom was in the 30’s, so we left the space heater on for awhile. The whole trip was a big praise because we could have had to stay outside of the country for 3 days. Mexico was very different from Guatemala. It had street sign and lines on the road, plus a Sam’s. It had supplies like propane water heaters, propane stoves, and pressure washers. We basically just wanted to see what was available. We bought some groceries that were a lot cheaper there. No one even checked our truck when we drove back into Guatemala... we guess because of our tags, so we missed an opportunity to not have to pay taxes on something big.

{Jimmy in his cool hat paying for our truck fumigation at the border!}

Nery took over our class at Cristo Salva because we really want to visit different churches and see what is effective. We want to learn as much as possible before we start our work in the Petén. Tomorrow we are visiting a church in Las Mojadas with the Boggs and a team that came down. We have a medical missions team scheduled through our mission board to come visit in September for sure and then one possibly in May. Hopefully this will help us be better prepared for them as well. Please pray that we will soak up as much experience as possible these first 9 months!

Mexico It Is

Today we have to leave the country to get our turist visas renewed. We are driving to Tapachula while we are in Mexico. There is a Sams there for sure, but we were hoping that we might find some other stores that we don’t have here too. Please pray that we will be able to get everything done with the visas and return home tonight. Also please pray for our safety... there are really no good maps for anything down here. Thanks!

Jimmy was so excited about his class today. He had 11 students and pastors. He said everything went very well. One pastor came up to him afterwards and said that Jimmy must have prepared a long time for this class. I am very proud of him... he has worked very hard to finish his Spanish school while preparing to teach Greek.

Thank you for praying for Jimmy’s parents, they made it home at 12:30 last night.

While they were here they bought us a crate for Lucha... since she is so good at finding trouble. Fije must have gotten jealous, because today I could not find her, so I called her name and I saw her head poke out of Lucha’s crate.

Lucha saw her and started to get concerned.

After several months we finally put a Guatemalan tag on the back of our truck. Since we are crossing the border we decided we should probably go ahead and put the one on the front too. Mexico might be a little more official... I doubt it.

Some Quick Prayer Requests

First please pray for Jimmy’s parents to get home safely. There are ice storms in Dallas. They have been in airports since 8:00 this morning, and they said that the earliest they could get home would be midnight. Right now they are still in Dallas. Please pray that they will get home soon. Our time went by fast, but we still got to do a lot of stuff!

Tomorrow is Jimmy’s first day of teaching Greek at the seminary. His class is 3 hours long. He has been preparing very hard, please pray for him tomorrow at 9:00.

The Perfect Time

Jimmy’s parents coming was great timing. We really have had a lot of things come at us all at once and have had to make many difficult decisions lately. It was nice to have a break and some encouragement. God worked everything out perfectly.

We had fondue our last night in Xela.

We only lost a little bit of food in the pot.

Jimmy finally got to play Bancopoly (Guatemalan nock-off version of Monopoly)... the girls won!

These pictures are from the central square and our favorite coffee shop.

What Are the Chances

While Melissa was waiting at the gate at the airport she overheard some men say “Q’eqchí.’” So Melissa asked them where they were going. They said that they were going to the Q’eqchí’ people. These guys were from a Baptist church in Kansas City named Daybreak. Their pastor, Steve Reed, was leading them on a missions trip. They have been ministering in Coban, the capital of Alta Verapaz, for several years. This is the department right below the Petén. They have started 9 churches and are working on 3 more. Steve Reed gave them a book he had written and his email address. We are so excited to get in contact with these people so that we can learn from them and possible work together on some projects in the future. This is an awesome contact. God is constantly encouraging us in this endeavor.

Jimmy was given the opportunity to speak at Abundant Life Baptist Church.

{Pastor Rolando & his wife}

Jimmy’s parents got to hear him preach in Spanish and Linda, my Spanish teacher came too. Jimmy gave a clear plan of salvation at the end.

Please pray that the Lord will work in her heart.