DTS Update

Friday: we had off in Belize again
Saturday:
On this day we went out to evangelize to some kids (and adults) in the park with balloons. The swords were somewhat of a hit with the rest of the animals. We also gave a service to people at the workshop again. Youth. After that service we preached and gave a program to the Hispanic church in the area. We were planning on a Youth service but there was just a few youth. Instead attendance was like a typical Sunday morning type service. They had us perform our Drama. This went well. which went well.
Sunday:
We attended an English church in the town of San Pedro. The church is more modern and for a few years has been broadcasting their services on TV throughout Belize. During this morning service we performed a drama, shared a testimony, and Jeff (our guide from the Belize base) shared a message. That evening we returned for a youth service where we did a drama, played a game, shared a testimony and message! We ended up not getting home till late.

Monday: we left for travel. After two boat rides and a sizeable bus ride to Flores, Guatemala we arrived. Bruce went on to Guatemala city while the rest took it easy. where Flores is located. We had planned on visiting Tikal since we were in the area. About 3 hours late, due to a strike, we still hadarrived in time to see the main sights from Tikal. This took most of the 4 hours. After Tikal we bused all night to Guatemala
Wednesday: Another travel day, We arrived in Guatemala City about 6:30 or 7. We chilled in Guatemala for a few short hours then went to the next bus station. The bus was late, but we got on it 2 hours late still. We finally made it to El Salvador around 9-10ish. We ate pulpusaspupusas
(you can’t go to El Salvador and not have pupusas!) and then headed to bed sometime after 11.
Thursday was a kind of a day off. The morning started that way but we went to the mall in the afternoon and helped set-up and cleanup with a presentation. We also started to get packed again because we found out around noon that the next day we would be leaving again.
Friday: This consisted mostly of getting ready and then leaving for another town in El Salvador about an hour and a half away. After we got there, we ate and then drove off to a small church group. The church likes to set up small meetings that a leader will guide. This is for mostly non-believers. So a team of three or so people will have the open air preaching. They often also give out a small snack. Interestingly the volunteers are often quite committed and dedicated. The pastor said that they have 57 cell groups.. We preformed a couple dramas for this one, and then the pastor preached.
Saturday:
In the afternoon we went out to pray for a slightly older lady, maybe mid 50s. She had a tumor in her chin that appeared to be the size of about 2 small papaya fruits (The tumor was maybe about 6 inches long and 3 inches in diameter). She had been in pain some earlier but now I think I believe now that she wasn’t feeling the pain. Still I believe everyone felt sad for her. She is a believer but her husband said that he wasn’t. While we were there, he prayed to receive Christ after we prayed for his wife.
We went to a splinter, or outreach group from the churchThat night we went to a place where they were building another church.. I (Jordan) Preached for about half an hour except that it was translated, so only really needed to be about 15 minutes long. The rest of the group worked with the kids. At first we were not expecting to have to perform any dramas for this service. We didn’t bring anything, but the pastor asked us to do a couple of dramas anyway. Thanks to Edwin we still preformed a couple unplanned, but potentially impactful dramas.Instead
Sunday
This day was a little more busy than our other days there. The day started out with a youth service. Our group lead 2/3rds of the service. Carlos had a game called Mathew 7:12. This went quite well. After that Edwin preached for a good half hour or more. After eating and a little rest we went back to the church for the next service. This one lasted 1.5 hours. The first part consisted with us sitting through the worship service. The next hour we had a plan to keep the kids in two classes entertained and teach them. This actually went quite well despite a hiccup or two.
Monday: This was another day that we kind of had off. We were going to go on a tour, but I think that most of the group was too tired to get up around 6am. Instead we sat around a little in the morning. Suzy and I took a walk with the pastor. After that we ate and Julia and Francisco came and picked us up.

DTS Outreach Update

10 1st Impressions of Belize:

Tropical Paradise
Breathtaking
Beautiful
Kalissa: “I figured that the place was beautiful, but I thought the pictures had been touched up until I actually arrived.”
Kalissa “It is hard to take an ugly picture”
“Still kind of Hot” Jordan
Is this really where they are sending us?
Mark “It would be hard for missionaries to raise support after seeing all of the beauty here”
Maryann was also discussing the differences
Bruce “It is a blessing for the group to be here”
Travel Here:

Tired traveling

Very Very nice going through the customs, we had hardly a 30 min. wait between the borders
Mark witnessing to a crowd of people
Dozens of people wanted the giant money tracks, we walked away briefly and came back and about 10 guys were listening to his performance.
Immigration also asked for tracks so that they could pass them out.
At the Bus Station almost everyone reading tracks, Thanks Mark
The trip was Long, by the way, What is Sleep? Still I think most people had a fair amount. Still it seemed a lot like 2-3 hours.


Day 1: Finding Paradise

After traveling all night and arriving at 2 in the afternoon, most of the group was tired. That is except Jordan. The food was good. I think everyone went to sleep early but I (Jordan) decided to swim in the “cold” water instead. The base was surprisingly nice. Three buildings are located along the water front. Several other cabins and a second swimming pool reside empty behind the ocean front property.

Day 2 Orientation: Paradise Island?

We biked into town. It turns out that the water taxi is the best way to travel, but also the most expensive. Rates for the base are $6 per person for a round trip. The prices are quite higher than even in the US. Chips and cereal often sell for $5 a bag/box. Fruit is also extremely expensive especially compared to the Guatemala prices. Actually it is hard to find much of anything as far as fruits and vegetables. Still the cook here manages quite well to make some incredibly tasty food. Lots of tourism and construction still continues. I met a neighbor lady; she said that Ambergris has a great façade, a beautiful front, but that it still needs Lots of work. I knew very little of what she was talking about.

Jeff briefed us:

Alcoholism is prevalent
Many kids have families lacking a father figure
Kids are quite frequently abused
People don’t want to think that “their paradise“ has a problem
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Working at the Base

Carlos and I dug a couple pits for the wastewater from the shower and sink. We had to put a couple buckets of sand about a foot or 2 below the surface. Pipes went to the buckets. The buckets then had rocks and holes drilled to disperse the water in multiple directions.

Crew 2: Worked to cut back a bunch of saw grass. Saw grass is a type of tree, maybe an alternative to razor wire. The saw grass required gloves and machetes to trim back. Maryann came out with multiple cuts or rashes on her arms.

Crew 3: Cleared brush from the ground. This helps with keeping the skeeters low and also helped with the appearances. Speaking of skeeters, I doubt that anyone has been untouched, and I already have about a dozen bites.



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Local Evangelism: Poor and Poorer

We had the opportunity to bike into town again. This time we went to a less well off area. Striking is the difference between the poor and the rich. One lives spaciously with million dollar mansions, with thousands of dollars on landscaping or large concrete walls. Alternatively, the poor are quite poor. Pushed to marshland, they have their houses, some with dirt footings, most however are built with on stilts. Connecting the houses are usually connected by wooden boards that are spread across scaffolding about two feet high. In most places the marsh is about 2-3 inches deep with other places quite a bit deeper. Garbage is thrown into the marsh with the idea that land will maybe be formed more quickly. At some point, maybe a layer of topsoil can cover the marshland.

The day went really well however. Many people were open to having us pray for them. We passed out bibles, tracts, and solar powered radios tuned only to the local Christian radio station. Mark’s group had two people who prayed to accept God. We also went into the town of San Pedro. We shared tracks, gospel messages, etc with them also.

DTS Outreach

The classroom phase of the DTS ended last Saturday and now we are on the 2 month outreach to Belize, El Salvador and Guatemala. We will be in Belize until December 14 working with the YWAM base in San Pedro. From there we will travel to Flores, Guatemala to take a one day trip to Tikal to visit the Mayan Ruins and then travel on to San Salvador, El Salvador to work with the YWAM base for about 3 weeks. Our final 2 weeks of the outreach will be in San Pablo Guatemala where we will work with two churches in the area.
Please keep our group in your prayers as we travel and minister. We will update this blog with stories and photos so stay tuned!

Week 7 of the DTS

Our 7th week of the DTS is focusing on Spiritual Warfare. Don and Barb Johnson, the base directors of YWAM Nicaragua are our teachers for the week. Their teachings and personal experiences in their years of ministry in Central America are helping the students prepare for the daily warfare as well as what we will be facing on our outrech to Belize, El Salvador and Guatemala.

Adios to Higher Grounds

Today marks the final day of business for Higher Grounds Coffee House. The Coffee House was started by Rob Hastings 8 years ago and has been in its present location for almost 6 years. HGCH served as a place for Christians to gather in a peaceful atmosphere and enjoy great cakes, cookies and other sweet things that you do not find in Guatemala especially if you are a student living with a local family. Beyond that it has been a connecting point for people who are in Antigua for ministry, study or just being a tourist. The last year has been financially very difficult for us as business has slowed because of the economic problems. Our base does not have enough staff to run it and do all the other ministry that we are doing so we have decided to place our focus on those things and pray that God will raise ups someone else to run a coffee house ministry. We thank the Lord for the many lives that have been ministered to through the coffee house and believe that it is still a needed ministry in Antigua.
We will still continue to host the Thursday night worship service in English. Abner has been our worship leader for the past year and he will be getting married next week and leaving for the USA. He has been a vital part of the ministry at Higher Grounds and will be missed by many. We pray God's blessings on him and Katie as they start their new lives.

DTS Week 6

We are fast approaching the midpoint of the lecture phase of the DTS. This week we are blessed to have Judy and Frank Guasca ministering to the students on Inner Healing or what Ywamers call"The Plumbline." Judy comes from Colombia and serve with here husband Frank as base directors of YWAM El Salvador. The students are learning a lot about themselves and what has made them the way they are today both positive things as well as negative things. We will end the week with a time of personal ministry to each student to help them be set free from anything of the past or present that is a hindrance to their walk of faith and the freedom God wants them to enjoy.
We are firming up our plans for the 8 week outreach and are planning to do ministry in Belize, El Salvador and Guatemala. We are looking forward to all that God will do during the next 6 weeks of the lecture phase to prepare us for the outreach.

DTS Week 5

"Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us..."
We are now in our fifth week of the DTS and it has been a great time of learning, bonding and seeking God. So far we have had teaching on these areas:
Week 1: Intimacy with God
Week 2: The nature and character of God
Week 3: The Father heart of God and His family
Week 4: Intercession
This week we are learning about Supernatural ministry and it has been awesome. God is moving in our hearts preparing us for the ministry he wants us to be involved in on a daily basis.
We are praying into our outreach and waiting for confirmation of destinations in Belize, Mexico and Guatemala.

Our next DTS will be July 25-December 11, 2010. If you want to be a part of a life changing experience we invite you to go to our website and download our application.
www.ywamantigua.org

DTS 2009

We have just completed our first week of classes for the 2009 Discipleship Training School. Dale Harrison, the base director from YWAM Chico, CA taught on "Intimacy with God" and challenged the students to draw near to God during the next 5 months of the DTS.
We have 5 students attending the DTS from Guatemala, El Salvador, England and the USA. We are blessed with a wonderful group who are hungering for more of the Lord and setting aside this special time to draw near to Him. Please pray for Kate, Kalissa, Carlos, Jordan and Marleni as they make this journey of the heart.

August Update

We are less than one month away from our DTS and we are excited about the students God has given us. We have been praying for 10 students and it looks like we will have 9 coming in September. Four of the students are from Guatemala. They speak Tzutujil as their first language and Spanish is their second language. We are blessed to have them be a part of this life changing experience. Please keep all the students in your prayers as they make final preparations to come.
We hosted a group from Knoxville, TN this month who came to do a construction project with another ministry. They put in some long days of work and accomplished a lot in the short time they were here. We are blessed to be able to have a facility that can accommodate teams comfortably and it is always good to fellowship with believers from different parts of the world who come here.
We will be hosting a group of artists from Pepperdine University on August 14 for a week or so. They have shipped art supplies here and will be distributing them and doing ministry using the talents God has given them.
We are looking for a new ministry site for Higher Grounds Coffee House as we will be vacating our present site at the end of October. We are working with Seeds of Hope Ministry as they will be taking over the operation of the coffee house and will be focusing on ministering to the Guatemalan youth. Please pray that God will open up a perfect place for the ministry to be established and for all the helpers that are needed to carry out the ministry.

July Update

DTS News: The summer is cruising by quickly and we are preparing for the DTS that will begin in September. We have students from the USA, England and Guatemala registered as well as student from Ghana who would like to be here if a visa can be procured. We are excited about the students God has sent our way and look forward to working with them during the 5 months of training. We have some great teachers coming and we believe that God will speak through them to all us, both students and staff. The Word of God is living and active, sharper than a two-edged sword and as we sit under anointed teaching it changes lives.

Summer in Antigua: We have hosted groups from Chico, California and Knoxville, Tennessee this summer along with several individuals who have come to Antigua to study Spanish or conduct ministry. The Lord has been faithful to keep the base occupied and has sent volunteers our way to help us with the work. Currently we have a young lady from England working with us for a month. She will be assisting with the teams coming and teaching ESL. We were blessed to have the World Race group pass through the coffee house, all 90 of them! Business has been slow so their visit really helped us financially.

Future of Higher Grounds Coffee House : We have made a decision to close the doors of the coffee house at the end of October when our lease expires. The current owner of the property wants to increase the rent substantially and we are not able or willing to pay what she wants. In addition we will do not have the staff needed to properly run the coffee house with the DTS coming this fall and we want to focus our efforts in other areas. We are praying that God will raise up several people who will carry on the ministry at Higher Grounds. It is a unique ministry and really there is no other place in Antigua that serves the needs of Christians who are passing through or are staying for an extended time and are looking for a safe and pleasent place to study, fellowship and worship in English. Please join us in prayer as we truly desire to see the ministry continue in the hands of another ministry.

Wedding Bells: One of our staff members, Abner, is getting married October 24! We are happy for Abner and Katie and pray that God will bless their union and place them in the ministry he desires for them.

May Update

The month of May has been a great month of ministry. We hosted the CDTS students from Chico and set up ministry for them in Antigua as well as ministry in San Pablo La Laguna. The CDTS is a small group of 4 students so each of them get to be involved in every aspect of the ministry. They have conducted the Thursday night English worship service at Higher Grounds Coffee House and have introduced some new things that have been really good. We will take advantage of their different approach and use it in some of our meetings. The leaders of the team had to return to Canada due to the death of Dawn's father who died suddenly and unexpectantly from a brain aneurism. The entire family of 5 returned for the funeral and the CDTS was left without a leader for a few days until help could be sent. The students continued their ministry and have done an excellent job. They will be returning to Chico on June 4 to complete their training.
May 18-21 we hosted a seminar on Financial Support Raising. It was attended by 30 people who really benefitted from the teachings of Andy Huddleston and John Ray. Their timely and practical advice along with testimonies of God's provision for their ministries was a huge encouragement to all of us. Everyone was given tools to use to help them raise the support they need to continue the ministry God has given them.
We also conducted a seminar on prayer with the ladies of the Assemblies of God in the Lake Atitlan area. Over 200 women along with as many children and a few pastors were in attendance. We had simultaneous ministry going on for each of the groups. We plan to do more of this type of ministry in the future in addition to conducting seminars in Antigua.
We are recruiting students for the September DTS. We are offering 5 scholarships to help Guatemalan youth attend and have 3 applications submitted. It will be a tremendous opportunity for them to participate in the DTS. Please pray that God will supply all we need to make the DTS a reality this September!

April News

We are in the middle of Semana Santa, Holy Week in Antigua. It is a big celebration in the country and Antigua will have thousands of visitors coming to participate in the events. It is a colorful time as people decorate the streets with alfombras which are like rugs made of colored sawdust, flower petals and fruit. Some are very elaborate and take hours to make while others are pretty simple. The processional will walk over them and completely destroy them in a matter of seconds and then the city cleanup crew follows behind to dispose of all the material. It seems like an awful lot of work to have it destroyed so quickly. Higher Grounds Coffee House will be open all night Thursday as this is the big night of the week. At 3 a.m. Roman soldiers will come riding on horseback and the proclamation of Jesus being sentenced to death will be read in various places in town. The entire week places most of its focus on the suffering and death of Christ and in the past the day of the resurrection there is very little celebration and the town returns to a silent state. YWAM Antigua will be conducting a sunrise service at Cero de la Cruz which is on the side of a hill overlooking Antigua. It is a beautiful setting and a great way to begin the most important day of believers in Christ. Without the resurrection our life is being lived in vain. But thanks be to God who raised Christ from the dead and through him we have the promise and assurance that we too will one day rise from the grave and be clothed with immortality!
We are presently hosting a Crossroads DTS group from Chico, California until June 4. They will be doing a variety of mercy ministries and some ministry to children, youth and adults. We are blessed to have them with us and look forward to all that God will do in each member of the team. Please pray for them and pray for the activities we will be involved in during Semana Santa. We want Jesus to be glorified and for people to embrace the resurrection life that is only available through a personal relationship with him.

Outreach teams

Our 2 teams, one from Laramie, WY and the other from Austin, TX are busy with a variety of ministries this week, that include construction, food distribution, drama presentation, music, and evangelism. They will both leave at the end of the week and then we will be hosting a Crossroads DTS from Chico, CA for part of their outreach.
The weekend activites of Lent have begun in Antigua and the city is expecting large crowds. We are looking forward to the ministry opportunities.

March news

During the month of March we will be hosting 2 teams from the USA. One team will be doing a variety of ministries and the other team will focus on constructing a home for a Pastor and establishing a feeding program for children in the mercado. We look forward to working with them and pray that God will give them a great experience while they are here.
The Lent period in Antigua with all of its processions started last Sunday. Each weekend until Easter there will be at least one procession. Thousands of people will be coming to Antigua to watch these activities. It is a time of year when people are open to the gospel message and we ask that you will pray for the believers here to take advantage of these opportunities to share the gospel message.

Construction Project and Prayer Seminar

During the first week of February we joined forces with a group from Canada to help with the construction of a health clinic in San Pablo La Laguna. We began work at 3 a.m. on Sunday morning and finished pouring the roof at 3 p.m. Over 40 men from the community and church came out to help. The clinic will be completed in the next couple of months and will meet a great need for better health care in San Pablo. We also constructed a home for a family of 7. Their small two room adobe style home was replaced with a block home that will be much more comfortable for them. We made a triple bunk bed so the 4 boys will have a bed with a mattress instead of a board or the ground to sleep on.
On February 14 we hosted a seminar on prayer at Higher Grounds Coffee House which was attended by 45 people. It was a great day of learning and practical application on prayer and worship. Our desire is to use the coffee house meeting room to be a place of regularly scheduled prayer as well as personal prayer throughout the week.

Miracle at San Pablo La Laguna!

The YWAM Chico, California DTS students have been ministering in San Pablo La Laguna during the past week. Last Sunday they witness an amazing miracle that our staff member Sue reported in the following:Just wanted to send an encouraging and exciting email! Tonight I
(indirectly) witnessed God do a real live miracle! ... I am here at Lake Attitlan, one of the most beautiful lakes of Central America, translating for a group of 18-25 year olds, who are on their 2 months outreach in Guatemala, as part of a 5 month training school they are doing with YWAM...

anyway...

Tonight whilst I was translating for one of the canadian lads who was preaching in the local church, someone came to the pastor and all of a sudden he had to rush out... then about 15 mins later he came back and got 2 boys from our team who were sitting in the congregation.... then another 15 mins later he came back again and got the rest of the team... all whilst I was up front, interpreting...

Turns out that the 3 month old baby of a couple in the church had died! They rang the pastor... he went..prayed.... felt a block in his prayers... hence he got the lads to go with him to pray... they prayed... with faith.. as they prayed, asking for the Lord to breathe new life, (as they demonstrate in the dramas that they do), they felt the true, living breath of God breathe through them and past them and onto the baby. The baby´s skin, which had been so cold, became warm again, and his eyes started to move, although still closed.... then, suddenly, they popped open and he stared straight at the lad who had been praying... and started smiling! WOW! PRAISE GOD! ... as soon as the lad I had been translating for, finished his preach, the pastor whipped us out of there to go and pray too... when we got there... we saw a happy smily baby.... and a very teary, greatful mum and dad.
Wow! Amazing!