Base Update

We hope you had a great Christmas celebration. Guatemala celebrates Christmas by igniting firecrackers and fireworks at midnight on Christmas Eve. We watched the display from our roof top and it was amazing. A haze of smoke lay all over the city after the fireworks ended. Traditionally families eat tamales and drink ponche which is a fruit drink on Christmas. We are currently hosting the DTS from Montana and it is their first time celebrating Christmas in Guatemala and for many the first time being away from home for Christmas. They arrived on December 8 and have been doing a lot of ministry to children as well as evangelism. They will be at the base until January 5 and will then travel to San Pablo La Laguna to help build a home for a poor family and work with a local church conducting ministry among all age groups. We will also be hosting a team from Spirit Lake, Iowa who will be coming on January 5 to build a home for a family of ten near the base. On their heels will be a team from Colorado Springs, Colorado who will also be going to San Pablo to conduct ministry among children, youth and adults in the church as well as in the public schools. It will be a busy month for us but we appreciate the teams who come and the ministry they offer to the people of Guatemala.

We are praying for more staff to join us as soon as possible. One of our staff members moved back to the USA this past week to pursue other ministry options so we are in need of more staff to continue conducting the ministries that we are currently doing. We trust God to help us and provide for us and ask that you join us in prayer for this need to be met.

Haiti Outreach

We returned from the outreach to Haiti on December 6.  It was an awesome time of ministry for our team and we saw hundreds of people come to Christ.  One of the highlights for our group was helping to start a church near the missionary house we were staying.  It began with meeting a family when we went house to house sharing the gospel.  The family had been rejected by a church because they did not have the right clothes and some had tatoos.  The pastor we worked with wanted to start a church that would be open to all.  We did a lot of evangelism in open air places and used the children's version of the Jesus film to attract people.  We had crowds of over 300 people coming out to watch the film.  Every time we showed the film we had people giving their lives to Christ.  We also spent time at an orphanage run by ReachHaiti ministries.  Many of the children have been rescued from very harsh condition and abuse.  They are now receiving food, education and most importantly a Christian environment where they are loved and cared for by many.  We thank God for our time in Haiti and for keeping us safe amidst intense heat, cholera outbreaks and a hurricane.  Haiti is a very needy country and the real solution is bring Christ to the culture to transform it through people living out their faith in every area of life.  We will continue to pray for the people who are suffering as they wait for help to begin to rebuild a fallen nation.