A Community in Need

We recently hosted two men who represent 2 different organizations that are working to meet the needs of the poor of Guatemala. One organization, Proyecto de Fe, provides work for women in the Lake Atitlan area along with several other projects they have going. The other organization, Faith Harvest Helpers, sends containers of food,medicine, medical supplies, books etc. to countries in need. They are planning to ship a container to Guatemala and distribute it in February 2011. We visited several communities while the men were with us to identify the areas of greatest need as well as the areas that they can access with the team of doctors, dentists and fellow laborers who will be coming in February. One of the communities we visted has been almost wiped off the land. The first blow came from Volcano Paycaya erupting and spewing ash and rocks on their community. The rocks burned holes through their tin roofs and destroyed much of their crops. Two days later, Tropical Storm Agatha hit Guatemala and caused massive mudslides which destroyed many homes. It was an incredible sight to see the destruction that has happened. These families need to be evacuated permanently from this area as it is dangerous to live there but they have nowhere else to go. The needs are great and the resources are few. While we were there Pacaya sent a huge pillar of ash in the air as is pictured in the photo.

Covenant Church Outreach

Last Friday, June 11 a group of 16 adults and children from Covenant Church in Pittsburgh, PA arrived for a week of ministry with us. We went from the airport directly to San Pedro La Laguna. The roads where in several places restricted to one lane due to the Tropical Storm Agatha damage which has caused major mudslides and destroyed many homes, roads and over a hundred people have died. Relief work is ongoing and it will be awhile until the families that have lost everything will be able to move into a home. The Covenant group conducted a "Women of Valor" seminar in Santigao, Atitlan and also helped purchase 4,500 pounds of food that will be distributed to help victims of the tropical storm. We havebeen working in a refugee camp near Panabaj since January distributing food once a month. The people of the refugee camp were evacuated when Agatha hit and moved to their new home in Chuk Muk even though the homes were not completed. While we passed out numbers for the families to present to receive their bags of food, the group played with the children of the community until the rain came down hard. The people traveled in the rain to Santiago to receive their food immediately after they received their numbers. The rain did not hinder them, they were in need and we were blessed to be able to help meet in a small but significant way the needs they continue to have.

YWAM Belize DTS Outreach

We are currently hosting the DTS group from YWAM Belize. They are in the middle of the 8 weeks of outreach and are busy doing ministry with us. In the mornings they are working with handicapped children at Hermano Pedro Hospital in Antigua. Most of these children are confined to wheelchairs and are not able to talk but they respond to the human touch and can sense when people are giving the love and attention. The afternoons are busy with Kids Club at the base with about 70 kids coming each day for songs, Bible stories, skits, crafts and games. They are a great group to work with and we have enjoyed their ministry.

April News

We just finished Holy Week (Semana Santa) in Antigua which is the biggest celebration of the year. Thousands of people come to watch the processionals and view the alfombras (rugs) made of colored sawdust and flowers and fruit. It is quite a scene to take in but also a great time to do evangelism as people are thinking about the crucifixion of Christ.
We will be hosting 2 YWAM DTS groups in April,one from Belize and another from Minneapolis. We always enjoy working with fellow ywamers!
We have continued to host our weekly Kids Club at the base and have between 40-100 kids coming. Many of the teams that come are prepared with special programs for the children which they thoroughly enjoy.
The Feeding Program in Panabaj will take place April 10 which an evangelistic outreach planned with a youth group from San Pablo La Laguna. It will be the youth groups first ever outreach to another community!
We continue to pray for more staff for our base so if you are a Ywamer and are looking for an opportunity to serve the wonderful people of Guatemala we invite you to check us out.

March News

Currently we are hosting a group of young people from Connexus Church near Toronto Canada. They will be here for a week doing several types of ministry.
A new project we have been doing since January is a food distribution in Panabaj. This area was buried in a mudslide caused by Hurricane Stan in October, 2005. There are about 80 families still living in the refugee camp waiting for their new homes to be constructed. Through the generous donation of a church in Washington state we have been able to do a food distribution once each month. Each family receives about 35 pounds of food.
We have several more teams coming during the next 3 months from Belize, Costa Rica, and the USA. It is always a pleasure to work with these groups and provide meaningful ministry experiences.
We will be hosting a special Bootcamp Evangelism program June 20-26. This is open to anyone and you can either stay at our base or just come for the program during the day. Please look at our website for more information.
If you are a YWAMer and are interested in working with our base please contact us. We need more staff to help with our ongoing ministries. We are looking especially for help with our DTS which will begin July 25.
Check out our website for more information about our programs at

DTS Graduation

Friday, January 22, 2010 was the last day of our 5 month DTS. I has been a wonderful time with the students and we miss them already. Our DTS Outreach was spent in Belize, El Salvador and Guatemala conducting ministry in a variety of setting to a diverse group of people. The students had many opportunities to share the gospel and teach what they have been taught in the DTS.
Our base will now be preparing to receive teams who will be joining us for short-term outreach until we begin our next DTS on July 25, 2010.

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.