Guatemala Wrap Up

Friday was our last campaign day in Guatemala.  We shared door-to-door in the Proyecto 410 neighborhood in the morning and returned in the afternoon for the family festival.  The park was awesome and many, many people attended the festival.

It was an awesome week with a total of 570 professions of faith!  Please pray for Pastors Nelson and Javier as they mobilize their teams for follow-up.

After the campaign the team from Faith Baptist took Pastor Nelson, Rosemarie, Camila and us to dinner at Kacao, a beautiful restaurant near our hotel.  It serves typical Guatemala soups, as well as other favorites.  We loved spending time with the team and the food was outstanding.

We followed the Salvadoran bus out of town on Saturday morning about 8:00 a.m.  About a half hour out of Guatemala City the bus stopped for a bathroom break.  We stopped to get gas and then went on our way.  Once again the trip was very easy, with no lines at the borders.  We pulled into our apartment building just after noon. 

Busy Day on Saturday

Saturday morning Daniella and I were up early to drive to the airport.  Our good friends, Don Laity and Kent Brewer, had a nine-hour layover in Guatemala on their way to Bogota, Colombia for the Good News in Action mission trip.  We picked them up at 8:30 a.m. and returned to Nelson and Rosemarie's home so they could relax a bit.  (No one enjoys a red-eye flight.)  

We were able to go to breakfast with them at our favorite restaurant, Capistrano.  All of the tables at Capistrano have white paper on them and there are always crayons which bring out the creativity in all of their patrons.  While the majority of us just doodled, our artist friend, Kent, drew a masterpiece which I saved.

After breakfast we returned home so that Daniella, Stephen and I could finish packing our suitcases.  Next was a return trip to the airport to drop off Daniella for her flight back to John Brown University and Don and Kent for their late afternoon flight to Bogota.

Stephen and I drove our truck to the Biltmore Hotel and checked in for the week-long campaign.  Shortly after we arrived, we were able to welcome the team from Faith Baptist in Youngsville, North Carolina, as well as the bus load of Salvadorans.

By 3:30 p.m. everyone was ready to go out for the first family festival of the week.  We had 12 team members (7 more arrived later that night.)  Sharing door-to-door went well and the neighborhood really enjoyed the inflatable, games, dancing, drama and preaching.  There were 30+ professions of faith.  A great end to a busy Saturday and even better start to the Guatemala campaign.

Beautiful Day for a Campaign

After fighting the weather the last three nights, it was beautiful all day!  The morning at the school was excellent--we visited 13 classrooms.

We were able to visit the neighborhood and lots of kids/adults showed up at the family festival.  Lot's of decisions made the perfect end to a beautiful day.

Costa Rica--Day One

Even though the flight to Costa Rica is less than an hour, the trip overall still takes 5 or 6 hours by the time you drive to the airport, arrive two hours early, fly, go through immigration, pick up luggage, go through customs and drive to the hotel.  However, let me say that I'm not complaining.  So thankful that God has provided the resources for us to make this short trip in place of the 26+ hour school bus ride that the Salvadorans endured to get here.

We walked right in to orientation with the Gulf Shores group when we arrived at the hotel.  Introductions, discussions, questions and more followed for the next hour.  Unfortunately, the group from Faith Baptist had missed a connection and we weren't sure they would arrive in time for the evening event.  But, God had other plans--their flight came in at 2:30 and they were just barely able to get checked in before we headed out.

We had planned to go to Cartago and pass out tracts at the site of the annual pilgrimage, but since we wouldn't have arrived until after 5:00 p.m., Pastor Rodolfo indicated that most of the festivities would be over.  Instead we spent time sharing one-on-one on the pedestrian walkway in downtown San Jose.  

After the event, we went to Pollo Campero with the Faith Baptist group and Stephen did their orientation over chicken!  

Looking forward to joint worship this morning with Iglesia Bautista Vida Nueva, San Jose!

Lives Were Changed

The 40+ people who came from Valley Baptist, Bakersfield, CA; Copper Springs Church, Clovis, CA; Faith Baptist Church, Youngsville, NC; and Crossroads Church, Benson, NC, and the group from Vida Nueva saw God do a great work this week.  There were more than 700 professions of faith and, with the exception of a few group presentations downtown and after the movie each night, these decisions were the result of faithful one-on-one sharing of the gospel message by the team.  Although a large number of professions of faith is not abnormal, they are usually the result of a combination of sharing lessons/gospel in the schools in the mornings and one-on-one in the evenings.  Not so this time.  Because the decisions were made with individual team members and their translator, the personal information they gathered is likely to be complete and accurate which makes the follow-up process much easier.

The campaigns were divided among our various church sites:  Friday and Saturday night we worked with Pastor Koky Lopez and IBVN Lourdes;

Monday and Tuesday with Pastor David Guadron and the IBVN Crown Plaza site;

Wednesday with Pastor Alex Hernandez and the IBVN Miravalle site;

Thursday with Pastor Chitty Lopez and IBVN Apopa 

and Friday with Pastor Manuel Orellana and IBVN Coyolito.  

I know I've mentioned it before, but if you've never had the opportunity to participate in a mission trip, then you have missed out on an unbelievable blessing.  A trip is "life changing" for those who are now part of God's family and for the team members who were able to see God work through them.  Please pray about what God would have you do--we'd love to see you here in Central America this year.

First Campaign of 2014

Last night was the first night of the first campaign of the year.  There is a group of 41 from Valley Baptist, Bakersfield, CA, Copper Springs, Colvis, California and Faith Baptist in North Carolina.  Here are just a couple of pictures.