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Well it’s a new year and so Happy New year to everyone.  We had a wonderful time in Texas for Christmas with our family and friends. It was a very fast two weeks but fun.

We returned to Guatemala on the 3rd, of the new year just two days before a team arrived from First Baptist Church, Snyder, Tx. They stayed till Friday the 11th. and did many great things here for the people of Guatemala.

We had such a wonderful time with our friends from FBC Snyder. They arrived on the 5th. a Saturday and we stayed pretty busy the whole time. We picked them up at the airport and took them to the mission house where they got settled in. We all had dinner there, then we all went to central park in Antigua. This is something that we do from time to time because it is a great place to witness to people. They are normally very open to listen to you. We have a friend Mark Annand who does some magic tricks and draws a crowd of people and then ask someone to give their testimony and someone translates. This time both Larry Scott and Dave Bilderback spoke to the folks around. That Saturday night I didn’t get an accurate count but at least 8 people prayed to receive Christ. Praise God.

Then on Sunday the team went to church with us at our church here, Iglesia del Camino. Then we had lunch and went gift shopping in the market.

On Monday we needed to go to the large open market to buy food to give away to twenty families. We bought beans, rice, sugar, oatmeal, maseca- for tortillas, cooking oil, powdered milk, onions, oranges, pineapples, cantaloupes, and plantains. We then brought all these things to our house and split it up into smaller packages to put into plastic barrels which we gave to the families. They will be able to use the barrels for holding water later on. This all worked out to about $100 per family. That food should help them out for about one month.

On Tuesday we took 10 barrels of food and 2 stoves to install at Santa Maria de Jesus, a very poor community where people have dirt floors and tin shacks, some with cornstalk walls. They also cook on an open fire in the center of a room and have to  breath all the smoke. This makes for poor health conditions. So we installed 2 stoves, gave away 10 barrels of food, lots of bibles, 5 water purification buckets, and played with tons of kids. The team loved it.

On Wednesday we did much of the same as Tuesday, only thing different is we only installed one stove on this day. The thing about installing the stove is that the families want to give you something to show their gratitude, so they use their hard earned money to buy us fruit drinks, bags of chips, or fix us beans and tortillas, which are all good by the way.  Also on Wednesday the team got to serve the kids at the feeding center their lunch that day. It was beans, rice, and a boiled egg, with tortillas of course. On that day there were 187 children who got a good lunch.  Something else great that happened is that not all the team went to put in stoves, so while some were doing that the others stayed around the feeding center and washed hands and feet and painted fingernails. The kids just loved that. Their skin is really dry and everyone likes lotion, so even the  little boys got some lotion.  Also on Wednesday the family who received the stove, received Christ, the mother of the house and her 19 year old daughter. That is a praise God.

On Thursday we went to Casa Shalom orphanage and had a busy day, the ladies painted a large room in the house that is going to be used as the toddlers house. The men cut up bricks that will be used in the process of giving the houses there a exterior makeover, that way they will no longer need to repaint the houses every year. While they were all busy with this Josh  had a little welding project for me. I had to rebuild a latch on a gate for the orphanage.

On Friday Morning we took them to the airport with some sad goodbyes, but we have a feeling some may be back, Lord Willing.  All in all we think it was a wonderful team and a great trip.  The team members were Dave and Sherry Bilderback, Fred and Ann Cross, Larry and Susan Scott, Mark and Sheila Harless, Austin Forbes, Heather Holmes, Faith Williams, Allison Downing, Jordan Wright, and Averey Wright.  Thank you to all of you and the way you came and Loved on the people of Guatemala in Jesus Name.

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After we took them to the airport, not much time to rest I needed to return to the large open market to buy a truck load of food to take to Rio Bravo. I did that on Saturday Morning. And now getting ready to load up all the equipment to go and drill a water well in the southern part of Guatemala.

And now for the prayer request for this month, please pray for success on drilling the water well in the southern portion of the country. Pray for the lives who have prayed to ask Jesus into their hearts, that we will be able to grow relations with them, encourage, and disciple them.  Please pray for Fred and Ann Cross in their loss while on this trip, their house was robbed.  Also for Austin Forbes was robbed too.  Looks like Satin is trying to steal some joy. 

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