God is Moving - stories from Joseph

We are so excited to share a couple of amazing stories from this past month.  We know that many of you give sacrificially to support the ministry God has called us to, so we want to be sure that you get to know some of the ways we are seeing God move!

Before I get to the most recent stories, I (Joseph) want to thank the Lord for the work He allowed us to be a part of when a team from Osborne Baptist Church joined me and the local team (who I am calling the Guate22 team) for a week this month.  Ronnie Bullins, Justin Mize and Phillip Raeburn came from Eden, NC, and worked hard to God’s glory. The Guate22 team that went on the trip was Dany Garcia, Jesús Sanchez, Marbin Flores and Geovanni. We were also blessed to have José Rubí with us from La Ceiba, Honduras.  All of these brothers poured their hearts into kingdom business to glorify God each day. I am thankful for the opportunity to work with each of them.  We witnessed the work of the Holy Spirit in Huehuetenango as we joined Jesus Sanchez and his family in the work that they are doing there.  God clearly led us to those that He had prepared to hear and respond to the gospel.  We saw a whole family get right with God together. We also saw 12 salvations, trained 10 in evangelism and discipleship, and had 2 baptisms. We prayed with many more people along the way and came home knowing that we did not waste a minute. We planted many gospel seeds and we ask the Lord to bring the growth.  

Back row (left to right): Ronnie Bullins, Justin Mize, Marbin Flores, Jose Rubi, Geovanni, and me
Front row (left to right): Dany Garcia and Phillip Raeburn

Jesus Sanchez and his wife, Adali

The first story I want to share is from that trip.  We had been planning the trip for a few months. In the planning process, I needed to find translators. I was waiting for one translator to get time off so he could join us. Well, that did not work out. The week before the trip, I reached out to a guy I met in Zacapa, named Geovanni. He was a translator for another Guatemala based ministry, Hope of Life, and I had only met and worked with him for one day while in Zacapa. So, I called and invited him to travel with us as a translator. By the second day of the trip, he had heard the gospel multiple times. I asked him if he had considered following Jesus. He said he was thinking about it but was worried that he would “mess it up.” I told him there was no doubt about that! I encouraged him to put his faith in Jesus’ work alone and not in his own ability to be righteous. I left him to think on that. Later in the day, we were talking to a man and wife about baptism using the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:26-39), and Geovanni who was listening in quietly came to us and said, “I believe in Jesus and I want to be baptized.” So, he and the woman we were talking to were both baptized!  When Geovanni returned home, he shared with his dad what happened to him and shared the gospel with him. His dad surrendered his life to Christ right then! Geovanni called me asking for direction on starting with discipleship. Praise the Lord!

A few days after returning from the trip, I met with Geovanni, along with Dany and Marbin (who had also traveled with us) for discipleship.  We were joined by a man named Charlie, who works at our family’s favorite restaurant in the nearby market.  During our meeting, Charlie realized he was far from God and decided to put his faith in Jesus! He is now planning to share the gospel with some of the women that also work at the restaurant!  After spending time with Charlie, the rest of us went out to share the gospel together. Geovanni was nervous but he really wanted to obey King Jesus and he did. Please pray for Geovanni as he continues following Jesus. Please pray for him to grow in his faith so that he can disciple his dad and continue sharing the gospel with others.

This is the team eating dinner the night before heading out to Huehuetenango.  That's Charlie in the foreground.

And a bonus story… our van was with the mechanic so I had to take an Uber home that night.  After pulling into our neighborhood, I asked the driver, Wilmer, if I could share something with him.  He was open and listened intently as I shared the gospel using the 3 circles.  When I asked him where he found himself (close to God or far from God), he began crying.  He said he knew he was far from God, but had never realized it before.  I was witnessing the Holy Spirit piercing this man’s heart right in front of my eyes.  Through tears, Wilmer prayed to repent of his sins and surrender his life to Christ!  Praise God!  Please pray that he will continue in the faith and be willing to receive discipleship. 

We sincerely thank all our supporters for joining us in this journey. Many of you are giving of your hard-earned money and many of you are praying for the work that is going on. Thank you very much.  If you would like to see more pictures or baptism videos from our trip, check out the recent posts on our facebook page (facebook name: JosephandChristySaleeby  https://www.facebook.com/csaleeby)  Stay tuned in the next few months as we plan to launch our vision for Guate22!

Please continue to pray:

• For more workers in the harvest in all 22 departments of Guatemala.
• For Jesús Sánchez and his family and the ministry in Huehuetenango.
• For the brothers on the GUATE22 team as they grow and develop their own ministries
• For our brother Jose Rubí as he seeks NoPlaceLeft in La Ceiba, Honduras.