Not Home Yet

I have a confession.  Sometimes I crave the wrong things.  Just a couple of weeks ago, I was surprised by how quickly one picture on facebook took me away on a wave of emotions, bringing up feelings I thought had long been dealt with.  It was a picture of a friend's son sitting at his desk for his first day of homeschool.  Suddenly I longed for that house he was sitting in.... an American house with carpeted floors, probably a grassy yard outside, in a spacious neighborhood with wide streets.  That picture stuck with me.  I found myself feeling sad, craving the feel of carpet under my feet as I walked through my day homeschooling our girls.  Memories of our old home in NC flooded my mind, accompanied by an unwelcome jealousy of those living that life.  I knew that I was envying something that the Lord in His perfect goodness had taken from me.  And there is just not room for that in my heart!  It was robbing me of the joy and peace that comes from delighting in the Lord.  I had to call it what it was before the Lord.  I confessed it as sin and pleaded with Him to root it out of my heart.  And, as always, it was in that secret place that He so graciously dealt with me.  

It was through the words of Psalm 73 that the Lord restored my heart.  Now, the psalmist was actually writing about a time when he envied the apparent prosperity of the wicked, which is not what I was doing.  Many people live God-honoring lives in nice houses, so please understand that even though the object of envy was completely different, I totally related to the psalmist's honest expereience of wrestling with his own heart.  

"my feet almost slipped... For I envied... they are at ease... I became embittered and my inmost being was wounded, I was stupid and didn't understand..."

Yes, that how it is written!  I was stupid and didn't understand.  But it is so true!  My heart tends to forget. I think sometimes that certain earthly things would make my life better.  I slip back into longing for things that God has taken away from me... 

    "until I entered God's sanctuary"

It is when I sit with Him in His ever-faithful presence, that I am reminded of the incomparable treasures He has given me!  Anything He has ever taken from me has been replaced with immensely better riches.  As I have poured out my heart to Him these past couple of weeks, with a tile floor beneath my feet, I have felt so deeply thankful that I sit here with a heart that is free.  I am not sitting at my old dining room table, toes in the carpet, wishing I could have the courage to let go and surrender everything to Him.  Instead, I sit here surrendered.  Free.  With a heart that continues to truly desire to be more fully His in every way.  I continue to have experiences like this one, where He reveals to me areas that I am holding back from Him.  And each time, I experience Him bringing me into a place of greater freedom and greater joy.  I love the journey.  I love the intimate fellowship with my God and King.   He is my great reward.  The treasures I have in Him make everything else a lesser thing.  Those lesser things, that my forgetful heart tends to crave, are just not worth sacrificing for.  

Our God is One who gives generously.  He has given His Son to meet our greatest need.  Jesus died in our place, taking the punishment we deserve.  When we turn from trying to do things our own way, and place our trust in Him, He gives us His righteousness, bringing us into an unbreakable relationship with God.  And in Him, we have everything our hearts long for.  He satisfies every desire, every craving of our heart.  I know that I have believed this about God, but now He is bringing me into a place where I am experiencing it more fully.   I am truly thankful for all He has taken from me.  What He has given is far better!  In the words of C.S. Lewis, earthly things "were never intended to possess my heart... my true good is in another world, and my only real treasure is Christ."  My heart couldn't possibly yearn for anything else.  I have everything!  My heart cries out with the psalmist more sincerely than before...  

"Yet I am always with You; You hold my right hand.  You guide me with Your counsel, and afterward You will take me up in glory.  

Who do I have in heaven but You?  And I desire nothing on earth but You.  My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever."

Afterward.  That word in the verse above reminds me of the heavenly home that God has prepared for those who are His!  He will bring me there one day.  And I will be in my true forever home with the One who has always been by my side.   I have never felt more deeply satisfied.  I have everything I need and long for, and I have a future that is certain.  

I pray that the Lord will use these things that He teaches me in the secret place to help someone else.  He is definitely the One leading me to write, so I just know that He has a purpose in it.   I would love to hear from you if you want to reach out on facebook or by email at jcsaleeby@yahoo.com.  

-Christy

Things that Remain

I am so thankful for Fridays!  The girls and I have just completed our 11th week of the school year.  That's hard to believe.  We were soaking in our summer break in May when I surprised the girls with the announcement that we would begin our next school year 4 weeks early due to Covid.  Being stuck in the house, it just seemed like the right call.  The only problem was that the majority of my curriculum was sitting in boxes at my parents' house in South Carolina. So I was forced to think outside the realm of what I would otherwise consider possible.  You know, that sentence I just wrote strikes me as so incredibly funny.  That has become such a normal way of thinking for me here! These past few years have turned my world upside down for sure.  Thinking outside the realm of what seems logical or possible.  Yep, I think I'm getting used to that, even though I am probably one of the most inflexible-by-nature people on the planet.  Anyway, so I spent a couple of weeks figuring out how to make our new school year work with what I had.  I had ordered the 10th grade curriculum in DVDs this year so that I would not have to teach Hannah all her subjects.  But without access to those DVDs, I am now the teacher for 12 different subjects for our three girls - 5th grade (Layla), 8th grade (Jordyn), and 10th grade (Hannah).  We follow a very full and tight schedule each day, and so far it's working out fine for us.  It helps that God prepared me for this by making me a total nerd.  I really do enjoy all the studying and learning I have to do in order to teach, and I treasure the time spent teaching our girls one-on-one.  But the workload is heavy, and Mondays through Thursdays consist of constant studying, teaching, grading, or whiting out more answers from pages copied out of my teacher editions (workbooks are also sitting in boxes in SC 😬).  Then we take Fridays off so I can help Joseph, taking care of financial and administrative stuff for the ministry (www.guate22.org).  I start each day by spending time with the Lord, reading His word, and surrendering myself to Him yet again.  I could not function without that time.  He amazes me at the way He is always faithful to be there ready to fill me up again.  I NEED to know and experience His nearness and He never fails!  If you do not know God personally like this, we would love to tell you how you can have a relationship with Him through Jesus.  Please get in touch with us on Facebook or by email at jdsaleeby@gmail.com.  God has made a way for you to be forgiven and restored to a right relationship with Him!

Prior to this pandemic, Friday nights meant dinner out as a family.  We would go to our favorite restaurant in the local market (which has since been completely closed down putting many people out of their jobs 😢), where the most delicious caldo de gallina in all of Guatemala is served.  It was usually prepared by our adopted son, Charlie, who would also usually be at the restaurant working.  I should explain that we have not legally adopted Charlie, but he has nevertheless become a part of our family.  He grew up in an orphanage here in Guatemala.  The Lord brought our lives together through our Friday nights at the restaurant, and since then, Charlie has become a spiritual son, working faithfully alongside Joseph.  He is a major blessing to our family, and we love him dearly.  All that to say we are feeling the loss of this Friday night tradition.  Now, Friday nights are spent at home like every other night, except we make it fish taco night, which is my family's favorite meal (a.k.a. an excuse to eat a ridiculous amount of chips, guacamole, and salsa... nothing to do with the fish I prepare 😂).  I have realized, though, that as this pandemic has stripped away many things like this, the things that remain are truly God's good and perfect gifts to us.  We have lost the enjoyment of our Friday nights out, but we have not lost the daily enjoyment of fellowship with our very near Heavenly Father regardless of where we are.  We have lost the fun feelings of anticipation we usually feel over a night out or an upcoming trip, but we have not lost the ever-present anticipation of an inheritance waiting for us in heaven!  (1 Peter 1) A home where we will see Jesus face-to-face and live in that perfect city forever... free from sadness, sickness, grief, and every other effect of sin that we deal with as we are passing through this temporary life on earth.  I am increasingly thankful for these gifts that remain.  The satisfaction and pleasure that come from God's nearness and our eternal hope cannot be stripped away.  This life is temporary.  Our hope and our heavenly home are eternal.  By the way, if you haven't seen it, I highly recommend the 2019 "Pilgrim's Progress" movie!  I would love to rewatch that one, but it will have to wait.  Tonight, our family will be continuing our 2nd time through the Marvel movie saga with "Captain America: The Winter Soldier."  😀

Here we are at our favorite restaurant, La Abuelita, with our friends Ben and Shelby McRoy during their visit last November.

Joseph and Charlie

Lockdown

Christy here.  It seems to me that the Lord wants me to write something.  I have felt His leading in this direction for some time now, but I honestly do not enjoy writing for the purpose of sharing on a somewhat "public" platform.  To me, it seems synonymous with standing on a stage and speaking into a microphone!  It is so much more comfortable to only share my thoughts in more personal settings.  But... I earnestly desire to be obedient to my King, and if He has plans to use me as His instrument in some way, I do not want to miss out.  I have no idea the direction this will go, but I am just going to share my heart and see what the Lord does!  This post will be of a personal nature... if you would like to know more about our ministry here and how we've been serving during the Covid-19 crisis, you can find up-to-date info at our website www.guate22.org or on our ministry facebook page https://www.facebook.com/guate22.  

So... this is quite an unexpected season.  Honestly, at the beginning of this, despite the presence of a nervous-knot-in-my-stomach kind of fear,  I was really ok with the lockdown.  I mean, Joseph can tell you that I am most definitely a hobbit (with the exception of the hairy feet - for some reason I feel compelled to clarify that 😂).  I am perfectly content with staying home, normal routines, and the lack of adventures..."nasty disturbing uncomfortable things... make you late for dinner!"  So staying home pleased my comfort-zone-seeking-self on a lot of levels.  However, as the reality of the long-haul we were in for started sinking in, so did the temptation to succumb to fear.  The unknown future of exactly how this virus may impact our family is scary!  I have had to wrestle with my fear and decide - do I believe God is strong enough to protect us or not?  And if He allows us to get sick, do I truly believe in His absolute goodness and promise to work all things for our good and His glory?  I absolutely do believe those things, but I am daily laying down my fears and asking God to help me KNOW what I know.  There are definitely emotional ups and downs, but He has been so faithful with me to help me trust Him more. His peace is truly guarding my heart and mind in Christ Jesus.

Due to the Guatemalan border closure, we had to indefinitely postpone our trip to the States that was scheduled for May.  We have lived here for the last 3 years, depending on our visits to the States every six months for refreshment from visiting family and friends.  Also, I restock on many things that are either unavailable or too expensive to buy in Guatemala.  The first thing we ran out of was zyrtec.  We have all struggled with seasonal allergies so much in the past, that 4 out of 5 of us have taken zyrtec daily for years.  I was sure that we would all be miserable as soon as our zyrtec ran out.  And it happened.  We were miserable.  Itching from head to toe.  I was asking the Lord to give us all a strength we hadn't known to endure this for who knows how many months!  However, after a couple of weeks, the symptoms stopped!  Never heard of zyrtec withdrawal before but apparently it's a thing!  I am so thankful to report that our allergies are only a minor issue on occasion but nothing like I thought they would be.  I truly believe the Lord is protecting us in this way.  Also, even when we were all miserable, I was amazed at the way He sustained our attitudes to endure it.  We have two teenage daughters (need I say more 😂) and being miserable has a way of causing emotions to take over (only for them, not for Joseph and me of course😉), but during the awful withdrawal phase, the Lord sustained them with incredible attitudes.  It was such a blessing to all joyfully decide together that we weren't going to endure this season whining and complaining.  And then we were super relieved when it passed.  This experience has reminded me that I really can trust God with EVERYTHING.  Apparently in my heart, I was still leaning a bit on my ability to keep us stocked in all the right meds.  But God is perfectly capable of sustaining our bodies with or without those things.  I am so thankful to know that I am leaning on Him a little more now than before.  He can bear the weight.  He is strong enough to be everything we need Him to be.  And we miss out on the joy of knowing how perfectly we are loved and cared for when we lean on anything other than Him!  

I think I'll leave it at that for today.  I intend to write more often as a way of sharing the things God is teaching me.  And He is always teaching me!  I hope He will use me to bring encouragement to someone who reads this.  Or maybe writing these things out is just for my own encouragement!  Either way is fine with me.  

Ministry During the Pandemic - update from Joseph

We are so thankful for your prayers and your sacrificial giving to help those in need here in Guatemala. The Lord is answering your prayers and your gifts are being used to bring others into His kingdom!

We have given out hundreds of pounds of rice, beans, and maseca, along with sugar, salt and consommé. We also have shared the gospel with each and every person that received a bag of food.  (For details about the food we are buying and distributing, please see the note at the end of this post.) We have given out food and shared the gospel in five different communities over the last five weeks. As we have met many new people, they have led us to others they know that also are in need.  It has been so exciting to see the Lord use these people to open doors to two communities.  One of these communities is a little town called Chituc.  Two weeks ago, as we shared food bags and the gospel, three people surrendered to follow King Jesus. We told them we would come back to start discipleship. Yesterday we went back with bibles and six believers (including one of the new believers) showed up. It was a blessing to see Charlie (a “Timothy”) lead them in a bible study. When we finished, they asked for more and told us they were thankful. There is no church in this community and they typically do not receive much assistance from the municipality. Something else that we are rejoicing over is that Charlie’s boss, Fidel, from the market restaurant that is now shut down, has been serving with us and receiving discipleship.  He has gone from being skeptically interested in the changes he’s seen in Charlie to showing a true hunger to be a part of the work God is doing!  He has been truly helpful to the ministry.

After we left Chituc, Fidel asked if we could go visit another little town that he had heard had great need.  So we went to San Antonio, Santo Domingo Xenacoj.  We went house to house giving food and sharing the gospel. Many of them believed in Jesus and want to continue studying the bible next week. Please pray that they receive us when we return. This community also does not have a church! Please pray that the Lord will guard the seeds that have been scattered and allow them to produce much fruit. 

We share all this so that you can know how to pray. I also want to praise the Lord for the work He is doing in our hearts as He opens doors to communities that we did not know even existed and they are within our department. I can say that we are experiencing true joy during this crisis. God has been so faithful to provide for the needs of our brothers. He is using some of you to support the work in a very direct way. Due to your giving, our family and Charlie can continue working in the harvest, teaching the Word of God, and training others to do the same as we go. Thank you and we praise the Lord for you!

One final note… We need a 4X4 vehicle to get around to these towns and villages. Our van is a blessing, but it is a 4-cylinder 12 passenger van with low clearance. As we are traveling to these outlying towns, we need a vehicle with clearance and 4x4. We have seen this need for a while. We have found a 4x4 truck that is being sold by a friend.  It will take $6,000 to purchase the truck and put new tires on it, but he wants to sell it soon.  We are asking the Lord to provide for this.  We have had many of you ask us to make it known whenever we have a specific need so that is what we are doing.  Please let us know if the Lord puts it on your heart to help our ministry in this way.  We believe that if the Lord wants us to have it, it is not a difficult thing for Him to provide! 

Here is how the food bags work:

Each bag we give is an opportunity to be in the community, share the gospel, and build relationships. We are focusing on five communities here in Sacatepéquez. These communities are Chituc, San Bartolomé Milpas Altas, Chaocorral,  Cuatro Caminos & San Antonio Xenacoj. 

For $210 USD (1,520Q) we can make 50 food bags. Each bag contains:

2 pounds of Maseca

2 pounds of rice

2 pounds of beans

1 pound of sugar 

a small bag of salt 

We would like to continue visiting these communities in rotation every week to give 50 bags each week. By rotation we mean that we will visit one or two communities each week. Every gift is helpful and useful to advance the kingdom of God here in Guatemala.

Pandemic Situation in Guate

Hello friends and family! We wanted to send out an update to let you know the current situation here in Guatemala.  For the past 3 weeks, the Guatemalan government has been asking everyone to stay at home as much as possible. They have shut down all non-essential gatherings, public transportation systems, schools, shopping centers, markets, and restaurants. This has resulted in many people completely losing their income.  On March 22 the president announced a curfew from 4pm to 4am.  As of yesterday, the curfew has been extended at least until April 12th. We currently have 34 confirmed cases of the Covid-19 virus. The government is building temporary hospital space to prepare for a peak.  Larger grocery store chains, gas stations, pharmacies and restaurants with drive thru service are still in business.  They are requiring masks and checking everyone’s temperature before allowing entrance into the grocery stores.  There is also a limit to the number of shoppers. Overall, we are impressed with the way the government and businesses are handling these circumstances.

Waiting in line to shop at Pricesmart

Many of the people the Lord has given to us to care for work in the restaurants and other businesses of the open market of our town San Lucas.  This market has been completely shut down causing these people to have no source of income.  Many people in this market have heard the gospel and begun to follow Jesus in discipleship and obedience.  We are seeking the Lord’s direction on how to continue serving these people right here in San Lucas.  This week, Charlie (who is part of our Guate22 team and a talented chef in the market that is now closed) reached out to the local volunteer firefighters/ems workers.  He cooked them a couple of meals and found out their current needs.  Thanks to some generous donations, I was able to buy supplies for their fire station and as we delivered them, we shared the gospel.  We were blessed to see God open the eyes of one of these young men’s hearts as he repented and believed in Jesus!  We are excited about the opportunity to continue ministering to these servants of the community.

I have also been able to continue regular discipleship meetings with the guys on our GUATE22 team through ZOOM.  They are also experiencing financial hardship but sincerely desire to continue in the gospel ministry.  We have even offered disciple making trainings online using ZOOM.  Please let me know if you are interested in participating!

After a few weeks of praying and asking the Lord how to serve during these unusual times, here is what we have concluded. We are not a ministry that is set up to feed, supply medical needs or housing. However, we know that we are here for such a time as this. We have decided to focus on our local public volunteer servants at the fire station. We have also decided that we will work with each of our GUATE22 team members to supply food for them to share with those in their community but focusing on those they have already been praying for and sharing with prior to this situation. An example of this will be supplying Charlie with the ingredients and supplies to prepare food for his neighbors and for the fire station. In this way we hope to build gospel centered relationships with people and families living right next door.  We will also be talking with our neighbors to see who has a need in our community and the rest of the team likewise. All for the opportunity to love our neighbors and deliver the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We have found a great contact selling 100lbs of beans and 100lbs of rice for $100. We will be putting together packets for families including basic non-perishable food staples to be personally delivered with the gospel.  Any donations we receive will also be used to help with basic needs for a few of the GUATE22 team members so they can also take care of their families as they are serving others. Every donation will present an opportunity for us to deliver the gospel of King Jesus. These opportunities may be the way into a house of peace for continued discipleship and kingdom growth. If you would like to give, please visit our website www.guate22.org and click “Donate”. We have the tax-deductible option through our sending church, Faith Baptist Church, or you can give using the PayPal or Google Pay links at the bottom of the “Donate” page. Above all, we ask you to pray for the people of Guatemala.  We long to see God move as only He can do, opening the eyes of the blind and bringing people into a restored relationship with Himself.  Also, please pray for our health and for lasting gospel centered, kingdom expanding relationships to develop as we go. As always, we thank the Lord for each of you!  Please let us know how you are doing and how we can be praying for you! Joseph and Christy Saleeby

Guate22 - Ministry update from Joseph

Once again, too much time has passed since our last update.  On the other hand, we are thankful that the reason for the delay is that we have been preoccupied with the exciting ways God is working around and through us.  I, Joseph, am currently waiting for two members of our ministry team as they are seeking Visas so they can travel with me to the US for further ministry training. I thought I’d take a minute and write a brief update.

Since our last post we have been able to realize steps toward a vision the Lord has put on our hearts. That vision is to establish a nonprofit ministry that will equip existing churches and establish healthy evangelical churches to complete the great commission. Our prayer is that it will eventually be run by Guatemalan nationals. The name of the ministry is GUATE22.   Please follow us on facebook (https://www.facebook.com/guate22/) and visit our new website (www.guate22.org) to learn more about the team, the mission and the vision for the future of GUATE22.

Starting in December 2019 we have had a few short-term teams come from the US. These  teams were very flexible and willing to receive evangelism and discipleship training in their first few days in order to engage the community with the gospel. We saw the Lord work in ways one may feel were very inconvenient, but God showed us that His plans were better than ours. Through the first set of “inconveniences”, the team that came in December ended up staying in our own town of San Lucas instead of traveling to another department according to plan. While staying in San Lucas, we engaged the community with the gospel, saw people repent and believe, and had two baptisms. From one of these two who were baptized, we have since seen the Lord open many doors into a community where we had honestly struggled before. All in the Lord’s timing. We have continued with discipleship and evangelism in this area and the Lord has brought more fruit through repentance and more baptisms.

We had an incredible week of ministry with a team that came in February, and with this team we saw the Lord open even more doors within the same community.  We saw many people repent and believe and had two more baptisms.  Since then, we have been meeting regularly to disciple and follow-up with the contacts that were made that week.  If you, your church, or your small group want to come and see how the Lord is working, please send us a note so we can start planning your trip as soon as possible.

The Lord continues to add young men to the GUATE22 team.  These brothers truly are a blessing to my soul. It is a joy to watch them grow in their faith and confidence in God’s Word, and to see them sharing the gospel and training others to do the same. These brothers are faithfully pursuing the Lord in obedience. We give all praise, honor, and glory to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for all that He is doing in the hearts of men and women here in Guatemala! He is advancing His kingdom for His glory!