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.
