Bible Verse

"Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments and untraceable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor? And who has ever given to God, that he should be repaid? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen." Romans 11:33-36 (CSB)

Wednesday, April 29, 2020

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.











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