Update-April, 2006

Guillermo and David were standing on a small trail next to the land where the Christian Life Center is being built in Las Nubes when four adolescent Mayan Indian girls approached them.  One of the girls was Celina.  Her family home was destroyed by Hurricane Stan last October and she is living in her older brother’s two room house with fourteen other members of the extended family.  Like most of the people in Las Nubes, they are among the poorest of the poor.  Celina was somewhat shy, but she mustered the courage to ask us a question that was weighing heavy on her heart.  Her father wanted to know “how much it will cost for her to be baptized”.  She knew her father had no money and she was concerned that she would not be able to pay the bus fare to the hot spring pools where we baptize.  We assured Celina that it wasn’t going to cost her anything to get baptized. The mission would have transportation available for anyone who wanted to go to the baptism.  We could sense the burden lifted from her shoulders.  When the other girls standing there with Celina heard us say it wasn’t going to cost them anything to be baptized one of them asked if she could be baptized too.  David asked her if she was a Christian and she said, “no, but she wanted to be one”.  Standing there on the trail, David explained to the girls the “good news” of how they could have new life in Christ.  Guillermo prayed with all four of them as they invited Jesus into their hearts to be their Lord and Savior.  Yes, even Celina recognized her need for Jesus as her savior. 

But Jesus said, "Let the children come to me, and don't try to stop them! People who are like these children belong to God's kingdom."

(Matthew 19:14 CEV)

Guatemala Women’s Initiative

We carried the cement the 200 yards up the side of the volcano to the abandoned chicken coop where we are storing the building materials for the Christian Life Center at Las Nubes.  The coop also serves as a place to escape from the rain for the seventy people who gather on Sunday afternoons to worship our Lord at Iglesia Cristiana Las Nubes, (Las Nubes Christian Church).   Needless to say, just lugging one sack was enough to confirm what a great blessing it is to have short-term mission teams come and help with the construction of the building and brick oven.  With the help of saints from Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Indiana, Honduras, and Guatemala the land is being leveled and a retaining wall around the perimeter of the property is about half constructed.  The land is completely paid for and we will do the construction on the building as funds become available.  Many of you have given to this project and your gifts have purchased more than land and concrete blocks. There seems to be a positive change developing in the attitude of the women here as they help on the building site.  The dark fog of defeatism that prevails in the lives of the village women of Guatemala is being penetrated by the loving light of Christ and a hope for a better life.

Don't be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others--ignoring God!-- harvests a crop of weeds. All he'll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God's Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life. So let's not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don't give up, or quit.

(Galatians 6:7-9 MSG)