Mission Trip

Thanksgiving In Guatemala

We had a great trip with a wonderful church in Guatemala just before Thanksgiving.  It was a blessing to me, and I know it was a blessing to those in Guatemala.  We were able to visit multiple projects, and perform 8 home visits where we delivered food to a family in need and shared the Gospel with them. We were able to see around 10 people get saved during the week!  On one of the visits we went to a family that had 3 children with muscular dystrophy.  And, they had lost a son to MD recently.  The food was a great blessing to them, but the greater blessing was when 2 of the family members came to trust the Lord with their salvation.

We had a special Thanksgiving dinner with the orphans at our orphanage also.  They had never celebrated Thanksgiving since it is an American holiday, so we treated them to a great meal. They asked if we could all eat with them and pass the food like they had seen in the movies.  How touching!  The things we take for granted.

The final two days were spent in a Mayan village performing a Vacation Bible School and a lice and foot washing outreach.  We had a Christian clown as part of the event and it was a great way to reach the children and the parents that came. We are excited for the church to have their first ever service on Christmas Eve this year.

Here are some pictures of the trip.

Revisiting The Past

My second trip to Nepal was much different than my last trip this year.  The last trip was just before the earthquake. Many things look different this time.  It is amazing the doors that are opening after the earth shook.  The first day on the ground this time, we were helping to build a permanent home for a family.  In the pictures below you can see some of the earthquake damage and what the temporary shelters look like that people donated through MANNA to build.  Now, we are in our second phase of relief in helping to build some permanent shelters.  It was a great opportunity to interact with the villagers.

Ulaan Baatar

The second half of our time in Mongolia was spent in Ulaan Baatar.  It is the capital of Mongolia.  We were able to visit one of our feeding centers and spend time at our orphanage.  The orphanage was the top rated orphanage for Mongolia several years ago. Typically they require a yearly license, but because of the quality of care we offer, they have given us a lifetime license to operate in Mongolia.  In fact, the government brings other groups that are starting orphanages over to visit and show them how to run a quality orphanage.  Please be in prayer for the orphanage.  We have funding for it for the next year, but we need a church or business that would be willing to partner with us to help support it going forward.

While we were at church on Sunday, we met a lady that had travelled 1,400 km through Mongolia, just to meet us at church.  That is humbling.  While spending time at our feeding center, we met Moogii.  She started coming to the center when she was 8.  Now she is 15 and helping to lead worship at a local church.  She and her siblings were basically abandoned by their mother and our center has helped sustain her through the years.  One of the children we rescued was found in a ditch with his umbilical chord still attached and barely alive.  Words cannot describe the overwhelming emotions that come with hearing testimony after testimony of children being rescued, ministered to, led to the Lord, discipled, and now serving.

Into the Gobi

We have had an amazing time thus far in Mongolia.  The first part of our time was in the Gobi Desert.  We visited one of our feeding centers and got to really engage the community.  It really is amazing where people can live.  We drove 10 hours, one way, from Ulaan Baatar to a village on the edge of the Gobi named Erdene Dalai.  There were stretches of an hour or more where we did not see a single person or animal.  For 1/2 of the trip we were on a paved road, then we ventured off onto a trail that wandered through the desert.  The youth in the village had us play them in volleyball one night, then the next day a Mongolian champion wrestler wanted to wrestle us.  Needless to say we lost.  But, he told us how grateful he was for what we are doing for the children in the community.  We met a girl named Boldmaa who began coming to our center as a small child.  She is now 19 years old, learning Korean so that she can teach in the schools in Mongolia.  She was saved at our feeding program and she is now leading a discipleship program in the city college.  It is an honor to see how the Lord is moving in lives and to be able to play a small part of it.

Short Term Trip – Long Term Vision

Can a short-term mission trip really have a long-term impact?  Yes it can.  Here is a video from our recent trip to Nicaragua, so that you can see it with your own eyes.  The team from The Creek Church went down and helped build a new church in a village.  We went door-to-door in the community to invite people to church, and at the end of the week we were able to participate in the first ever church service in the village.  How significant is this?  There is no church in this village.  Not from any denomination, religion, group, etc.  Nothing!  Being part of planting a new church is special.  I’m looking forward to watching it grow and reach people.  There are already over 100 kids attending the Bible Club every week.

1 Year in Guatemala

A lot can happen in a year.  Here is a video about our recent trip with Trinity Baptist to Guatemala.  We took them in 2014 as well, and it is awesome to see what the Lord has done in 1 year.

In 2014 we worked on constructing a new orphanage.  This year we got to play with 20 kids that are now living in the orphanage.

In 2014 we went to church in Sumpango.  This year we got to feed kids, make home visits, and provide the praise music for church.

In 2014 we went to San Lucas and fed kids and did home visits.  This year we were able to help work on the construction of the new church and work at the feeding center.

In 2014 we prayed over a vacant piece of land in El Arado. This year we were able to see the new church that has been constructed on that land and help with a medical clinic and go on home visits in El Arado.

I love seeing how the Lord is continuing His work in Guatemala.  We are so humbled to be a small part of it.

https://youtu.be/rK37-uFpBjk

5 Weeks in Central America

We are officially home from Guatemala and Nicaragua.  It was an amazing trip with some great churches.  The Lord allowed us to help the construction process of a church in Guatemala and a church in Nicaragua. We worked at medical clinics and nutrition centers.  We helped put on some Bible Clubs and we got to love on some orphans.  We performed outreaches with food baskets and water filters.  We were able to see people saved and people baptized (both nationals and people on our trip).  The sick were ministered to, as were the young and the elderly.  We got to meet a new orphan on his second day at the orphanage and were able to watch him go from scared and timid to engaging in just two weeks time.  We had fellowship with relationships we had built last year, and got to start some new friendships.   Thank you to everyone that went, prayed for us, supported us, and kept up with us.  You are a huge blessing to our family.