LifePark Mission Team November 2015

Back in June we hosted a vision team from The Church at LifePark in Mount Pleasant, SC.  This is a church plant of First Baptist in Mount Pleasant, one of our partner churches.  For the past several years they have been sending joint mission teams down to work in our area.  LifePark has since grown to the point that they are ready to form their own partnership with us and send teams on their own.  Last week we hosted their first team and they have plans to send three teams in 2016.  These two churches love our work area and it shows through their faithfulness to come and work alongside us. 

They arrived in Chiquimula on Monday evening.  We got them checked into the hotel and then joined them for supper at the hotel restaurant.  Afterwards they walked over to our house for chocolate chess pie, devotion, fellowship, football, and a round of Phase 10.

the team at our house on Monday night

Ken, Ben, Hilary, Anne, David, Cruz, me, and Charlie

This was Hilary and Charlie's second trip down this year and Anne's third.  Ken's son Ben was on the June vision team and his wife has plans to come on the February 2016 team.  All of that just blesses our hearts!

The goal of the week was to make visits in many of the villages we are currently targeting.  Our first stop on Tuesday morning was the village of Lagunetas.  We had a time of sharing in the home of the family that hosts us for Bible study.  Afterwards we had a time of prayer for them.

the team praying for Leonardo, Dionicia, and their 8 children

We have not been able to do Bible study in that village for a while.  I was excited to get to talk to them about starting it back up.  We made plans for us to return on Saturday, Dec. 5 to have a Bible study.  I am very excited and already making plans about how I will share the Christmas story with them that day.  Our goal is to get our Bible study there back up and going on a regular basis the first of the year.  Would you pray for that?

 Leonardo and Charlie in Lagunetas

Playing games with a few kids in Lagunetas

At one point some of the kids brought us flowers.  Here are Anne, Hilary, and me holding our flowers.

Our next stop was in the village of Churischan.  Here is the team getting ready to hike down the hill to make a visit.

We had a great encouragement visit with Maria Luz.  Her husband was away working.  They are the family of believers in that village that we are working with.  We would love to start a Bible study in their home but so far it has not happened.  Would you pray for that?

Before we left she shared several bananas with us to snack on.  Here is Ken enjoying his.

hiking in Churischan

Cruz smiling big because he got to ride in the truck with the team

After a roadside picnic lunch we headed to the village of Tarchaja to make a visit.  While there we got invited to a birthday party in late December.  We are making plans to attend because it will give us a great opportunity to meet others from that village and let them know our family.

Anne and Ken on the trail in Tarchaja

my boys taking a break from the hiking

Miguel, from Chanco, was with us all week.  He was our team driver and helped with translating.  He had two other visits he wanted us to make that afternoon.  We let him lead out for most of the week and he did a wonderful job.  He is really growing in the Lord and is a wonderful ministry partner to us.

Later that night a few of us became sick with a stomach flu/ food poison illness that pretty much took me out the rest of the week.  I missed being with the team but was able to borrow a few of their photos from the rest of their visits to share. 

On Wednesday they made a visit in the village of La Libertad near the Honduras border to encourage a few believers there. 

They also visited with Pastor Elias at the Baptist church in Chiquimula that we attend from time to time on Sunday mornings when David is not teaching in the village.  It was good to be able to encourage him and pray for his work.  Here are Bro. Elias, Anne, David, and Miguel.

beautiful mountain view

On Thursday they made some visits in Nearar and Porto Suelo before heading to our Bible study in Muyurco.

arriving and crossing the creek in Muyurco

Miguel singing songs with the children

They did a separate children's Bible study before our regular Bible study time.  Here is Anne sharing the story of Joseph with the kids.

Cruz at Bible study in Muyurco

supper in Guatemala City on Friday night

We traveled back into Guatemala City on Friday and were there overnight with the team. They did some shopping at the market and then we had a delicious meal together that night.  In spite of some sickness, this group had a great week.  We know that some good things are going to come from the visits that were made.  We could see God working in the hearts of the people and it encouraged our hearts to know that we are making a difference.  

We are looking forward to 2016 and the teams that are being put together to work with us.  In addition to the three that LifePark will send we will host four from First Baptist.  We also have a vision team from Tennessee scheduled for March.  That makes eight teams already for next year.   It's going to be some busy days but some fruitful ones as well.  We just know it!