Sharing Our Stories

We have had a full schedule of speaking engagements this month.  It has been such a blessing to be in many different churches to raise prayer support for our work in Guatemala.  The outpouring of love we have been shown has been such an encouragement to our family.  We have enjoyed getting to see some familiar faces and meet a lot of new ones too.  Cruz asked us recently "are we famous?".  With laughter I answered him "no" and he replied "well, everywhere we go people know us."  I never know what is going through the minds of my boys.

We love speaking and sharing about missions.  We also love encouraging others to get involved in missions both locally and around the world. Our presentation consists of sharing about our family, our work, and a few fun facts about Guatemala.  We also get to promote the IMB and encourage churches to continue to support the annual Lottie Moon Christmas Offering.  We give them an updated report and share a little about how their funds are being used around the world.  It is a fun part of our job and we strive to do it well.

Here are some photos of some of the places we have spoken at over the past few weeks.

We did a Sunday morning service at Gallman Baptist Church.  David generally does the more formal church service times and I do all the rest.    After the service ended all the men left and the women stayed for a covered dish luncheon.  I spoke to the women's group in the afternoon.  Since David had already done our normal presentation earlier that morning I shared on the subject "Loving Our Neighbors".  It was a fun time to hang out with the ladies and fellowship with them.

me and the ladies at Gallman Baptist

That night we spoke to the Awana groups at First Baptist Hazlehurst, MS.  We were able to share individually with all three groups.  My boys enjoyed getting to be a part of the program for the night.  We had a really fun time there.

We stayed around a while after the program and enjoyed fellowship with the adults.  I especially enjoyed my time with these sweet ladies.  They had me laughing hard as we reminisced about memories past.  I told them I was going to print this photo out and when I was having a sad day in Guatemala I would take it out and it would make me smile.  They were so fun!

First Baptist Church Crystal Springs, MS

We shared twice at FBC Crystal Springs on a recent Wednesday night.  First David shared with the adults during their prayer meeting time and then I shared with all the children's classes.  I especially enjoy getting to share with the kid groups and answering all of their fun questions.

This past Sunday morning we were at Shady Grove Baptist in Hazlehurst.  The boys are such a big help getting everything unloaded, set up, taken down, and then packed back into the van.  I think they enjoy this part of our job just as much as we do.

David shared during the worship service and then we enjoyed a covered dish luncheon in the fellowship hall.  After lunch everyone returned to the sanctuary for an afternoon worship service.  We enjoyed getting to hear Bro. Keith preach that day. 

David, the boys, and Bro. Keith

We get to visit with him just about every week.  The boys have really grown to love him.

We shared with this fun group of kids at Pine Bluff Baptist Church this past Wednesday night.  They were one of many groups that studied about our family back in the spring when we were featured in many Baptist publications.  It was a joy to be with them in person and let them see that people they read about every week in their missions magazines are real live people.  They are families just like ours.  I think it is good for them to see just how normal we are.

We have several more places we will be sharing at before our time in the States is over.  Our calendar is just about full the remainder of our time here.  Pray for us as we travel and share our stories.  Pray that we would share them well and that our lives and our words would point others to Christ.

This Is Living (LMCO) from IMB on Vimeo.