April 2019 Newsletter

March was a busy month filled with many opportunities for fellowship and growth.

We began the month with a wonderful volunteer team from our home church, Harmony Baptist in Crystal Springs, MS.  They spent a week here working alongside us.  We partnered with three different local churches in our area helping them do outreach in their communities.  We spent four days making home visits and also worked in a local school sharing Bible stories and testimonies. They also got to do some local sightseeing to learn more about the Guatemalan people and culture.  It was our first time to host younger children and be on mission as a family with other families.  It was a great experience, especially for our boys. The church is already making plans to return again next year.  We are very excited about that! We spent a few days at a Prayer Retreat here in Antigua with our Guatemala mission family.  It is always great to come together and spend some time praying for each other and our ministries.  In addition to praying we also had some wonderful times of praise and worship and Bible study. We all left feeling refreshed and encouraged. We ended the month with a trip to Costa Rica to attend our Connections Cluster Meeting.  It was a wonderful opportunity for us to get to know the other families on our team.  It was also a training time for us to learn more about hosting volunteers through Americas Connect and requesting students to come work alongside us for a summer or semester term.   We are especially excited about the possibility of having students come join our Guatemala team in 2020 and learn more about the missionary task with us. We are also excited about the churches who will be coming down to work with us. Currently through Americas Connect you can do a short term entry level mission trip to Panama, Costa Rica, or Guatemala.  We would love to have your church come to Guatemala and serve with us. Let us know how we can help make that happen.  Visit Americas Connect to learn more about the opportunities that are available.  Some Guatemala dates for 2020 will be posted later this month. Our priority for April will be trying to close out the school year as best we can before the busy summer season hits.  May, June, and July are going to be quite busy so pray that we can stay focused on school this month and get a lot accomplished. David will be out making visits and contacts with pastors to get things lined up for our summer teams.  Pray for him as he travels and makes necessary arrangements. In addition to celebrating Easter, our sweet little Ben will turn 7 on April 16 and we will celebrate our 23rd wedding anniversary on the 27th.  We anticipate a lot of fun memories made in our home this month. Thank you for faithfully lifting us up in prayer.  It brings us great joy to know that we have such a large army of prayer support back home.  Those prayers keep us going!  Thank you!