January/ February 2025 Newsletter

 

Happy New Year!  We kicked off the year with a work trip to Colombia.  We attended an Indigenous Leadership Meeting there.  We had full days of meeting, planning, praying, and discussing the future of Indigenous work in the Americas.  It was a fantastic meeting and a great way to kick off the new year!  I think we all left excited not only about our own ministries this year but also the opportunities we have to coach and assist those we supervise in the ministries that they are doing. Thank you for praying for our trip! our family ringing in the new year in Bogota, Colombia our IMB Indigenous Leadership Team for the Americas Pray that we would each grow in our leadership abilities this year and that God would use each of us to help develop future leaders among our people.

Goal Setting It is goal setting time for your IMB missionaries. Each January every missionary writes ministry goals for the upcoming year.  We have been busy meeting with our people to assist them in writing smart achievable goals for 2025 as well as writing our own goals for the year. We will then report on how we are doing on each of our goals every quarter.  It is great accountability and keeps us all focused on the missionary task.  This year we as an Indigenous cluster are focusing on evangelism, discipleship, and church planting. We are also putting an emphasis on developing leaders and taking nationals alongside of us at every opportunity given.  Pray for the work that God is doing among Indigenous peoples throughout Central and South America.  Pray for the missionaries serving in this part of the world.  Pray that we would all be faithful to share the Gospel and make disciples where we serve.

Serving In early January David met with Pastor Saul and his lovely wife to talk about ways that we could work together this year.  They came up with several options of things we could do, and we kicked it off on a recent Saturday morning making home visits together in a community where they are working. We were able to be in several homes to share the Gospel, pray for people, and encourage them.  We also gave out food bags and some basic medicines to each family.  It was a wonderful day of serving together.  It was our family of four, the pastor, his wife, and their fifteen year old daughter.  I love that we were serving as a family alongside a Guatemalan family. We will be back with them in February for a Sunday service and also have plans for a future kid's outreach event. Also in January we traveled out to San Rafael for a Sunday service.  David preached on the heart of a servant leader sharing many Biblical examples of people God used and reminded them that God wants to use them also to advance the Gospel in their small community. Pray that Guatemalan Christians would boldly share their faith with their friends, family, and neighbors.  Pray that many Guatemalan people would come to know the Lord this year as a result of it. David meeting with Pastor Saul and his wife making home visits on a recent Saturday morning Volunteers Are On the Way Later today, we will welcome a small mission team from our home office in Richmond, VA.  They are coming to not only serve alongside our team here in Guatemala but also to see where each of us live and do ministry work. David will start their trip by traveling them to Quetzaltenango where they will meet the Stones and the Englishes.  They will serve a few days there alongside them in several Indigenous communities. Then, they will end the week with us here in Antigua meeting our family and seeing where we live and serve.  It is going to be a wonderful opportunity to expose them to missions and get a better understanding of missionary life and how they can better serve us in the home office.  Our team is very excited to host them! Pray for a wonderful week ahead serving together. Intermission Conference 2025 Lastly, at the end of February, we will be attending the annual Intermissions Conference for all English speaking evangelical missionaries serving in Guatemala. It will take place at Lake Atitlan. It is something our family looks forward to each year.  Pray for a wonderful conference and that each one attending will truly feel refreshed and renewed as a result of being there.  Thank you for praying for us!