Family Happenings

We are coming up on our 3rd anniversary of moving to Antigua, Guatemala and we are amazed at what's happened in such a short time! Not only have we been busy with ministry (see the post below), but, our kids have grown up a lot! They've been busy with all that we do here as well. Here's some highlights!

Alicia

Alicia is now 14 and is really getting involved in what we are doing here in Guatemala. She helps teach a Sunday School class at our church on Sundays, she's working with groups of kids at our Kids Club on Saturday mornings, and she's going to be helping out a team from Minnesota with translation and children's ministry in November (without us, I might add!). She's doing so well at Spanish and is really studying hard so she can translate effectively while she's with the team next month.

Bailey

Bailey is now 12 and very busy with her horseback riding, her school work, and helping out in the ministry. She has a job working at the stables where she rides to earn lessons. Here's some pictures of her!

Christopher

Christopher is now 10 and also busy with school, friends, and ministry help. He helps out in his Sunday School class when they need someone to translate at times, and he also helps us with Kids Club.

Update of Happenings!!!

New Stuff!!!!

Well, it's been super busy!! Not a surprise, but, a little overwhelming! We've been trying to get all our ducks in a row for our big outreaches planned for the last 2 weekends of this month. It's going to be good, but, it will be super busy. Pray for us as we get it all together.

Evangelism Seminar

Our first big event is the bi-lingual evangelism seminar that Mark will be running on October 25th. We will be holding it at the YWAM cafe here in Antigua for pastors, missionaries, Guatemalans, gringos, and anyone who wants to learn how to be effective in sharing their faith with others. It will be a good training. They will walk away with resources, encouragement, and, hopefully, a fire to share God with the lost. We still have a lot of things to prepare: handouts, teachings, translation of the materials, gift bags, food, and still some advertising. Right now we have about 18 people pre-registered, we are thankful!

Please pray for us as we finish up the details and pray for Mark and his translators, Abner and Alejandra, as they teach for that day.

You are invited to your own funeral!

October 31st is the Day of the Dead here in Guatemala. It is celebrated by going to the cemetary and decorating the graves of family members with flowers, food, music, and flying kites supposedly to "capture" the spirits of your ancestors. We will be doing an outreach that night in Antigua where we are inviting people to come to a funeral for themselves.

It will begin with a parade of a coffin from Central Park through the streets to the cafe. Once in the cafe there will be a presentation of the gospel about how we need to be dead to sin in order to be alive in Christ. We are praying that this will be a tremendous outreach into the lives of the Guatemalans who at this time of the year are already thinking about eternity, death, and what that all means for them.

Please pray that we can pull it all together and that the Holy Spirit draws people to Him. We need wisdom on how to approach this and how to make it happen. Mark will be preaching that night, so please pray for an annointing on him while he does so.

New Family Member

I mentioned earlier how we will be getting a new puppy for Bailey from a friend who has to move back to the US. Well, we got her on Wednesday and here's a picutre! Her name is Lola. She is one year old and very sweet. She is just the right kind of puppy for Bailey because she loves to be cuddled, held, and babied! We already love her!

What else has been happening?

We had a movie night at the base recently and showed the movie "The Cross and the Switchblade" in Spanish (El Cruz y el Punal). There was about 100 people that showed up and enjoyed the movie, popcorn, and juice. Many responded to the altar call afterward! Here are some pictures of that event!

Celebrate Recovery

On Thursday the 25th I spoke at our church’s "Celebrate Recovery" program for people battling addictions. I basically shared the gospel and gave an invitaion to receive Christ who has the power to free us.

A man can, for example, try to conquer his own addiction to alcohol (and maybe with some success), but without Christ he’ll just go to hell as a "recovering alcoholic". There may be many recovering alcoholics in hell who have asked Jesus to be their "higher power" to help them get over their alcohoilism. But they never trusted Him as their Lord to deal with the bigger problem called "sin".

The meeting went great and at least one of the men indicated their desire to give their life to Jesus. I told the group that even as Christians we struggle with sin, but the difference is that with Jesus we have the power of the Holy Spirit, and without Him we only have our own willpower. Praise God that he doesn’t leave us to ourselves when we come to Him. He comes to take over and change us from the inside out.

--Mark