What God has done!

It's so good to sit from time to time and look back on all that has happened. I try to do that in June so I can see the first part of the year and evaluate where we are. Did we get as far as we needed to in school? How are the kids doing? Are we meeting our goals as a family and, if not, what can we do to make room for new goals or to make our goals happen? Are we spending our time and resources wisely?

These are things I think about. Here's a 6-month evaluation:

Ministry since January 1, 2009

We have hosted and planned for several teams.
We have completed our new theme for Kid's Club on the Armor of God and the Fruits of the Spirit.
The girls have been helping teams at a malnutrition center.
We have continued to be active in our church.
Mark has been active in street ministry here in Antigua.
We've taken part in training sessions here in Antigua and Mark has taught at a conference at the Lake.
We've started building relationships with some young men here in hopes of beginning a youth minsitry in Antigua.
We've survived our 4th Semana Santa (Holy Week)! No small feat, I can tell you!

Family stuff

We have more than half completed our school year already! (we school year-round)
The kids have had a lot of opportunities to translate and use their Spanish.
We have been able to spend the beginning of the year seeking God for His direction for our family.
God has provided miraculously for our family and our visa situation.
Our family has been able to bless a couple of Guatemalan families and meet some needs they had.

Goals for the rest of the year.

We are needing a new car. Our car has just died--it was bound to happen! Mark has opportunities to go to rural churches and train the people, but, until we get a new, reliable vehicle, it can't happen. Hopefully we'll have a new one by the end of the year.

We need to finish our school year. Alicia will be in 10th grade! I can't believe it.

We need to take some time off. We need at least a month off to refresh.

We would like to do some more training sessions in evangelism and outreach and do more work with the youth in Antigua.


God is so good! We are feeling like we are right where we need to be and things are happening. We'll keep updating what's been going on as it happens!

Dayle

Small World

I’m in Guatemala sitting at the computer that we use to listen to the radio station from back home in Minnesota. Technology has made the world smaller. Imagine being a missionary to Guatemala 50 years ago. You may not have seen your family back home for years at a time, and you may have had to rely on letters to communicate. These days you can leave for the mission field one day and see your family on a video phone the next day. Hop on a plane and you’re back home after a couple of in-flight movies. Right now if I wanted to I could probably share the gospel with someone who’s sitting at his computer in... Germany! Amazing! Through email you can pass out virtual gospel tracts to people in many states at the same time! Maybe God has allowed this technology at this time in history to make it easier for us to get the job done. It makes the call to go into all the world to preach the gospel seem more do-able, doesn’t it?