Film Evangelism!

Film Evangelism!

Sunday
We left for the mountains around noon and when we got there at 3 we unpacked the van and went out evangelizing and inviting people to the movie. We had about 90 people show up for the movie and by the time Jessica preached we had 30 people leave. But, 2 people accepted Christ and we were able to pray for healing for about 10-15 people.



Monday
Every morning we had class for a few hours and then left to go to another village. The village we went to this day we actually walked through during our hike. Again, we split up in our teams and went out to evangelize and invite people to the movie. We had about 40 people show up this night. The crowd was not very responsive but we did get to pray for 10-15 people as a big group.



Tuesday
This day was my favorite day. We had some different responses to the invites to the movie and one of them was "I cant go because it is a evangelistic church and i am catholic." - you have to remember that I am in Catholic Nation and they follow catholicism to the T. Well anyways when we were out inviting people it started to down pour and one family invited us into there porch area so while we were waiting for the rain to let up we took the opportunity to tell them about Jesus. They did not accept Him but we were able to plant seeds. When we started to the movie there was only about 20 people or so and by the time the movie was done we had at least 100 people crammed into the church and some outside the church because not everyone could fit (they were sitting in the aisles and all that was left was standing room.) That night we were able to lead 20 people to the Lord and pray for healing for others.



Wednesday
When we got to the village we had to sit in the van and wait because we had no idea where we were going to show the movie. There was no church in the village and if it came to it we would set up out side and pray that it did not rain. A family ended up opening up their home to us and letting us show it in there. We were able to show the first movie fine but when we went to show the second one the projector kept messing up and then someone stepped on the electrical cord so instead of a second movie Imna started to preach. Around 10 kids accepted Christ that night!

Thursday
This was the day I was supposed to preach but we got rained out and ended up leaving the village early. The reason we did that was for our safety because we had to walk down a mountain side to get there and then walk up with a stream of rushing water going between our legs and if we did that in the dark someone could have gotten really hurt. So instead we went back to our village and 2 of the other students led our neighbors to Christ.

Friday
We left for the Capitol.



Saturday
We helped out at a church for a mothers day luncheon/service. We made butterflies with the kids so they could give them to their moms.



Sunday
We went to a different church and put on dramas for the adults (it is a big church with 5 Sunday services and has about 5000 members but we only did it for 2 services) and then we put some on for the children and I preached to them, the children, after the dramas. I had the privlage of being able to lead some of them to Christ!

This Week
We prepared all week long for our medical brigade we are leaving for on Sunday
Some things we will be doing are
~checking blood pressure
~checking blood sugar
~checking weight
(so basically being a nurse)
~ assisting the doctors - they do not know any English
~passing out medication
~working in the prayer room - our way of spreading the Gospel this week!

Prayer Request
~pray for our safety to and from the village
~that no one will get sick or injured
~that the peoples hearts will be receptive to the Gospel

Guatemala

This week we prepared for our trip to the mountains for film evangelism. My team had to get the cots ready and make sure they were not broken and the tarps and rope. Thursday night I will be preaching after one of the videos, I am not sure which video yet.

The pictures are from last weeks hiking trip

Prayer requests
~Our safety in the mountains
~That the peoples hearts will be receptive to the Gospel

Hiking Trip

Hiking Trip

Sunday
We left the capital around 11 oclock and took a 3 hour drive to El Inhenio. When we got there we found a place to set up camp and waited for Pastor Santo to arrive. When he did we split up into three groups. One group did childrens ministry while the two others went and did door to door evangilisim. That day we were able to lead 5 people to the Lord.

Monday
Monday was our first day actually hiking. We lucked out because there were a ton of clouds and a cool breeze. We got to see many beautiful things. My favorite part of this day was when we were almost at the way top of the mountain and it looked like just a little hill. It was a rough first day because we found out that we were no where near prepared for the hike as we needed to be. But, that all seemed to fade away when we got to the villiage. Again when we got there we set up camp, rested for a little while and then split up like we did the day before. This time we also invited the adults to come to a service that we were doing that night. During the door to door evangilism we had one salvation. I preached this night to a bunch of guys, we had maybe one lady or two show up. I preached on how God is not to blame for things happening and how the enemy is. No one got saved but they all sat and listened. So I was able to plant seeds. J

Tuesday
This was probably the hardest day walking. The reason for that was because we were walking hills for a few hours straight with the sun directly on us with a 40-50 lb back pack on our backs. When we got to the village we were all exausted. We did not want to do anything but sleep. We did take a short nap and then we went out and went door to door sharing about Jesus and inviting people to the service that night. My group did not get to share personaly about Jesus but we did invite plenty of people to the service. Every house we went to people had machettes pulled out and holding them or leaning on them and we were not sure why but knew that we were not really welcomed. We later found out that the reason people were like that was because they had only had one other missionary group up in that village and in between that time a group of gringos (white people) came and kidnapped a lot of children and they were not sure what we were there for. But, one adult was lead to Christ and one kid. The kid blew me away because he was the only one that raised his hand and was very timid about doing it. He was in a group with other kids and raised his hand barley but when Sam looked over he raised it a little higher. Before the services this day the kids kept making a cirlce around the tents and I was the center of there attention I even tried to hide in my tent and they would move over to look at me. The oldest was about 12 and the youngest like 6 they bad part was they were all boys doing it and when Sarah asked if they liked me they all said yes. It was funny.

Wednesday
This day was my favorite day for the view. When we got to the village we were on top of the mountain. (it was not our first mountain we were on top of but the view was amazing) if you stood on the top you could look and you were taller than all the mountains on one side. It was beautiful. God creates some beautiful things. After a short break we went out and evangilised. The first house that we went to was a Christian and you could see how Jesus changed his life. He gave glory to God for everything that he had. The rest the people just listened and let us pray for them but we were able to plant seeds and invite them to the service. This day for the kids ministry we had 80 kids and when we asked them if they knew who Jesus was or if they knew what sin was they eiteher did not answer or said no. We were able to lead about 60 kids to Christ that day. It was amazing!!

Thursday
About 1 ½ hours into this day all of the ladies were able to put there back packs on the mules/horses. We were having a hard time breathing and just very tired. We left the village at 8 a.m. and did not get to the second village until 2:30 p.m. it was a long day. The sights were beautiful and it was a more relaxing day because a lot of it was flat ground. During the preaching we had asked the captian of the futbol (soccer) team if they would be able to stop the game and he said yes after the next goal. And when they were done we called over the guys and about 25 guys came and listened to Halym (our translater) share his testimony. Because we stopped the game, with Gods help, we were able to lead 5 men to the Lord. A total of 7 adults were lead to the Lord and about 35 children.

Friday
We just headed home after a long but amazing week in the mountains!

preparing for the hike

So i dont have alot of time to write this week but i wanted to keep you updated. this week we took the whole week preparing for our trip to the mountains we prepared physically mentally and spiritually. we leave tomorrow at noon and will be back fri at 3. please pray for the 11 of us that are hiking or riding the mule, for the people we will be ministering to, and so on. on monday night i will be preaching in one of the villages so pray for me too!! well unfortunately that is all the time i have to write. I look forward to telling you all about how the week went!

Guatemala - Holy Week

The last 2 weeks have been a nice refreshing break. Monday of last week we had to go to the immigration office to renew our passports so we did not become illegal immigrants. The first day we did not have all of the information we needed so we had to go back Tuesday. That was all we did those two days. Wednesday it was my turn to preach my graded sermon. Again I had to write it off of Mark 10:1-12. I chose to preach on how God intended marriage. I titled it Is it Worth the Wait? I talked on purity and used different verses and stories in the bible to relate how God intended marriage and what man does instead. I ended it with John 8 about the adulteress woman. After I preached it Brother Kirk got up and had the class critic it, they did not have much to say but he said that I tackled a tough subject that many churches seem to neglect. He said he was going to ask Pastor Miguel who is the pastor at the church we attend if I could preach it to the youth in a few weeks. I was so excited and can not wait to share it. Also, the missionary from Mexico heard it and told me that I am def preaching it in Mexico when I go at the end of June.

This week since it is Holy Week we have the week off and get to do whatever. The four Americans that stayed at the house are taking advantage of it. We are doing absolutely nothing. We went to Antigua one day and went to the auto safari. But other than that we are lying around the house, we bought a kiddie pool and are hanging out on the patio and just relaxing. In about 2 weeks we will be taking our 6 day hike in the mountains and preaching in the villages and sharing the gospel through playing with the kids and just ministering to the people there. We will not be able to take showers that whole week ahh we are going to stink haha but, we had an introduction with that this week because our water pump broke and we had to bucket water out of the cistern and boil it because it was not pure water. And then some how manage to take showers out of buckets. Man did I learn not to take running water for advantage any more. It was a crazy week and we were so excited yesterday when the pump finally got fixed!

Since Guatemala is a Catholic Nation they celebrate Holy Week like you would not believe it. Wednesday night for Palm Wednesday they had a parade around our colony. You might think o that’s pretty cool but no in reality it was sad. First they had kids walking with palm leaves and ashes, next they had something we were not sure what it was to be exact bc we were standing on our roof thing, and last they had a sanctuary looking thing made out for mary with a statue of her on it. I guess tonight they have even a bigger parade for the death and then everything is back to normal around the city and they just forget about resurrection Sunday and leave Jesus hanging on the cross. But from what I heard from people here is that in Antigua during this weekend they have this big parade and if you are a good catholic man and you die today you can be carried around in the parade as Jesus. Speaking of the parades today it is 8 in the morning on Friday and there was just a parade. This one had people carrying a float of Jesus carrying a cross and then again of a statue of mary.

Other than that life has been pretty good here in Guatemala. We have had our scare of earthquakes the last few days just little tremors but enough to feel them and make us get out of the house. Just continue to keep me and everyone else in prayer for our safety and security. Also, continue to pray for Mexico and my trip to there at the end of June. For those of you that do not know about that God has put it on my heart to go to Mexico for a month and a half directly after here. I will be an intern for a missionary there and help her with the short-term mission teams. I will also have the opportunity to share the gospel with the young people living in her colony. I would like you to pray about financially supporting me on this trip and if you can not financially support me to pray for me and the trip. After all prayer is the best thing a missionary can get.