Good morning!

Thank you for taking a few minutes to read our updates. We write them to give you a better idea of what a missionary does in a 3rd World Country and to show you what GOD is doing in Guatemala. Thank you for your encouraging replies!

The week started out with a visit to Bernarda. You can read her story here The Cost of Blood. Bernarda had surgery and is home after a long stay at the hospital recovering. She looks AMAZING! You can see it in her eyes. You can hear it in her voice. It wasn’t until this last visit that I realized I had only known Bernarda in pain. God broke down the doors to the Guatemalan National Hospital and made it possible for her to have her surgery. I don’t ever get tired of watching God’s love pour down on this little community.

For the last three years there has been a group of women from El Rosario who have gone out to neighboring towns, door to door, asking for donations to build a school kitchen. They asked for cinder blocks, a piece of rebar or maybe a sheet of corrugated tin for the roof. Three years, walking miles and hours to collect the needed materials for the kitchen.

And then a little church in Kiowa Colorado heard about it and asked if they could help pay for a local contractor to do the construction. Our missionary team has worked over the last 6 months gathering bids and working with multiple contractors to complete construction! The windows and door went in on Friday and next week the wood stove will be built! Thanks to Lindsey’s dad, the purified water system is now installed. This school is one of the only public schools in Guatemala with purified water!

We only now realize how important building this kitchen has been to our relationship with the school and the community. We are now in discussions with the principal to potentially revive an abandoned schoolhouse and use it as a Christian Academy where boys will learn about a Father who never abuses them, a Father who loves them unconditionally and a Father who will not give up on them. Ever.

The week ended with a visit from Dick and Nancy DeCook from Timberline Church. It was good to see familiar faces and introduce them to some of the people we have fallen in love with in El Rosario. We delivered bags of food to a single mom and to a family who had fifteen people living in a three-room house. Everywhere we went, we prayed. We were literally brought to our knees all day long.

And, as we drove home, I knew we were faithful. I knew we had opened the doors God asked us to. But my heart was heavy. When Jesus fed the 5,000 He knew they would be hungry the next day. He knew the only way to truly satisfy their hunger was to feed them the bread of life. And so my hope lays in what Jesus says in John 6:35 “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

Prayer requests

Please pray for our friend Bernarda. That she would continue to rest and heal. We thank God for her peace and happiness.

Pray for The El Rosario Christian Academy. That we would be obedient to God and that He would open the doors needed to make it a reality.

Pray for the single moms who feel hopeless without an income. Please pray for their families who are hungry. Pray that God would pour down an amazing blessing of work and peace on their homes.

Pray for my (not so) little ones, Gabriel, Cecilia and Samuel as they leave the comfort of their current American school to a Guatemalan school on July 8th.

Pray for our missionary team, the Owens and Marroquins. Pray that God would allow us to see others through His eyes. Pray that God would protect and bless our relationship with them and that we would follow Jesus everywhere.

Would you pray about supporting what God is doing through us in Guatemala? If you feel called to be a part of our support team, click here. We could not do this without a few people praying and listening to God.