Its been a while since my last post. There’s been a lot going on in that stretch of time, and hardly enough time to write a blog about it.
–I’ve travelled all over Guatemala: to Peten (10 hours away) to lead a youth group trip, to Lake Atitlan (2.5 hours away) for a women’s short-term trip, and to Escuintla (2 hours away) for a team retreat.
–I launched our ministry website that I built. You can find it at www.adventuresguatemala.org. I spent a couple of months working on the project, and am so happy with how it turned out!
The homepage of our new website!
–We said our goodbyes to three of our base members: Noe Rivera (base director), Kacie Price (Operations Supervisor), and Melanie Heath (CGA apprentice). Each of them is moving on to new seasons, from Texas to Spain to Cape Town, South Africa. It was hard to say goodbye to them all, but I’m so proud of them and excited for them.
-Kellie Surratt has stepped up as our new base director, and a few of us have split Kacie’s responsibilities in operations. I took over managing our ministry finances, which has been a lot of extra responsibility, but also, surprisingly, a lot of fun!
–I’ve continued in Spanish school, developing my language skills here. I even helped translate for one of the short-term trips I went on this summer!
Leading worship in Spanish at the women’s retreat at Lake Atitlan
–We have a World Race: Fusion team in town for the month of September. They’ve been with us for about a week now, and it has been a blast!
–I launched our ministry blog, found at www.adventuresguatemala.org/blog. My heart in stepping into the role of Social Media Coordinator was to be able to spread the word of what God is doing through our ministry, and the blog is a huge component of making that happen! Some of our blogs thus far include Stove Installations, Worship Nights, and the Story of Mafer (our friend from Guatemala City who is launching on the World Race: Gap Year this week).
–We have hosted several worship nights, including at our home and at other ministries. Part of my job is to plan these worship nights, which is a good challenge for me. Our next worship night is tomorrow (Wednesday, September 9th) so keep that in your prayers!
Leading worship at Village of Hope
–History is literally being made here in Guatemala. After a UN-comissioned team found evidence of mass corruption in the government, the people of this country have been peacefully protesting for the resignation of the President, Vice President, and many cabinet members. These protests have been going on for several months, and have seen amazing results.
The Presidential elections (already scheduled prior to the resignations) were held on Sunday, and there will be a run-off between the top two candidates on October 25th. In the midst of all of this, the church of Guatemala hosted 40 Days of Prayer for their nation, the first time that the church here has corporately come together to pray for their nation. God is moving here, and it is incredible to witness first-hand!
Boat crossing at Lake Atitlan!
These are just some of the things that have been going on in my life and ministry over the last couple of months. Coming up, we will be hosting several women’s retreats in the month of October, two different shoe drives by the end of the year, and sending out Guatemalans on short-term missions trips throughout Central America. To say that we are busy would be an understatement! But the really amazing thing is that we are this busy because God is bringing these ministry opportunities to us. He is guiding us through this, and His blessing is upon it.
September 30th is the final day of the 2015 fiscal year. With the end of the fiscal year comes my annual financial deadline. As a long-term missionary with Adventures in Missions, I am responsible to raise money each month behalf of our ministry. For this year, my total financial goal is $11,876.
I spent the first four months of the year in the States, building my group of monthly supporters. I was blessed to have such an amazing group of people rally around me in support of what God is doing though me in Guatemala.
Coming to the end of this fiscal year, I am facing a deficit in funds. By October 1st, I need to raise $2361 to meet my financial goal.
I am looking for one-time donors to partner with me and help me in meeting this goal. To make things more fun, I’ve created the following fundraiser. Check it out, and please let me know if you can donate to help me continue ministry here in Antigua, Guatemala.
Each box on this paper represents a dollar amount to donate. For example, you can ‘buy’ box 52, and donate $52 to my support account. If I fill this entire paper, I will not only be fully funded for my goal this fiscal year, but I will also have a HUGE head start on my goal next year.
To make things even more exciting, I’ve pre-selected 10 different boxes (1 for each row and column) that will receive a bag of delicious Guatemalan coffee. This coffee comes from my favorite coffee shop (and part-time office, ha!) called GuateJava. It will be shipped to you at the end of September.
Please let me know if you want to purchase a box, and I will give you directions on how to donate, as well as mark that box off on my paper.
I will update this post with new pictures of the boxes as people donate. I’ll also let you know if you happen to buy one of the coffee boxes. 🙂
Thanks so much for your support! You are helping spread the Kingdom here in Guatemala.
UPDATE:
Here’s an updated picture of the boxes that have been sold and those that are still available. Please let me know if you’d like to purchase a box!
UPDATE #2:
As of now (Friday, September 11th) I have raised nearly $900! I have just $1500 more to go to meet my funding deadline of the year. Please let me know if you’d like to buy a box. There’s still 8 bags of coffee up for grabs!
