Hello dear friends and family, I first want to apologize for my lack of blogging recently… internet is scarce these days! I am currently in Phuket, Thailand with the women from my team, team Rev217, and New Song building relationships with the women who work in the bars in Patong. I hopefully plan on writing a new blog soon, but I write now on behalf of a ministry that New Song worked with back in Guatemala.  Four times this year the L Squad will be able to raise support for a cause that has touched our hearts. Please take the time to read about Team New Song’s experience in Panajachel, and prayerfully consider donating to this worthy cause!

 
Repost: Written By Sydnee Mela 
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God has power to restore in miraculous ways.  He can redeem even the most lost people.  Let us tell you about a man who defines God’s grace. His name is Benjamin and he has a great need for his ministry in Panajachel, Guatemala. We are inviting you to be a part of this.  He now pastors a church named Mi-Reto (Ministry of Total Restoration) and lives his life by complete faith.  He serves the community to the extent that he sacrifices all he has to share Jesus with the people around him. He does this not only with words but with his actions.  Ben has been building homes, putting in plumbing, wiring electricity, and been an overall handy man for Pana. He has been doing all his projects with broken borrowed tools and transporting everything with a borrowed motorcycle.  He carts everything around in wheel barrows which triples the time of each project compared to how easy it would be in the states to do with a truck.  Ben would be able to serve his community and reach multitudes of people if he had a truck. 

Ben has not always lived a life of sacrifice. The testimony that comes from him is one that has a great impact on anyone who comes in contact with him. It was only 7 years ago that Ben went from a drug and alcohol addicted member of the occult to a radical lover of Jesus. Ben used to own a tattoo shop and a discotech. He was of the verge of suicide when a woman asked him to give God one more chance, and if God didn’t come through he could kill himself. With his wife and kids rejecting him, and nowhere to go Ben decided to give God one last chance, but he wanted to prove God wrong. Instead Ben was proven wrong, and his life was radically changed. Ben was immediately freed of his dependency on drugs and alcohol and from that day forward has lived a completely transformed life. Little did he know that God was also doing a work in his wife’s life as well. She also gave her life to Christ. 
Together they started the ministry Mi-Reto. They give all that they have to serving. They don’t even have a steady income. They live month by month, and God has provided for every month for 7 years and will continue to provide for them. All the money that goes into the church goes toward ministry or the church. They do not take any salary out of the church. This family is changing not only the community that they live in but the people that they come in contact with.
They have made a great impact on our lives over the month that we were there. They are family that we will never forget. While there we saw the need for the truck and what a blessing it would be to Ben’s ministry. It takes Ben at least a year to pay for a power tool, imagine what a truck would be for him. Even though we can’t be there we know God is changing lives through Ben. We hope that you consider being a part of this ministry and reaching out to the people that are making a difference. 

A truck would bring:
-a way to transport materials
-a way to move families into new homes
– a way to transport missions teams

– a way to get to the city (Ben is trying to get his
residency and has to make trips to the city)

– a service that may not be provided otherwise
– a symbol of God’s provision

– safety to him and the help beside him

 

To donate online, go to this site.
For the program drop down menu, choose Support a World Race Project.
In the box to fill in which project, enter “L Ministry Project.” 

If you wish to send a donation by mail, please make your check payable to Adventures In Missions and mail it to: 
Adventures In Missions 
P.O. Box 534470 
Atlanta, GA 30353-4470 
Please indicate “World Race L Ministry Project” in the memo section of the check. 

The last day to donate to this project is January 11, 2010. Any donations received after this date will go toward the overall ministry of the World Race program.  

I want to stress this so there is no confusion – donors should not give to this fund via your personal world race blog page.  If they do, it goes into your support account, not into the ministry fund.