Friends, Family, The IRS and the good people at the Highway 78 Dunkin Doughnuts (I miss you),
We have been living in Panajachel, Guatemala, a “tourist” town located on Lake Atitlan. Our efforts in logistical planning aimed to stay elsewhere but it seems as if the Lord had different plans. We arrived last Tuesday (July 29th) and have been staying in a home on the outskirts of the city. Our first day in town we met with a local coffee shop called Solomon’s Porch. The Lord has really begun using this place as quite the “ministry” hub. Aside from them handing over their Sunday worship service to our team, we have also had the chance to meet and build a lot of relationships with locals and tourist from our time spent at Solomon’s Porch. While I still pursue other “project based” ministries around the lake (which there are A LOT of) I can’t help but notice the Lord beginning to reshape our view of ministry. Not saying that “big” projects are not ministry… but this month is really beginning to shape into a month of relationships. As a team we are meeting new people from all walks of life on a daily basis. Through these chance meetings we are able to invite them to Solomon’s Porch for the Sunday worship service.
Aside from the relationship building we have plans to work with three pastors around the lake. Pastor Antonio is located across the lake in the city of San Pedro. His focus seems to be very short term mission focused and is able to house us one night of the week so we can work with many of the projects he has on going. AIM has worked with him in the past and he was so thrilled when we showed up at his home last week (he was wearing an AIM shirt that day). Another contact is Pastor Trinidad. (more to come on how we actually found him.. great story) Pastor Trinidad is located in the town of San Pablo. He has invited us to join his church on Sunday mornings to work with the children’s ministry. While meeting with Pastor Trinidad, due to the language barrier, he called a friend of his over to help translate. This is how we met Kevin. Kevin is a missionary living here on Lake Atitlan. He teaches English to elementary students and is able to share the gospels and worship songs as tools in his classroom. Kevin has invited us to help him through out the month. There is one more pastor here in Panajachel by the name of Benjamin. At the moment he is hosting a team from a program called The Global Challenge based out of South Africa. We have had a chance to work along side them as well and once they leave we will be able to work on more projects with Benjamin.
All together this month is shaping up to be a mix really. We have a lot of opportunities to work on many different projects over the course of the next four weeks, and the focus on relationships here in Panajachel will be an ongoing ministry in itself.
Support Update!!!!!!!!
Ok supporters, another big shout out to everyone who has joined on board with this mission. As of today the actual amount of money in our account has broken the $5,000.00. YEAH!!!! But we still have a ways to go. 🙂
Amount Given = $ 5,389.00
Amount Pledged = $ 7,400.00
Total = $ 12,789.00
Please continue to pray about supporting us. We are seeing that God has a lot of unloved children in this world and each time you support this ministry you are helping in the effort to wrap his love around them.
