Hola mi amigos!
Well, month 9 is in full swing! It’s hot (one of the hottest months on the WR so far), humid, and it’s off to a great start!
This month is a little different than the other months that we’ve had on the World Race. This month is our “MANistry” month. Now, I know most of y’all are thinking, “What is MANistry month?!” Well, simply put, the men are separated from the women this month and we are doing ministry with just the guys. We all are missing our girls, but we know that the break is a good change and it will only bring us all closer together in the end!
For our month in Guatemala, we are in the city of Puerto Barrios. It’s a port city that is situated on the northern coast of Guatemala. Our ministry that we are working with is called, “Casa Verde.” It’s a really cool ministry because there isn’t just one thing it does. Nope, it is actually a ministry with many different outreaches.
The main ministry that Casa Verde is involved in is actually something that is very near and dear to my heart. The ministry contact here run a radio station called “Radio Fe Love.” It’s been really cool for me cause prior to the race, as many of you know, I worked at a radio station. I’m excited about being here this month because I have been asked to participate on the show with one of the radio personalities we are working along side, Kevin.
We are really blessed to be able to spend time with our contact this month and have been able to get to know them a good bit already just within the past week. One of my favorite things though, is that we are working with a local preacher. He’s an incredible man of God and his name is Pastor Roni. Haha, upon our arrival, immediately Pastor Roni had Peter, David, and myself, climbing the fruit trees with him to get some delicious fruit for us to enjoy.
Like I said, Casa Verde has many faces to it. Here are some of the other branches of the ministry we’ve had the opportunity to be involved in since we’ve arrived. There are still a couple more that we haven’t yet started to get involved with, but we are praying and asking the Lord to open up those doors.
A couple nights a week, we have the opportunity to go to the local park and participate in soccer, basketball, and also breakdancing, HAHA. It’s been really cool to go and see how the ministry reaches out to the locals that hang out in the park in the evenings. The very first night we were there, 6 of the students there received Christ! Hallelujah!
One day last week we got to visit the children’s hospital. We prayed with the children and their Mothers, as many of them awaited surgery for different injuries, while others were admitted due to sickness mostly caused from malnutrition.
Once a week we do prayer walks through the local neighborhood here where we are living. We walk, pray, and have a time of reading scripture.
My personal favorite thing we’ve done so far, surprisingly, was the nursing home ministry. The folks in the nursing home are INCREDIBLE! Actually, I believe with all my heart they were more of a blessing to us men, than we were to them. We had a great time also because it was the Guatemalan Mothers Day, so that was a blessing spending time with the Mothers.
I was a little hesitant when they first told us that we would be going there, due to the fact that one of the last times I was in a nursing home was the night my Papaw passed on to Heaven. God was so good though and we were so blessed spending time there. One of the little men even played and sang a song or 2 for us.
Probably three or four nights a week we also have the blessing of going to local churches to participate in the services. It’s been great having the opportunity to continue to share our testimonies and lead worship, and my favorite thing about the services, we get to do skits!
This past weekend we did a lot of traveling to the northern area of Guatemala. Our contact needed to have a meeting with the security guard at his radio tower, so he invited us to tag along, and we had the amazing opportunity to visit one of the main attractions in Guatemala, Tikal National Park! Home to the ancient Mayan civilization! David and I were really stoked about it, because it was one of the filming locations for one of my all time favorite shows, you guessed it, SURVIVOR! Season 11 was partially filmed there!
So that’s a little about what we are getting into this month. Continue to cover us men in your prayers as we push each other this month and learn more and more what it means to be a godly man. The Lord has so much to teach each of us, and we are excited about the opportunity! Pray a hedge of protection over each of us as we continue our month here in Guatemala!
(L-R: Matt, Chris, Nick, Me, Tim, Francis, Kevin, John Michael, David, Peter)
Love y’all!
P.S… There is another branch of ministry here at Casa Verde, but I’m gonna write about it by itself. It’s pretty heavy…
