A Weekend to Remember

I shared with you Sunday that I would have a great story to share with you so get your kleenex ready. Inskip Baptist is down here this week and on Sunday they wanted to drive to Chichi. I wasn't sure if we could even make it up there because of the road construction but Denton their Youth Pastor had to have Lemon Crush. So we started our drive and I must say the roads were rough. We were on the bus for about 3 hours each way ad the driver hit every hole on the road. Finally around 11 we arrived at Chichi and the street market. Anyone who has been to Chichi with me knows that my first stop is the Pizza place. They have great food for a good price. If there is good food in Guatemala I will find it. Just ask all of my Queso Pie friends. Zach and I sat down and ordered our food. Then a guy named Paul joined us. Paul is here from Good Shepard church of Knoxville. After we ordered there was a little guy named Diego that came over and started to ask us to buy some of his trinkets. After saying no a few times he leaned on the table and ask us our names. I then ask him if he would like to join us. The owner of the resturaunt came by and he and I have been friends for a year or two and he is getting use to us adding little people to our tables. He looked at Diego and ask him what he would like to eat. I told him he could have anything he wanted. He ordered a big meal for a little guy but I was not worried because I knew he would eat every bite. So as we talked to him all of his friends started coming around. Diego looked at them and just grinned from ear to ear and I could tell he felt like he was somebody. It was so cool. A few trips ago we did something simaler with about 15 kids. We got our food and Diego started going to town. Then he got a piece of bread and started to make a sandwich. At first I thought he was making it to eat but he then called his sister over to the table from outside and gave it to her.Then about 6 more kids came in and our team fed them as well. As we ate Diego talked with us about his family and friends. Something that I have leared over the years of coming to Guatemala is that kids love to talk as long as you can show them the love of Christ. Diego is a kid that lives everyday on the streets trying to help his family eat. It is still hard to imagine all of the kids here in Guatemala that will go to bed tonight with out anythign in there stomach. One more story to tell you. We have a young man here at Casa that has been helping us a lot with everything. After being here for a few weeks, tonight we had him over for dinner. As we were eating our dinner we were all joking and talking and I noticed that this young man started to cry. I aks him what was wrong and he began to share how thankful he was that we would have him over. He shared about his Dad and how bad he hated him. Then he told us that he was so thankful that we allowed him into our home. He said he was crying because he was so happy because he felt like he was part of a family. We all started to cry and he then shared the most profound thing that I have heard since we have been here. He said that he would like to meet his Dad so that he could tell him that he loved him and that he forgave him for leaving him and his family. He went on to say that he has leaned here at Casa that if you do not forgive those who have done you wrong that you can not grow as a christian. Zach and Katie sat in dead silence as this young man poured out his heart to us. It was a moment that I will never forget. As we live and start our ministry here at Casa I am learning very quick that God is working so much in the lives of these children. I met with 25 teenagers tonight that are ready to go into our village in San Lucas onSaturday and share the gospel. With stories like this young man's I have no doubt that God is goign to use the kids of Casa to save a nation. please continue to pray for this weekend as our kids are excited. They also all agreed to do a bible study with me for the next few weeks. it has been a month and God is already doing some amazing things. Stay Tuned for more!!!! Mike

Great Things are Happening in Guatemala

I must say that I am finally getting to the point of feeling like we are getting settled in. We now have our house trimmed out thanks to some great folks from Georgia, and our bathrooms are very close to being finished. I think one more week will make the difference. Not only are we getting the house finished but we are also getting ministry started. Last Friday we had the chance to introduce the Casa kids to a block party. We had cotton candy, sno cones, music, games, and forthe first time in Guatemala a 18ft clown jumper. I hope you enjoy the picture below.

It seems like every time I go out I meet new people. I have been having problems with my internet for weeks and I had to go to San Lucas to talk with them about it on Thursday. San Lucas is just down the street from Casa. As I was walking by the Municipal building I strolled in and ask them in my great East Tennessee Spanish how one could go about having a party in the town square. They sent me upstairs and the event person told me they would love to have us come and do a party. So this Saturday our kids from Casa along with a few Gringo’s from Florence Baptist will be going to share Jesus through these games. God has paved a way for us that I could have never imagined. Please pray for the event this week that people will be reached and lives will be changed for His glory. We are also excited because we are looking and praying about helping a few churches in October do a Vacation Bible School and have parties to kick them off. Please pray as we work toward this. We will meet with our kids Monday night to start training them on how to use all of these tools to share the gospel.

Make sure to check the site on Monday. I will be sharing about our big adventure this weekend to Chichi. It was a lot of fun and I have a very cool story to share with you. Please pray for us as we are still tryign to finalize the adoption. The boys are not allowed to come and live with us until the adoption is complete. I do not agree with it, I think it is unfair to them and we are still very upset about it. We are praying that our paperwork will be back in PGN this week. Also please pray for us as we are trying to build new relationships with folks here in Guatemala. Finally please continue to pray for Carla and her Mom and Dad in their situation. Please email us and let us know you are reading our stories. After a month of being here it is starting to sink in that we are 3,000 miles away. We miss you guys and would loveto hear from you.

His Servant,
Mike

Amazing Weekend of Ministry

I had told you on Sunday that I would update you with a great story from the weekend. I wanted to wait until I had the new site up and running. Before I jump into the story though, I want to thank Fourtyseven Media for an awesome site. If you need any web stuff done those guys know what they are doing. Thank you Nate Croft for all of you hard work.

Now for the story of the week if not the month. This past Saturday we went to a village about 2 hours from Casa. First let me tell you that our bus driver was not even sure if we would make it back out once we got there. It was a crazy bus ride and when we got within a half mile we were told that a bridge was out so we had to walk the rest of the way. We did have a 4 wheel drive that got all of our equipment there. The plan going into the village was to feed the entire village fried chicken and have some games for them. Well we could not have a party without a jumper, sno cone, cotton candy and tons of prizes for the games.

As I got the jumper to the site people started to circle around me. There were 150 to 200 people that had no clue what was fixing to happen. As I started unrolling the Spiderman jumper people were puzzled to see what I had. When I flipped the top over everyone took two steps back and in one voice said WOW!. Then I hooked the pump to it and the kids went crazy. I was later told that know one had ever seen one of those giant spiders before. It was so cool, but that was just the begining of a great day.

Next we cranked up the cotton candy and sno cone machine and that got everyones attention. Within about 2 minutes we had 150 people in each line. We had 70 year old people standing in line for almost an hour to get a stick of cherry cotton candy. The kids and the people of the village were so nice. They waited in line and did not complain one time. We also had 2 churches from Alabama that bought all of the chicken and the church cooked it up and served everyone that was hungry.

The most amazing thing that happened though involved Zach. For 3 days before this party he begged me to let him stay home. He said that he did not like block parties that when we were in the states he just did not see a reason for us having them. I told him to just go with us and if he did not like it he would not have to go again. I must say that I took a big risk with that statement but I knew God had something planned. While I was working with the cotton candy Zach came over and ask me for a evagecube. He had been playing soccer with some kids and felt like maybe he could share with them. He grabbed Papblo one of our kids here at Casa and started to share with the kids. He later came up to me with tears in his eyes and said Dad I know 5 people that are now going to be in Heaven with me. I must say that as I type this it is hard to hold back the tears. When it was all said and done there were over 20 salvations in that village. We also were able to leave some cubes with the Pastor and talked with him about coming back to train his people on door to door outreach. Finally this picture you see was taken from a distance and this little girl had no clue that I was snapping her picture. If anyone should still wonder why we moved to Guatemala this picture should explain why.

Please pray for our Casa kids. We are building an outreach team that will be trained on how to do everything. They are eager to learn and dying to get out and share their faith. Also Please pray for our adoption. We thought that our boys would be with us but we have had a couple of paperwork issues and they are still 3 hours away. They are ready to come home and we are ready for them. So please join us in praying that this 5 year struggle will be over soon.

His Servant,
Mike