Heading South...

Tomorrow I am traveling back to Belize. Please pray for safe travels, both for me as I fly, and for Elvina and Clifford as they travel to pick me up.

End of June

Greetings one and all!! This blog has been sorely neglected, but I will try to keep it up to date in the future. I am currently in the States, heading back to Belize on the 8th of July. Elvina and Clifford did an excellent job keeping the workshops going while I was gone, and we are going to take one Saturday off this Saturday, due to a youth camp taking place at the facility. Please be in prayer for everyone involved with the camp!

I recently sent out a couple of updates which had stories from the past few months. If you did not receive and update and would like one, please let me know by posting a comment on this post.

Keep us in your prayers! We are planning on resuming the workshops on July 11th, three days after I get back. Please pray for my safety in traveling, Elvina and Clifford's health (there has been a lot of flu going around), and our planning for that next workshop!

Storm!!!!

Greetings everyone! Just a quick update to let you know the workshops are still going well, and we are still working on Bible studies and translation.

Saturday night I saw the hand of God displayed in a mighty way: Lightning!!! I have always loved watching lightning, but I got to see it up close and personal that night.

It started with rain around 11:00, then the wind started to pick up. Pretty soon it was the heaviest drencher I have ever heard, and the wind was whipping so strong, that every where in my room was getting dampened. My puppy began to cry, and I ran out to rescue the bunny from certain death by drowning... It was amazing how quickly the yard was flooding!

Sometime shortly after 12:00, I had gotten up again to see if I had unplugged something, but just as I came out of my door, I was stopped in my tracks by an incredible flash and a tremendous crash of thunder. I watched, thunderstruck, as the lightning (that hit my phone antenna) travelled down the wire, burst the phone apart, then leapt across the table to fry the satellite modem. Finally, it sent a burst a flame out of the outlet in my room. I was rather startled, but was soon curled up in bed, sleeping for the few hours left of the night.

The next morning, I was surprised to discover it had rained five inches in about 2 to 2 1/2 hours. My phone was obviously dead, as well as the internet, but everything else was okay. I am thankful that it was not the new internet system but the old modem that had been repaired many times anyway.

I am blessed by God's protection and the display of His mighty power! Please be praying for the local farmers. We are having a lot of rain when it should be dry, so they are having trouble preparing their fields to plant vital food to meet the needs of their families.

Also, please be in prayer as we are working on getting the new (used but new to us) satellite dish installed. We are having some difficulties with getting all the parts working. We bought a really inexpensive one at first, but it didn't work at all. After finding another used system, we discovered that part of it is not functioning, so we are trying to figure out what to do next.

God is good!

It is done!

Thanks be to God for His great mercy and love which He has poured down upon us! In the last seven weeks, the entire New Testament was read from beginning to end, then replayed from beginning to end. Last Wednesday at noon, we finished up the last of the recording, finishing by recording two chapters over because of the cricket noise! It was quite a challenge to accomplish a professional quality recording in the middle of the jungle! The parrots and other birds gave us trouble by day, and crickets, geckos, and locusts gave trouble by night. Those things, along with numerous power outages, readers with sore throats, language barriers (the technicians spoke Spanish), seminars, and teams made the whole project a challenge. Add to that the fact that most of the readers had not read in their own language before, and you begin to catch a glimpse of the obstacles that the enemy placed in our path, but the Lord was, of course, greater than all of those things!

We are so blessed by each one that gave their best efforts to help make the recording possible, from the readers, to the monitors, to the cooks, to the technicians that came from Guatemala, to the people in Guatemala that worked in the office, to the people we may never meet in the States who typed the text, raised the funds, and took care of many other details!

Elvina, Clifford, and I are now getting things back together and pressing on with workshops, Bible study writing, and translating, all of which we kept up during the recording, but not as effectively as we would have liked. Please pray for us as we continue on and walk the path that God has placed before us!

Almost finished!!!!

Greetings everyone! Last night at 11:00 we hit the halfway point of reviewing the entire recording. We are soooo close! We hope to be completed by Wednesday night. Please keep us in your prayers, we are very tired and working hard to push on. God is so good! We are looking forward to the blessing this work will be to others. Pray for deliverance from all the things the enemy will try to bring in the next few days to stop the work.

The smell of rain…

Don't you love it? It is a fragrance like no other. Fresh, refreshing, indefinable. Sometimes it hits you when you least expect it. I was riding on the bus this afternoon, reading a book on prayer, and not paying attention to the outside world, w Closhen suddenly the intoxicating fragrance of rain filled my nose. It has been so hot and dry lately that the scent startled me. Turning my eyes from the pages that held my attention, I was surprised to see the sky covered with clouds. It was then that I noticed the scorching heat had given way to a refreshing cool edge on the air. Soon, light rain began to fall, settling the dust and changing the mood to a peaceful lull. The bus rumbled on, bouncing and jerking on the rough road, and I settled back to continue reading. Others raised their windows, but I left mine open, relishing the scent of fresh rain, and the brightness of the breeze. My reading was once again interrupted, this time by loud cracks as thunder followed lightning flashing through the air. I closed my book and settled in to watch the welcome dry season storm, and as I did, I thought…

Life is often like that sudden dry season storm. Just when the heat of life is bearing down on us, and we toil along, wondering when relief will come, God sends a bit of refreshment; a word of encouragement, an answered prayer, something to manifest His presence, just like the refreshing whiff of fresh rain. Often in our distress over the hard circumstances that are consuming us, we fail to recognize the gift. Next, rain drops come, more blessings from the Lord along our path, but perhaps we close the windows to them and keep on. Finally, with a loud crash, God orchestrates circumstances to call our attention to His bountiful goodness in our lives. Then, just as quickly as a passing storm, life settles back and we are left with refreshed spirits, and a reminder to look for His glory in the glaring heat of the sun, as well as the refreshing breeze of the rain, in the hard times and in the easier, He is always there.

God brought some refreshing rain in the past week or so. We had a little over a week long break from the recording, so that gave us some rest. During this time we worked on organizing the office, filing papers, and revising the translations of the first Bible study lessons. It was great to be able to catch up on some of this neglected business!

A team from Kansas came for 12 days, doing some work on churches in Big Falls and Hicatee. We are always blessed when others come and encourage us through their care for the people of Toledo! Rev. John Wright has brought a team down here four years in a row, and they are always a blessing, especially to the pastors and their families, bringing care packs and encouragement for them.

This year, they wanted to provide the pastors with a lasting source of income, so they decided to buy young pigs to get the pastors started raising and selling pigs. 18 pastors x 3 pigs each = 54 pigs. I gained a new title: pig hunter. I had hoped to have all the pigs here for the team to give out, but unfortunately, I was unable to locate that many pigs in time, but we did have fun collecting at least some of them and taking care of them overnight before sending them home with pastors the next day. The fence around the satellite dish became a pig pen for the night, but we were somewhat concerned about the fact that a jaguar has been prowling around our premises. Two young guys from Big Falls came armed with machetes and spent the night on the roof of the shed, guarding the piglets from becoming jaguar snacks. Now for the task of getting the rest of the pigs…

Recording started back today. Please pray for Andres, Mark, and Lauren as they work hard to finish reading their parts. Pray for all of us, as we will be pushing hard to get the recording completed this week, so we can spend next week doing the final review.

His truth is marching on!

Greetings! It has been a busy week, but the recording of God's word in Mopan Maya continues! The parts for Paul were a major portion of the New Testament, and Clifford finished reading those on Sunday. We are down to a couple small parts and the final longer parts: narration of Luke & Acts, narration of John & Revelation, as well as all of Jesus' words. Please keep Lauren, Mark, and Andres in your prayers as they read these important words of truth.

A team from the States arrived here Wednesday night, so that has presented a challenge with the recording, because of the noise level, but we are all working to make things work for everyone.

Next week we will not be recording, as Carlos and Isidro (the technicians) will head back to Guatemala for the Holy Week. Please pray for their safe travels tomorrow. Those of us on T.E.A.M. are greatly looking forward to a week without recording!!!

We are grateful for the team from Kansas that is here to help with one of the churches. Please pray for their safety as they work.

We greatly appreciate your prayers!