Pay-per-view baptism!

Have you ever been invited to a pay-per-view baptism?

This past Sunday we were!

Okay, maybe not exactly as it sounds.....

Relaxing before the show!

It is truly a wonderful story of God moving in hearts and minds.

Evelyn Tercero is a beautiful young lady, 18 years old, that has been involved in our youth activities for about a year and a half. Evelyn was raised Catholic and while enjoying our group and participating, continued to  attend her Catholic church etc. We have watched over the past year as the Lord has been working in her, softening her heart to just lay her burdens on Him, and rest in his love.

Juliana, Martina y Evelyn

    It has been a joy to watch over the past few months as she has began reading her bible daily and expressing her excitement at new truths being revealed to her! She began attending a church near where she lives and joined a cédula, a small group. Then, a few weeks ago she told me she was going to be baptized,  and wanted me, her 'papito', to be there!

So this past Sunday, we met her at her church to follow them to where the baptism would be held. It was across the city in a 'not the nicest part of town' location.

We took two girls that live with her, Juliana & Martina, with us.

Evelyn confessing her faith

 We finally arrived at the place, a public pool where we had to pay the admission fee to enter!

So, we had to pay-to-view the baptism!

It was breezy and quite cool for here, and the water was pretty chilly!

But Evelyn was sooooooo excited! And we were so blessed to be there as her 'parents'.

Praying in the cold water

 As with things Guatemalan, it took a long time to get things under way, but eventually it started and after a brief talk by the pastor, we watched 6 people be baptized!

Evelyn gave a brief confession of her faith, was prayed over, and then...

Thank you Lord for Evelyn!

 We were so blessed to watch this girl we love follow in obedience the ordinances of God.

Both Sandi and I had tears watching her baptized and seeing the joy in her!

We were all blessed to be witnesses!

Truly, it is a blessing to watch and be witnesses to the testimony of God's grace and love. 

And for us, Evelyn is so special and we are FILLED with joy over this young lady!

¡GLORIA A DIOS!

Full House!

Okay....been a little while since I updated.

January is a time to catch up after the Christmas craziness, but this year has kept us busy so far.

We start each day with "I wonder what today holds?" and with reason. It is the rare day that something unexpected does not occur!

Actually, unexpected occurrences seem to be the norm, so we don't report much because it almost seems routine to just go with what the Lord brings our way!

Earlier this month, while we still had Felicita and James staying with us, and Oscar was back from some time with his family in Huehue, the house was full, all beds were taken. So, I get a call about 8 PM from two of our youth we work with. Their uncle, 17 yrs old, had just arrived in Guatemala city from Huehuetenango. It was his FIRST time in the city! He came to find a place to live and a job so he could go to school.

However, he arrived without a plan of how to do that, nor any idea what the big city is really like.

So, at that time of night there is no way to find a place to stay, the 3 of them did not know what to do, so....call Mike!

Well, we met Noé, and really liked his desire to do better in life. He left home, not knowing exactly what he was going to do, with the desire to study and make something better for himself.

We took him home, because we still had a couch available. The idea was the next day they were going to look for a room to rent, then look for a job.

Well......it´s not quite as easy as it sounds. Through some connections etc. we helped him find a room after 4 days with us. But he could not find a job and was almost out of money. Well, he had to return to his home in Huehuetenango, but now knows what it takes here, and is hoping to return next year and try again! He will be 18 then which will make it a little easier to get a job etc.

So, it really wasn't unusual for us, but changed our plans quite a bit for a week. But we were blessed to get to know Noé, and hope to be able to help him again next year!

Most evenings if the car is outside, I ask Sandi, "Do we need to go anywhere tonight? or should I put the car in?" and she says "we don't need to go anywhere, but as soon as you put it in, you'll get a phone call!"

Hahaha, and that does happen somewhat often!

But, we are blessed to be able to do many things just like this example with Noé, and consider it an honor and blessing that people come to us trusting us to help.

Wonder what will happen today?