Line change – isn’t that a hockey term? (Help me Mark!) At any rate, the team being led by Bro. Johnny Tucker is leaving the L.G. Camp, Jr. Mission House this morning and our next GRACE team being led by Bro. Jerry Hovel is headed for the Camp house. Pray for these teams as they travel today.
Bro. Jerry has plans to post daily updates on this GRACE blog. I don’t know whether that will happen beginning today or tomorrow but it is supposed to happen. Stayed tuned!
Lisa, the girls, Garrett Borja and I had the latest scheduled return time as our plane landed in Mobile at 10:25PM. As far as I know, the folks in Texas, Tennessee, and South Carolina all arrived home safely – to God be the glory! I hope to summarize at some point this weekend. Thanks for your prayers!
I feel that we had an excellent last day of ministry. We changed our normal routine as we went to Pastores for our morning devotion so that our team could meet Estuardo. It seemed to be good for Estuardo and his family that we were there. One of the ladies from South Carolina, Donna Payne, is a nurse and she checked Estuardo because of bed sores. I thank God for her kindness to him and his family. That was an excellent time of ministry.
Our team then went to El Durazno to dedicate the 15 houses. One team poured cement in the final house while the other 14 were being dedicated. A couple of other teams put the fronts on three others and all of the houses were completely finished – glory to God!
The team did a Burger King stop and then came back to the mission house where they mowed the lawn, washed vehicles, and got ready to go home. We had a share time last night and that was a sweet time especially as those first timers shared what God has done in their lives this week.
Bret Hart led the final day of the baseball clinic and it went well too. Eli Eliciero shared his personal testimony and the boys listened intently. Those boys have enjoyed the past three afternoons. I appreciate Bret and the others who have taken the time to invest in these young lives.
Josh Caldwell got a good report yesterday in that he has no cancer anywhere else in his body. The type cancer he has is the same that Lance Armstrong battled. Chemotherapy is effective in treating this type cancer. Continue to pray for Josh.
It is my understanding that the service for Jack Leasure went well. Thanks for each person who attended the visitation and/or service. Thanks to Bro. Jerry for leading the service.
It is almost 3:00AM and I am about to take our South Carolina brothers & sisters to the airport as they have the early flight home. I will return and the rest of us will leave the mission house at 8:30AM.
Thanks for your prayers and I ask that you continue to pray for us as we travel home today. We have had an awesome trip! God is good!
We had a great Wednesday. Pastor Danny Sinquefield did a great job of bringing us the Word from Psalm 46:10 – 11. The four pastors have done an excellent job of ministering to us through the Word each morning on this trip. Awesome!
Lynne Garcia, Alma Rodriguez, Deidra, and Rita Arriola went to Panimaquin yesterday to lead a women’s conference. (I sent Soy along as a body guard) From all reports, they have an excellent time of ministry.
Pastor Abel Garcia and Pastor Terry Rainey led a team back to the seminary to paint. Yes, Pastor Rainey actually painted in spite of his severe pain! I honestly don’t know if they finished or not but I do know they had a good day.
The rest of our folks went back to build. The last two houses were built and three more received cement. Once again, the rains came and didn’t allow them to cement the final house. That will get done today.
Bret Hart led the second day of the baseball clinic. The rains kept them inside for most of the day but they had a good time. I am praying that the rains will hold off today so they can have the entire clinic outside.
We went to another village and distributed clothes and food to 100 families. That was a precious time. Pastor Abel has really done a good job of helping lead that ministry. The Lord blessed by holding the rain until we could get finished as we were outside.
No new happenings with Josh Caldwell. Pastor Travis – Pastor Terry appreciates your kind offer but said he has several pastor friends in the immediate area who are ministering for him.
My thoughts were with the Leasure family last night and that will be true today also. Pray for that service that will take place at 10:00AM.
Pray that we will have a great final day of ministry!
As you can see, this entry is coming on Wednesday morning as opposed to Tuesday night. Here is a recap of yesterday’s happenings – our day began with a Bible study led by Pastor Terry Rainey. Great word from the Word!
A team went to Amor del Nino to visit with Steve & Shyrel Osborn and then stopped back by Casa Aleluya for a self guided tour. They had a good day.
Another team went back to El Durazno and continued the building process. Four more houses were constructed bringing that total to 13 and four more received cement bringing that total to 11. This team was joined by Jack, Ryan, & Ashly Ciak from Casa Aleluya along with a gentleman from Arkansas, Stan Harris. They were a great help. That team finished the day in a torrential downpour and left the building site soaked from top to bottom. (I thought of Pastor Byron and the folks from 1st Lacombe as they faced those types of rains daily during their recent trip)
Bret Hart led a team to the seminary where they conducted the first day of a baseball clinic. The rains forced them inside and kept the numbers low but they had a good day. Pastor Danny Sinquefield presented a devotional as some of these boys are not Christians.
We then hosted 45 boys from Vencedores. The rain and subsequent wet surroundings kept them inside but it was a good time nonetheless. Those boys devoured 22 pizzas and brownies in just a few minutes. They love to come the the White House!
Bro. Jose Angel Samol is the President of the National Baptist Convention for all of Guatemala. He drove from Guatemala City to the mission house last night for a visit. We had a good time visiting with him in trying to determine how we can help the churches of his convention. I think God may be opening the door for some future ministry efforts between Bro. Jose and Pastor Danny.
The word came yesterday that Josh Caldwell does have cancer. I appreciate Pastor Terry Rainey being here but his heart is really in that hospital room with Josh. I am not sure what the next step in this process is and I also do not know the type of cancer. Pray for Josh!
Chris Chow uploaded a few more pictures last night. I also noticed that the other Chinese Chris back in Alabama uploaded some from last week’s trip. I appreciate these guys doing this.
Pray for the Leasure family as they have the visitation tonight. Remember, no services in the auditorium this morning or tonight. All other classes, Bible studies, etc. remain as scheduled.
Pray for us that we will finish strong!
This post is actually a recap of Monday’s happenings. (I may post again tonight about today’s activities) Our Monday began with a Bible study led by Pastor Eddie Burdette. He encouraged us to get in the Word and to stay in the Word!
Pastor Abel Garcia led a team of seven to the seminary to finish the paint job that our team started last week. They did that and moved on to an apartment. A team will go back tomorrow to tackle another house.
We had a slower day on the house building side. We got two more cemented and three others constructed. However, Mike Borja led a team that completely finished everything that has been built up to this point so five houses are completely finished.
We quit at 2:00PM in order to get ready for a night of village ministry. We drove about one hour to a village and distributed food and clothes to 100 families. That was a good night of ministry!
Josh Caldwell saw the oncologist yesterday morning and they put him in the hospital. I don’t think surgery is an option at this point in time. However, the chest x-ray and the bone marrow scan came back good. I honestly don’t know enough to give you the details but do know that Josh continues to need our prayers.
My world was shaken a bit twice yesterday morning. First, I received word of Jack Leasure’s passing (read the Pastor’s blog today). Then, I called Mario & Amuy Monroy only to find out that they were basically be “deported” from the country back to Panama. It is a long story but suffice it to say that the government would not grant them an extension on their visas. They came for a brief visit last night and we prayed for them. They left Guatemala this morning at 6:00AM. They may get back into Guatemala on a tourist visa for 90 days but there is a strong possibility their daughter will not be allowed back in. Crazy stuff! Pray for Mario & Amuy!
Again, I hope to update tonight. We have a busy Tuesday ahead of us. God is continuing to bless us with great weather. Kim French, those rags you sent down have been great for washing the vehicles – thanks!
This is actually my second post with the title of Sunday, 7/6/08, but the first one was actually from yesterday. It is now 9:30PM and we just finished having an evening service featuring the music ministry of Rita Arriola and the preaching ministry of Pastor Terry Rainey. The South Carolina folks are busy preparing materials for tomorrow night’s village ministry. Others are playing games, the kitchen clean up crew just finished, and some folks have gone to bed in order to be ready for tomorrow’s activities.
We had a great Sunday. Pastor Abel Garcia shared a great word with us this morning during our Bible study time. It was a wonderful way to begin the day!
Pastor Danny Sinquefield, Pastor Abel Garcia, Pastor Eddie Burdette, and Pastor Terry Rainey preached in four of the local CAM churches this morning. They all had a great time and did a great job. I appreciate Tico Vargas, seminary president, setting all of this up for us.
The meal at Las Antorchas was awesome. Philippe Rambert always takes good care of our teams. We were in shortly before noon and out around 12:30PM. Great service, great food, and great fellowship!
The shopping was – I don’t know as I came back to the mission house to pray for three hours!
Chris Chow is a young man from Faith Baptist in Bartlett, TN and he has uploaded some pictures to our photo gallery. They are under the GRACE 2008 section. Chris is a computer genius! Ironically, he is Chinese! I really appreciate his kind spirit and willingness to help this computer illiterate pastor!
I had posted the other day that Josh Caldwell was having surgery tomorrow. That was in error. Actually, he is meeting with an oncologist to determine a course of action. My prayer is that the oncologist will not find anything wrong with Josh due to a divine healing by our heavenly Father.
I continue to read the blog entries by our summer missionary. Please keep her in your prayers!
Pastor Eddie Burdette will share the Word with us in the morning. We will be building houses, painting at the seminary, and doing village ministry in the late afternoon. Pray for us.
Sherry, Lynne & Abel are not following your instructions!
What a wonderful first day for this team! We didn’t begin our morning devotion until 8:00AM and it lasted a couple of hours. Pastor Terry Rainey led the musical worship and then Pastor Danny Sinquefield brought a great message from the Word. He used Acts 11 as his text and spoke about the church in Antioch. Good stuff!
We got to our building site around 10:30AM or so and had three teams. We built five houses with four of them receiving concrete. These folks did a great job of working and the first timers took to the house building like a duck takes to water. The rain came about 4:30PM and eventually forced us to call it a day.
The cooking crew did a nice job as we came home to a wonderful meal. The downside to this wonderful meal was that I had kitchen duty and it was about a 2 1/2 hours ordeal. Folks should eat on paper towels the first night of each trip! Donald Pannell (a huge Ole Miss fan) was great and he stayed to the very end and did an outstanding job!
Today we are sending Pastor Abel, Pastor Danny, Pastor Eddie, and Pastor Terry to four churches to preach. Tonight, we will have a service in the upper room.
We will do the usual Sunday thing with lunch at Las Antorchas followed by shopping. We will be praying for our respective churches as they meet today. Pray for us!
Or is it still Day VIII from week one? My days/trips have run together but it is all good!
Happy Independence Day even though it is technically over on the calendar. I thank God for the folks who have given of themselves to insure our freedoms in America. May America bless God!
It is just before midnight and the last of our three waves of team members have now arrived. Pastor Abel Garcia and his wife, Lynne, came with two others from 1st Baptist Freeport, TX and they were the first arrivals of the day. Next came Mike, Marlene, & Garrett Borja from Gulfport, MS along with several members of my immediate family (I was glad to see my wife and girls). Then Pastor Danny Sinquefield and Bret Hart arrived in the early afternoon with nine others from Faith Baptist of Bartlett, TN. Pastor Terry Rainey and Pastor Eddie Burdette have led a group of fifteen others here from Motlow Creek Baptist and Shady Grove Baptist in South Carolina. (These two are huge Clemson fans and I have already let them know that we have 8/30 circled on our calendar!)
Believe it or not, I have postponed our morning Bible study time to 8:00AM because of the late arrival by the South Carolina folks. That doesn’t happen often!
I need to go back to the first trip and let the members of the Friendship family know that the chairman of our deacons, whom I will let remain anonymous, received a traffic ticket in Guatemala Friday morning! He was bound for jail but I interceded on his behalf – he owes me! Actually, we got pulled over for a check point and they got him for not wearing a seat belt. Yes, that is a law in Guatemala.
Please pray for Josh Caldwell, youth pastor at Motlow Creek Baptist, as he has been diagnosed with cancer. It is my understanding that surgery will take place this Monday, 7/7. His mother, Laura, was to have been on this trip but obviously had to change her plans. Pray for Josh!
Also, Pastor Danny Sinquefield’s wife was taken to the hospital last night but was sent home. She recently had surgery and this episode was directly related to that surgery.
I spoke with Dr. Tony Matheu about Estuardo’s situation and the process is beginning to determine if he needs surgery. It appears that he does so please join me in praying for him. Dan Smith and his ministry are continuing to pay Estuardo and that is a good thing. Pray for Paradise Bound Ministries too as they adjust to their loss and deal with the financial issues of doing ministry.
Well, I have kitchen duty in a few hours so I had best get some rest. Thanks to the person from the first team who left me the card – sweet & kind! Pray for this team as they begin ministering this morning!
“Heaven came down and glory filled my soul!” There are those times when you are in one of those “you just had to have been there” experiences. Last night was one of those for this group! Let me set the table.
Our Thursday was planned – morning devotion, dedicate the houses, visit Amor del Nino, visit Casa Aleluya, come back to the house for a quick bite of lunch, finish painting at the seminary, tidy things up around the mission house, have a meeting, get ready to leave.
It seemed that Murphy’s Law went into effect from the very start of the day. Nothing seemed to go right and we were way behind time wise all day. We didn’t even get back in time to go to the seminary to paint.
So, I took comfort in the fact that we were able to lead one of the ladies who had received a house to pray to receive Jesus as her Savior. Juan Marcos Ruiz was the one who led her in the prayer. God thing, great thing, hallelujah! Then one of our students came to me while we were washing the trucks and told me that she had asked Jesus to save her that afternoon. She was happy! God thing, great thing, hallelujah! Now it was beginning to make some sense as to why all of the troubles had come our way.
We began our final meeting around 8:00PM and it lasted until almost 11:00PM. Three young men immediately shared that they had given their lives to Jesus that night. God thing, great thing, hallelujah! Then, about half way through the meeting, one of the young ladies just simply stated that she didn’t have Jesus in her heart and that was what she wanted so she prayed the sinner’s prayer on the spot. Another young lady shared that she had given her heart to Jesus on Father’s Day but had not told anyone except her family. God thing, great thing, hallelujah! Another young man confessed that he had been saved but was living a double life and that was going to change. God thing, great thing, hallelujah!
This group had been extremely tight lipped during our share times all week but that ended last night. God really did a work in our midst. What a blessing!
So, what seemed like a “bad” day ended up being very much a “God” day and we give Him the glory! We have had a great week of ministry and I really hate to see this team leave. They are making plans to return next year! God thing, great thing, hallelujah!
Jeanette, Callie is planning on you guys picking her up at the airport. Speaking of the airport, it is almost 3:00AM and I am off to deliver our first group before returning to get the second group.
Thanks for your prayers and for keeping up with us via this blog. God is awesome!