Today was another good day.  The morning began with our time in the Word as Mark Mast brought us a good word from Matthew 14 and Mark 6 about the feeding of the five thousand men. 

We sent a team to the Guatemalan Bible Seminary to paint the exterior of their gymnasium and the interior of an office.  They had a productive day! 

We had three teams building and two teams doing cement.  Another five houses were completely finished, three more are ready for the concrete and one is almost ready.  So, ten houses are now completely finished. 

We also had a team conduct a VBS in the village where we are building.  Pastor Mario Monroy brought four of his young people with him and they did some evangelistic work in the village plus helped with the VBS.  That was a huge plus for us. 

We hosted Jack, Carolyn, & Ashley Ciak along with the 34 girls from the Esperanza Abajo dorm at Casa Aleluya for a time of recreation and food late this afternoon and evening.  The girls seemed to have a good time and we presented each girl with a small gift for Christmas. 

Unfortunately, Jan Kapenga suffered a steam burn on both hands tonight while preparing supper.  Laurie King is taking care of her but one hand was burned fairly significantly.  Please pray for her. 

I am sitting in the meeting room as Jim Dornbush is working on getting some pictures uploaded.  There are games being played all around.  This group has certainly had good fellowship. 

Please continue to pray for us.  Our phone is still not working but everyone, with the exception of Jan K, is doing well.  Thanks for your prayers! 

Sunday was a good day for our team!  The day began late (8:00AM) with a time of musical worship led once again by Kristen DeYoung & Miriam Mast and a message from the Word by Brad Bensinger.  (Brad is the Campus Minister at Troy University in Alabama and he will be leading a group of his college students here in March)  The girls and Brad did a great job of leading/feeding us spiritually. 

The Wayne DeYoung family shared a message in song during the morning devotional time and also during the worship service at Rios de Agua Viva.  Wow, that family can sing!  The neat thing is that they are always willing to minister through song which is a blessing.  (Eric, I now realize that you carry that group but lets keep that between us!) 

As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, we went to Rios de Agua Viva for the morning worship service.  I was blown away when they made two presentations.  First, they presented a framed certificate of appreciation to GRACE Ministries for their support in the building of the church’s new parsonage.  Second, November is “Pastor Appreciation Month” in Guatemala and they presented me with a beautiful painting of the town square in Chimaltenango.  Pastor Walter Aju, the deacons, and the leaders of the women’s group all participated in the presentations.  Tom & Shari Compagner joined in the receiving of the certificate of appreciation as Tom is on our Board of Advisors and I wanted our Northern friends i.e. Michigan & Canada represented.  Thank you Pastor Walter & the members of Rios de Agua Viva for being so thoughtful! 

Missionary Mark Mast from Canada brought the message in the service as Eugene Dighero translated for him.  He preached from James 1:16-18 and God used him to speak His Word to us. 

After the service, we went directly to Las Antorchas for dinner.  One of the employess at LA passed away last Friday and four of her daughters also work at LA.  The owner, Phillippe Rambert, shared this with me and asked us to pray for them.  The four daughters joined us and we offered a prayer of support for them.  We were thankful for this ministry opportunity.  The team members did the shopping thing after dinner and   they seemed to have a good time. 

The evening saw Cesar from the seminary and three of his friends come to the mission house to share an evening of musical worship with us.  They set their equipment up on the parking area and we enjoyed a good time of worship in song.  Thanks to Tico Vargas for making this happen. 

I am hearing from some of you about no pictures being uploaded.  Deacon Dewayne or Ben Vickers, please send me an e-mail giving me instructions as to how best get some pictures on our website.  We will then do our best to upload some Monday night. 

We are still having problems with our VOIP phone so this remains our connection with family and friends back home.  Sorry about the problem but please know that everyone is doing well.  Please keep praying!