Grace Missions Blog

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!   

We have just finished our devotion for this morning.  Bro. Teddie has been teaching in the book of Jonah, which has caused me and I’m sure others to ask ourselves if we are running from God’s will in our lives.  There are two teams preparing to go back into the village today to finish up the cementing of the floors, another team will finish hanging doors and windows, Eddie Hall and Kevin Vice are taking a team to the Seminary to do some painting and we have a crew that was gracious enough to stay behind and do “spring cleaning” here at the house.  We built 6 more houses yesterday (which gives a total of 15 houses built in all), and 7 were cemented.  We did get a little rain yesterday while building, but the Lord blessed us and saved the heavy rain until we were back at the house.  Plans for tomorrow are to dedicate the houses and visit the orphanage.  We had “pizza night” last night.  We certainly have not been going hungry, Ms. Caroline Ford is a wonderful cook!  She says it is her job to send the men home healthy and the women home fat!  Please continue to pray for us, Bro Teddie will blog tomorrow.

No internet service last night.  We have had our devotion and are leaving for the work sites.  I will write more later today.  All is well. 

A blessed Sunday!  We had our devotional time at 7:30AM and then left immediately for a church service.  I made the decision yesterday that we would attend a service at Pastor Max Lara’s house with his family and a few others.  This allowed us to see Estuardo and to pray for him.  The Lara family sang, our group sang a couple of songs, and Pastor Max preached.  Of course, this took place in Pastores which is where we got our start in Guatemala thanks to Evangelist Danny Lafferty.  Precious memories!

After the service we made our way to Antigua and Las Antorchas.  We were there early and Philippe Rambert and staff had us in and out in no time.  The group was busy shopping by noon and shopped until 3:30PM or so.  I came back to the mission house to pray! 

Samuel Acan has moved to the mountain temporarily.  He is staying in John & Laurie King’s casita for the next month or so.  This is a big help to him and us as he doesn’t need transportation from and to his house each day.  Samuel wanted me to be sure and give Betty Creech a shout!  Love is in the air?  He can’t wait until July 19th! 

Morris and Diane Bryant are right – Whitney is strictly a “need to know” person.  She doesn’t volunteer any information unless you ask her specifically.  Example:  I have “led” our musical worship for the first two mornings while lamenting the fact that this group had no one to lead us.  This afternoon Mary Hall tells me that Nathn Searcy is a gifted guitarist.  Nathan just happens to be Whitney’s boyfriend.  I guess she didn’t know he could play the guitar.  He is now our worship leader for the rest of this trip!  God is good!

I also learned tonight that Callie Wheatley is a pianist.  So, tomorrow morning she makes her debut as a pianist for GRACE Ministries!  God is good! 

Tonight was such a romantic night!  First, one of our batchelors (they have to remain anonymous) wrote a poem called “Jessica’s Sonnet” and he allowed me to read it to the whole group.  It was so sweet!  We have been playing “The Dating Game” in hopes of hooking the Hall twins up with Batchelor #1, #2, or #3.  We know they have boyfriends back in the States but this is just for this week.  The twins aren’t cooperating but we press on!  That’s the way we roll! 

Then, Nathan plays and sings this song he wrote just for Whitney!  Something about missing Virginia, Miss Virginia, West Virginia, whatever!  The ladies cried and thought is was just too sweet!  Please! 

Kevin Vice asked me to tell his daughter that he will be sending an e-mail to her in the next day or so.  He has read the blog. 

We did see a miracle today!  Kayla Brown, the one with the “severly” twisted ankle, the one who had to literally be carried everywhere yesterday and this morning, the one who missed her rotation on kitchen duty this morning because she couldn’t walk, the one who knows how to “milk” a situation, was remarkably healed just in time to go shopping today.  She walked with no limp and no ill effects from her tragic injury!  Hallelujah! 

Bro. Jerry sent me an e-mail saying all is well at home.  He complimented Kathy & Tammy for their ministry through song today.  Many members of our team send their greetings.  We prayed specifically for the services at Friendship today.  Pray for us Monday as we go back to the building sites. 

You had probably better get used to these GRACE posts coming late at night.  It is almost 10:00PM here and I just turned my computer on for the first time today.  It is actually the first time I have even been in this room since Bible study this morning.  I had kitchen duty tonight so that delayed me considerably – steak & gravy is a beast!  The ladies did an awesome job cooking today! 

We had a good Saturday with no rain.  We completely finished three houses, got two more ready to receive the concrete and a sixth one has the tin on one side.  Today took us back a few years to the days of pushing the vans up hills.  We are in some nice vehicles but the weight along with the wet roads made it impossible to climb a few of the hills.  Thank God for strong guys! 

It is amazing that we got done what we did today in spite of the fact that Kayla Brown twisted her ankle this morning and was unable to work at all today.  It was tough but we had folks pull her slack! 

It was really neat to listen tonight as the folks were just sitting around talking and enjoying each other’s company.  No one even brought a computer with them but cell phones are in abundance. 

Tomorrow we do church, Las Antorchas restaurant, and shopping in Antigua.  We will be praying for the services at Friendship and ask you to pray for us too. 

I know this entry is coming really late but it is honestly the first chance I have had all day to sit down and blog.  I just got my computer out and turned it on.  Sorry for the delay!  It has been a long day and if I weren’t trying to show Ryan Johnston (Faith Baptist of Bartlett, TN) up then I probably would skip today’s entry.  However, Scott from Arkansas and Jim Peters from Dalraida set the bar high so here it goes!

First, the Lord blessed us as we had 20 folks flying out of Gulfport, 15 out of Mobile, and 1 out of New Orleans on two different airlines.  The air travel went very smoothly and we all arrived in Guatemala separated by about fifteen minutes. 

We had the unexpected treat of seeing the Dalraida team in the airport.  I spoke to Jim Peters, met Dr. Cox, and saw Amy Dempsey whom I had not seen in several years since we were on a GRACE trip together.  We also saw Pastor Rodney Coleman and his wife, Rhonda, and their team.  (As usual, Pastor Rodney was trying to borrow money from Kevin Vice and me claiming he needed it to get home!  A man doing advertising like Pastor Rodney doesn’t need my money!)  Thank the Lord for this added blessing of being encouraged by those who have just finished very successful weeks of doing ministry here.   

The vans and the luggage truck were waiting on us and we arrived at the L.G. Camp, Jr. mission house around 2:00PM.  After a brief meeting, we hung out for a couple of hours before heading down the hill for supper.  Good food and greater fellowship! 

It is now 8:30PM and many folks have already called it a day.  It has rained considerably all afternoon.  Pray that the rains will come in such a way as to allow us to work between the showers (the 1st Lacombe team says “whatever”)  The rains have already played a part in one of the vans receiving damage.  Thank God Larry Whitehurst wasn’t the driver as today is his birthday – either 85 or 58!  I just say the the driver involved is a NASCAR driver at heart! 

We have breakfast at 6:00AM tomorrow followed by our morning worship time at 7:00AM.  Pastor Max and Juan Marcos will join us in our work efforts tomorrow.  Everyone is well.  Keep us in your prayers. 

Jim Peters and the team from Dalraida arrived safely in Guatemala on Thursday night, 6/19.  They were to be joined by two churches from Ohio on Saturday, 6/21.  The heavy rains continue so pray that this team can get their work done in spite of the rain. 

Jim is blogging at www.dalraidaguatemala2008.blogspot.com for those interested in following their trip. 

Don Tibbett and the folks from Foothills Fellowship Bible Church are staying in the L.G. Camp, Jr. mission house this week while doing ministry in Guatemala.  Pray for them!