MISSION REPORT - 9

MISSION REPORT 9

Guatemala is a beautiful country. They are rightly proud of the fact that this country is one of the top producers of produce, fruit, sugar cane and food items in all of Central America.





Most of the people here, unless they are lower upper class and above, depend upon wood fires for cooking their entire meals.


While the country is lush with growth and is in no danger of deforestation, you frequently see people colleting or cutting wood and they carrying it, tying it to the back of a bike or motorcycle, or filling a truck bed with it to take home. Most common, they have tied it into a bundle and are carrying it. Any tree or sapling that falls or is cut down, is quickly cut into manageable lengths by someone with a machete and hauled home. Imagine that you needed to cut wood every day just to cook your meal!


Many of them wash their family laundry in open water of rivers or running water alongside the roadway. Often you will see a lady walking along with a large basket or round plastic tub on her head, which may contain cleaned laundry, tortillas, or items purchased from the store and being brought home.

Labor is very plentiful and cheap here. We saw no highway machinery to cut down the weeds and lush growth along the roadway. Instead, there will be a group of men with machetes (no mowers or weed-wackers) cutting the grass and undergrowth from the edge of the pavement, through the ditch and up the bank a little ways. Quite a few other things that we might think of at home would be accomplished with machinery, are done here with manual labor. While we might think this is unfortunate or perhaps even backward, in actual fact, it gives a large population of unskilled labor ways to earn a basic living and provide for their families. It does let me know in a vivid way, why so many people “south of the border” are very eager to get “north of the border.”

While the people here may seem unsophisticated and simple by US standards, they are very devout and eager to serve the Lord. The church members are warm and accepting, generous and genuinely interested in your welfare and those of the others in the church.

Our Adventist pastors here in Guatemala typically have 17-19 churches and church plants. The elder of the church serves in the capacity of a lay pastor, as the district pastor is only at 1 church on any given Sabbath. The members all take up the spiritual work of the church and are very inclusive of all taking part, especially having the teenagers hold integral parts in the church. In my church, young men and women in their teens, lead the music every night, assist with the baptism as a deacon, totally run the PA and computer generated graphics, etc. Although the pastor is only in 1 church per Sabbath, every Sabbath afternoon, all the leaders of the local church (elders, lay pastors) meet with the Pastor for a leadership meeting, to bring reports of the church, the attendance, and what mission projects the church is engaged in. The Pastor then shares leadership principles and mentors his leaders, and also shares a spiritual message (sermon) for them. Because each church and member takes up the work of mission, none of these churches feel deprived or “under-served.” All play a part and all appreciate each other. All expect God to work through them, not just through the Pastor.

When that spirit permeates a church, God can bless and do great things.
It is worthy of your and my contemplation to consider and then act on, "just what God might lead us in our churches to do differently for the sake of mission and for more dependence upon God’s power and His work through all of us, rather than a dependence upon our own 'traditional' way of doing things, or our expectations according to human values."

MISSION REPORT - 8

MISSION REPORT 8

By the time you read this, our young adults from Pennsylvania have presented the topic of baptism, the millennium, hell fire, why so many denominations, and the remnant church. I am so proud of our Pennsylvania young adults who are taking part. Several have shared with me of their spiritual growth.

A couple are quietly and seriously thinking about being re-baptized, either while we are here, or when they return home. God is at work.
Once the PA Young Adults return home, many of them want to hold a two week meeting just like they did here before returning to college or academy at the end of the summer. Please keep them in your prayers as they endeavor to do that, and if you are in a location where they may be seeking to conduct a 2 week meeting, please give them your full support and invite folks to attend.

One of our young adults was assigned to a church about an hour’s drive from where we are staying. On the first night the church members let her know they weren’t too sure about having a female preacher. Also, they did not have any guests attending, just members. After about 3 messages, the church members started to warm up to her, and now, they are extremely supportive and affirming. Although our PA young adult didn’t have any guests attending her meetings, she kept right on preaching with energy and perseverance. Now into the second week, non-member guests have started to come and attend, and even a former member has come and answered the call for baptism.

We found out this week, that this church family did not know they were having an evangelistic meeting until the day before the meetings started (which is very unusual for the Share Him locations), so it appears that after they got used to the young lady speaker from PA and began to appreciate her giving the messages, they began inviting folks from the community!

MISSION REPORT - 7

MISSION REPORT 7

At this point in our time in Guatemala, our young adults have preached for a week and a half. Now we are giving appeals from the front every night for people to accept Christ, accept the Sabbath and accept Baptism. We have covered most of the “testing truths” so we are giving an appeal every night until the end.

The Churches hear do not use “Decision cards” like most evangelists in the United States do. At the conclusion of the message, we begin the invitation and we invite people to raise their hands, to stand and to come forward. It is very common for the Guatemalian pastors to spend 20-30 minutes in making an appeal. Also, it is common for the elders and the deaconesses to come alongside of specific guests and quietly and gently urge them to respond to the appeal, come forward, give their heart to Christ and make a decision for baptism. In the United States, our culture would be very distressed at what would seem to us to be major pressure put on us if we were a guest at a meeting. However here, that is not a negative factor. In fact, last night, I gave an 8-10 minute appeal before the baptism of 4 people.

Then the pastor gave an appeal from the baptistery after the baptism, which went for 40 minutes! During that appeal, I left the platform and came down into the pews/benches where a young man was being invited forward by one of the deaconesses, but he was hesitant. I motioned to him, held out my hand. He took it, and then we walked to the front. After that, I saw the spouse of one the deaconesses who is a member, but has some sinful lifestyle issues, and I walked back to where he was sitting and held out my hand, he stood up, took it, and we walked to the front, where I put my hand on his shoulder and on the shoulder of the young man who I had just led up to the front. Then a woman in her mid to late twenties was in the back and an Elder had been speaking with her. The pastor had continued his appeal while about 12-18 people including 3 young adult couples came forward. So during his appeal, as he looked toward this twenty-something woman, he said to me in his halting English, “Pastor Ray, I need your help.” By then I knew what he meant, so I walked to the back of the church, held out my hand to “Brenda” as I later learned her name was, and she came over and we walked to the front.
Maybe in the United States we would not use those actions as to those in our culture, they might seem too intense. But it made me think, “Do I care for souls so much, that I am willing to move out of my comfort zone, and do whatever it takes, to lead someone to give their life to Christ and make a commitment to live completely for Christ in the middle of this ‘Great Controversy’ zone as the final events on planet earth wind down?” Is a person’s salvation worth my moving close to them and reaching out to their heart, without fear that they might reject the invitation – just taking the risk and trusting the Holy Spirit to speak through, over and around me?

What are we doing, how are we praying, for souls in the United States?

2010 Summer Mission Trip Report 6

MISSION REPORT 6

The rainy season is upon Guatemala. At this time of year it will rain almost every afternoon and on into the evening. Sometimes it even rains in the morning or even most of the day. To the people of Guatemala, they call this the “winter season,” although being from Pennsylvania, I am having trouble considering this as winter. There is a very high humidity at all times, and although the rain can cool the temperatures somewhat, I doubt it never gets below the 70s. During the middle of the day I can drip with perspiration just sitting still!

Yesterday, just this one time of the campaign, the church service for my meetings was held in a 2nd location instead of the church building where all the other meetings are held. This location is on the other side of our town and is actually the house of a lady, with a small front right on the main street. Inside, she has taken what was probably a small store front connected to an open courtyard surrounded by rooms for living space, kitchen bath, bedrooms, opening onto the courtyard, into a makeshift church. This group is a church plant and is ready to be organized as a church right after our campaign time. The chairs were only 5 across and 10 rows deep in this narrow space devoted to the church. I counted 50 people seated and at least another 10 standing, not counting a few others in locations I couldn’t see from the small platform. The Sabbath morning message was on health and tithing.

After a fellowship meal at this “house church” which has the name of La Casa Seventh-day Adventist Church, we drove 2 blocks in the rain, to the location where this group has started construction on a permanent church building. The lady in whose house the church group currently meets, received a lot as a family inheritance, on a street just one block off the main street. She donated her ½ share in this lot and the church group purchased the other ½ share for $20,000 US dollars. The lot is only7 meters wide and about 25 meters deep. The partially constructed church building is 20 feet wide and about 60 feet long. They have been able to construct the walls all the way up, and put on a roof with steel beams and sheet metal/corrugated tin.
What remains to be done to finish the church is to pour the floor, the platform, install the baptistery, windows, doors, electric service and pews. At this point the church only needs about $12,000 US to totally finish and even add Sabbath School rooms for the children, and move in! It will seat 200-300 the pastor estimates. To date, this group has spent about $12,000 US to get to this point and has totally used up every last bit of funds.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the Sabbath Schools of the Pennsylvania Conference could take this on as a mission project and help this sister church finish it construction and move in. They see their building as an evangelistic center for reaching more people for Christ, not as a place to land and sit still.

Summer Mission Trip Report 5

MISSION REPORT 5

At this point, our mission team in Guatemala is nearing the half-way point of the evangelistic series. So far the topics we have presented are:
Daniel 2
Signs of Christ’s Soon Return
The Great Controversy (origin of evil)
The Gospel
2,300 Day Prophecy
Judgment
10 Commandments
Sabbath

Tonight we study about the change of the Sabbath. Tomorrow morning at Church our topic will be a combination one on Health/Tithing. And then tomorrow night will be on baptism.

Our young people who are participating are praying daily and working diligently. Today Christina and Levi have gone out with their pastor to visit some of those who are coming as he prepares them for the baptism. One of the young adults preaching each night from Pennsylvania shared with me that they had never really prayed in public before, and this was a major experience for them to be standing up in front of a church full of people and being the one to offer prayer, much less preach!

Last night on the way back from our church site to the hotel where we are staying (a 45 minute drive each way) as our pastor was driving along, we hit a major pothole in the highway. Frequently he is dodging potholes as we drive back and forth. This time, the pothole was so bad that it immediately deflated the front tire. When he was able to drive the car several hundred feet to pull off the side of the road onto a cross-road, we jumped out of the car and found that both tires on the passenger side had been deflated by the same pothole! Although the tire did not look damaged, both metal tire rims had received a major blow which bent the rims to the point they couldn’t hold an inflated tire. I had carried a flashlight, so I held it while the pastor got the jack out and lifted up the side of the car. However, 2 nights before, another pastor had the same issue somewhere else along the route, and lost 3 tires. So our pastor and another pastor had driven to his rescue and used the spare from each of the 3 cars to help him. This night, my pastor still did not have his spare back, so we had no spare, and even if we did, we had lost 2 tires! So here we were in the pitch black, along a highway in Guatemala, under the stars and along a lot of stretch of heavy growth of trees and vegetation. Our pastor called another pastor to ask for help, and while we were waiting out in the darkness, a 3rd and then a 4th pastor who were driving past, saw us and stopped to offer sympathy and eventually supply 2 spare tires. Since we were only ½ way back, the pastor who came up from our hotel site, took us home and that allowed my host pastor to head back to his house without it getting so late. So we arrived back about 1 hour later than usual (11 p.m.). The biggest thing to keep in mind is that the angels kept us safe, we did not cause an accident, nor were we struck by the big trucks that came around the corner and chugged past us. Also, we were blessed, because the group of pastors here all pitch in and help each other.

Many of our churches are seeing an increase in visitors. Wednesday night, my church had 24 visitors and I was told 27 last night. We did have the pastor from a Sunday-keeping protestant church attend last night. He has had some 3-4 of his members attending earlier.

2010 SUMMER MISSION TRIP REPORT 4

2010 MISSION REPORT – 4

God has truly answered the prayers that many of us have been praying for several months. Several of our Pennsylvania young people have been sharing in the last couple of days how much they themselves have grown spiritually. One of our young persons said, “I came here to help these people, but I think the purpose for my coming was for my own spiritual growth.” Others have echoed similar thoughts. Tonight, we preached on the 2,300 days and the time of the end and the day of judgment. It was wonderful to watch and participate with our PA young people as they worked through the topic material and discussed with different ones of us adults, just what this sermon meant and how best to present the material.

Each morning we meet for worship and prayer time. This worship and prayer time lasts almost 1 hour and most of that time is spent in the group praying out loud together. Each person ends up praying at least 1 time, and many people pray more than once. What a powerful time this group worship and prayer time has become.

Following that, we spend time sharing our experiences from the night before, what unusual things occurred at someone’s site, or what the local church or group did, what we learned, what we saw, or how we handled something. This is also a time we share questions and coach each other with suggestions and things we found helpful. Day by day, this group is experiencing God at work right before their eyes and right inside of them personally.
Some in the group are already talking and praying about the meetings that they will be conducting in Pennsylvania. If you could be here, you would be thanking the Lord for our Pennsylvania young people, and their participation and growth in the life and mission of Jesus. Hearing these kind of comments is worth all the time, effort and money spent to bring these PA young people into mission for the salvation of souls.

2010 SUMMER MISSION TRIP REPORT 3

2010 MISSION TRIP – REPORT 3

Sabbath morning we all were picked up at different times and spread out to our various churches. After preaching our first sermon on Friday night, we took off on Sabbath morning to preach on the Signs of Christ’s Return. Most of us stayed all day in the same church. On the way to my church, the pastor asked me to have a seminar in the afternoon for his church leaders, on Christian Leadership. I had told all the students participating in this mission trip that they needed to be ready at all times for being asked to do something at the spur of the moment that they had no idea they would be asked to do. So… guess who got put on the spot. Me! Fortunately, by the blessings of God, I had given a sermon for church officer dedication in the Stroudsburg Church some months ago, with leadership lessons from the life of Moses. I had that on my computer, and Sabbath afternoon, before the 3 p.m. seminar (that I was giving!!!) I was able to adapt that to fit this setting.
During the church service, the pastor said he was going to do a presentation. In the Hispanic culture, a presentation is pretty much like a child dedication in the Anglo churches. So I said, “That’s fine.” So when the pastor stood up to begin the presentation service, and call the family forward, at the time for the baby dedication prayer, the pastor turned to me and said, we want you to have the prayer. So I got to hold the precious little baby and offer the dedication prayer. She was so good during the prayer, and it’s been such a long time since our two children were that size, that I almost didn’t want to hand her back over to the parents.

Saturday evening, our church was very full, with not only members, but also guests and visitors.
The children, small and primary age, at each church are precious. They love to come up to each one of us, with smiles and eager eyes. At my church, on the first night, 3 boys came and sat right next to me on the front bench.

One of the boys is the son of the head elder, and I had encouraged him -- when I saw him on Thursday night when we went to the church to practice our driving times and to practice setting up the computer and projector – to bring a friend on Friday night. If he brought a friend, I promised him a surprise. So when he came in with 2 friends, I gave him a “Lifesaver.” His little friend sat right up next to me, and kept staring up at me the whole time, like I was some kind of alien or sports hero. Hopefully, he could see Jesus shining through me. The head elder has 3 children, one of whom is about 3 years old. She beams me a smile all the time, and she has started her own version of a game of tag with me. When I am not looking, she will sneak up and tap me on the knee or back or arm, scoot away a little and then look up to see if I notice. Even though neither one of us can speak to each other in a language we can understand, we have no difficulty understanding the language of shared joy and humor.