There and Back Again

This Post Written by Preston Meyers
 
Wow!  Today was an emotional roller coaster ride for me.  From the time that I heard in October that there was a possibility we were going to do a conference with local pastors on Mormonism I have felt God calling me to be on this trip.  The months since then have forced me to relive my experience and remember the bad but especially the good.   I am honored to serve God in Guatemala and even more honored to speak in the conference and share my personal life.  I wasn’t prepared to meet so many smiling faces, get hugs, and shake so many hands.  The church space was packed with about 90 people waiting to hear what we came to present to them.  While I felt like a giant physically (Guatemalan’s are very short), I was humbled to have this opportunity.

Jen went first and bore her heart to the audience. She did a great job presenting the case of Jesus versus Joseph Smith.  I was so proud of her because I know how much time she spent and how personal this subject was for her.  Her testimony was so powerful and I found myself fighting back the tears.  

Sean, Jared, and the team were very encouraging.  Sean said something to me that really hit home.  He said, “know that Christ is with you, and that when you walk up to that podium, you do so with the full authority and confidence of Jesus Christ”.  This really got me fired up and it erased any sort of nerves or anxiety that I had.  When Jen was done, I approached the podium and saw so many eager and excited faces awaiting the message.  There are several reasons why I wanted to be in this position today.  First, I was raised Mormon and left the church in my teens.  Second, my older brother served a Mormon mission in Guatemala nearly 20 years ago.  I chose to speak about grace versus works.  This is near and dear to me because it was one of the biggest reasons I left the Mormon church.  I struggled a bit with the talking over the interpreter but got the hang of it after a few rough spots.

Jared then shared some basic differences between Mormon doctrine and the Book of Mormon next to the Bible.  He talked about the historical significance of the Bible in parallel to the Book of Mormon.  He did a great job of pointing out the basic tenants of Mormon theology.  

Corby was up next and shared how he grew up in Utah as a Mormon.   It was interesting that he did so to follow the crowd and do what everyone else was doing.  It was cool to hear that his Mom became a Christian and immediately shared it with her son and he got saved too.  All of this was done in classic Corby style, reluctant but effective.

Sean got up last and provided some very good examples of how to reach Mormons with gentleness, love, and truth.  He shared a great story about a friend who refused to leave Mormonism because of his family.  He reinforced the common theme that we wanted to present to this group of Guatemalans.  We love Mormons! We want them to know Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior.   Relationships are key in reaching them and to share the truth with them.  We heard great feedback from our hosts and the conference was well received.  

We headed back to the compound for lunch and got reacquainted to our already filthy work clothes.  I think the rest of the team was ready to make some more progress on laying block on the wall.  My heart was so heavy, I cried quietly during Jared and Sean’s portions of the conference.  I was crying for my parents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, and neighbors.  My heart is broken because of the burden each one of them carries everyday.  This burden is trying to earn the grace of Jesus Christ when His grace is freely given and is more than sufficient for salvation.  I am encouraged at the same time because I know how big our God is and this anything is possible through Him. 

We ate and got back to work.  I quickly learned that mixing concrete by hand is an extremely difficult job, my hat goes off to Jerry because he did it all by himself all day yesterday.  We worked about 6 hours and made some really great progress on the longest wall of the building.  We have about two and a half runs of blocks until the first bond beam can be put in.  It is so cool to see so much progress made in just a day and a half.  I can’t express how awesome our team is!  Everyone is so positive and supportive; I haven’t seen a selfish act yet. 

Thanks everyone for your prayers.  They are felt and we have all witnessed God’s hand in so many ways on this trip.  Thank you for all your support and kind words and for each and every hand and heart that made it possible for us to be here.  Gloria a Dios!

Between a Block and a Conference

This Post Written by Drayk Meyers
 
Today was a day that I am the most proud of my father. Normally I like it when he encourages me, but today was not that day. In the morning was one of the most crucial parts of the trip that our team participated in and was apart of. We arrived to Iglesias Galilea around 8:50 this morning and by 9 we needed wheels up and ready to go.  We had to prepare materials to give out to the pastors of Guatemala informing them about Mormonism. At 9, we started to get the ball rolling and people started to flow in.

The first person to speak was Jared. He gave an intro about what the conference entailed and what the schedule was. During the intro he gave the verse 1^st Peter 3:15 as the headline verse of the conference. Using this verse he talked about how to show grace and love to your Mormon friends.

The second person that was up to speak was Jen. The first half of her talk was covering some Mormon doctrine about Joseph Smiths several different accounts on the founding of Mormon belief.  The second half of Jen’s talk was about her testimony of her leaving the Mormon Church and how she was able to find truth and love through the grace of Jesus Christ.

The third person that was up to bat was my dad Preston. The first half of his talk was a chunk of Mormon doctrine about the difference between works of the Mormon Church and the grace that Jesus offers. The second half of my dad’s story was about coming out of Mormonism how God’s grace was shown to him through friends and his wife. He needed to see how God’s grace and forgiveness was needed in his life at that time. After that we had a quick break and then continued on to Corby’s testimony about how his Mom introduced him to the Christian faith which turned Corby into the man he is today.
  
After the Conference we promptly ate lunch, and got ready to get back to work on the church. Today we finished the main back wall of the church with cinderblocks. We boarded the beams of the left side of the church that we had finished from yesterday. We started on the front wall of the church where we had 5 pairs of people working on their respective sections of the wall. Today I worked with Sean on the main wall dealing with some funky and weird cuts that caused some frustrating sighs to ensue. It was fun, but tedious work that we had to do but I am very glad to spend time in Guatemala with my Dad, and with close friends.

Bags arrive and work begins.

This Post written by Scott Cook

Luggage and Cement Blocks

To God be the glory, greeting from Guatemala! 

Finally today everyone received their luggage.  We are thanking God for answering our prayers.  Jared, Corby, and Will can now take a shower!  Hallelujah! Today was our first real day of work at the Iglesias Galilea church site.  Cement blocks and rebar and mixing cement was on the menu for today.  It was a hard first day and everyone pulled together as a team.  Where one person lacked experience, another person made up for it. 

Our team really needs your prayers since tomorrow afternoon we are doing a Mormonism conference.  This is one of the most important works we will be doing here.  There are 90 pastors expected to come in to hear our presentation.  Pray for the testimonies of some of our group members and our presentation of how they could approach the Mormon influence in Guatemala. 

Also pray for us as we do Vacation Bible School at the school in Membrial.  They are expecting over 100 kids to show up.  We have 14 people in our group, so pray that the love of God will shine through to the children.

As usual we are eating good and everyone is healthy.  As our time here in Guatemala draws near to an end, it’s hard to leave, but it will be good to be back home and see our family.  Please continue to pray for our safety and that God uses in a way to give HIM the honor and glory.  And through our effort there will be someone who comes to know the Lord as their savior.  We are come to serve and be a blessing, but as usual we are the ones who are being blessed. 

To God be the glory!

This post written by Matt Gage

Our day began at 7:00am with a wonderful breakfast prepared by our gracious hosts.  Things begin early in Guatemala.  Many of us could here the hustling of the community outside the walls of the compound in the wee hours of the morning.  After breakfast, Scott led our team in a devotion challenging us to meditate on several passages throughout the day.  Following our devotion, the team finished preparing for the day ahead. 

Today would be our first day working on the new Iglesia Galilea church.  The construction site is located across the street from the compound we are staying at.  Tono stated that he had hopes of finishing the new church within the next year.  The church had a foundation that had been dug, footing poured, and a single row of cinder blocks.  Our team quickly jumped into an assembly line of construction with Lester, Rudy, Alonzo, and Tono later on in the morning.  We moved cinder block, mixed mortar, bent brackets for rebar, cut cinder blocks, and began building the foundation walls of the church.  It was an honor to work beside my brothers and sisters in Christ.  This was tiring and dirty work, and each one of them reflected Christ in their attitudes, work ethic, and servant’s heart. 

In other good news, the rest of the team’s checked baggage arrived which was an answer to prayer.  It was awesome to see our team share with those who hadn’t received their checked baggage until today. 

As the work day came to a close, the team finished up their given tasks and headed back across the street to the compound.  The team took turns cleaning off the build up of dirt before dinner.  We had dinner followed by a devotion.  Our team finished preparing for the Mormonism conference tomorrow.  We have been told that over ninety people are expected at the conference.

Thank you all for your prayers and support.  Our team has been beyond blessed by each one of you.  Please continue to lift our team up in prayer that we would be effective at the Mormonism conference, be bold in our faith, safety in our building construction, and that we would be centered on furthering the Kingdom

 

Another travel day...Welcome to San Lucas!

This post by Matt Hilbelink

It would be easy to complain and tell all the negative things about the first few days of our mission trip, but everything is in God’s timing everything works out for His good.   I actually thought it was quite the adventure.  We were in the Dallas airport well over 13 hours, which seems like it would be the worst possible experience ever, however it was amazing to see how patient and willing everyone was to do whatever needed to be done. 

Once we found out that we were not leaving Dallas, Sean’s mom offered us to stay at her house.  Let’s just say we were spoiled.  A pool, Jacuzzi, and amazing food were at our disposal.  God works in funny ways and as much as we wanted to go to Guatemala, God had a reason for us staying in Dallas a couple nights.  We went to the Village Church on Saturday evening and heard an amazing sermon about marriage. 

Today, Sunday, we were able to go on the plane and get to Guatemala, but our luggage was not here.  Which again could have been a bad reaction from all of us, but everyone handled it in stride.  As I write this a few people are on the way to pick up our luggage that was arriving on a later flight. 

I am very excited to be able to help Iglesia Galilea as we build up the foundation of their new church.  Which amazingly is right across the street from where we are staying.  We are also doing two days of VBS.  We will also be holding a Q and A session about Mormonism.  Again, there might be a reason we had a mini vacation before we work our butts off for the next 5 days.

Please pray for God to sustain us, keep us safe, and for us to be a light to this community and not a hindrance. 

This post by Jen Brown

So we finally made it to Guatemala, no big deal that it is 2 days later than expected!  The moment I got off the plane I seen people with smiling faces.  This is mine and a few others first time out of the country.  God had continued to show up in mighty ways so far…we were expecting nothing less then when we went to get our bags. 

Well, they weren’t there but we still believed God could work this out for His glory.  This adventure in the same outfit for 3 days wasn’t stopping us from seeing the miracles that were being done in San Lucas.  While we were waiting for the miracle of our bags arriving we took a tour of the property we are going to be building the church on starting tomorrow. 

Meeting Tono, hearing his story, meeting his beautiful family, and seeing his excitement for this project was so encouraging. God’s vision coupled with this churches obedience to step out in faith and receive this big beautiful fertile land to build God’s church on for half the price of the value! Amazing how this whole project is coming about.

We are being well taken care of by two wonderful ladies, Maria Jose and Mirna.  Their cooking is fantastic! They are beautiful and faithful in everyway!  What a joy it has been getting to know them both and enjoy their talents in the kitchen.

Before the baggage claim office closed at 7:00, a group left for the airport praying that our bags were going to arrive on the last flight into Guatemala (we really needed our work boots and materials to start work tomorrow…plus we really needed clean underwear!).  A long and amazing story later, our bags were there….well, all but 4!  But I’m sure they will show up tomorrow at 11:00am on the next flight! 

This day is just the beginning of an amazing opportunity to be God’s hand and feet here in San Lucas! Please pray for our remaining bags to arrive and that we will all be safe on the job site this week. 

  

Our trip begins...pauses...begins again!

Our team left early on Friday morning with the intent of making it to our final destination of San Lucas Guatemala.  Our flight from Salt Lake City left on time and we arrived in Dallas with a bit of a layover.

Dallas had been experiencing some major rains and flooding causing inbound planes to be diverted to other cities and flight crews to become sparse.  Our flight to Guatemala began to be delayed and delayed again but finally we were able to board the plane.

We sat, and sat, and sat some more in the plane.  After 45 minutes the pilot came over the PA telling us that Guatemala City's airport closes at 11pm and our flight time put us in after closing, we would all need to get off the plane cancelling our flight.

One of our team was sitting close to the front of the plane got a good place in line to get our tickets rebooked.  The rebooking process split our team into four arriving flights to Guatemala meaning that most of our team would have to sleep in airports along the way.  Some routing through Mexico City, some via Memphis, Miami, and then Guatemala City, and one lucky one who had a direct flight the next morning from Dallas to Guatemala City.

We hurried to the next gates and waited, and waited, and waited some more.  Eventually to find out that our flights had once again been cancelled.  Another frantic plan in place found all of our flights rebooked for Sunday morning meaning the team was stranded in Dallas for Saturday.

Do you feel it?  There were many opportunities for our team to be discouraged and to give into the stresses of cancelled flights but we saw God's hand in many ways.

1.  My mom and her husband live in Dallas and were on the phone with us making up a plan to host the entire team.  Scrambling to find transportation, mattresses, blankets, pillows, toothbrushes, and even waking up a neighbor to help them with this list for 14 people to come stay in their home.  They have hosted us and shown us amazing hospitality and generosity that has been overwhelming and makes me proud to know them and and call them family.

2. My sister generously used some rental car points and rented two mini-vans for us to use today in Dallas allowing us to get around and even get to church

3.  We were able to attend Saturday church at The Village and were encouraged in worship and the Word.

4.  Due to a scheduling change in our trip we made weeks ago, Saturday was supposed to be our tourist day in Guatemala, so the ministry we had planned to do is unaffected.

5.  Our team remains in high spirits and has been encouraging each other in amazing ways.  Each of you should be proud.

So that's our last two days.  We will try again tomorrow morning to get to Guatemala City.  Please pray that the weather holds off and that our bags make it to Guatemala.  God is good and in control.

Sean