VRBC Guatemala - Day Quatro

It is hard to put into words how this day impacted us. From burden and sorrow to pure joy this day was a rollercoaster of emotions for all of us. The day started back in Lantana where we were greeted once again by Estuardo, Juan, and Tina. The three of them led us to about 20 different homes where we had the privilege of delivering food bags and sharing the love of Jesus Christ. In the words of El Pastor Larry, it just felt right.




The conditions in which the families were living were extreme. No clean water, dirt floors, rusty metal roofs, lack of food, lack of work…we experienced their poverty. On one of the home visits we encountered a woman, her two children (one of whom has Down Syndrome) and the woman’s mother. When we walked through her gate she immediately greeted us and welcomed us into her home. Her children brought us chairs to sit down and we explained the reason for our visit. When we asked if we could pray for her and her family she told us to pray for her mothers’ leg. It was very painful to walk, and at nighttime when she goes to sleep, she often cries because the pain is so great. The week prior to our visit they spent 400 Q’s to take her mother to the doctor but the pain did not get better. So we prayed together for God to heal her mother’s leg and for God to pour out his blessings upon her. When we finished praying the woman was in tears. She explained to us that the night before she cried out to God for His provision. The 400 Q’s that were spent on at the doctor was nearly all they had. She didn’t have enough money to buy food for her family. God heard her prayer and answered…through us. It is not often in my life that God has used me to be a direct answer to prayer like that. Even as I type these words I am deeply moved by God and his goodness. That woman thought that she was receiving the blessing, when in reality we received the blessing of our father.

During the afternoon we held another Bible festival with the children. Those kiddos are amazing. Their energy and joy absolutely rocked me. Although they live such a poor life with sickness, pain, malnutrition or many who have parents that have given into alcoholism or abandoned them completely, they were so loving, welcoming and joyful. Their sweet faces are forever burned into my mind. One girl came to the Bible Festival with her friend and little brother. She had walked an hour through the mountains to get there. They had arrived a little late (due to the commute) and sat in the back. When it came to snack time we passed out cookies and juice and they just sat there quietly with the snacks in their lap. When Jamie went over to help them open the packages of cookies and juice the girl did not want them opened. Her reason - she wanted to take the snacks back with her to share with her family. This was a girl that we later found out lived with her 14 year-old sister and 2 brothers. Their parents had abandoned them. I cannot even imagine how difficult the lives of these children are; yet God has a plan, his love is for all, and it is our responsibility to take his love to all.

The closing ceremony for our trip – again words cannot adequately describe the experience. After the Bible Festival was over for the day we all gathered in the mission temple. They thanked us for coming to share God’s love with their people, prayed for us and praised God for his goodness, then gave us gifts. The Bible talks a lot about unity in Christ and in John 17 Jesus actually prays to God that we as believers would be united just as Jesus is united with God. Although all of us gringos live 1500 miles away, come from a completely different culture and as of last week did not know each other’s names, we have Christ in common. We experienced Jesus’ prayer lived out. As Christians we have one fight, one God and it was an honor for our team to serve side-by-side with our brothers and sisters in Christ.

-Chris Cato, VRBC Guatemala Team

VRBC Guatemala - Day Tres

This morning, our day started with a great devotional led by Buzz and Sherry to help us prepare for the tasks ahead of reaching the people of the Lantana community. We gathered all our humanitarian aid bags and got the to the Iglesia de Jerusalem so that they can began the task of sorting through all the donations. They will have the big job of deciding how to best use the items to share the blessings of God's love and forge new relationships between the church and the people of the communities.
We made some last minute craft preparations for the "Festival Biblia Infantile" (or VBS as we say) on our way to Lantana. When we got there, we divided up into two teams to go into different parts of the community and make door-to-door visits. We met many people in the community, some more receptive than others. Regardless, we were able to share with each of them the message that God loves them and sees their needs, and all of them allowed us to pray for their families and their needs. It was a moving experience to see the great need and poverty of the people of the community. It puts everything into such a different perspective.
In the afternoon, 175 children from the Lantana community showed up for the FBI (the Festival). God has been doing a great work in the lives and hearts of Claudia and the other teenage young people who have put the entire Festival together and are running it. This is their 3rd week out of 5, each week at a different mission site. We had a blast with the children of Lantana, singing songs, making tambourine and hand-print crafts, teaching games, and sharing stories from the Bible and of God's love for us. The children are so much in need of the love we were able to share.
After today, we were all very tired, but greatly changed by all the greatness of God that we witnessed today. We are looking forward to another day like this tomorrow.

VRBC Guatemala Day Celebracion!

Today we had the privilege of worshiping with brothers and sisters at two different churches. We began the morning at Jerusalem Baptist Church. Services were held in the children's area upstairs with their children's choirs leading in worship. It was such a blessing to see so many children raising their voices to the Lord! We sang many songs that we sing at VRBC; what a joy to see the body of Christ worship together in a different language. Larry preached this morning and did a wonderful job encouraging the church in the ways they are serving and in continuing to seek the Lord on His will for the church and members. Karen brought her saxophone and provided special music in each service. The Lord is using Jerusalem Baptist Church in big ways to impact the community of Los Pinos and beyond.

We shared lunch with the boys and girls from the Buckner Transitional Home. We were thankful to spend more time with our new friends and attend worship services with them. We also spent some time at the church preparing for the Festival Biblico Infanteles (Vacation Bible School) tomorrow.

In the afternoon, our team, Buckner staff, and our friends from the transitional home headed to the mountains to visit one of Jerusalem Baptist Church's mission churches in the community of Lantanna, Luz de Lantanna. The congregation in Lantanna was full of energy and passion for the Lord. We enjoyed worshiping with brothers and sisters there, and seeing the incredible job they are doing with children's ministry there.
Larry shared a message with the congregation, while some of our team joined the children for songs and bible stories. We ended our time in Lantanna with a "jam session" of sorts, singing and dancing with the worship leaders. As one of our team members said, "Love and music are universal languages."

We are so thankful for the hospitality and open arms we received from our Guatemalan brothers and sisters today. Pray for us tomorrow, as we partner with leaders from Luz de Lantanna and Jerusalem Baptist Church -- we are expecting around 150 kiddos at Luz de Lantanna for the Festival Biblico Infantales (VBS)!

VRBC Guatemala Day Uno

We arrived in Guatemala Friday evening and were warmly greeted by Amed. For some of us it was a familiar face and for everyone else we quickly felt like we knew him for a long time.

Saturday morning we had the opportunity to meet Pastor Morales at Jerusalem Baptist Church.

During the tour that Pastor Morales gave us of the church, we got to see the finished tile floor and room that the August VRBC missions team helped tile. He shared with us his vision for an upstairs room which would serve as a library and computer lab for children in the co-op school. It was amazing to meet with the members of Jerusalem Baptist and hear all of the mission work they are doing both in Los Pinos and Lantana. From

the church, we then went to one of the Buckner transitional girl's homes where we met both the boys and girls who live in the

transitional homes. It was so neat to get to talk to both the boys and girls and hear their stories. We played with some of the young children and ate together. This afternoon was the soccer tournament where some of our team joined both the boys and girls to play on the field adjacent to Jerusalem Baptist. Larry

also shared with the people from the community there are a lot of

distractions both in soccer and in life that can deter you from the goal and that our goal in life is to be focused on Jesus. While the tournament was going on, some of our team sat together in the

stands with people from the community. Children gathered around bubbles and visors that said "Jesus loves me". Although there was a language barrier, our team was able to sit around together with children and sing familiar songs in both English and Spanish, have conversations, and enjoy the time with our new friends.