Report on Guatemalan Mission Trip July 2008

Overlooking the town of Patzun, pop. 35,000

It's difficult to know where to begin in telling all of you about our mission trip to Potzun, Guatemala.
I guess I'll start at the same place our Creation lessons for the children began:

"In the beginning, God...."

That's the best way to describe this trip!
God began preparing things long ago for this ministry, and we're just grateful that He chose to use us in a small part of His great plan!



There were 3 organizations colaborating on this effort:

1. Southwood Bible Church planned, organized and led this mission trip, and provided the teachers and all materials related to lessons and evangelism.
   
2. CAM handled all logistics for team members: food, lodging, transportation, prep. work at schools for upcoming ministry.
   
3. CEF (APEN in Spanish): provided 3 team members, fluent in Spanish, who taught the Gospel and invitation part of the classes.
   

I will say this~
The fellowship and unity between all 3 of our organizations was definitely a result of the Holy Spirit! The big surprise for us was that we were only expecting one team member from CEF, and the Lord sent 3. There is NO WAY that we could have accomplished this mission w/o those 3 team members! Juan Cocon, a 70 y/o man in Potzun, is CEF trained but not on staff, and has been teaching children in the area for 40 years. He is currently teaching 2000 kids every week, riding his bicycle in the rain, between schools!

Here's a summary of the fruit of this labor:

Team 1--The Public School Evangelism:

• Team members: Joy Arnold, teens: Laura Conner and Andrea CEF: Ada Mendez and Juan Cocon of Potzun.
• We reached approximately 1000 children and teachers with the Gospel!
• We taught 30 minute classes, 35+ kids/class, one after another! 7 classes each morning, w/ a 30 minute break at 10am, for 5 straight days.
  
• I "sang" the Creation lesson, with commentary (in Spanish) between each verse. I introduced sin, God's love, etc, then passed the lesson over to someone fluent in Spanish.
• Either Ada or Juan would then give the Gospel and invitation, and pray w/ the class en masse.
• We'd end by passing out either Gospel Bracelets, tracts, or coins w/ Jn. 3:16, and then immediately move onto the next class.
  

Team 2--Private School Teaching and Evangelism:

• Team Members: Sharon Slinger, teens: Josh Arnold and David Conner, CEF: Leslie (from Potzun)
• We taught 75 kids each day, using the CEF series "Beginnings".
• We began the process of training teachers to use these materials.
  
• We also taught the children's Bible classes at the church, while adults were in their own Bible class. The last night, we'd given away all our materials and thought we were done, but.... 26 kids arrived, asking for another class! We just couldn't say NO!
  

Team 3--Adult Bible Classes:

• John Conner and Steve Arnold taught adult Bible classes every night (except Thurs), 10 classes total. They concentrated on the basics of salvation, grace and faith, and some attributes of God.
• These people do not have a pastor right now, and need more strong, consistent Bible teaching.

Team 4--The Cooking Crew (the most important team of all!)

• Team members: Cindy Spaugh, Gail Conner, and Jamie Spaugh
• They meticulously prepared 3 meals a day, taking great care to prevent any food-related illnesses.
  
• Our only complaint was that some of us actually gained weight on this trip, b/c the food was so good!
  

We would like to thank all of you that supported us in prayer, finances, materials preparation and other logistical support. There are many people who worked behind the scenes to make this trip possible.

We'll share pictures with all of you, putting them into separate blogs to make it easier to see.

You can also go to our Flickr site and view all the photos.
Choose the icon "slideshow" in the top right corner for easier viewing.