Prayer items

August 12

Hello all,

I thought I would take a few minutes and update you on my life here in Guatemala.  As a lot of you know I took a vacation to North Carolina for a couple of weeks in June and July. I was able to see alot of my friends and family.  I had a busy yet enjoyable time.  I returned to Guatemala for a few days before going to Panama for a conference for a week.  I was able to see the Panama Canal and buy Diet Mountain Dew.  It was a good trip.  But I was glad when I returned to Guatemala.  My kitty was glad that I returned to Guatemala as well.

There are three main universities here in the city that I am targeting however it seems that God is opening the most doors at the Valley University.  This past Monday I had a meeting with an adminstrative guy who works with the sports and cultural department at the university.  He was the one who gave the Florida team permission to be on campus when they were here.  He had alot of ideas for activities.  He is very receptive to any teams that I want to bring on campus to teach sports to students or have other activities.  It was interesting because alot of the activities which he mentioned I thought I know someone here who could help or lead that activity.  

He said that there are two campuses out of town.  He said if I had a team here one idea would be to be on the main campus one day and the next day go to the campuses outside of the city to offer the same activity to the students.  I thought that was a good idea and great opportunity.

An idea that I have is that I would tell him each week on a certain day of the week probably Wednesdays, I will offer an activity to the students whether it is a sports activity or non sports activity or Wii video game playing.  That would be a great way to meet students and then invite them to small groups or any activity like that.

I haven't had a great response from emailing the students who I have contact info for.  However I have had a great response with them on facebook.  I have a friend who wants to help me set up a facebook page where we can make it an open forum for the students and we can post questions for the students to respond to.

Another possibility might be studying "The Purpose Driven Life" book with those who want to improve their English.  I have several national friends who speak some English but would like to improve their English.  I thought that would be a great way for them to improve their English.  

Also in mid August Helen and I will have a Crown financial orientation meeting at my house.  No one came to the last orientation which we had.  I would ask that you would pray that God would lead people to this whether it is just one person or many people.

August 17-20th I'll be attending a Team Meeting/Prayer Retreat here in Guatemala City.  Pray that it would be a time of spiritual refreshment for all of us in attendance.

My parents will be coming to visit for a week in August as well.  That trip was just planned with the generosity of a friend of mine sharing buddy passes.

I was reminded today of the story of having the faith of a mustard seed and how mountains can be moved with this faith.  As I look at the university ministry I remember how overwhelmed I felt at first with it all.  Then I can see how God has opened doors that only He could open.  Continue to pray that the students would be open to God's love.  

Colossians 3 talks about keeping our eyes focused on heavenly things and not on earthly things.  It was so interesting the illustration which God provided for me as I was thinking about this.  I was sitting at the dining room table thinking about this Scripture and how to focus on heavenly things.  Then Kitty came walking down the stairs, she walked right past me and didn't acknowledge me at all.  She went into the kitchen and I heard her eating.  Then when she finished, she went past  me again without stopping to be rubbed and she went up the stairs back to where she was before.  Some people would say that is just a cat being a cat, but I saw it as God giving me an example of keeping your eyes focused on heavenly things and not on things in the path.  

I know there are things that I have forgotten to mention but at least this gives you a short summary of some things that have been going on and things which you can pray for.

Thanks for your prayers, support and love!
Carol

Cowboy Church

 Written by Nancy Chafin who I went to church with today....

Today was a more "normal" Sunday than most when we go to Cowboy Church.  Our good friend and fellow missionary, Carol Wilkinson, went with us today.  The record still holds of "no two Sundays alike."

Along the way we did have to slow down for a herd of cows walking down the middle of the road.  The cow herder had on his cowboy clothes, was swinging a rope and talking on his cell phone.    We just had to laugh out loud.  Oh, for the life of a modern-day cowboy.
Carol said he was probably talking to his girlfriend!

We also had to slow down as we passed through a predominantly Catholic town.  They had sawdust carpets with lovely designs all down one side of the road.  There were small home-made shrines at intervals.  Today they were honoring San Juan Bosco, the patron saint of youth.

Due to so much rain the government road crews were working hard to clear the roads.  We only had to stop once for dump trucks hauling and dumping mud and rocks as they went back and forth on the road...it was down to just one lane. 

We made it to Amberes without any problems.
When we arrived at Cowboy Church we were met by Paco Chuy.
He was there waiting for us.  He told us that Elva and Cesar (Cowboy Church leaders)  had gone to Agua Blanca for a church/mission start meeting.  They would spend the night there tonight and not come back to Amberes until Monday.

Cesar knew that H.Rhea would be there and knew that he was always prepared to lead a Bible Study.

Arturo, Elva's brother and property care-taker, had already set up a table and chairs so we could have the Bible Study inside the church building.  We sat around the table and Paco kept making phone calls on his cell phone.   He explained that he was calling his wife to find out if she was going to come to church.  She was busy in their kitchen making corn tamales.

Yes, she would come, but would have to wait on a three-wheel taxi.  Paco and Mari do not own a car so they get to town by either walking or using three-wheel taxis.  (There are several in and around Amberes.)

I told him to call her back and tell her that I would drive over and pick her up.  He called her back.
Carol and I drove over to their house.  Mari Chuy was standing out in the road at the foot of their drive-way.  They only have a dirt drive-way which was now just a mud-slide due to so much rain.

On the way back to the church building Mari told about witnessing to her neighbor, Milvia.  (Please pray this week for Milvia's salvation.)

Bladimir did not come to church today as there was a soccer game on the soccer field he owns.  He had to be there to charge admission and keep an eye on his property and other things. 

H.Rhea did a Bible Study on the security of the believer.  He tries to stress discipleship lessons as much as possible because he doesn't really know Paco and Mari.  We know that both Paco and Mari have made professions of faith. Cesar told us that Paco has not been baptized,  but we don't know about Mari. (I think I will just out and ask her next Sunday.)
Arturo is a baptized Christian.

It was just the six of us, and of course, Bruno the faithful dog.  Carol commented afterwards that Bruno really was a good church goer.  He laid down quietly by the table the whole time we were studying the Bible.  When the final "amen" was said after the final prayer,  Bruno got up and walked to the front gate.   
We all had a big laugh.

I was disappointed that some of the regular members seem to have dropped out.  Arturo gave some reasons they were not there.  I think one of the main problems is that Cesar has a heart for missions and not a heart for doing a Bible Study.  It seems that he and Elva are gone more Sundays than they are at Cowboy Church.

When H.Rhea and I first started helping out at Cowboy Church we had about 30 adults and about 30 children.  Lunch was provided every Sunday,  with Elva doing most of the cooking.   Elva got aggravated that the other ladies wouldn't help and/or folks wouldn't pay for some of the food.  She decided that Cowboy Church would just quit providing lunch every Sunday.
The attendance dropped off immediately.   

We then started having about 6 to 10 men attend and one family with two little children; this was before Paco and Chuy started attending.   I am not sure what it is going to take.   I do know that H.Rhea and I love attending and participating when he is in the country.   I don't know if we will ever reach "real" cowboys.    We love the folks at Amberes.  Please join us in praying about this situation.

Before we left the church property Arturo wanted to give us some mangos.  He has a neat mango retriever.  It is a very long pole with a wire basket on the end.  He can reach the top branches of the mango trees with it.  He gave us several mangos.  Carol got some photos of Arturo knocking mangos into the wire basket.

We gave Paco and Mari a lift home so they wouldn't have to take a taxi.  Paco told us to wait.  Mari went inside and brought us tamales made from corn.   She sent a couple back to Arturo for his lunch.

We stopped on the way out of town to drop off the tamales to Arturo.  He met us at the gate just a running.  He had been down the street to buy tortillas to go with his tamales.   How tasty!

On the way back to the capital we stopped at Vesuvio which is an Italian Restaurant.  We got to sit out on the front porch which is next to the wood-burning ovens.   They cook their pizzas in wood-burning ovens, scooping them in and out with large wooden paddles.
H.Rhea and Carol both got individual pizzas.  I got ravioli.  I ate every bite of mine,  but both Carol and H.Rhea had enough left over to take some home for later. 
H.Rhea loves cold pizza for breakfast.

We were so glad that Carol got to go to church with us.  We told her that she will have to go another time as in comparison to most Sundays this one was uneventful.