In my recent trip to Guatemala, Ray Gurney, Cesar and I had what we believe was a divine appointment with a guy who wants to help Cesar start a new Christian Ranchers group in San Rafael, Guatemala. See the pictures below for more!
Good morning everyone!
I have a lot I’d like to share with you, but I will attempt to keep it short. After I got back from Guatemala at the end of February, my mother had a small stroke (a TIA, they call it) and I have been spending a little more time, along with my sisters, helping Dad care for Mom. Fortunately she is doing better, and I have been getting back to a more normal schedule.
Today, I’d like to share a few pictures from that trip with Ray Gurney, pastor of Cross Creek Baptist in Oak Grove, Missouri. We had a great time and were able to follow up on several projects. We made the rounds between the children’s home in Monjas, our cowboy friends in several places, a senior adult center in Santa Cruz, speaking to a coffee growers class in Barberena, and a motorcycle gathering in Amberes! Before I share those pictures, I want to tell you a little bit about our next adventure in a few weeks.
Soccer trip in Nicaragua April 22-27
We have a team of 9 of us from Lenexa Baptist who will travel to Nicaragua April 22-27 for a soccer related project in Rio Blanco, Nicaragua. Eduardo Mejia, the leader for that ministry in Nicaragua, was here in Kansas City Monday night, March 24th, for a training event, and our team is excited about going! Stay tuned for more about that trip.
Eduardo Mejia, of Project Hope in Nicaragua, shares with our Lenexa Baptist team getting ready to go to Rio Blanco, Nicaragua, to help with an evangelistic soccer tournament.
“MAPS” Gets Translated into Spanish!
Before I show you trip pictures, I need to let you know that thanks to our good friend, Selvinth Maldonado, our monthly “MAPS” plan for having a daily conversation with Jesus is being translated each month into Spanish! Please pray for Selvinth as he begins another baseball season this week as the chaplain for the Kansas City Royals Spanish speaking players. Down below you will find the links to all our MAPS stuff and to our Zoom call scheduled for this Sunday, March 30th, at 4pm. If you need the Spanish versions, let me know and we can get those to you.
Eduardo Mejia (left) and Selvinth Maldonado (right) share a laugh together at our Nicaragua soccer team meeting.
Links to Our April maps eXPERIMENT
As always, we love hearing from you.
Love y'all!
Steve
Guatemala Trip in Pictures!
Cear and Ray have birthdays a week apart from each other in February of the same year! While we were at the Senior Center in Santa Cruz Narranjo, the staff offered a cake to celebrate!
In a new extension group of the Seniors Center in Santa Cruz, Ray shares a greeting.
One day while we were in Guatemala, we spent a day with our good friend Juan Carias, who teaches an agricultural class focused on coffee production. Here, Juan is showing us around some coffee plants. I was blown away by his insight into how coffee growing teaches many life lessons.
Here Juan is introducing Cesar to speak to his coffee production class on the value of having a mind open to change.
Cesar spoke about how in Romans 12:2, the Bible explains how our minds can be transformed for success in life and connecting to God.
At the possible location of a new Christian Ranchers group, Ray and Cesar share a moment with Gerzi Hernandez (on the right), the owner of this restaurant called “El Ranchero” (The Rancher) near San Rafael, Guatemala. Cesar plans to have a “Rancheros Cristianos” meeting there in the near future with their cattlemen’s association and some of our cattlemen’s association friends in Monjas. Pray that all of that can happen soon!
In Monjas, Guatemala, our friends from the Monjas Cattlemen’s association hosted a fun event for the children of the James Project Children’s home (also in Monjas) to come and have a day on the farm of one of their members.
One of the leaders of the children at the home grew up on a ranch and showed the kids how to rope.
Pony rides were a big hit!
Photo ops were everywhere!
This gunny sack race turned into a sprint!
Byron, the owner of the ranch (left), gives a prize to one of the girls who won a gunny sack race.
One of our Lions Club friends in Monjas helped give away prizes to several of the children.
Byron shares with the children about how glad he was that they came to visit his ranch.
The last day I was in Guatemala, a motorcycle club from Guatemala City came on an outing to Cesar’s house in Amberes. This club has several guys who grew up with Cesar’s son, Cesar Jr.
Cesar’s wife, Elba, serves breakfast to the club before having a meeting together. Ray, an avid motorcycle enthusiast himself, enjoyed meeting the guys to talk about both motorcycles and having a dynamic relationship with God.
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