Hi everyone! Hope you had a great Thanksgiving! If you are like those of us in Kansas City, you are thawing out after a blizzard blew through on Sunday. Brrrrrrrr!
Jacob Burrows and Melissa Hochheimer about to be tied into a knot, crushed, and eaten… Sorry, I meant married!
But all in all, we have a lot to be grateful for in the Daybreak International Play. Story. Eat. world. For starters, I got home from Guatemala just before Thanksgiving, and Bill and Joyce Burrows celebrated the wedding of their son Jacob to his new bride, Melissa, right before Thanksgiving as well.
Melissa & Jacob Burrows and Joyce & Bill Burrows
Photo Journal - November 2018 Guatemala Trip
Beyond that, I am thankful for two successful projects to encourage our Play. Story. Eat. groups and churches in Guatemala. The last time I reported to you, we had just begun a week of activities with a Kansas City based team from LifeQuest Church in Belton, Missouri, and a couple of us from Nall Avenue Baptist in Prairie Village, Kansas. Every day of that week we changed venues to work with different people groups. All told, we touched base with 12 of our Play. Story. Eat. groups, covering the gamut by playing and having spiritual conversations with children, youth, women, men, and the elderly. Each day we figured out a way to join others who are learning to play, tell their faith stories, and eat together in a way that helps them become the church to one another. This team worked hard and had a great time learning and experiencing the Guatemalan culture. Here are a few pics of that team in action.
Seated around the table from left to right, our Kansas City team consisted of Erica Whittington, Ty DeMint, Joe Cooper, me, Jeff Kroenlein, and Tim Goulet.
Here are the staples of the Guatemala diet—beans, eggs, and tortillas. The eggs can be fixed almost any way you like, and this meal can be eaten for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Here, Ty was loading up on the green hot sauce!
A new Christian Rancher group met near Pedro de Alvarado, just a few miles from the El Salvador border. This group had been meeting under a tree, but thanks to a donation from Cross Creek Baptist Mission in Oak Grove, Missouri, they had just recently put up a tin roof to shed the water for the rainy season.
Tim Goulet (center) is teaching Ty and Erica how to make balloon figures. Balloons were a huge hit for all ages every place we went.
Joe helps keep everyone supplied in balloons at a senior citizens center near Quesada, Guatemala.
Ty shares a moment with a little girl in Quesada.
I’m doing my best to translate Tim’s instructions on making a sword with the balloons to a group near Pedro de Alvarado.
Jeff, Erica, Ty, and Joe hang’n with some new friends at their home in Las Bolsitas, a village where a new church has been started. It’s also the home of “Tigra” the dog who bit me nearly two years ago!
Tim speaks to a youth group in Santa Rosa de Lima through a young interpreter from that group.
Erica stirs up the mixture of a home-made cleaning solution that women near Quesada, Guatemala, are selling to supplement their family income.
Cesar gives a gift on behalf of our group to a leader of a women’s group near Quesada, Guatemala, to serve as seed money to buy materials for a micro business multiplication project that makes and sells lotion for women.
Erica teaches some ladies how to make a dog with their balloons.
Ty and Jeff get in on a group exercise at the senior center in Santa Cruz Narranjo.
Ladies at the senior citizens center in Santa Cruz Narranjo perform Guatemala’s official dance.
Jeff enjoys a moment as one of the regulars at the senior citizens center in Santa Cruz Narranjo invited him to dance.
Ty shows us how to play a game unstacking and restacking cups. Cesar is directing the time keeper to start the stopwatch.
Cesar loves to have groups play Connect Four while they wait for people to gather.
Erica expresses gratitude to one of the workers at a senior citizen center near Quesada.
10:02 PRAYER
Thanks for your prayers for us during our time in Guatemala. Pray now that the seeds planted will sprout into strong groups where those who follow Jesus will live so wholeheartedly and contagiously, that their groups will grow and multiply.
ENGAGE
I need two or three people to work with cowboys and ranchers January 10-17 in Guatemala and another two or three to go to Honduras with me January 24-31. If you are interested let me know right away. Beyond those two groups, we are looking at doing a variety of mission projects with you in 2019. Any interest you might have, please contact me.
INVEST
This is the time of year many ministries count on to cover their operating budgets for the entire year. We are no different. In fact, many of our greatest expenses come in the first couple of months of the new year when giving can typically drop off. So thanks in advance for keeping us going. Your giving makes a huge difference!
CLICK HERE FOR THE EASY BUTTON TO INVEST.
Thanks again for your prayers and support. In the next update, I plan to share some spectacular pictures taken from a trip to the jungle with Aden Shorney, a duck hunting enthusiast from Basehor, Kansas. Stay warm!
Love y’all!
Steve