Good morning everyone!
I hope you had a very Merry Christmas! We sure did. The biggest Christmas news in our Reed extended family is that on Christmas day, our son Josh and his wife Kristin, (along with grandsons Brayden and Landon) came home from Thailand with our newly adopted eight and a half year old granddaughter! In keeping with the rules for this adoption, we can’t post her name or any pictures of her face yet, but here is a family picture they took last week in Thailand together.
From left to right is Kristin, Landon, our new granddaughter, Brayden, and Josh
On the ministry side of things, we have so much to be grateful for as well. After we sent out our November letter to our donors, we realized that we hadn’t shared some of these highlights from 2025 on this update. So here is a short recap of the year with a few pictures.
January/February Scout Trips in Guatemala
In January and February, several of us made a couple of exploratory trips to Guatemala to set up future ministry. The most notable is in a partnership with the James Project Children's Home in Monjas, Guatemala. Expect to hear more in 2026!
I got to join into a group pic the kids at the James Project Children’s home in Monjas, Guatemala on a day we did cowboy activities with the kids.
April 2025 Rio Blanco, Nicaragua
In April a team of nine of us from Lenexa Baptist Church teamed up with about 25 Nicaraguan friends associated with Project Hope in Nicaragua to do a soccer tournament in Rio Blanco. Over those few days there, 336 people prayed to receive Christ! Stay tuned for more info about another soccer evangelism trip in 2026!
On the first day of our soccer tournament in Rio Blanco, Nicaragua, this is one of the first games played after an evangelistic introduction to the day invited hundreds of players and coaches into praying to receive Christ and stepping forward to let our team know of their decision!
September 2025 Amberes, Guatemala
In September, a team of four from LifeQuest Church in Belton, Missouri joined us in a school evangelism project near Amberes, Guatemala. Going class to class in several schools, we saw 349 children and adults accept Christ! Cesar Gonzalez is working on the follow up to this amazing response.
Here, our team poses for a picture with a teacher and her class in a small rural school near Amberes, Guatemala.
Church to Church Partnerships
New partnerships are in the works between U.S. and Guatemalan churches for evangelism and discipleship. The first one for the year will connect Samaria Church of Rinconcito, Guatemala with LifeQuest Church of Belton, Missouri. In September of 2026 a celebration is being planned for these churches in Guatemala!
Here, pastor Eddie Gonzalez, of Samaria Church In Rinconcito, Guatemala, speaks with his uncle, Cesar Gonzalez about the desire for their church to receive evangelism training from Cesar in 2026, and then to have a mission team come to culminate their year of evangelism with a a church from the United States. Those on the left in the picture are the team from Lifequest Church in Belton, Missouri. Stay tuned for more info!
Rural Church Partnerships
We plan to continue several partnerships with rural midwest churches in "Be-the-Church" and Disciple Multiplication Movement training.
Joel Wentworth, pastor of Burwell Baptist Church in Burwell, Nebraska, opens up the meeting of a Rural Church Leadership meeting in October.
Year-round Mentoring of Leaders
We will continue to work behind the scenes in serving local churches through conferences, coaching, leadership development, and the PSE prayer team. And note that in Guatemala, Cesar Gonzalez will continue to travel the country to mentor and encourage leaders among soccer players, bull riders, ranchers, and Kekchi pastors.
Here, Cesar speaks to an agriculture class studying the best practices in coffee production. This particular day Cesar spoke on Romans 12:1 and having your mind transformed by God.
Continuation of Scripture M.A.P.S. in 2026!
Bill Burrows gave us a complete year of scripture “MAPS” in 2025 and is proving one based on the Habits of Replicating Disciple Makers for the new year! 2026 Scripture MAPS - Daily direction from God for Replicating Disciple Makers.
This is the menu board at the “MAPS” coffee shop in Lenexa, Kansas! No relation to us at all! But a great place to drink coffee and look at maps from all over the world!
Please know that without your prayer and financial support this past year, much of this would not have happened. Thank you! God has been incredibly gracious to us and a big part of that comes in having such great friends like you walking alongside us.
Let us know what God is doing in your world these days. As always, we love hearing from you, so keep those cards and letters coming!
Love y'all!
Steve
PS…If you are wanting to get a final end of year gift to us, remember that anything postmarked by December 31st counts towards 2025 giving.
You can give through the link below, or checks can be sent to:
Daybreak International, 11628 Oakmont St., Overland Park, KS 66210