Guatemala Bound with a Grateful but Heavy Heart

As you read this update, I will most likely be in the air flying to Guatemala.

Flying in or out of Guatemala during the day, you get a great view of the volcanoes that surround Guatemala City. This picture I shot a couple of years ago as I flew home.

As I fly today, I have Patsy Jones on my mind. For over 36 years, Patsy has been my favorite (and only!) mother-in-law. She has blessed me with her prayers, love, and concern for every one of those years. And after 91 years on this earth, on Easter Sunday, Patsy got her heavenly promotion.

I took this picture on August 31, 2019, just a few moments before the family gathered to celebrate Patsy’s 90th birthday.

Patsy loved family get-togethers, and with six kids and many grandkids and great-grandkids, her birthday party was a lively occasion!

The first time that I met Patsy was a little over 37 years ago. I had arranged to meet her and her husband, Allen, to ask for their blessing and for the hand of their daughter in marriage.

She and Allen seemed almost eager to give me their blessing—even on such a short introduction. In fact, Nola thought they were too eager! To Nola, it was like, “Sure, we’d love for you to take her off our hands!”

From that day forward, I felt secure that Patsy was on my team. She made me feel special. And I know that all the other brothers-in-law could say the same. As a dedicated person of prayer, she has prayed diligently for me in all the various ministry roles I’ve had. And for the past 21 years, she has prayed fervently for our ministry in Central America. She loved to hear reports from the many trips, and often prodded me when I was slow to report.

The Fall That Threatened Her LIfe

A couple of weeks ago, Patsy had fallen and gotten a knot on her head. Then she fell again a few days later, and this time needed some stitches. After stitching her up, the doctor noticed the knot. Further examination revealed that a blood clot had developed and if it moved to the brain, it would kill her instantly.

So, with Patsy’s consent, surgery was scheduled, and they went into the brain to remove the clot. The surgery seemed to be a success and Patsy came out of it very sore, but apparently okay. We were grateful that there appeared to be no brain damage or personality change.

Here’s Patsy with her five daughters on July 4, 2019. From left to right are Annis Sanders, Allena Gimlin, Patsy, Carmi Davis, Nola, and Marilyn Rogers.

Trying to Wake Her Up

After a couple of days of recuperating in the hospital, she took a nap on a Saturday afternoon and unexpectedly went into a coma. For a week, each of her daughters took a turn in ICU to be with her and do things to try to wake her up. A week later, on Easter Sunday, Jesus woke her up when He called her home. Ironically, Patsy’s younger sister died 5 years ago on Easter Sunday as well.

The last time I talked with her, she had sent me a birthday card and wanted to make sure I had gotten it. In past years she liked to send gifts of chickens or water filters to a ministry that gave them to help the poor in various countries. Her cards would say that she gave in the name of a birthday person, whatever the donation was. This time she wanted to make sure that I didn’t miss her check by thinking she was going to send me chickens for my birthday!

She knew how important this trip was to me after a long year of being unable to travel to Guatemala, so she had decided to send extra money for the trip that I am on right now.

Patsy’s Legacy

I don’t believe I could have ever written an update on Patsy while she was living—not that I wouldn’t have wanted to—but because she was the kind of person who enjoyed working in the background. For over 60 years she taught two-year-olds at First Baptist Church of Stigler, Oklahoma. She baked her own special homemade bread for any visitors to her church. And she was always up-to-date in intercessory prayer for missionaries and family.

In fact, in my own recent commitment to have an hour-long conversation with Jesus every day of this year, I realized that Patsy had already been doing it for years with no fanfare. And that’s the way she liked it. So as I write this, I’m also dedicating myself to follow Patsy’s example of faithful prayer and daily conversation with Jesus.

Thankful for Your Prayers

Many of you have already expressed your desire to pray for our family. Thank you so much for that. It means more than you can know.

As Bill and I have continued to pray for many of you, we have been blessed by you with good reports of God’s work in your lives. Keep those cards and letters coming! You encourage us so much.

10:02 PRAYER

Please pray for me as well as Ray Gurney and Cesar Gonzalez on this trip. I hope to do at least one report to you while we are down there. Ray is scheduled to be there with us until April 22nd. I plan to come home April 29th. Pray for safety from any Covid-19 issues. More importantly, pray that this trip fosters the multiplication of more friends and followers of Jesus.

Also, pray for Bill Burrows as he holds down the fort while I am gone. We have gotten several “Be-the-Church” videos in both English and Spanish ready to be released. Pray that these are helpful and spur others on in following Jesus more wholeheartedly.

ENGAGE

We still have prayer magnets that we can send you. If you haven’t gotten one, we’d be happy to send it!

INVEST

Thank you so much for your continued partnership in this ministry.

CLICK HERE FOR THE EASY WAY TO INVEST.

Love y’all!

Steve

Gearing Up for Guatemala Trip—Finally!

The last time I wrote you an update, I mentioned that I was uncertain about when I would go back to Guatemala. As of this past week, it’s all coming together for me to go down for 17 days in April! Also slated to be with me is Ray Gurney, pastor of Cross Creek Baptist Mission of Oak Grove, Missouri.

Here I’m introducing Cesar before he speaks to our Rancheros Cristianos groups by way of a recorded Zoom video call. Cesar is excited about having the first mission team come visit him in Guatemala in over a year!

Because of Covid-19, we will have to get negative tests before flying, but both Ray and I have gotten our first vaccines and should be fully vaccinated before going down. For me, special thanks goes to Eudora Baptist Church of Eudora, Kansas, for letting Nola and me be part of their church vaccination day on March 6th. For years, their church has been a place for flu shots for senior adults, and this year they opened up the church for community Covid-19 shots. While the vaccine is not a requirement for flying, Guatemala has just started allowing proof of a vaccine to bypass getting tested before going down.

Encouraging Leaders to Multiply

Plans are for us to speak at the Kekchi Baptist Association meeting in the jungle, where we will spend a couple of days encouraging pastors and leaders in their efforts to have spiritual conversations with people in every hut in 80 different villages. They have already begun to pray for their lost friends and family, so this usually is an indicator that many people will come to Christ by the end of the year.

In January of 2019, we spoke to the Kekchi Baptist Association pastors group. Here Cesar shares how to use enjoyable play activities for evangelizing new villages. On the far right is Ray Gurney, pastor of Cross Creek Baptist in Oak Grove, Missouri. Next to him is Rex Kelly of Ord, Nebraska. Since that time this group of pastors and leaders have started several new churches.

German, the leader of the Kekchi Baptist Association, interprets Cesar’s talk from Spanish to Kekchi. For the past year, Cesar has traveled to the jungle to continue evangelism training for the pastors.

Also during this trip, we are scheduled to help in the initiation of a new Christian Rancher group in Chiquimula, Guatemala. In a recent Rancheros Cristianos video, I zoomed with Cesar and the new leader of that group, who raises prized horses who dance in the parades that Guatemalans enjoy each year.

Luis, a rancher and horse enthusiast from Chiquimula, Guatemala, shows me one of his problem horses in a recent Zoom video call. He would love to have one of our horse trainer friends come down and give him some pointers on what to do with this horse! But more importantly, he wants to get his friends together to start a Rancheros Cristianos group. In April, we plan to spend an entire day with him.

When we get closer to leaving on the trip, I hope to update you with more specific prayer concerns. In the meantime, pray that we get our hearts and minds ready.

Continued Production of “Be the Church” Videos

We’ve been updating our Be the Church blog and working to finish our full set of videos this year. Bill has been doing most of the English versions, and I have done the Spanish translations. As we continue to produce these, please pray that God will use them to equip all of us to be the church.

Praying For You as You Pray for us

At the beginning of 2021, Bill and I committed to praying for our faithful supporters by name once a week for the entire year. We then created a refrigerator magnet to remind us to pray and keep us accountable. The cool part of this magnet is that it also can be used for our faithful friends to remember to pray for us! If you haven’t gotten one and would like us to send it to you, please let us know! And if you have personal prayer concerns, we would love to pray with you over those requests.

Nola has a parrot looking at our magnet on our refrigerator!

10:02 PRAYER

Please pray for this next trip to Guatemala scheduled for April 12-29. Pray that this trip fosters the multiplication of more followers of Jesus. And continue to pray for Bill and me as we finish up the “Be the Church” videos in both English and Spanish.

ENGAGE

Don’t forget to request, receive, and use our prayer magnet! And let us know how we can pray for you!

INVEST

Thank you so much for your continued partnership in this ministry. You encourage me so much.

CLICK HERE FOR THE EASY WAY TO INVEST.

Love y’all!

Steve

During that cold spell in February, I showed my friends in Central America what we were dealing with in the Midwest during several weeks of extreme cold. After such a cold winter, I’m looking forward to heading south!

I told Cesar he better be loaded and ready for “bear” when we come!

Thankful to God for His Provision...and for You!

Toward the end of this update, I want to say “Thank you.” But right now, I feel like I’m having an out-of-body experience! It’s January of 2021. And I’m in Kansas, Dorothy—not Guatemala!

For the past 20 years, I have spent at least a week or two each January in Guatemala or another Central American country. But today I’m home. Weird! The other day when I put away the Christmas tree, I saw my luggage over in the corner of our storage room. I couldn’t help myself and puckered my lips. “Wheeeewwww!” I blew off a layer of dust and then coughed as it came up into my face!

Dusty Luggage, Grateful Heart…

Thoughts flooded my mind. I began to think about this past year. And what seems more amazing than having dust on my luggage, is that in spite of being grounded for this past year, I have been as busy as ever connecting with my friends down south. This entire year has been a giant learning experience for me in how to use various technologies to stay in touch.

Here I am “Zooming” for the first time with some pastor friends from the jungle! Twenty years ago, in this same area, I could take a digital camera and snap pictures of them and then flip the camera around for them to see the first picture they would have ever seen of themselves! My, how times change!

Cesar Gonzalez shares a message for one of our weekly Rancheros Cristianos videos.

For Christmas, I got some of the singers in my family to sing “Feliz Navidad” to our Rancheros Cristianos friends!

Staying in Touch…

As you know, we have been working all year on producing videos and materials to send to our friends in many places. In September we began an experiment of doing a weekly Rancheros Cristianos video that we have continued producing all the way to the present. Using the technologies of Zoom, I have “visited” multiple locations—even with some friends in a place in the jungle where 15 years ago was totally inaccessible to any communications. Just two days ago, we were “present” through one of our videos presented at the Kekchi Baptist Association meeting in Fray Bartolome de las Casas, Guatemala. Thankfully Cesar was able to go and deliver a message to them in person.

As if on cue, while writing these words, I got interrupted by a call from Cesar in Chahal, Guatemala! He had two pastors who wanted to say “hi.” Using video, I could see Jose and Lorenzo, two of my dear friends who are pastors in the jungle. Anival, a newer pastor who I don’t know as well, was also with them. “Hermano Esteban, when are you coming back?” Lorenzo asked.

When do I go back?

Almost everything inside of me wants to say, “I’ll be there in February.” But I believe that it’s not quite time for me to go yet. Some of that relates to Covid-19, but it seems deeper than just that. What we are doing right now with our videos and creation of Be-the-Church materials in both English and Spanish needs to get done. I believe that we need to make it easy for our friends to make 2 Timothy 2:2 happen. In this verse, Paul says to Timothy,

“And the things you have heard me say before many witnesses, entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.”

We believe that our priority is to help believers in both the U.S. and in Central America be able to reproduce their faith in simple, 2 Timothy 2:2 fashion—passing on Jesus’ teachings in faithful obedience to others who can then pass them on to others who will pass them on to others, etc. While for us this involves production of videos, ultimately it’s not just about passing on information. We have to live it and pass it on to others—person to person.

Here Bill Burrows and I do a video on how to have a soul-connecting conversation with another disciple of Jesus.

Tools for Being the Church…

So for me to go back, I believe that I need to have some of these new tools ready, and I want some time for my friends down south to be in the first phases of person-to-person reproduction.

One of those things we want to pass on this year is how to have a daily, life-giving conversation with God. For me, 2020 was a year to grow in that department. Bill Burrows and I spent quite a bit of time thinking through how to make this doable for every Jesus follower—no matter their culture or circumstances. Looking to 2021, I am excited about how that conversation will fuel my conversations with other disciples and those who are not yet disciples. Be ready to receive some of this as we begin to share it in the coming days.

Thanks to God and to You…

In preparing to write this update, I took some time to look at the updates from this time last year, and it is truly amazing to me to see what God has done. For one thing, God blessed us financially during this pandemic year far above our expectations. Giving for the year was up significantly over 2019. And that allowed us to bring on Justin Jacobson to help us do more video production.

Also, your giving for the hurricane disaster relief was a huge blessing. Cesar was able to help several of our friends and groups to replace roofs that blew off. And, those people in turn helped Cesar with the labor to put up a couple of roofs for new groups in the jungle. In addition, Cesar gave out medicines. Several of our pastors have had health problems. Jose, the pastor I mentioned above who just spoke to me on that video call, is contemplating going back with Cesar to see his doctor. Jose has been sick for over a year and nothing has seemed to help him get completely well. So thank you on behalf of Jose and others for your help. Cesar is using those funds you generously donated to love on our friends and help them as they help their people.

10:02 PRAYER

Please pray for Cesar and our friends in Central America. And pray for wisdom for me in knowing precisely when I should return in person. Pray for Bill and me as we finish up the Be-the-Church videos in both English and Spanish.

ENGAGE

Bill and I are praying that many of you will want to join us when we unveil our “30-day Guide to Having a Life-Giving Conversation with God.” Get ready for us to ask everyone and their dog to try it! For now, pray for us as we complete it along with our last Be-the-Church videos.

INVEST

Thank you so much for your investment this past year. I am truly grateful for you!

CLICK HERE FOR THE EASY WAY TO INVEST.

Love y’all!

Steve

Urgent Request: "Giving Tuesday" Opportunity to Help in Disaster Relief

Hi Everyone!

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I know it’s been a rough year for so many on so many different fronts. As for me and my family, we have so many things to be grateful for. Yet others are not so fortunate.

Hurricanes in Central America…

On this Giving Tuesday, I want to make you aware of some of the needs of our friends in Guatemala and Honduras. As you may know, they have had Eta and Iota, two major hurricanes, come barreling one right after the other through that region of the world.

Across Guatemala, hundreds of bridges like this one have been washed out. The same is true in Honduras and Nicaragua.

This is a river near Zacapa, Guatemala. Its bridge was washed away with the raging waters.

Cesar is being inundated with requests for help dealing with blown-off roofs and damage to the homes and locations where several of our churches and groups meet.

Already, Cross Creek Baptist Mission of Oak Grove, Missouri, has stepped up to send $1000 to Cesar to use for disaster relief efforts. Perhaps you might like to join them in helping.

While you could give online and make a note on your gift that it is for disaster relief, it would probably get to us faster if you mail a check directly to us at:

Daybreak International

11628 Oakmont St.

Overland Park, KS 66210

This young boy is telling of his house and community near Campuro, Guatemala, being flooded and washed away by the rising waters. In an interview after fleeing for safety, he talked about how he doesn’t blame God for his plight.

Beyond the concerns for our friends dealing with the hurricanes, there are still Covid-19 problems.

Safety Concerns for Cesar…

Two weeks ago, Manuel and Alba Campos, two friends of ours in Amberes, Guatemala, died of Covid-19. Alba had some health issues and died first. But incredibly, the private hospital where she died didn’t tell the family that she had Covid-19. They even signed the certificate that she didn’t have it, giving the family the permission they needed to do the traditional burial practices.

So they had the wake where the whole family and many friends sat around with the body for a whole night. Friends and family ate together and supported one another in close proximity. Then they buried her the next day. Soon her husband Manuel, several family members, and even some friends got sick. Several got tested and, sure enough, it was the dreaded Covid-19 virus. Within a week, Manuel died and other family members and friends also got sick. One of the adult children who flew in from the United States caught the virus and will be stuck in Guatemala to recuperate before being able to go back.

In this picture taken last year on November 1, 2019, a team from LifeQuest Church of Belton Missouri experience the cultural flavor of the Day of the Dead celebration. That day, Manuel Campos (second from the left) wanted me to take a picture of him with the team in front of his family cemetery plot near Nueva Santa Rosa, Guatemala. Little did I know that this would be the last picture I have of Manuel.

Thankfully, though invited, Cesar and Elba Gonzalez did not attend the wake or burial activities and are not affected. Cesar had expressed his condolences by phone, but anticipated that attending that kind of gathering would not be wise.

10:02 PRAYER

Please pray for Cesar and our friends in Central America. Besides the pandemic concerns and hurricane disasters, they have had major political unrest with accusations of the president of Guatemala stealing from funds for Covid-19 relief and disaster relief. Cesar is preparing to go to the jungle soon to help some of our friends hardest hit by mudslides and flooding. He has already sent some money to friends in Honduras whose roof blew off.

ENGAGE

On this Giving Tuesday, whatever amount you give would be a blessing. Please give as God directs you.

INVEST

Thank you for your continued faithfulness to this ministry. I am truly grateful for you!

CLICK HERE FOR THE EASY WAY TO INVEST.

Love y’all!

Steve

From KC to Nebraska and Back Literally and to Guatemala and Back Virtually!

Hi Everybody!

Since our last update, two big things have happened for us. One was the launch of weekly Rancheros Cristianos videos. The other was a trip in early October to connect with friends in Nebraska. Here’s the lowdown!

Joel Wentworth greets our Rancheros Cristianos on a recent Sunday with his congregation in Burwell, Nebraska.

Launch of Rancheros Cristianos Internacionales!

On September 20th, we launched the first of weekly videos to our Christian Rancher groups in Central America! The idea came from Cesar Gonzales, who asked if we could use what we have learned in creating training videos to start doing videos for our cowboys and ranchers in Central America. After kicking the idea around, we determined that we wanted it to be a discussion starter for groups and individuals to connect with scripture and offer a platform for them to experience a sense of community with others doing similar groups all over the world.

On September 20th, Nola and I welcomed viewers onto our back porch for our first ever virtual meeting of Rancheros Cristianos!

A typical video has a greeting from one of our friends, like the one Joel Wentworth did in the above picture. That particular day, Joel greeted the Guatemalans and Cesar greeted the Nebraskans!

Cesar offers a greeting to the folks in Burwell, Nebraska, from his home in Amberes, Guatemala.

In addition, we usually include someone singing a song, and then someone will give a short devotional thought. At the end, we model what we call “riding the bull”—making a tangible, personal commitment to do something this next week as a result of the scripture for the day. To date, we have done five videos and plan to continue until at least the end of the year.

Humberto Solares, of Santa Rosa de Lima, Guatemala, sings the Spanish version of “One Day at a Time” for one of the Rancheros Cristianos videos.

Here, Lawrence Turner is inviting the Guatemalan ranchers to come up and buy some of his cows he’s just taken to the sale barn in Valentine, Nebraska! He also committed to pray for the Guatemalans and asked them to pray for us and our nation as well.

Gaining Spiritual Leverage in Nebraska

For our first trip since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, we spent 10 days with friends in Nebraska. Bill and I were privileged to have our wives, Joyce and Nola, join us as well.

Rex and Deb Kelley hosted us at their bed and breakfast in Ord, Nebraska. Here they spoiled us with the best Nebraska steak I have had in my life! I took this picture and sent it to Cesar to make him jealous! Seated from left to right is Nola, Rex, Joyce, Bill, and Deb.

During that time, Bill and I had the opportunity to speak at four different churches, the Sandhills Baptist Association meeting, and Bill got to unveil the first showings of his Spiritual Leverage demonstrations that highlight the difference between just going to church and actually “being” the church.

Bill gets a volunteer to help him in getting spiritual leverage at the Sandhills Association gathering.

Bill also did the same presentation with the youth at Burwell Baptist.

Between the two weekends we spent in Nebraska, Bill and I also painted the house of our friends, Tom and Joyce Huffman. When we arrived, Tom was not feeling well, and in light of Covid-19 suspicions, we didn’t go into their house and kept our distance. As it turned out, both Tom and Joyce did test positive for the virus. Tom had to go to the hospital for a few days. Thankfully both are at home recuperating now and doing better.

Bill shares a greeting to our friends after we finished painting the Huffman house.

10:02 PRAYER

Please pray that the Rancheros Cristianos videos will help us spur one another on (Hebrews 10:24-25) to making disciples more effectively both here and in Central America.

Pray for a speedy recovery for Tom and Joyce Huffman.

Also pray that we use the technologies effectively to connect with one another during these unprecedented days.

ENGAGE

If you would like to see Bill’s demonstration, or would like to have him do it live at your church, let us know! As we continue to send out our Be-the-Church videos, please take a look at them, and if they seem helpful to you, pass them on through email or social media!

INVEST

Thank you for your continued faithfulness to this ministry. You encourage us so much!

CLICK HERE FOR THE EASY WAY TO INVEST.

Love y’all!

Steve

Pardon Our Dust!

Hi Everyone!

It’s been a while since I sent what used to be a “normal” Play. Story. Eat. Update with just text and pictures to tell you about the latest in the ministry. In the past few months we have been working diligently to create videos and content for helping our friends “Be the Church” no matter where they are or what their COVID-19 restrictions. For me, it has been a big change of pace, because I have not traveled to Guatemala since right before the pandemic in February. And the longer I stay home, the more I get invited by my wife, friends, and family to participate in remodeling projects!

At the first stage of stay-at-home orders in March, Nola had me painting and then installing a new ceiling fan light.

One thing I’ve learned about doing home improvement, if you are averse to kicking up dust, you will never get anything done! And in a similar vein, I believe that is true in ministry. For those of us at Play. Story. Eat., we have been in a season of remodeling and preparing for the future - making a mess as we go!

Thank You for Your Patience!

From your perspective, you may have wondered why we are sending these “Be the Church” emails. Admittedly, they are different from what we used to send all the time. Without a whole lot of explanation, we just started sending you these things, hoping you would engage with them and that they would help you “be the church” with people in your neck of the woods. Some of you have given us feedback, and we are extraordinarily grateful for your help.

In the process, we have learned a lot. For one, we learned that when we send emails with three or four videos, NOBODY gets to the third or fourth one! It’s just too much dust to see through! So we have begun to try to scale back to one video of about 3 to 5 minutes and offer more small bites more often than our previous once every two or more weeks.

Another thing we are learning is that we need to give you more of a heads up on the content that is coming. We are putting what we believe are some gems out there, but we haven’t prepped people to know about it and have a reason to say, “That’s exactly what I need!” As we get some of this content up, we plan to package it into things like “A Seven Day Guide to Being the Church” or “30 Days of Life-Giving Conversations with God.” For now we believe we are getting the individual building blocks in place so that in next year there will be a prettier, finished product. So stay tuned as we kick up more dust!

Jesus is Inviting Us to a Personal Remodeling Project

In our last Be-the-Church blog, Bill shared from John 14:23 that Jesus wants to make His home in us. And the question is two-fold. Have you given Jesus the key to enter? And have you given Him the authority to make all the remodeling decisions? If you are like me, there might be a room that you are working on all by yourself, or you haven’t given Jesus the authority to call the remodeling shots. If we are true disciples of His, we must give Him the access and the authority to every part of our lives. What a challenge! Yet He is the One who can do more than we could ever hope or imagine. (Check out the story at the end for a final word on Jesus’ remodeling project!)

More kicking up dust! A couple of weeks ago, a roofing crew came over to my house and had to replace some deteriorating plywood before re-roofing the house. Amazingly a couple of the guys were from a town in Honduras that I have been to!

10:02 PRAYER

Cesar has asked me to consider a strategy to provide a Facebook Live broadcast to our cowboys and ranchers in Guatemala. We are praying through the implications and logistics of starting that and how often we can do it. Please pray for wisdom. Continue to pray that as we create the Be-the-Church content, our translated materials will be both understandable and helpful.

ENGAGE

As we send out more Be-the-Church videos, we appreciate your viewing and sharing these with others. Keep passing them on through email and/or social media! And thanks for your continued feedback.

INVEST

Keep those cards and letters coming! You are making a difference to us. Every penny you send means so much. Thank you!

CLICK HERE FOR THE EASY WAY TO INVEST.

Now one last thought…

You Are Jesus’ Remodeling Project

When we signed up to be a disciple of Jesus, whether we realized it or not, we were signing up to an ongoing remodeling project where Jesus would be our guide, and our lives would be His to do with as He wills.

Several years ago, I was at the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, North Carolina. Buried there is Billy’s wife, Ruth. Before Ruth died, she and Billy drove through a construction zone. A sign read, “End of Construction—Thank you for your patience.”

“That’s what I want on my tombstone!” Ruth declared to Billy.

I snapped this picture outside of the Billy Graham Library. I love Ruth’s sense of humor!

Ruth, I believe, says it for all of us. If we follow our Lord, our very lives will be a remodeling project for Him until the day we die. So only on our tombstone can we truly say “End of Construction.—Thank you for your patience!”

May we be open to His daily transformation. And may we let the dust fly!

Love y’all!

Steve

Play. Story. Eat. Summer Update

Hi Everyone!

It has been a while since I took the time to update you on the Play. Story. Eat. ministry happenings. Today, Bill Burrows and I would like to try our hand at recording a short video to highlight how we are doing, what the current reality of ministry is for Cesar Gonzalez in Guatemala, and how we feel burdened to continue to provide videos and resources to our friends—whether in the jungles of Guatemala, the Sand Hills of Nebraska, or the suburbs of Kansas City.

Click on the video below!

10:02 PRAYER

Please pray for Cesar and our friends in Guatemala. Pray that we find ways to touch them using technology while social contact is so limited. Pray for us as we create the Be-the-Church content and that our translated materials will be both understandable and helpful.

Thanks for your continued prayers for us and for the funds to continue.

ENGAGE

As we send out our Be-the-Church videos, please take a look at them, and if they seem helpful to you, pass them on through email or social media!

INVEST

Thank you for your continued faithfulness to this ministry. You encourage us so much!

CLICK HERE FOR THE EASY WAY TO INVEST.

Love y’all!

Steve

Be the Church Blog Coming Very Soon!

Coming Tuesday, May 19th!

Hi Everybody!

After several months of work, we are finally ready to launch our training blog! “Be the Church” will launch Tuesday, May 19th. It has a new logo and will have a different feel to it than the updates that you are used to getting from us.

While we plan to continue the updates, we will share the blog as well. Why? Because our updates are geared to keeping you informed of the ministry happenings in Guatemala and other places. But the blog is designed to help equip you to make and multiply disciples — being the church right where you are. And we need you, our champions in prayer, to help us get the word out about this training we are doing in both English and Spanish.

But why would we want to add this to our plate and send you something new and different? Great question! Even before the pandemic hit us, we felt convicted that we weren’t giving away our best learning and practices from our 20 years of trials and errors in starting new churches, ministries, and Play. Story. Eat. groups. We felt that in order to give our training to all of the many groups we interact with, that we had to learn how to produce this online and use the technologies that the whole world is now using.

And when the corona virus turned our world upside down, we realized that even though we didn’t understand all of the whys behind this, God was preparing us to navigate the inevitable shift in doing ministry in this new era.

Admittedly, when we began, we weren’t sure that our friends in the United States would understand. After all, many, if not most, of our supporters here in the U.S. go to wonderful churches. But when the playing field was leveled and everyone had to experience church in a different way, we have seen how it has opened the door for our training to mean even more here at home. And it not only upped the ante for us, it did that for YOU too!

Don’t miss this point. We are doing this blog for YOU! You may not have been looking for it. But you really do need this! We are certain that what we do can help you do church anytime and anywhere. We believe that God wants to use you right now to multiply disciples. And we believe that with Jesus leading you, He gives you the power to do exactly what He is calling you to do.

We invite you to embrace this new era where God can use us in new relational ways. We feel so grateful for you and the wonderful friends He has given us all over the world--from cowboys to Kekchi Indians to suburbanites to farmers to city dwellers to sports enthusiasts to geeks to Jesus freaks, from people who go to church and people who have never set foot in a church building. In all these different groupings, God is at work. Jesus’ church is unstoppable! And we believe that for believers in the U.S., God wants us to not merely go to church, but to experience the full spiritual and relational benefits of BEING the church. Trust us. It’s not that complicated. And you can do it.

Note that in the first blog post, we will be going straight to Jesus' words about how His followers are to operate with each other and in the world.

Blog post by blog post and video by video, let’s allow Jesus to teach us what being the church is all about and what He calls us to do.

As we embark on this journey of being the church together, your feedback is vital to us. So let's stay in touch! And get ready for that first blog post! 

Love y’all!

Steve

PS…Thanks for your continued gifts to help us do this together! We couldn’t do it without you.

CLICK HERE FOR THE EASY WAY TO INVEST.

Latest Developments in Our New Reality

Good morning everyone! Hope you are doing well. It’s been a few weeks since I last updated you. We are getting settled into our new reality of social distancing and staying in touch with friends thanks to the technologies that can keep us together.

We continue to make videos and send messages to friends as we write new material and prepare to load up content for our websites in both English and Spanish. We haven’t released any of our “Be The Church” training videos yet but hope to in the next month. Our plan is to get the whole package done before we release it, since we anticipate that after they are completed we will need to be more available for leader-to-leader coaching. Slowly we are getting the hang of the skills required of us in this new way of doing ministry.

Before shooting a training video, Justin Jacobson, Bill Burrows, and I put our swords together before we pray and do our three musketeer “all for one!” thing. The two swords that you see are thanks to our friend Bill Buchanan, of Reeds, Missouri, who gave them to Bill and me last year. We were at a loss of what to do with them! But now they help us do something equivalent to a high five when we are supposed to be 6 feet apart! Thanks Bill! We have now put your swords to good use!

Here Bill is recording the audio portion that goes with the slides shown on one of the first “Be the Church” training videos. Justin is making sure that the slides keep up on the video. We are working to produce each session in both English and Spanish.

Here I am a couple of days before Easter recording a video in a cemetery for my cowboy friends in Guatemala.

Guatemala Happenings Since the Shutdown

Many of you have asked me how Cesar and Elba are doing. They are well. Cesar is able to contact most of the leaders by phone and is staying abreast of the realities of many of our leaders, even though he is not traveling himself. As of last week, Guatemala had about 350 cases of Covid-19 and only 8 deaths. Many attribute that to the swift action their president took to shut down all air travel into or out of the country.

In these days of quarantine, Elba Gonzalez, Cesar’s wife, shows off her first fruits of the mango season. She knows how much I love mangoes and sent this picture to rub it in that I am not down there enjoying them!

Cesar believes that they will be allowing more movement and opening up the country for more travel next week. The biggest effect on Guatemala has been with the economy and for the most vulnerable. The food shortages are getting more serious in some areas. Our friends in the jungle have been hit hard, because all the transportation of goods in or out of their area has been shut down. So the jobs in the palm oil plantations and ranches have been temporarily halted for most of the day laborers.

Here is a palm oil plantation. Many of the men in the jungle are working in these operations. Due to the transportation shutdown from the Covid-19 crisis, all of these businesses, as well as the bigger ranch operations, have stopped hiring day laborers until they are able to go back to normal operations. Many of our church leaders in the jungle are without employment.

As soon as Cesar can travel, he plans to head to the jungle with food and supplies. Due to the generosity of Cross Creek Baptist Mission in Oak Grove, Missouri, Cesar will be able to use their donation from last week to help provide rice and beans and offer about 10 men some work to finish the last touches on our refurbished base camp there.

The four men on the right are leaders helping a pastor on the far right start a new church near a palm oil plantation. This picture was taken just weeks before the shutdown.

Cesar enjoyed cooling off in the river near the village of one of the newest church plants. This picture was taken just a month before the shutdown.

This lady boiled some snails to add some protein to their soup. It is quite tasty! And nutritious!

10:02 PRAYER

Please continue to pray for our government leaders, medical personnel, and your neighbors who are struggling financially during these days. I have had neighbors approach me in recent days looking for help. Let’s keep our eyes and ears open to the needs around us and be the church like never before. We are praying for you who read this update that you would be incredibly fruitful in these days, that you would be connected to Jesus (John 15), and that because of you, many will come to faith in Jesus. Pray with us that this is a time for a spiritual awakening in our country and around the world.

Continue to pray for wisdom for your pastor and church leaders. And pray for Cesar as he helps pastors and leaders in Guatemala. Thanks for your continued prayers for us and for the funds to continue.

ENGAGE

If you would like to be a guinea pig for some of our training when we get it ready for testing and evaluations, please contact us. We plan to test our “Be the Church” training and a couple of discipleship tools for having a daily, life-giving conversation with God. If you are interested, let us know!

INVEST

Keep those cards and letters coming! Thanks to many of you who have responded to our need to fund Justin Jacobson’s position. We appreciate every gift.

CLICK HERE FOR THE EASY WAY TO INVEST.

Until next time, here is one of my favorite sunset pictures I took in the jungle last year out the back of our base camp.

Love y’all!

Steve

The beauty of God’s creation never ceases to amaze me!

The Coronavirus and Play. Story. Eat.

The Coronavirus Crisis Forces Our Hand

Little did we know in January, when we felt prompted by God to change our strategy in 2020 from face-to-face ministry visits, to video and phone visits, that the Coronavirus crisis was already on the way to changing our world.

Last month, we introduced you to Justin Jacobson, our newest team member, who is helping Bill Burrows and me get up to speed on producing audio and video content for our groups. Just days after sending that update, the pandemic kicked into high gear.

10:02 PRAYER

Please pray for our government leaders at all levels. Pray for folks you know in the medical field during these days. Keep your eyes and ears open to the needs of your community and your neighbors. We are all on a mission field together in this.

Pray for wisdom for your pastor and church leaders. Pray that your church flourishes and is a shining light during these days.

Thanks for your continued prayers for us and for the funds to continue. Pray for the energy and stamina for Cesar as he responds to the many needs in Guatemala.

ENGAGE

We had to postpone a couple of our fund raising painting projects in March. But when we get the all clear sign, Bill, Justin, and I plan to do those work projects. If you would like to help us with that, let us know!

INVEST

Last week I sent out a letter to many of you by mail asking folks to help us raise the funds for Justin to keep working with us. If you didn’t get it, or would like to see a copy of that letter, click here.

CLICK HERE FOR THE EASY WAY TO INVEST.

Our Families Are Safe…

We, like you, have had to make some major family adjustments to the new realities. Fortunately for Nola and me, her job is steady as she has been allowed to move from working downtown to doing her work online from home. Normally at this time of the year, I have been in Guatemala. Thankfully, I was home when the crisis kicked in. For Bill and Joyce Burrows and our team here in the U.S., we are home-based already, so we are good to keep working.

In Guatemala, Cesar was scheduled to go to the jungle for a couple of weeks, but Guatemalan authorities have mandated stay-at-home orders. So he is at his home in Amberes, and we talk almost daily about the realities that they are facing in Latin America.

While we are grateful that our team is safe and we can continue to minister, we suspect that many of you may be in tough circumstances. We want to be sensitive to that reality as we share of what we see as God’s providential blessing on us and the opportunity to make a difference in this new day.

Days Prior to the Social Distancing Orders…

Just a few weeks ago, Nola and I were enjoying an indoor soccer league with our son Ryan and his wife Bobbi, Nat and Emma Beck, and other friends. We ran a 5K for fun on March 7th. Cesar and a team had just completed construction on our base camp in the jungle. I was doing weekly calls to Cesar with other leaders. And Cesar had made a quick visit to a motorcycle group in Coatepeque, Guatemala. All during February and going into March, Bill, Justin, and I worked at producing content for video courses and the podcast.

Here’s Justin working on a sound check for Bill as we prepared for a podcast trial run.

Ray Gurney, pastor of Cross Creek Baptist Mission, in Oak Grove, Missouri, sends a video greeting to a motorcycle group near Coatepeque Guatemala, while I wait to translate.

The last weekend before the Coronavirus shutdown, Cesar was with a new PSE motorcycle group at their annual parade in Coatepeque. Here they are holding an envelope of money collected for a fellow motorcyclist who is suffering from serious burns from an accident.

The week before social distancing, Bill Burrows and Blake Huston high five in celebration of a completed discipleship step taken on a walk at the Parkville, Missouri, nature trail.

Church Service Closings…

Nola and I were in Omaha, Nebraska, for Brayden’s (our 6-year-old grandson) spring break. That weekend of March 15, churches began to close their doors for normal Sunday services and activities. The following week, it seemed that everything happened so quickly. While we were with Josh and Kristin, we got to witness their roller coaster of emotions. Kristin had just gotten an Optometrist of the Year award for her 3-year-old practice from her Optometry school where she graduated 6 years ago. But that same week, because of the pandemic, she realized that she would have to shut down her practice to only medical emergencies. While Josh’s job as a computer programmer is secure, if the shutdown lasts very long, Kristin will have to lay off her 5 employees. In all likelihood, she would lose her award-winning practice.

On March 15th, we watched a church service online of Stonebridge Christian Church in Omaha, Nebraska, where Josh and Kristin attend with our grandsons.

That week I had a phone conference call with a group of pastors in Guatemala, and they also suspended their normal Sunday services and have since struggled to help all those in need around them. Public transportation has stopped. Many jobs are on hold like they are here. Grocery stores are allowed to open from 8am to noon. Food shortages have kicked in, and calls for social distancing have created major challenges for those living in tight quarters.

During that call with pastors, I committed to sending them a video each week. Currently we are in week two of that commitment.

Sharing a video message with Cesar and leaders

So much has changed in such a short span of time that I find myself reeling a bit. When we think of the state of the church, many are worried that their church might suffer and lose ground. Please don’t take me wrong here. I know this is all very painful. But I believe that God is being gracious with us. For years, many have prayed that God would revive us as a nation and as a church. As much as we dislike going through tough times, God uses trials and persecutions to strengthen and grow the church. Throughout history, the church has grown and flourished during times of persecution and suffering.

What Would Jesus Say About Our Churches?

Remember that Jesus said, “I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” Looking at our empty church buildings, we might be inclined to wring our hands and say, “Ain’t it awful.” But remember that Jesus’ church cannot be stopped! Maybe our form of church might be in jeopardy. But true church, the way Jesus calls for it to happen, cannot be stopped.

Interestingly enough, before this pandemic started, we were working on video content for what we have been calling “Be the Church Coaching.” It is designed for pastors and church leaders to help their congregations and church members to not merely attend church services, but to operate in such a way that they are “being” the church together. Based on our experiences in multiple countries and multiple cultures, we believe that we can help any leader understand what the core mission and activity of a church really is—especially when it is stripped down to its simple but profound elements.

In coming days we hope to unveil this training. Please pray for us as we work on this. We are trying to speed up our learning curve to get these out as soon as possible in both English and Spanish.

Thanks for your continued prayers and encouragement! We are praying that God keeps you safe and uses you where you are during these days as well.

Love y’all!

Steve