Play Story Eat Update December 2023!

Good morning everyone!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are beginning to enjoy the Christmas season. I know it’s been a bit since I last updated you on the mission projects that we have been working on. Since the last update, we have had friends from Forest Grove Baptist Church in Pleasant Hill, MO, join our update. Nola and I enjoyed spending a Sunday with them, their Pastor Sam Anderson, and his wife Judy—who are long-time partners in several cowboy mission trips we have done.

We also want to welcome more friends from the Sandhills of Nebraska, friends from Amazing Grace Church in Thedford, Nebraska, and Tallin Bible Church south of Arnold, Nebraska. Pastor Lee Wonch and his wife, Dandee, serve those two churches, and we have really enjoyed getting to know them and the wonderful ministry they are doing in Nebraska.

Bill Burrows and I had the privilege of spending a weekend with Lee Wonch and his two congregations in the Sandhills in October. Fortunately Lee is a big Kansas City Chiefs fan and didn’t mind taking a picture with me! Lee and his wife Dandee are doing a great job ministering and loving the folks in their part of Nebraska. The two congregations they pastor are 60 miles apart!

Be the Church Training

Bill Burrows continues to lead the charge in our Be the Church training, and in late August he made the rounds in Nebraska, speaking and teaching at First Baptist Church of Valentine and Amazing Grace Church in Thedford. In October I joined Bill, and we led the workshop “Building Relationships for Discipleship” at the Rural Church Workers Conference in Burwell, Nebraska, hosted by our good friend, Joel Wentworth. That same weekend Bill took me along to meet the good folks at Amazing Grace Church and Tallin Bible Church near Arnold, Nebraska. By the way, several members of those churches are interested in going to Guatemala to work with cowboys and ranchers in late January. If you are interested in being a part of that, get a passport and let us know!

Celebrating 25 years of Ministry in Oak Grove, MO

On November 19, 2023, Cross Creek Baptist Mission of Oak Grove, Missouri, celebrated their 25th anniversary as a church. Ray and Vickie Gurney, our good friends and partners on many a mission trip to Guatemala, invited Nola and me to be there on their special day. Thanks, Ray and Vickie! And happy anniversary, Cross Creek!

On Cross Creek Baptist Mission’s 25th anniversary, I presented a plaque of appreciation to pastor Ray Gurney and their church for many years of partnership in mission projects in Guatemala. In Ray’s hand are two bottles of his favorite Guatemalan hot sauce that Cesar Gonzalez, our ministry partner in Guatemala, wanted me to give Ray to thank him for being such a great friend!

Nicaragua Mission Trip

In October Nola and I had the privilege of being a part of a Lenexa Baptist team of 35 people who went to Managua, Nicaragua, to work with the various mission endeavors associated with Project Hope. As a part of that trip, Justin Pedigo (the tech team leader at Lenexa Baptist) and I got to spend one full day with Eduardo Mejia to shoot footage in several places across Nicaragua for the soccer videos we are producing. In the story down below the prayer requests, I’ll share more pics and especially a story about an incredible encounter we had with a professional soccer team!

Nola gives a girl a hug as our Lenexa Baptist team gets off the bus in the Nueva Vida village near the city dump. The team did a variety of projects including home construction, VBS with children, women’s ministry, a ministry to recovering drug and alcohol addicts, and a ministry to children and families at a place they call “Taellor’s” house.

Guatemala Soccer Project

As you are reading this update, I am in Guatemala with long-time friend, Nate Smith, and Eduardo Mejia (yes, the same Eduardo I was with in Nicaragua!). Nate has done a lot of video work through the years and will be helping us capture some of the stories of what God has been doing in Guatemala. On this trip we plan to crisscross the country to shoot some videos for our soccer project and to document some of the key stories and testimonies from both our ministry to cowboys and to our Kekchi friends who are starting new churches in the jungle.

Please be in prayer for this team. For two weeks in October, the country was shut down due to protests arising after the August presidential election. Protesters blocked streets and highways in over 200 key locations across the country, and for a time there was no gasoline available. Grocery stores were empty. People were forced to stay home. Thankfully the country is now open again.

This is a pic from a news article of a protest on September 18, 2023, in Guatemala City. This would have been just before the nationwide shutdown.

10:02 PRAYER

(Pray Luke 10:2 each day at 10:02 am or pm that the Lord of the harvest will send out laborers into His harvest fields.)

1. Pray for the above mentioned request for safety of our team as we travel and prepare for future teams to come to Guatemala. This team will also be working with several mayors to plan the next soccer tournaments in 2024. We are scheduled to be in the country December 3-13.

2. Pray that we are able to have a cowboy and rancher team ready to go on a mission trip in late January to Guatemala. Several of those interested are needing to get passports.

3. Pray for the health of Elba Gonzalez, wife of Cesar Gonzalez, our key leader in Guatemala. Elba had a mini-stroke a couple of months ago and thankfully has recovered well. Pray for continued health for Cesar as well.

4. Pray for our friends like Lee and Dandee Wonch, who are pastoring in rural areas in Nebraska. Pray for their stamina in traveling between towns and that their congregations thrive in being the church in their respective regions.

ENGAGE

If you are interested in being a part of any kind of mission trip in 2024—whether it is with soccer enthusiasts, cowboys, or Kekchi Indians, please let me know.

INVEST

Thank you so much for your generosity. Because of you, we have been able to travel unimpeded this year and fund the movements of guys like Eduardo Mejia to travel more frequently from Nicaragua to Guatemala in the soccer ministry. Muchas Gracias!

Please let us know of any of your prayer needs.

Love y’all!

Steve

And Now Some Stories and Pics!

More from Nicaragua

As promised I want to show you a few pics from the Nicaragua trip and conclude with the story of our time with a professional soccer team.

The first day in Pueblo Nueva Vida, Eduardo Mejia translates for Rhonda Reinhardt, of Lenexa Baptist, as she tells Bible stories of ordinary people who God used in a great way.

During Rhonda’s Bible story, a little pony came running out of nowhere! Here I took the picture as the little horse is catching the cables and about to pull down the speaker! And yes, the speaker did fall down!

The Lenexa team brought super hero outfits for all the kids to remember the Bible stories of how God takes ordinary people and makes them into super heroes!

Here, we are pouring concrete for one of the homes being built. The lady holding the shovel is the home owner. In this project everyone works together on all the homes until every house in a particular section is done.

The local mayor (in the blue shirt with the microphone) came out the last day to help celebrate the completion of a section of 45 houses.

The entire group of workers and well wishers walk from house to house for the official ribbon cutting ceremonies.

Nola and I got to celebrate the completion of a roof on the house of Martha, whose house had been completed a few weeks prior. We got to present her with a gift from a group of ladies at Lenexa Baptist who made decorative quilts for the new home owners. Martha is also a new believer and is part of a ladies Bible study in the village.

Here I’m with Eduardo (far right) and Justin Pedigo (left of Eduardo) as we prepared to make a video with several people who were impacted by a recent soccer tournament in Somoto, Nicaragua.

Justin Pedigo is setting up the camera to film a soccer testimony from our friend, Eyner Garcia, of Somoto, Nicaragua. In the background is the town’s sign and under it says “Capital of Friendship.”

The Soccer Harvest is truly Plentiful

We have been impressed by the receptivity of soccer enthusiasts and soccer players to the gospel. The next to last day in Nicaragua, we traveled to Matagalpa, Nicaragua, to get some video interviews with three professional soccer players who played with Eduardo when he was playing professionally. We planned to catch them after the evening practice, do the interviews and go. But when they got done and huddled up for their last word of the practice, one of Eduardo’s friends called over to us, “Come speak to the team!”

After the invitation to speak to the team, we all sat down as Eduardo shared his testimony. Because Eduardo knew several of them personally, they seemed very open to what he had to say. At the end, Eduardo invited them to pray a prayer of salvation if they would like. When he asked how many wanted to do that, about 10 of them raised their hands! We then used copies of my translated testimony that has a quick form to write down their response for a way Eduardo could get their info and stay in touch with them.

Here are several guys who played with Eduardo when he was playing professional soccer.

The team prayed together before leaving to go home.

Thanks for your continued Prayers and Support!

Talk to you soon!

Steve

PS…A couple weeks before Thanksgiving, on November 10, 2023, Connor Allen Reed, a new Reed grandson, arrived into this world! Congratulations to proud parents, Ryan and Bobbi Reed, and proud big sisters, Bridget and Addie!

Guatemala Soccer Project Part 3!!!

Good morning everyone!

I hope you had a wonderful Independence Day celebration. We sure did. Besides enjoying family time, Nola and I went to the movie, Sound of Freedom, on the 4th, and we highly recommend it.

In our last couple of updates we have focused on the soccer project and our continuing efforts to follow up on the incredible harvest we experienced in April as over 600 people came to Christ. You received part 2 on the same day that I was in route to Guatemala for a follow-up trip. So this update will focus on that trip. Cesar Gonzalez and I wanted to revisit all the places we went to in April and strengthen our efforts to get new believers into small groups—most notably Futbolistas para la Vida soccer groups.

As we began to make our rounds, two things caused us to change our itinerary. Number 1, we realized that because of the (then) upcoming elections on June 25th, all our friends working in city halls that plan big tournaments were busy in campaigns for re-election. But a second and more significant thing caused us to change our plans. It all started in Monjas when we introduced a simple drill we use as a way to help people initiate spiritual conversations. To share that story, it’s going to require a little more setup. So, as has become our pattern lately when we have lots of pictures to share, we have listed the prayer requests first and then followed that with the rest of the story and more pictures.

10:02 PRAYER

(Pray Luke 10:2 each day at 10:02 am or pm that the Lord of the harvest will send out laborers into His harvest fields.)

1. Continue to pray for us as we organize groups from the harvest in Monjas, Pueblo Nuevo Viñas, Amberes, and Santa Cruz Naranjo. Pray that leaders for the soccer groups will emerge to help assimilate and disciple new believers. Pray too that we are able to effectively use the technology available to us to stay connected with those starting new Futbolistas para la Vida soccer groups.

2. Continue to pray for our video team: Sam Swift, Selvinth Maldonado, myself, and others who are being recruited to join us in producing soccer-related discipleship videos. Before the end of the summer, we hope to launch the website with everything we have. And we hope to send two video teams to Guatemala and to Nicaragua this year for the purpose of shooting soccer video content.

3. Pray for Gloria Lopez and others who are using our connection drills in the schools in Monjas. (See story below!)

ENGAGE

If you know of any soccer enthusiasts or coaches who we might be able to interview for our videos, please let me know. And if you are interested in going on a mission trip this year, let’s talk! Even though we are putting a lot of effort into this soccer project, we still hope to have a couple of teams this year focused on cowboys and on our Kekchi friends starting churches in the jungle.

INVEST

Thank you so much for your generosity. You have kept us moving and responding to the open doors before us!

Please let us know of any of your prayer needs.

Love y’all!

Steve

And Now Some Stories and Pics!

On our first day after I landed, Cesar and I had the privilege of visiting Paola, the soccer player from Pueblo Nuevo Viñas, who broke her leg in the tournament in April. As you may remember, in treating the break, the doctors discovered a tumor that they were able to successfully remove. Both Paola and her mother expressed their gratitude to God that this accident just might have saved her life!

We had the opportunity to share an evening with the team from the Lions Club in Monjas. This group helped us with many of the logistics in putting on the tournament there in April. Here the first-comers to our meeting posed for a photo around the grill when we started prepping for a barbeque just outside the rodeo arena.

After the grilling, it didn’t take long for this group to enjoy a meal together.

After eating, we thanked everyone for their help and shared about our ongoing needs to help follow up with the children and adults who want to be a part of new Futbolistas para la Vida soccer groups. Cesar and I both wore our cowboy hats, because many from this community know us for our cowboy ministry too. In fact, this gathering took place in the meeting hall of the rodeo arena owned by the cattlemen’s association that we have worked with in the past.

To introduce one of the features of our soccer groups (or any Play. Story. Eat. group for that matter!), we did our wagon wheel drill that we use in our Be-the-Church training, where we give a pair of people two minutes to share what they are grateful for, what they are concerned about, and then pray for each other. With the clock ticking, in about 10 minutes it’s possible for each person to connect in a meaningful way with 5 other people.

On the right in this photo is Gloria Lopez, the president of the Lions Club. She is also an elementary school teacher and a dedicated follower of Jesus. When we did this drill, it so impacted Gloria that she mentioned it to her school principal the next day. And the following pictures are of her leading about 200 children in the same drill at school! We only found out about it after she did it!

Here Gloria is getting the kids organized into wagon wheels to do the activity.

Many of the children told Gloria that they really liked the prayer part, and Gloria told us it went so well that they plan to do this exercise every Friday morning for the rest of the school year!

Later on that same day, Gloria invited us to come to the school to meet some of her fellow teachers. Most are Catholics, and what amazed us was their unified opinion that this was one of the best things they had done all year! One teacher said that they thought that no matter what a person’s religious views might be, everyone was affirmed and listened to.

Cesar spoke to the teachers and thanked them for what they do every day. By the way, since then, the regional director of the elementary schools has invited Gloria to show other schools how to do what she did!

Because of Gloria’s contagious spirit, we changed our plans when she talked about her church and the fact that she believed her pastor would be supportive. In order to follow up on these contacts, I wound up spending a couple of days in the home of Gloria and her husband Rony while Cesar kept a family commitment back in Amberes. In this photo, Gloria led a Saturday night youth gathering in her church and had them do the drill as well! Once the pastor and I met, he invited me to speak the next day in their service.

This is Pastor Favio Ramirez, Gloria’s pastor. Not only is he an excellent communicator, he is a talented musician—playing multiple instruments and having an incredible voice. Here he is speaking at the youth event after playing drums for the band. When it comes to music for big events, Favio is willing and ready to help in our future soccer tournaments.

The following day, right before I spoke, Favio introduced a family from their church that was leaving to pastor a new church in another town. It just so happens that Cesar has contacts there who are believers but have no pastor. We believe that God may be up to something! Stay tuned!

One of the goals for this trip was to recruit pastors who have a heart for young people, and in particular soccer enthusiasts, to help us with the follow-up in Monjas. Here we are meeting with three pastoral leaders who have committed to helping with this project. The day after this meeting we had planned to do a training event, but a thunderstorm knocked out the electricity for 24 hours, and we had to postpone it!

The Soccer Harvest is truly Plentiful

While we continue to have people willing to help in this soccer project, we desperately need to have people trained to lead groups. And because of logistical issues in doing the training in person, we see that we absolutely must invest more time and energy in putting training online and using technology to call and walk potential leaders through the material when they are ready.

While most of the videos we have made have been done here in the U.S., we believe we need to send video crews to Guatemala and to Nicaragua to film our partners in action in order to make the website feel like all three countries are represented in what we hope will become a movement should the Lord continue to bless this endeavor.

Please pray for wisdom in all of this!

Congratulations on Reading the Whole Update!

Talk to you soon!

Steve

PS…Please pray for these two men speaking with Cesar. They are soccer coaches in Monjas and want to use their influence in getting new groups started.

Guatemala Soccer Project Part 2!!!

Selvinth Maldonado and I welcome our friends in Guatemala to our first soccer video designed to give soccer enthusiasts their first steps in following Jesus and becoming a part of new Futbolistas para la Vida soccer groups. Behind the camera and creator of the backdrop is Sam Swift, one of the tech guys at Lenexa Baptist who also went to Guatemala with us last month.

Good morning everyone!

In our last update we told you about the incredible harvest we experienced in April as over 600 people came to Christ through our Guatemala soccer project. Today I want to share a little bit of what happened the following week, after our teams went back home, and how we have been responding since we got home.

Like our last update, we have listed the prayer requests first and then added more of the stories through the pictures that follow.

As you are reading this, I am likely in route back to Guatemala to continue to follow up and make preparations with Cesar Gonzalez for grouping the new believers into Futbolistas para la Vida groups. We will also begin preparing for future tournaments in two new cities.

10:02 PRAYER

(Pray Luke 10:2 each day at 10:02 am or pm that the Lord of the harvest will send out laborers into His harvest fields.)

1. Pray for Cesar Gonzalez and me as we work this next week to organize groups from the harvest in Monjas, Pueblo Nuevo Viñas, Amberes, and Santa Cruz Naranjo. Pray that leaders for the soccer groups will emerge to help assimilate and disciple those who responded in April.

2. Pray for us as we prepare for the next tournaments in San Andrés Sajcabajá and Jalapa. Pray for Marcos, José, Mario, Caleb, Abner, Alejandro, Fabiola, and others (shown in the pictures below) who are partnering with us.

3. Continue to pray for our video team: Sam Swift, Selvinth Maldonado, myself, and others who we will have in our soccer-related discipleship videos. Pray too that we are able to effectively use the technology available to us to stay connected with those starting new Futbolistas para la Vida soccer groups.

ENGAGE

If you know of any soccer enthusiasts, or even tennis players (see pics below of the upcoming project in Jalapa!), who might want to go on a mission trip this next year, let me know!

INVEST

Thank you so much for your generosity. You have kept us moving and responding to the open doors before us.

Please let us know of any of your prayer needs.

Love y’all!

Steve

And Now More Stories and Pics!

Government Official Invites Us to Travel with Him

One of the stories we shared last time was of Marcos Ramirez, the national director of Conjuve, the Guatemala government’s youth issues department. Marcos, a Catholic by background, had prayed to receive Christ in our tournament in Pueblo Nuevo Viñas and had been so impacted by what we were doing, he invited Cesar and me to come with him to visit San Andrés Sajcabajá, a small town in the mountains. He was concerned, because the youth there have been succumbing to drugs and alcoholism.

Marcos Ramirez (on the right), the head of the youth issues department for the government of Guatemala, responded to the gospel message in Pueblo Nuevo Viñas.

Cesar and I met Marcos and his family outside of Guatemala City for breakfast and then followed them about 3 hours to San Andrés Sajcabajá. Marcos’ wife, Mariela (on the left) is an evangelical Christian and was very happy about Marcos’ decision. San Andrés is her hometown, and it’s where Marcos’ grandparents and other family members are from as well. Edwin, Marcos’ dad (on the right), joined us for the day trip.

There were several beautiful places to stop and take pictures on the drive.

San Andrés Sajcabajá is an indigenous name that is one of the most difficult towns to pronounce! (If you say it right, it sounds like San Andres Sash Ka Ba Há). Here you can see the spelling on the sign in front of their city hall.

Marcos took us to city hall and introduced us to José Gressi (blue shirt on the left), his cousin who is in charge of sports projects in the region, and the vice mayor (center) of San Andrés Sajcabajá. From this point on, José was our guide, because Marcos had to get back to Guatemala City.

After our meeting at city hall, José took us out the front door of the city hall and to the town square. Here, Cesar and José are seated in front of the Catholic Church building where José tells the story of how back in the 1980s and early 1990s, this whole region was in the middle of Guatemala’s civil war. For a time, the government had seized the church and used it as a base of operations. Just this past year, hundreds of skeletons were found buried under the church where, presumably during the war, government troops had killed communist sympathizers and buried them under the church. Today, few from the town have any memory of that time.

On our visit around town, we stopped at the Mayan community center where they house the statues of saints that they use in religious parades at various times of the year. Traditionally, many indigenous communities have syncretized Catholic beliefs with Mayan beliefs.

Another Divine Appointment

After the introductions at city hall, Marcos had to get back to Guatemala City and left us with his cousin, José Gressi, who is part of the city’s sports department. He began to tour us around town, and when we were driving to the soccer fields, he was talking about the problem of drugs and alcoholism among youth. On a street corner a young man was talking with another, and José pointed him out, “Right there is a good example of this. Mario is an excellent soccer player, but he has had difficulty staying sober.”

“So he is the type of person we want to reach?” Cesar asked. “Would he want to talk to us?”

“Probably,” answered José. Immediately, Cesar put on the brakes and shifted the Toyota pickup into reverse to back up to the corner where this young man was.

“I hear you are a really good soccer player,” Cesar said with the window rolled down. “Would you like to go with us to look at the soccer fields?” Recognizing José, who he had played soccer with before, he immediately agreed and jumped into the back seat with me.

This is Mario Mendez, who José had mentioned was a prime example of a young man who is an outstanding soccer player, but who has struggled with alcohol. Mario is in his early 20’s and was born in Honduras, but when his mom died he came to Guatemala to live with his father who was from San Andrés Sajcabajá. Mario plays on a semi-professional team in the region and is widely known for his soccer prowess. During our time with him, countless people waved at him, calling him by name as we drove around.

After we found out that it was his daughter’s birthday, we helped Mario pick up a piñata and a couple of gifts while we were driving around.

After we shared a little bit of what we were doing and how we had just come back from a week of soccer tournaments, we asked Mario about his religious background. His mother was from Honduras, and his dad was from San Andrés. For most of his adolescence he lived in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, with his mother. There, he was part of a dynamic youth group of a new church and he had committed his life to Christ. After his mother passed away, he moved to San Andrés with his father. Soon he realized that his soccer skills were better than most in his new home, and he quickly became a soccer sensation. With the notoriety came many invitations to celebrate with alcohol. Unfortunately, he didn’t have the same youth group to lean on here, and he succumbed to many of the temptations.

After seeing some of the fields, we stopped to get a bite to eat for lunch. Mario told us that he would gladly work with José and a team of people to bring the tournament to San Andrés. We agreed to meet again the following morning for breakfast and to talk more, since Mario needed to get back to help with his daughter’s birthday party. We also agreed to an invitation from José to join him at the hot springs later that evening for a boiled egg picnic!

San Andrés is known for it’s hot springs that flow into a nearby river. Here José wanted to meet with us to eat boiled eggs, beans, and tortillas.

At one of the sources of the hot springs, José drops the sack of eggs into the water to boil.

After fishing the sack of boiled eggs out with a stick, we ate together.

The next morning we continued our conversation when both José and Mario met us for breakfast at our hotel.

As I got up early to work out, the sun highlighted a cross on the mountain overlooking San Andrés. Many towns in Central America have crosses on mountains overlooking their towns. Most of these were placed there by dedicated Catholic priests and their parishioners.

While we ate, we talked about the project and about some of our methods for sharing the gospel. After learning about the message of the colored soccer ball, Mario repeated what he remembered of the meaning of each color. Incidentally, a little after I took this picture, Mario prayed a prayer of rededication to the Lord and wants to not only help in our soccer project but also to offer whatever gifts and abilities he has to serve God.

Mario shows some foot skills and passes the ball to José.

When we talked about needing to build some soccer goals for the project, Mario took us to a friend who has a welding shop and who is also a soccer enthusiast.

One of the places Mario wanted us to see was this ancient Mayan ruins just outside of town.

Part of the ruins is this pit where an ancient soccer type of game was played. While they used makeshift balls and rocks, in some cases heads of sacrificed individuals were purported to be used as well!

Retracing Cesar’s Past

After taking us to the Mayan ruins, we bid farewell to Mario. Instead of heading to the main road, Cesar wanted to go straight into the mountains on a dirt road and see if he could find some places that he had visited back in the 1970s. For almost 10 years, Cesar worked as a public health official, and for several months he had been assigned to walk through this mountain region to talk to individuals and leaders about common health problems and deliver medications to nip any communicable diseases in the bud before they spread. So we took part of a day to drive this mountain road.

If we didn’t have a four-wheel drive vehicle, we would have had to turn around multiple times. It took us 5 hours to go 43 Kilometers! That would probably average us at about 5 miles an hour!

When traveling through this part of the country, there are no restaurants or hotels, so we stopped at houses like Cesar did back in the day and asked this woman who was sowing if she would fix us a meal! And she did!

The dirt road snaked its way through the mountains. Eventually we made it to the other side.

About the only thing we accomplished in this excursion was realizing that Cesar was in great shape back in his day! But once we got through to the other side, we had to make a decision.

Visit Some Cowboys or an Old Friend?

There’s a country song that has a line in it about flipping a coin to figure out where to go next…“heads Carolina, tails California…” And that almost describes our dilemma.

When we got out of the mountains and hit the main road, Cesar pointed out that if we went left we could go and visit some of our cowboy friends. If we went right, we would be on the way to where some friends we hadn’t seen in a long time lived and where we had done ministry years ago.

“I feel like we need to check in on Gregorio in Guastatoya,” Cesar said. “What do you think?” Through the years, when Cesar has had a hunch like this, I have learned to go with it. I could probably write a book on some of the amazing things that happened when we went with his gut!

“We haven’t promised our cowboys that we were coming,” I said. “So let’s go see Gregorio.”

Cesar and I met up with Gregorio and his wife, Joanna, in front of their tire shop in Guastatoya, Guatemala. We picked right up where we left off many years ago!

Sure enough we caught up with them at their tire shop and quickly began laughing about all kinds of misadventures together. When I had stayed at their house 20 some years ago, their kids were little. Now of course the kids are grown, and Caleb, one of their sons, has been a youth leader of a group of about 130 youth. Without telling you the whole story, it became obvious why we needed to see them. Caleb has some kids in their group that could help us with drama and music in our next tournaments. Stay tuned for more of this story!

Next Big Soccer Tournament in Jalapa!

After we left Gregorio, we drove about an hour to Jalapa, where we were scheduled to meet with Abner, a sports leader with Conjuve who wanted us to come and evaluate whether we could do a soccer tournament there. As it turned out, we spent one evening and one morning evaluating the fields, and what we saw blew us away!

Cesar and I met with Abner (center left) and his boss Alejandro (left) in Jalapa to visit the city’s sports facilities. Abner was with us in Monjas doing the soccer tournament there and had insisted we needed to come to Jalapa. Abner is a dedicated follower of Jesus and has been doing soccer evangelism on the streets with some guys in his church in Jalapa. When I walked up to meet them, Alejandro smiled and noticed my bright orange shirt. I earned that shirt last year by surviving a men’s retreat in the jungle. “When did you become a Legendario?” he asked, knowing where my shirt came from. I told him, and Alejandro went on to tell me that he went to the same retreat the year before and that it had changed his life!

This is one of three large fields available to us.

They had large multi-use courts as well.

An olympic sized pool

They even have this nice baseball field.

The next day we met up with Fabiola (left), the tennis coordinator, and Cesar, being a huge tennis fanatic, set up a future tennis project!

With Cesar and I are the leaders of the sports facility in Jalapa. All are excited about us doing a tournament there!

To quickly sum up the two days in Jalapa, we have a huge door of opportunity open to us to use any of the facilities the city has. Also, Abner will help us connect with several churches doing soccer evangelism in Jalapa. We believe that we could train them and partner with them both in the execution of the tournament and in the follow-up of those who might respond to the gospel message at a tournament in Jalapa. In addition, because of the proximity of the tennis courts to the soccer fields, we plan to include tennis in this next project as well! This week, Cesar and I will be spending more time there to evaluate it all, and we believe we will schedule something there soon. Please pray for wisdom in all of this!

Congratulations on Reading the Whole Update!

Love y’all!

Steve

PS…Here’s our soccer video crew!

From left to right are me, Sam Swift, Selvinth Maldonado, and John Maldonado. After making a video together, we went out to an El Salvador restaurant here in the Kansas City area to celebrate!

Amazing Harvest in Guatemala Soccer Project!!!

Good morning everyone!

I just got back from a two-week trip to Guatemala, and wow! I have a lot to share with you about our soccer evangelism project.

Thankfully, God blessed us beyond expectation:

• 633 people prayed to receive Christ and filled out contact cards!

• 74 total volunteers: 52 Guatemalan friends, 13 from Project Hope of Nicaragua, 9 from Lenexa Baptist Church

• 6 soccer tournaments in 4 towns in 7 days touching more than 1,500 people!

• 2 public school assemblies - over 200 decisions for Christ

• 1 broken leg (see pictures)

  Check out the pictures with more exciting info below!

10:02 PRAYER

(Pray Luke 10:2 each day at 10:02 am or pm that the Lord of the harvest will send out laborers into his harvest fields.)

1. Ask God to send workers into the places that are ripe unto harvest.

2. Ask God to empower Cesar as he follows up with the event contacts to organize all these new believers into new discipleship groups.

3. Pray for Sam Swift, Selvinth Maldonado, and me as we produce soccer-related discipleship videos for these groups.

ENGAGE

If you know of a Christian soccer coach or player who might be a good interview for us in our videos, please let me know. We need help in filming soccer-related drills and getting testimonies.

INVEST

Thank you so much for your continued support. You have made a BIG difference this month in our ability to follow Jesus in this soccer project. Muchas gracias!

Please let us know of any of your prayer needs.

Love y’all!

Steve

And now….Here are some pictures and stories that highlight our experience and provide a glimpse of the overwhelming response to the gospel that we witnessed!

Meet Our LBC and Nicaraguan Team

We captured a shot of the Lenexa Baptist team in the airport in Miami during the first few minutes of a nine hour layover! From left to right are Tony Shay, Titus Shay, Claudi Duffy, Sam Swift, Nola Reed, Steve Reed, Selvinth Maldonado, Randy Schmidt, and John Maldonado.

The Nicaraguan team took a 16 hour bus ride of about 500 miles to get to Guatemala. In spite of the lack of sleep, the first morning the guys got up ready to go to work! From left to right are Genaro, Sam (of the Lenexa team), Nelson, Eyner, Noel, Eduardo, Manuel, Ramon, Eliezer, and (in front) Raciel.

Three of the four Nicaraguan women team members are pictured here on that first morning. From left to right are Scarlet, Aura, and Anna Maria. Not pictured yet is Mercedes.

Day 1 – Morning in Amberes 

The first morning we walked up the street from Cesar’s compound in Amberes to the soccer field where we met some of our friends that we have done soccer stuff with in the past year. We wanted to practice the basic elements of the gospel presentation we would do at each tournament and play a friendly game of soccer. To get us warmed up, Eduardo showed us some illusions, then we performed the drama, and after that a message by Eyner, one of the Nicaraguans. In this small gathering, 20 prayed to receive Christ!   

Eduardo does some amazing tricks that always grab people’s attention.

Eyner led the young men in a prayer of salvation.

Randy is writing down names of those who responded.

Afterwards a mix of our team and the Nicaraguan team played a soccer game against the Amberes team.    

This is a pic of all who played soccer together in a friendly competition in Amberes.

Before the game, everyone stretched together.

Along with the stretching, Genaro got everyone doing some crazy get-acquainted drills!

The Amberes team played against the Nicaraguan and Gringo team.

At the end of the game, the Amberes boys wanted a picture with “Haaland.” That’s what they called Titus. They thought he looked like Erling Haaland, a famous Norwegian soccer player!

Day 1 - Afternoon in Don Gregorio 

After taking a break for lunch, we traveled about 20 minutes to Don Gregorio, near the larger town of Santa Cruz Naranjo. Because the teams arrived at different times, those present first spent more time playing friendly games. Eventually we repeated all the elements we had done in the morning and got 23 cards from those who prayed to receive Christ!  

Nola, Aura, Mercedes, Claudi, and Scarlet put the sandwiches together in anticipation of the snack time for the players.

It was a beautiful place to play. Because of the smaller number of participants, our team got a chance to get acquainted with every player during the play time.

Here Sam makes a move on Raciel as Genaro, Tony, and Eduardo look on. Sam played some college soccer, and he showed his stuff! He is also on staff at Lenexa Baptist on the tech team. He will be working with me and several others to create videos to send to the soccer players who responded this week.

Children love playing soccer with Eduardo, a former professional soccer player in Nicaragua.

Eduardo holds his listeners spellbound as he prepares them for one of his illusions.

“Is this rope real?” Eduardo asks.

Eduardo has two volunteers tie him up for an escape trick.

In the drama, Mercedes is not escaping from evil forces who have chained her up.

As evil seems to be winning, Jesus (Noel) shows up.

There is a tug of war.

But Jesus gains the victory and sets Mercedes free.

Eduardo, Randy, and Sam share a moment after the last event finished that first day.

In addition to the players and adults who came to know Jesus at the event, Randy was instrumental in leading our two bus drivers to Christ during this first day!  

A few days later, Randy presented Bibles to those two bus drivers, Antonio and Luis. Randy is a retired missionary from Argentina, so he speaks Spanish fluently.

 Day 2 - Tournament in Pueblo Nuevo Viñas  

The team had to leave Cesar’s house at 5am to drive an hour and a half to Pueblo Nuevo Viñas. When we stopped to eat breakfast, we met Obdulio, a guy who works for Conjuve, a department of the government dedicated to youth issues and problems in the country. With him was Marcos, the national head of that department. During breakfast Marcos asked if we would come to a small town in the mountains to evaluate doing a tournament there. He was concerned because the youth were succumbing to drugs and alcoholism. Cesar and I agreed to meet him the week after our teams left for home. (Stay tuned next time for that!) 

Obdulio, on the left, is the one who had arranged for the tournament to be held in Pueblo Nuevo Viñas. His boss Marcos, on the right, came in from Guatemala City to see it first-hand.

The announcer is ready to start the program in a school auditorium in Pueblo Nuevo Viñas. Our whole team is sitting on the platform with other dignitaries.

Marcos was one of about a half dozen individuals who gave greetings.

Cesar gave a greeting on behalf of our team.

Once the music started for the drama, the whole mood shifted.

Eduardo followed the drama with a passionate call to come to Jesus.

The response was tremendous. We thought having 150 decision cards on hand would be plenty going into the morning. This was the day we realized we better have more cards! I was so proud of our team for their flexibility and can-do attitude.  By the end of the day, we had a hodgepodge of names on cards and scraps of paper indicating that 197 people had given us their contact info declaring that they had prayed to receive Christ. Among them was Marcos, the head of Conjuve, who you see here with his hand held up.

Nola and Claudi pray with a girl after the program ended.

It took us a while to finish talking with people after the program. Eventually we had to get to the soccer part, and this was a full-blown tournament with about 20 teams and upwards of 300 kids participating.

The games all went well, and our team continued to work the crowd, and there were several salvation decisions among the bystanders. John and Titus, our two 16-year-olds, were a hit. Many of the girls' teams wanted pictures with them!  

John (left) and Titus (right) were a big hit for pictures during the day!

The big field was subdivided into four smaller fields.

This girl’s team celebrates after winning their first game.

I roamed the sidelines taking pictures of the games and enjoyed getting a chance to meet players and coaches.

Several of the games came down to penalty kicks to decide the winners.

Dr. Noel Merlo, our team member from Nicaragua, is a medical doctor and is assisting a nurse as they attend to a girl who fainted during one of the games.

Before this picture was taken, a member of this girls team broke her leg in a really bad way. Anna Maria, a psychologist working with youth at risk in Nicaragua, takes a moment to pray for the girl who broke her leg and for her concerned teammates. Later we donated some money for medical expenses to the girl’s family. A week later, the mother sent a message to Cesar to thank us for our prayers and concern. In the surgery to place a rod in the leg, they found a tumor, and the surgeon was able to remove the tumor before fixing the leg. The mother was grateful to God that they had discovered this and said that, according to the doctors, the broken leg might have saved her daughter’s life!

The last game of the day came down to penalty kicks!

Even though the girls were still concerned about their teammate, they were proud that they had finished the game and won their division in the tournament.

 Day 3 - Country School outside of Monjas 

Unfortunately for our team, we had to leave again at 5am to drive the 3 hours to Monjas. This time we were doing an event in a small school outside of Monjas. One of the main teachers is the wife of one of our Christian Rancher group friends. No soccer was involved, but Eduardo did illusions and fun kid songs, the team performed the drama, and Ramon presented the gospel to the children. 62 responded, including a few teachers. The principal, a dedicated follower of Jesus, was ecstatic about the whole thing.  

When we got to the school, Marcia (right), a long-time friend and teacher in this school, introduced us to the principal.

Selvinth and Randy share a moment with the principal shortly before beginning the program.

Eduardo got all of us doing the most comical contortions imaginable!

Nola has been a children’s worker a little too long!

Eduardo performed an amazing assortment of illusions, including this one with a balloon.

Eduardo grabs some color off the hair of a volunteer to place in his book.

The drama made it’s impact yet again.

Ramon shared the gospel message.

And the children responded.

Eyner talks with a boy as he hands out a card to be filled out.

Day 4 - Tournament in Monjas day one 

The refs and setup team hit the fields at 5:30am to get all the striping done and set up the sound. The rest of us got there at 8am. By about 9am, the event officially started, and we did the whole tournament routine with welcomes and greetings from leaders.  There were about 25-30 teams present from the local school and included children ages 6-16. The response was tremendous. We collected 179 decision cards. The games went great. Our team did well working the stands and connecting with people.  

Setting up the sound tent

Sam, Raciel, and Genaro snap the roof in place.

Gloria, the president of the Lions Club, introduces those who were there to serve, including the fire department and Lions Club members.

Back home, Selvinth is the chaplain for the Spanish speaking players of the Kansas City Royals. Here, he is sharing a greeting before praying an invocation at the beginning of the event.

The drama set the tone again.

Eduardo gave another passionate call to Christ.

These kids prayed to receive Christ with such enthusiasm.

Aura and Mercedes organize and copy the names and contact info into a notebook. This proved to be a huge job for the entire week.

Once the message was over, it was time to play!

This eager team took to stretching with Eduardo.

Let the games begin!

This team of youngsters won their division, and Eduardo led them in a prayer of thanksgiving.

This little girl was voted the most valuable player for her age division, and Eduardo asked her, “How long have you been playing soccer?” “Since I was six,” she responded. “How old are you?” Eduardo asked. “Six,” she said!

Nola had the privilege of giving this girl her Most Valuable Player trophy, and they are holding the team trophy as well.

After the last games were played, Tony, Sam and John helped carry off the goals.

Ferdynand (a former professional soccer player and now one of the leading soccer coaches along with his father for the Academy of soccer in Monjas) is pleased with the first day of the tournament and shares with Selvinth how grateful he was for our team being there.

Day 5 - Tournament in Monjas Day Two 

We did the same drill as Friday (day 4), only with upper aged youth and adults. We expected more teams than Friday, but we actually had less - maybe 15-20. But we didn’t complain, because it meant we would get done faster! Even so, we had 150 decisions for Christ!

In front of the Monjas city sign just outside the soccer fields, we stopped to take this picture on the last day.

On day 2 of our Monjas tournament, Gloria introduced the entire team and the Lions Club team members.

After the drama and message, the response was amazing again. 150 people gave us their decision cards.

Our friends from the Lions Club were great! On the far left is Marcia, our long-time friend who has been a part of a Christian Rancher group for many years, and the teacher from the school that we went to the first day in Monjas.

The Lions Club had their National Queen present, who is from nearby Jalapa.

The drama crew was ready to scare anyone they came in contact with!

John got a yellow card from Genaro before the games even got started!

Since there were a smaller number of men’s teams, our guys got to field a team. Here John saves a goal and then flips the ball out for a fast break.

Titus shows some creativity as he steps over the ball to pass it behind him to one of his teammates.

Before the final game, Manuel shares with the boys a few of the rule differences for the 5 on 5 format.

Our Nicaraguan team of officials did a great job all week with keeping the games fair and fun. But they did give me a red card for taking their picture! From left to right are Manuel, Genaro, Eliezer, and Raciel.

These Lions Club members prepare for the trophy presentations.

Ferdynand Sr. announces the winners of the last day’s games.

Randy and Cesar share in the trophy presentation to this team.

At the end of the last day, the Lions Club gave all our lady team members a sunflower in recognition for working alongside them. Mario, one of our Christian Rancher group friends, didn’t get the memo and photo bombed the ladies!

 Day 6 - Day of Worship and Evaluations 

The last full day of the trip, we did a group worship service at Cesar’s. What a time it was. We first traded singing songs in Spanish and in English. Eyner led in a message about going back to our first love. Then we personalized our commitment by saying what our individual “goal” might be to be obedient to God’s word. To culminate everything, our North American team led in a foot washing of the feet of the Guatemalans and Nicaraguans.   

Here, Selvinth washes Eyner’s feet as Eyner holds back tears.

Sam washes Raciel’s feet.

Nola and Claudi washed Elba’s feet.

congratulations! You made it to the End of the Pictures!

Now I’ll really sign off! Thanks again for your prayers!

Love y’all!

Steve

PS…Next time we’ll share how God kept opening doors and giving us favor in high places—even after the teams left!

“Be the Church” Training With Both Baptists and Cowboys

Good morning everyone!

Bill Burrows and I have enjoyed conducting a couple of “Be the Church” events this past month. The first week of March, my wife Nola, Bill, and I were at First Baptist Church of Mountain Home, Arkansas, to lead a 4-day “Be the Church” Conference. And then just this past weekend, Bill and I went to Western Way Cowboy Church in Altamont, Kansas, for a “Be the Church” Men’s Retreat. To those of you from Western Way who are joining us for the first time on our updates, “Welcome!”

I imagine that some of you who have never been to one of our “Be the Church” events might be curious as to what we do. So before I share about our trips to Arkansas and Kansas, I’d like to summarize what we do when we train. In these events we attempt to answer these questions:

• What activity gives us the most leverage to grow our love for God?

• What habits will empower us to expand our love for all people?

• What simple activity would make our mission to make disciples doable for every believer?

In a “Be the Church” event, we focus on relational connections. We train and equip followers to engage in:

1. Daily life-giving conversations with Jesus

2. Weekly soul-connecting conversations with other disciples

3. Weekly soul-connecting conversations with non-disciples

If you boil it all down, we want to help people have these three spiritual conversations, and by doing so consistently, we fulfill the essence of what we are to be as the church.

“We believe that there are way too many people just going to church and a shortage of men and women BEING the church.” (Bill Burrows quote at a “Be the Church” training).

“Be the Church” Conference in Mountain Home

To talk about our time in Arkansas, let me start by telling you how we connected with Tad Rogers and First Baptist Church of Mountain Home. It was a little over one year ago, on March 12, 2022, when Pastor Tad and I stood together on a frigid snowy morning to officiate at the graveside service of my Aunt Willie Duprima, who was a member at First Baptist for many years. Tad and I hit it off and wondered aloud if maybe we could do something together. Once I introduced him to Bill, everything just clicked for us to do a “Be the Church” conference. Now that it’s done, I can’t tell you how wonderful it was for me. My only regret was that I wish Aunt Willie could have experienced the fun we had with the folks from her home church!

Tad Rogers, pastor of First Baptist Church of Mountain Home, Arkansas, introduced us at the Sunday morning service by sharing how we met and how Ms. Edith Mitchel, one of their long-time members, had been praying for our family since Mom and Dad went to be missionaries many years ago.

This is Ms. Edith Mitchel. She is 101 years old and one of the most vibrant prayer warriors I have ever met. Besides praying for my parents for many years, she was a great friend to my Aunt Willie. Ms. Edith is such an encouragement to all and is still going strong! She attended every one of our training sessions and delighted us all with her comments.

For the Sunday morning service, Bill and I did a tag team approach to the message and prepped folks for what we planned to do in the coming week.

The first night of the training, people were a little unsure of the seemingly chaotic placement of the chairs in the gym. We call it the “wagon wheel” process, and participants sit in a cluster of chairs that face each other. They practice short, minute drills of having conversations with a partner before rotating to get a new partner.

Inevitably, once people get started talking with one another, many begin to enjoy the interactions.

Between drills, we teach different concepts before we practice again. Here I’m talking about how we can treat people as objects and not as people. Bill thought I was taking a little too long to make my point!

After getting up from the floor, Bill seemed to take his abuse fairly well! He talked more on how we can see the value of all persons and avoid being at war in our hearts—even when we have different interests, opinions, concerns, and expectations.

Besides making some great friends in Mountain Home, since being down there, we have been thrilled to hear reports that many who went through the training are using several of our conversation starters on Facebook and with their small groups. I must admit that the week together was very meaningful to us as well, and we look forward to going back to have some fun and maybe even hit the White River for some world class fishing!

Western Way Cowboy Church Men’s Retreat

Western Way has been a generous partner through the years for our ministry outreach to cowboys in Guatemala. So it was good for us to have a chance to return the favor and serve them a bit this weekend. Again, we made some great friends and had a fantastic time. Bill and I also spoke to the church on Sunday and were impressed by their winsome witness in that region of Southeast Kansas.

As you can see, we got the guys doing the conversation drills.

Even some of the jokes they had to tell one another got a few laughs!

On Saturday, for a fun break from the action, Bob Courtney (far right) got the guys doing a golf cart race through an obstacle course. The driver was blindfolded, and the partner had to call out directions from the microphone. There were some near disasters in the process, but thankfully no insurance claims had to be filed!

Folks gathered for the Sunday morning service.

Pastor Les Green (center) leads the congregation in a few songs.

During the weekend, we teamed up with Bob and Alta Courtney. Here they are singing a special song for the Sunday service that they plan to record on their next album. During the retreat they also gave us lots of laughs from their music and comedy routine.

To commemorate our time with Western Way, we gave this plaque to the church to thank them for inviting us and to serve as a reminder to pray for us and our other friends in ministry all over the world.

Thanks so much to all of you at both Western Way and Mountain Home. What a joy it is to partner with you!

Coming up, I’m preparing to head out to Norfolk, Nebraska, and then to Guatemala with a team from Lenexa Baptist for the soccer tournament that I described in the last update. Stay tuned!

10:02 PRAYER

(Pray Luke 10:2 each day at 10:02 am or pm that the Lord of the harvest will send out laborers into his harvest fields.)

Please pray for our friends in both Mountain Home, Arkansas, and Altamont, Kansas. Pray that God will continue to use them in great ways to “Be the Church” in their necks of the woods.

Continue to pray for the upcoming soccer trip April 10-17 with our Lenexa Baptist team. Currently, we plan to be in three towns, and as of today, they say that there are 90 teams scheduled to play! Pray that the logistics of our travel and ministry will go smoothly and that many will come to know Jesus as their personal savior during this time.

ENGAGE

This Friday, March 30th, I will be speaking at the Spanish Bible Institute at Northern Heights Baptist in Norfolk, Nebraska. Then Sunday, April 2nd, I’ll be speaking to the whole church. If you are nearby, I’d love to see you!

INVEST

We continue to be blessed by your partnership with us. Thanks to you, we have been able to do more than we could have imagined even a few months ago. From the bottom of our hearts we want to say, “Thank You!”

Please keep us informed of your prayer needs.

Love y’all!

Steve

PS…If you like hiking in beautiful places and having great conversations, you would love the Ozark Mountains, a short driving distance from Mountain Home, Arkansas. Here are a couple of pics from a day we got to hike near there.

One day our friend Kevin Adkins took us hiking to a beautiful waterfall near Jasper, Arkansas, and the Buffalo River.

According to some archaeologists, this big cavern near the river was once the home of some indigenous Indians about 2000 years ago!

update on Guatemala Part 2—The Soccer Project

Good morning everyone!

So much has been happening since I last wrote to you. This update will focus on the second part of my trip to Guatemala several weeks ago. In the meantime, more great things have been happening! Just this past week, my wife Nola, Bill Burrows, and I were at First Baptist Church of Mountain Home, Arkansas, to lead a 4-day “Be the Church” Conference. We had an amazing time with them and hope to share more about that in our next update. To those of you from Mountain Home joining us for the first time, welcome!

Also, more has been going on in preparations for our upcoming mission trip and soccer tournament in April. So without further ado, I want to highlight the week I spent in Guatemala with a team of five people from Nicaragua who had come to help us get the ball rolling! (Bad pun intended!)

Here is our group with some leaders at the mayor’s office on our first day together in Santa Cruz Naranjo. I’m kneeling with the mayor, Carlos Salvador Rodriguez. From left to right are the soccer director for the region and Cesar Gonzalez, then the next five are a team from Nicaragua that came to help us organize: Mercedes Guerrero, Eduardo Mejia, Arnulfo Bonilla, Ramon Mondragon, and Eyner Garcia. On the right are Josue Gonzalez (Cesar’s grandson) and Maria Pineda, a teacher and soccer coach who did much of the legwork in recruiting several teams for our games in Santa Cruz Naranjo.

Preparations in Santa Cruz Naranjo

The first day after our Nicaraguan team arrived, we began a series of meetings with leaders in the mayor’s office of Santa Cruz Naranjo and with soccer coaches in the Department of Santa Rosa. We also did a couple of warm-up soccer events in Santa Cruz, and the Nicaraguan team modeled for everyone how we wanted to do the big tournament in April—especially how to integrate the message of salvation in the process. Everywhere we went, folks were very receptive. During the days together, we saw 35 people pray to receive Christ! Several of those are leaders who are helping us with the tournament in April. Here are a few pictures that tell a bit of the story of our time in Santa Cruz.

Eduardo Mejia, a former professional soccer player in Nicaragua and the primary leader of Furia Santa soccer tournaments in Nicaragua, presents the soccer project to the leadership of the Santa Cruz Naranjo City Hall.

Eduardo can captivate an audience quickly with some of his ball handling tricks.

Mercedes struggles against evil forces in a drama the team performed before starting the soccer event in Santa Cruz Naranjo.

Jesus comes to rescue Mercedes.

Eduardo takes off his mask and speaks about the spiritual realities of dark forces wanting to take us out.

Through the colored soccer ball that Cesar is holding, Ramon shared how Jesus paid the price for all of us to have salvation. At this particular event, many made decisions for Christ.

Before starting one of the games, Eduardo leads them in a prayer. Several of these players had already prayed to receive Christ before the game.

Before each game, Arnulfo spoke to the teams about good sportsmanship and how he wanted everyone to enjoy playing the game. In these tournaments, Arnulfo helps train referees to remember that they can set the tone to make fair play and fun a priority.

It was a beautiful day in January for a soccer game. I was particularly grateful this day that I was avoiding the cold weather back home!

Before the game, the teams lined up for photos.

Maria Pineda preps her team from Amberes. Earlier in the day, she prayed to receive Christ.

On the sidelines during one of the games, Eduardo speaks with several girls from a team in Santa Cruz who also prayed to receive Christ.

At every soccer event, we provided sandwiches to the players. Here Mercedes serves with Maria (center), one of our helpers. The day before, she had prayed to receive Christ and was excited to be with us each day in Santa Cruz.

The trophy was presented to the girls team that won in Santa Cruz.

The winning boys team excitedly received their trophy.

Preparations in Monjas

Back in November, Cesar met Ferdynand Morales Senior and Junior, a father and son duo from Monjas, a town where we have done cowboy stuff through the years. Both of these men were professional soccer players in Guatemala, and together they have been running a soccer academy for children and youth in Monjas. When they met Cesar, they begged him to come with our team to Monjas. So on Saturday, January 28th, we spent a day with their teams and their academy. As a result, we had an amazing response from the city, the players and their parents, and long time friends we have worked with in the past.

Ferdynand Senior and Junior listen to Cesar as we meet up for a day of soccer with their academy. Looking on is Eduardo.

The last time I had been in Monjas was before the pandemic. So it was great reconnecting with Manfredo, a friend who is an associate pastor and counselor for a Christian children’s home located in Monjas. His father is a dairy farmer in the area, and we have partnered in starting a Christian Rancher group. The shirt he is wearing is of Oklahoma State University, my alma mater! When I asked him where he got it, he said it came from a store that sells secondhand American clothes!

Ferdynand Senior preps the teams before playing their games.

Eduardo shares his testimony to the children in Monjas before the games begin.

The last game of the morning required penalty shots to determine the winner.

After the games, Ferdynand Senior, a former disc jockey for a national radio program, announces the winners for one of the team divisions.

The drama was a hit in Monjas as well.

As the children listen to the message of the colored soccer ball, Cesar talks about the message with the president of the local Lions club who was there with a team of people to help run the refreshment and snack table for the event.

10:02 PRAYER

(Pray Luke 10:2 each day at 10:02 am or pm that the Lord of the harvest will send out laborers into his harvest fields.)

Please pray for us as we prepare the missionary teams for our soccer trip April 10-17. We have 9 people from Lenexa Baptist Church slated to go. We also have 13 Nicaraguans meeting us in Guatemala for that week. Pray that the logistics of our travel will go smoothly and that many will come to know Jesus as their personal savior during this time. Pray too for me as I am writing up some new discipleship material for soccer enthusiasts that we will use to make videos for follow-up with those who come to Christ.

ENGAGE

Bill and I will be leading a men’s retreat March 24-26 for the Western Way Cowboy Church in Altamont, Kansas. Then March 30th I will be in Norfolk, Nebraska, to teach at the Spanish Bible Institute at Northern Heights Baptist. If you are near those places, we’d love to see you! Let us know if you need more specifics.

INVEST

We are so grateful for your continued partnership with us. Thanks to you, we have been able to move freely between our “Be the Church” events and our ongoing mission projects in Central America. As we prepare for our first soccer tournaments, you have been strategic in making that possible. We will keep you posted as we go along.

Please keep us informed of your prayer needs.

CLICK HERE FOR THE EASY WAY TO INVEST.

Love y’all!

Steve

PS…I have recruited some new fans of the Kansas City Chiefs! I think their loyalty will last for as long as I buy the hamburgers!

A couple days before I came home, the Chiefs were playing in the AFC Championship game against the Bengals. The three young men who went to the jungle with us (that you met in the last update) said that they would pray that the Chiefs would win, and if they won, I’d owe each of them a hamburger! So the last night I was in Guatemala, I paid up at this restaurant in Amberes that is called “El Jefe,” which means “the Chief!” And yes, now that the Chiefs have won the Super Bowl, they expect more hamburgers when I go back!

update on Guatemala Part 1—The Jungle

Good morning everyone!

I just got back from Guatemala, and I have a lot to share with you. My time there was split between the jungle and Amberes, where Cesar Gonzales lives. The first week we made the rounds in the jungle with Cesar and four young men. The second week we went back to Cesar’s home, where, along with Eduardo Mejia and a team of four other people from Nicaragua, we began laying down preparations for a big soccer tournament in April.

While I was in Guatemala, Bill Burrows spent a few days in Burwell, Nebraska, challenging and encouraging several groups of pastors and church leaders. So we have been busy travelers in the last few weeks!

Though I am tempted to try and tell you about everything now, I think it would be less overwhelming if I share this in at least two parts. So this update will focus on the jungle portion of my trip. Then next week we will go more in depth about the incredible response we got working with the Nicaragua soccer team.

Our Jungle Team

After about 10 hours of driving, we arrived at our base camp in Por Venir, Guatemala. From left to right are Stiven (a 17 year old soccer player from Amberes), Cesar, Anibal (a pastor from a nearby village), Brandon (a 15 year old soccer player also from Amberes), Pablo (a 16 year old soccer player also from Amberes), and Josue (a 20 year old grandson of Cesar). Our team’s goal for the week was to fix a water system in Sepoc and play soccer in a couple of villages with the men and boys from the region.

Also welcoming us to our base camp was this lizard. He kept me company every night the entire week!

The first night in the jungle, we spoke at the Embajadores de Cristo Church (Ambassadors of Christ) in Setal, Guatemala. Here, Cesar greets everyone. Looking on in the background is the church’s pastor. This church is located on a main road that has the availability of electricity.

Most of the Kekchi-language churches love to praise the Lord with heartfelt songs in their own language.

Water-borne Diseases Plague Our Friends

Throughout the years in our church planting partnership with our Kekchi friends, we have had an ongoing battle to help villages access clean drinking water. Five or six years ago, some compassionate individuals gave us money to deworm the village of Sepoc, where most were infected by parasites. But before buying the medicine, Cesar stopped us to consider that, although the medicine would get rid of the parasites and give about six months of relief, the parasites would soon plague them again. That is because the root problem was in their drinking water, which came from a polluted well. During the rainy season, waste from both pigs and people would wash into the well.

Cesar and our team inspected the water well in the village of Sepoc along with Jose, pastor of the church there. Several years ago, we helped them obtain a pump and tubes to bring water from a nearby spring down into the village for clean water. But during the pandemic, the pump broke and they had gone back to using the water from this well—water that is undoubtedly causing more stomach problems again.

So, we worked with a local mayor and the church in Sepoc to provide a water system that pumped water from a spring up to a couple of containers on a hill. Then that clean water could drop by gravity straight down into the village. It worked great, and the people got healthier drinking clean water.

Spring Up Oh Well…

However, about a year and a half ago, the pump quit working, and many in the village went back to drinking unclean water from the polluted well. Naturally, the village has suffered again from parasites. So on this trip, Cesar was bound and determined to get the pump working again.

Clean water is an issue all over the region. These women are from a village near San Manzanila and hike about a mile back to their huts after fetching water from a spring. They had a good water system a few years ago, but recently their system broke down, and leaders from the community are in the process of making repairs.

Here we evaluated the condition of the tubes that come from the spring, which is a more reliable and clean source of water for the village of Sepoc.

In November, Cesar had taken the old pump to his shop in Amberes to repair. Now it was time to re-install it and see if it would work. Here, Pablo and Stiven are doing the heavy lifting.

Before hooking up the pipes, Pablo and Cesar performed a test, and it worked!

The pump takes water that is down in the spring and pumps it up to large plastic containers on a hill. Then the water can drop down from there by gravity into the village. Here we tested the power of the pump, and it was getting the water up to where it needed to go.

Pablo smiled after seeing that the tanks were ready to receive water again.

After a job well done, our boys from Amberes got their first taste of Kakik, a spicy soup that is made by the Kekchi women for special occasions. As Brandon takes his first spoonful, Pastor Jose enjoys watching the reactions of the others. Fortunately for them, it was milder than usual!

The Soccer Connection in the Jungle

Besides working on the Sepoc water system, we went to a couple of villages to play soccer. For the past several years, our friends have played soccer in villages where new churches need to be established. On this trip, we were just playing friendly games. Later they would do a four village tournament and share the gospel between games.

At the end of our second day in the jungle, players from San Manzanila played a game with a mix of players from their village. Originally, another village was supposed to show up with a team, but they weren’t able to come because of the harvest of cardomum (a plant that produces a fruit that is used primarily for perfumes).

Cesar talked to this group of children about the gospel using the colors of the soccer ball. The children didn’t speak very much Spanish, so it was a little challenging for Cesar to convey the message. Later one of our Kekchi friends helped translate.

The two San Manzanilan teams ended up tied and used penalty shots to determine the winner. Here, Pablo is taking his turn. While this was not a big event, it allowed us to continue to have positive interactions with many in the village. And these good relations have made it easier for our friends there to openly share their faith about Jesus.

New Church Start in Chaky Gracia

The last day in the jungle we made a day trip to a village on the other side of a palm plantation. With the help of a guide, we were able to drive through the maze of palm trees to within a short walking distance of the home where the church is getting started.

Every Thursday, vendors set up a makeshift market in designated locations in the palm oil plantation.

Once we drove to the other side of the plantation, we were able to walk to the hut of a layman who wants to start a new church. Note that tree bridges are very prevalent in this region of the jungle.

Also prevalent along the pathway is cacao. This is the plant and fruit that chocolate comes from. Here, Josue is showing off what he just picked.

Fortunately, this bridge made access to Chaky Gracia much easier. Several from the church at Ochul Choch accompanied us to the home of one of their members.

A family that is a member of the Ochul Choch church has been hiking an hour and a half one way for church services. Now they are wondering if they can start a church in their home.

Here is the home in Chaky Gracia where the Ochul Choch church wants to help start a new church.

The owner of the home (in the background with the blue shirt) constructs these kinds of homes for his livelihood. He recently built his home to be spacious enough for a group to meet.

Lorenzo (standing) is the pastor of the Ochul Choch church and joined us that day as we prayed and encouraged the nucleus in Chaky Gracia to start meeting together.

As we met that day, I flashed back to the first time I met with Lorenzo at his hut nearly 20 years ago. Back then he was saying the same thing about hiking an hour and a half to Sepoc with his family to attend church and wondering if it was okay to start a new church in their village. Now here he is, the veteran pastor who has helped several churches get started by those who are like he was. I couldn’t help but have moist eyes while I observed what was happening. Please pray for their continued establishment of a new church in Chaky Gracia and that these churches would continue to multiply.

10:02 PRAYER

(Pray Luke 10:2 each day at 10:02 am or pm that the Lord of the harvest will send out laborers into his harvest fields.)

Please pray for this new church start in Chaky Gracia. Pray that the pastors of the existing churches, like Lorenzo, will keep their focus on multiplying disciples and new groups throughout their region in the jungle. Pray that the churches will continue to be generous in helping their villages have clean drinking water for all and that this testimony would lead many to drink of the living water that Jesus provides to all.

ENGAGE

Bill and I will be at the First Baptist Church of Mountain Home, Arkansas, for a “Be the Church” Conference March 4-8. Then March 24-26 we will be doing a men’s retreat for the Western Way Cowboy Church in Altamont, Kansas. If you are near those places, we’d love to see you! Let us know if you need more specifics.

A couple of weeks ago in Burwell, Nebraska, Bill facilitated a group of pastors and their wives in a discussion about their prayer lives that led to renewed commitment to pray.

INVEST

Thanks to you, we were able to accomplish so much this past month—training churches and helping our friends plant churches in Guatemala. Thanks, too, for your help with our soccer project. I will talk more about that in the next update.

Please keep us informed of your prayer needs.

CLICK HERE FOR THE EASY WAY TO INVEST.

Love y’all!

Steve

On our last day in the jungle we stopped by Las Conchas, one of the most spectacular series of waterfalls in the region. These young men had never been to this part of their country and were blown away by the experience. Note that in the next update you will see them again. Cesar has been preparing them to be leaders to invite youth near their homes to come to our upcoming soccer events in Santa Cruz Narranjo. Stay tuned for that report next time!

End of Year Wrap-up and a Sneak Peak Into 2023

In November, Luis Carlos, in the white shirt, shared a message using the colored soccer ball at a gathering of several boys and girls soccer teams in Santa Cruz Narranjo, Guatemala. About 50 prayed to receive Christ as a result!

Good morning everyone!  

I hope you had a Merry Christmas and that you were not chattering your teeth too much in the deep freeze that hit us here in the Midwest!

I am enjoying a slower pace this week and warmer weather as Nola is off work and we are home this year for the holidays.

Before I brief you on what is coming up, let me say thank you for your prayers and your generosity in 2022. Please note that if you are mailing a check, anything postmarked by December 31st will count for your giving record in 2022.

Project Hope team of Nicaragua prepares the props to take a picture of the winning team in San Ramon, Nicaragua. Eduardo Mejia (black shirt holding a microphone) will be bringing 4 of his leaders to Guatemala January 23-29 to help train a Guatemalan team in soccer evangelism.

Primary Projects in the First Months of 2023

• Jungle trip January 17-22: Steve will fly down January 16th and then team up with Cesar Gonzalez and several other Guatemalan friends to go play soccer in several villages and hike to two remote villages that do not have a church yet.

• Soccer Evangelism Training in Santa Cruz Narranjo, January 23-30: Eduardo Mejia and his team from Project Hope of Nicaragua will meet Steve and other Guatemalans for a few days of training for the big event in April.

• Be the Church Conference at First Baptist Mountain Home, Arkansas, March 4-8: Steve and Bill will be working with Pastor Tad Rogers to offer four days of Be-the-Church training.

• Spring Roundup at Bar None Cowboy Church of Midway, Arkansas, March 9-12: Steve and Bill will be working with Pastor Dusty Stanford to offer training in having spiritual conversations with both believers and non-believers.

• Men’s Fellowship for Western Way Cowboy Church of Altamont, Kansas, March 25: We will equip and encourage men to “Be the Church.”

• Soccer Tournament in Guatemala April 10-17: Preparations are being made with Lenexa Baptist Church and with Project Hope of Nicaragua to send missionaries to help.

Dusty Stanford, pastor of Bar None Cowboy Church of Midway, Arkansas, speaks at a Tuesday night “Church in the Dirt” gathering. In March we will be partnering with them in a “Spring Roundup” to help prepare the church to have soul-connecting spiritual conversations with both believers and non-believers.

Joyce Burrows Steps Into a New Role

As we enter into 2023, Joyce Burrows, wife of Bill Burrows, will be stepping into an even greater role in helping us administratively in our ministry. For years she has kept our books and helped out on many behind the scenes projects and events. Because of the anticipated increase in activity in 2023, Joyce has agreed to let us increase her hours and take on other administrative duties. Thanks Joyce for all your help!

Here, Bill and Joyce Burrows are standing in front of Lake Calymus near Burwell, Nebraska, during our October trip.

As we anticipate and prepare for 2023, we pray that God will use us in any way He wants for His Kingdom to come and His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Thanks again for your prayers and your partnership with us. Keep us posted on what is happening in your world. God is using so many of you in amazing ways.

Happy New Year!  

Steve

PS…Thanks for your well wishes for Nola and me as we enjoyed a trip to Hawaii last month! Nola’s work took her there for a week of unveiling a new software product for Hawaii’s insurance commissioners. I tagged along, and we added a week of vacation to take advantage of the opportunity.

Nola and I enjoyed seeing the sights on the big island. Here we are near the southernmost point of the United States.

Soccer Evangelism Opportunity

Ray Gurney, pastor of Cross Creek Baptist Mission, gives thanks last year in a jungle village in Guatemala.

Good morning everyone!  

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Nola and I sure did.

I have been reminded that today is what many non-profits have dubbed “Giving Tuesday.” This year, God has graciously brought all of us together to give our time, energy, and resources to His mission of making disciples and building up His church. 

We are truly grateful for:

• Friends like you who are partners in this ministry through prayer, service, and financial investments in the Kingdom of God.

• Opportunities to encourage rural pastors and churches all over the Midwest.

• An upcoming collaborative Guatemalan & Nicaraguan Evangelistic Soccer Tournament in Santa Cruz Naranjo, Guatemala, in April of 2023. 

A soccer team in San Ramon, Nicaragua, spontaneously drop to their knees to give thanks after playing in a tournament last September. Looking on in the distance is Eduardo Mejia, the leader of the project in Nicaragua.

For a quick back story, in September, because of your faithfulness to this ministry, I was able to connect a small Guatemalan delegation with a large team from Project Hope, a ministry in Nicaragua, to serve in a regional soccer tournament in San Ramon, Nicaragua. There were over 700 players and more than 150 people prayed to receive Christ. A local follow-up team is working to connect these new believers with churches in their area.

We are now committed to doing the same thing in Guatemala, and the team from Nicaragua, whose help we really need, feels called by God to help. Of course in order to accomplish this goal, it will require money.

I promised that I would ask my friends to help meet these needs:   

• Fund the leadership team from Project Hope to train the Guatemalan team in January. Travel, food, and lodging are $1600.

• Fund 20 Nicaraguans to serve at the tournament in Santa Cruz Naranjo, Guatemala, in April. Travel, food, and lodging are $6000. 

Getting the Nicaraguans there will fast track the Guatemalans’ ability to have a large-scale tournament in April and give us the know-how to do it again with Guatemalans in the future. These Nicaraguan disciples would gladly pay for their own expenses, but their resources are limited by the economic realities in their country.  

A Vision Worth Supporting

We believe that our friends all over Central America will catch a vision for this kind of soccer evangelism and need training and coaching to replicate it in other places. So, would you help us fund this project? When you give, indicate in the memo of your check or in the description online that it is for the Soccer Project.

Thank you for your partnership. Keep us posted on what is happening in your world. We love hearing from you. 

Gratefully,

Steve & Bill

The Play. Story. Eat. Good Life Tour

Good morning everyone!

If you’ve never experienced “The Good Life” in Nebraska, you’ve missed out! During our 9 days in the Sandhills, we spoke several times on the topic “What is the Good Life?”

Joining us for this update are many new friends in the Sandhills of Nebraska and Western Way Cowboy Church in Altamont, Kansas. Welcome everybody! Today I want to highlight the ministries and churches of some of our friends in both Nebraska and Kansas.

The Good Life Tour

For this trip, I joined Bill and Joyce Burrows, and good friends John and Suzy Gragg for a week of Be-the-Church training and activities in the Sandhills of Nebraska. Bill, Joyce, and I enjoyed having the Graggs along with us as they and Joyce Burrows served behind the scenes at each of our events.

Here I am with Bill, Joyce, John, and Suzy as the sun was setting at the end of our first day in Nebraska. With good friends, life is good!

To kick off the week, we went to Burwell Baptist Church on Sunday morning, October 2nd, to update the church on our recent Guatemala/Nicaragua mission projects, and for Bill and I to do a tag team message in their service on “The Good Life!”

Joel Wentworth, pastor of Burwell Baptist Church and also the coordinator for the Sandhills Church Network, invited us to come be a part of their annual Rural Christian Workers Conference.

That Sunday evening we were in Loup City for the annual Sandhills Church Network meeting. Then during the week we met with pastors and leaders to talk mission projects, speak at a youth event in Burwell with the combined youth groups of four churches, and see how we could help pastors and leaders in their churches. At the end of the week we were a part of the Rural Christian Workers Conference hosted by Joel Wentworth, the Sandhills Network, and Burwell Baptist Church.

Mike Johnson, pastor of Ridgeview Bible Church in Chadron, Nebraska, presents his first of three sessions for the Rural Christian Workers Conference.

After introducing Bill, Joel walks offstage with his shepherd’s staff, a tool that he is known to use if anyone gets too long winded in their presentation!

Joel’s wife, Linda(left), and Dana Plugge, the administrative assistant for Burwell Baptist, are ready to serve at one of the break times.

There were several groups that had tables for more information at the Rural Christian Workers Conference.

In our breakout session, I shared about how our ministry began and introduced Bill.

Here’s Bill teaching in our breakout session of the Rural Christian Workers Conference.

Bill taught at the Sandhills Church Network meeting at Grace Bible Church in Loup City, Nebraska.

One of the things that impresses us about Joel Wentworth and his ministry is the way God is using him to bring together leaders and pastors of other churches in Burwell and in the Sandhills region.

During this trip we got to see first hand how this is leading to a positive witness in the town and in the region. I wish you could have been with us at a prayer meeting Joel invited us to one morning at 6am where other pastors and leaders of other denominations gathered for their weekly time of prayer. We could see how that gathering was fostering more collaboration between the churches. The week we were there, Joel had Bill speak to 4 combined youth groups, and the gospel was presented in a winsome and relevant way to those young people.

The youth were divided into teams to have a “table surfing” contest!

Here Bill introduced the topic “Life or Death” to the kids.

Bill challenged the youth to trust God and experience life as He created us to live it.

The Drought in Nebraska

Besides the official meetings, we enjoyed a few hikes with Joel at the Calamus Lake area near Burwell. This year, because of the drought, the sandy banks were more pronounced and gave us a strange wonderful retreat that resembled an oceanside beach.

Left to right are Joel Wentworth, Bill, Suzy Gragg, and Joyce Burrows. Until seeing it for ourselves, we had no idea what Joel was talking about in mentioning the drought effect on lake Calamus.

The banks were at record lows when we were there.

On another day, Bill and Joel admired the tracks of a turtle that evidently had to work hard to get down to the water.

Visiting the Workplaces of Our Friends

We also made some visits to see several of our friends working in other occupations and livelihoods.

Good friend Rex Kelley of Ord, Nebraska, shows Suzy the cockpit of his plane he uses to spray crops. Incidentally, Rex and his wife, Debbie, celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary while we were there!

Suzy Gragg and Cory Johnson, a farmer near Burwell, posed for a picture right before Cory took Suzy out for a couple rounds of harvesting corn on his big rig.

The Good Life Tour Ends

To conclude the week in Nebraska, on Sunday, October 9th, we were at Ord Evangelical Free Church to do our last presentation for the week on The Good Life. Doug Olson and his wife Janna, have been in Ord for about 10 years now, but they were missionaries to Hungary for a few years before that. Doug, a native Nebraskan, and Janna have dedicated themselves and their family to reaching non-Christians near Ord in both friendship and witness.

Between Bill and I are our good friends, Janna and Doug Olson. Doug is pastor of the Ord Evangelical Free Church. Janna leads out as a coordinator and administrator for a local theater that does a variety of live performances. In addition, she makes some of the most amazing and delicious organic breads, which she sells at the local farmers market.

In our tag team presentation, I took a few moments to describe the worst, best day of my life! To conclude the message we described that regardless of our circumstances, we have a choice to enjoy Jesus or not. And only a life lived with Jesus in charge gives us the opportunity to truly live the “good” life.

A Great Night with Western Way Cowboy Church

A little over a week after being in Nebraska, Bill and I headed to Southeast Kansas to get better acquainted with pastor Les Green and the Western Way Cowboy Church of Altamont, Kansas. The church was started in 2011, and Les and his team have done an amazing job in reaching out to the region. I am amazed that even after dealing with Covid, the church has more than 200 people showing up each Sunday and more than 100 that show up on Thursday nights.

Bill and I were impressed by the joy and the energy they had as we joined them on a Thursday night gathering to talk about what we are doing in our mission work—especially with cowboys and our upcoming soccer projects. After the service, people hung around for a pot luck meal and further visiting. Bill and I couldn’t have felt more welcomed.

Les Green (blue shirt), pastor of Western Way Cowboy Church, leads worship with several musicians and singers on Thursday night, October 20th.

The next morning we had breakfast with Les and Debbie Green and a few other leaders. As a result, we have some plans brewing for future collaboration. Stay tuned for more as this unfolds!

10:02 PRAYER

(Pray Luke 10:2 each day at 10:02 am or pm that the Lord of the harvest will send out laborers into his harvest fields.)

Please pray for our friends like Joel, Linda, Doug, Janna, and Les and their rural churches. Pray that they continue to win people to Christ, disciple them, and raise them up to help bring in a harvest of others. Pray that we can work in harmony with several of them as we look at doing more partnering in both local and international projects.

ENGAGE

If you would be interested in Bill and me coming to your neck of the woods, let us know!

INVEST

Thanks for your continued generosity. You are making a difference in what we are able to do.

Please keep us informed of your prayer needs.

CLICK HERE FOR THE EASY WAY TO INVEST.

Love y’all!

Steve

PS…As you read this update, Nola and I just might be on a business trip to Hawaii! Amazingly, Nola’s work is sending her there for a week of presentations and answering questions about the software product they provide for the insurance commissioners in Hawaii. I’m going along so she isn’t lonely!

At a recent wedding reception of some friends, Nola and I were given some battery powered, flashing cowboy hats! Maybe we need to take these to Hawaii!