Guatemala Photos of Tuesday Aug 10

Photos 1-3 are children eating at the Feeding Center.

Photo 4 The meal, rice and carrots, with a potato fried with egg

Photo 5 Me talking with Angelica and Eddy after the meal.  Those two are very precious.

Photos 6-7 The church building at Quetzal.

Photo 8 Finishing the cement roof of the building.

Photos 9-10 Chuck Ward and I survery the potential all around the church building.

Click on the photos once to be taken to a new page, and then again to see the large version of the pic.

On TUESDAY, we were able to do two of the things that we have really desired to do.  In the morning, we went up to Sumpango to view the feeding center in action.  The Feeding Center takes place in the lower level of the church. They set up tables and chairs in the hallway for about seventy kids.  There is a little kitchen in which they are able to prepare basic nutritious meals for the children.  For some of those kids, it will be the best meal of the day.  I praise the Lord for MANNA and for those involved with this concept.  What a blessing, at the same time to satisfy a physical need as well as give them the BREAD OF LIFE.  By this time, since we have been here for about a week and been to Kids Club, Sunday School, Youth Group, and church, any of the kids remember us and they look forward to talking with JAKE and playing with him. 

In the afternoon, we followed Jerry and Chuck Ward out to Quetzal to the new church plant/project.  The building is being built as we speak that will house the feeding center and the Sunday School classrooms.  God has really blessed the purchase of this land as it is in a prime area for sharing the Gospel.  The government just built a new elementary school for poor children 1 block away, and the area’s main high school is about three blocks away.  The entire church project will be built in 4 phases as money comes in.  Phase one is going on now.  In time a second story will be added over the current building, phase 3 is the auditorium, and phase four will place a pastor’s quarters and small gym on top of the auditorium.  What a blessing to see this project firsthand.  Grace Baptist Church, we all have given several thousand dollars for this project and we have a vested interest in the lives of these people.  BUT the biggest need is not the building, but a minister and a ministry here to share the gospel.  There are a couple of big Charimatic churches in this town of 140,000 souls but only one or two small works in which the true Gospel is being preached.  Please pray that God would raise up some men and women to help start this church that could be a strong foundation for Gospel work in this area.

Just the facts this time, I promise. 

Monday – Leah and Jake stayed at home with Aunt Karen and played with the Kinman kids.  Why you may ask were the Kinman kids at the Aunt Karen’s house?  Because their house was being fumigated for scorpions.  WOW! (Another reason to pray, for safety.)

I got to got with a group of 11 people from Texas (2 pastors and people from their churches), Chuch Ward, Jerry Kinman, and Jaime to a small town about 1.5 hours away to the south called La Gomera, on the coast by the Pacific Ocean.  Yes… I did get to walk along the very nice black sand beach, and yes I paid too much money for a very nice meal of garlic shrimp and Caribbean style rice and beans, and boy was it good. But that was not even close to being the highlight of the day.  Let me tell you.

La Gomera is a small town way out in the country.  It is not in the mountains (like Sumpango).  It is not an urban town with homes built right next to each other.  It is spread out, laid out almost square, straight streets, symmetric blocks and so on.  It is not city poor, it is rural poor.  The town is surrounded by huge fields of sugar cane.

Pastor Dagoberto is a Mexican Missionary, sent out by a group of churches in Mexico.  He has started in church in a suburb of Guatemala City called Villa Nueva.  It is a lower middle class church, meaning some of the people own cars and computers.  He has worked at that church for six years, and has a solid core of believers attending.  I don’t know how God worked this, but somehow this Mexican pastor working in the Capital of Guatemala found out about this tiny little poor country town in the south and decided to start a mission there.  In the town proper, he rents a small building and has about 25-30 adults attending as well as 25-30 children. But then, he went about 3 to 4 miles further out into the country to the really poor people and has started a Bible Club for children in a little house he rents. And when I say house, I mean a concrete and block building with dirt/concrete floors, only cold running water outside of the house, no indoor plumbing, no inside doors, no beds only mats and a couple of chairs.  This man chooses to live this way in order to share the Gospel with little children who don’t understand or appreciate his sacrifice.

 Here is his schedule.  Every Monday he rides a public bus for 2 hours from his nice modern house in Villa Nueva down to that poor tiny house outsided of La Gomera. On Monday, he has kids club.  On Tuesday, he does a radio broadcast in that town.  On Wednesday, he does visitation and a midweek service, and one weekend of every month stays thru Sunday and preaches at the little church in La Gomera.  The other three weekends, deacons from the church come down and do the preaching.  The pastors from Texas are looking into sponsoring a Manna Feeding Center in La Gomera. 

Pastor Dagoberto is hoping that in one year he can turn over his church in Villa Nueva to another man, and move with his wife to La Gomera.  Praise the Lord for his heart and willingness to love those people and share the Gospel with them.  It was a great thing for me to see and made a big impression on me.  What a great example of Philippians 2 in which Christ left heaven, and took the form of man, humbled himself, came to serve, became obedient even unto the death of the cross.

The other great benefit and blessing for me on that Monday was the great conversations I had with Jerry Kinman, Pastor Jaime, and Pastor Dale Wilt of Jerrell, Texas.  We had a great day of fellowship together, praising the Lord for His work in our lives, His work in the US, and in Guatemala as well.

It is hard to believe that we have been in Guatemala for over a week already.  We arrived last Wednesday and the time has flown by.  We are enjoying our time here immensely.  Growing and learning and being challenged.  I am so thankful for those of you who are taking the time to follow along on our blog and to faithfully pray for us.  We appreciate it so much.  We have only almost been in accidents twice, once was just me and three other men, and once with Karen, Leah and Jake.  Considering the driving down here, I think we are doing pretty good.  Our health is holding up.  We are careful what we eat and drink, washing all of our fresh produce thoroughly and brushing our teeth with bottled water.  Leah is doing great.  She gets physically tired very quickly, and those of you who have traveled often know that there is no other bed in the world that sleeps as well as your own.  But I praise the Lord for her physical and mental strength.  She is really doing great.  Jake keeps rolling along.  He loves going to church and playing with the kids.  He does not show any fear, which is great.  As long as there is running involved, or a ball he fits right in with the Guatemalan kids.  He does get a little nervous when they (kids or adults) get right in his face and talk to him, or try to pick him up.  I have to explain to them that he is nervous because he has no idea what they are saying to him.  I tell the kids “Don’t pick him up, just play with him and he will be just fine.”  He loves to play soccer, they love to play soccer, it is a perfect match. 

Leah is in the most ‘awkard of positions, if I can use that term, for personal relationships.  Most of you know that I can speak some semblance of Spanish. When you combine that with my shy… I mean my outgoing personality you can imagine that I have no problem walking in and greeting and hugging and talking and joking etc…, with Jake and his little friends very little verbal communication is needed to play.  Just throw out the ball and boom, instant relationships.  Leah does not speak Spanish, is pregnant, is tall(er than most), and an American.  This just invites attention from the women, but communication is hard because she does not understand anything they say.  She is trying really hard but inevitably, one gets tired of having to try so hard to communicate and relate.  So please pray for her. 

Most of you who have traveled know that there reaches a point where you want to hear English, read English signs, see normal things, understand the sermon (without your husband loosely translating every few minutes), understand what people are saying about you and to you, and so on.  I think that is what makes culture shock so hard.  You are continually unsettled.  Very few things come easy and natural.  Everything is a labor, it is hard to feel relaxed.  How many Burger Kings in America have three guards armed with shotguns patrolling the parking lot?  It is hard enough at home to budget to go to the grocery store and buy food to make ends meet, without using the exchange rate on every item you pick up to make sure it is a good deal or not.  Imagine being at church and trying to talk with a group of teens and when they say something you don’t know if they are joking, lying, making fun, or being nice.  You may even understand their literal words, but you may miss the intent and the meaning by a mile.  In a small way these are the types of things we feel and experience.  Now we know that we are coming home in ten days.  Imagine the strain and the stress on a missionary family who experience these things over and over and over and over for months at a time.  Sure they will get used to it over time, and sure they will learn to cope over time, but it is just another level of stress that is added to an already difficult job.  Just another reason to walk into the Fellowship Hall, and look at all those letters of missionaries on the wall, and READ.  Learn their names and their kids names, learn the names of their churches, listen as they pour out their hearts for the people they have surrendered their lives to teach the Gospel.  And then go home and PRAY.  Pray long, pray with purpose, pray with intent, pray early and often.  They struggle with loneliness, they struggle with stress, they struggle with people close to them who betray and lie to them.  They think in two (or maybe three) different languages.  They miss their families, they miss their grand kids.  This is no easy task.  I have learned that. 

If anything, God has helped to remove the romantic view I once had of missions.  He has torn that down.  There will always be poor kids with big brown eyes and dark hair, I cannot adopt them all.  Their will always be a Pentecostal church 2 miles away that is double the size of mine.  Their will always be another man discipled in the faith who cheats on his wife that leaves you wondering how you could poor so much time and energy into him and that be the end result.  There will always be inter personal conflict between you and other missionaries, who hold to the exact same BIBLE that you do.  So God has stripped that easy, romatic view of missions aside.  And for my good.  Now He is tasked with helping me to not be overwhelmed by it all, to be reminded that He is in control, that He has a big plan for the glory of His Son Jesus Christ, that the Gospel was His idea.  It is easy to forget this when you drive thru one more village with no church, or you see a small church of 20 people in a village of 15 thousand.  Why so small?  Why are they rejecting the truth?  Why are they fighting over ping pong tables and drums in the church for no apparent reason? 

Here is an example of a real question one must ask themselves, if you surrender your life for missions and you spend 10 years or 20 or more in one place preaching the truth of the Gospel and you have a church of 20 people, have you wasted your life?  Could you have spent it doing something more ‘profitable’?  I have a missionary friend who preaches in two churches every Sunday, the combined attendance of both churches is 30 or under.  He fights and claws to teach them spiritual truth, and they are growing so slow spiritually.  His family live in a hard rugged poor place, with an outhouse, and rats, and flies.  Is that worth it?  What do you think Grace Baptist Church… is it worth it?  I am slowly learning deep down inside, in my heart of hearts, that IT IS WORTH IT.  God gets glory every time His Truth is proclaimed, and sometimes it is way hard to weigh personal cost against eternal glory.  We see personal cost with our physical eyes every day.  You have to learn to see eternal glory, you have to dig in deep to the Gospel and study and seek God’s face to see eternal glory.   

Anyways…there you go.  That is what is going on in the heart and mind of Kurtis and Leah.  Hard questions, hard thoughts, difficult answers and a lot of weariness.  But GOD is GOOD all the time, and these are important question for me to face.      

Alright,  next post there will be no commentary, just history of what we have seen and experienced.  It has been very cool, I wish my whole Middle School could come, and the Berean class.  I will try my best to help you see what I have seen.  Please keep reading.  I love you, Grace Baptist Church.

Good Monday Morning to all,

First, just want to encourage everyone to follow the McCown’s Blog.  I am enjoying reading about their trip in Japan.  I cannot wait to get back and compare notes with Tim, it will be great to talk with him again.

Ok I got a lot to write and not much time to do it.  In about an hour, Pastor Kinman is going to pick me up.  I am going with him and a group of pastors from the States to a small village about 1 hour? from here where MANNA is hoping to start another feeding center.  A Mexican missionary sent out from the Mexican Baptist Fellowship has started a work in small village.  I am excited to see his ministry and to see how MANNA evaluates potential sites to start feeding centers.  I will be gone all day, and Leah will be here with Karen.  Mindy Kinman is going to bring her 3 kids over for couple of hours for lunch and to hang out with Kare, Leah, and Jake.

Now, let’s go back in time.

SATURDAY – Kids Club and Youth Group in Sumpango.  Sumpango is about 30 minutes drive from Karen’s house up the mountain.  It is a very poor village set off the highway, that if you don’t know is there you will drive past it everytime.  There are only ever three cars in the parking lot of the church.  Karen’s, the Kinman’s, and maybe Pastor Jaime’s.  Everyone else walks to church or rides the bus.  And when I say the bus, don’t think the STL Metro.  Think old school bus painted in crazy colorful patterns speeding down the mountain highway, cramming as many people as possible.  Now those big school buses cannot fit down the very small roads of Sumpango, so in the village the bus means a little tiny Mitsubishi/Volkswagen type van with sliding doors remaining open.  Often times filled with people and some hanging on the side.  Kids Club starts in the afternoon, around 3 I think.  It is part of the feeding center, so a small meal is served for the children.  Bread – stuffed with tomato paste, mayonnaise, and ham.  Served with a fruity cool-aid.  Then they played games and sang some songs.  Then the kids were broken up into 3 loose age groups.  Nursery, young kids and big kids.  And those groups are kind of fluid.  Damaris (Pastor Jaime’s wife) was the teacher of the small kids group (in which Leah and I took Jake).  She does a great  job of teaching the children and loving them.  Just like any other Church (GBC), the kids sometimes don’t pay attention, talk in class… some things are universal.  But so is God’s love and His Truth and His Salvation.  And how great it is that these3,4,5,6 yr old children can start their life with an understanding of Jesucristo.  Kid Club ended about 5 pm, and youth group did not start until 6:30.  So we just hung out at church, cleaning the dishes, playing Foosball with some teens, talking with them, and hanging out. The youth group started at 6:30.  It is very similar to our teen services.  Very contemporary music, very loud, power point on a  projector, lots of games, and then Pastor Jerry brought a lesson on Timothy.  Do not let anyone despise your youth, but be an EXAMPLE to the believers. 

The Guatemalans that I have met are quick to smile, and they have beautiful smiles.  There are very few European/pale skinned Guatemalans, especially in Sumpango.  The Indian blood and features run very deep.  Big noses, high cheekbones, dark skin, big brown eyes, and dark hair.  The ladies almost always wear long skirts, and they carry their children in pouches up to about 3 years old.  A lot of kids have coughs and last night Leah saw a kid with Hepatitis.  He is in poor health and will only get worse unless he receives medical treatment.  But his family live in a one room shack, and they have no money to pay for a hospital stay.  That was very hard for Leah to see as a nurse.  In the USA we don’t see that very often because our children are vaccinated. 

SUNDAY – Church on Sunday begins around 4 in the afternoon.  Music practice begins at 3.  They invited me to play my guitar with them for the worship because the main guitarists was at a family reunion this weekend.  I had a great time practicing with their band.  A full drum set, bass, keyboard, and guitar.  They are very good.  They sing a lot of the same songs we sing, and a lot of contemporary songs that we don’t sing (but could) in our church.  They like their music loud.  I really enjoyed playing with them for the worship service.  Sunday School starts at 4.  Karen (my sister) helps with children’s classes.  All of the younger children’s classes are taught by Guatemalan women, Pastor Jerry teaches the youth, and Pastor Jaime teaches the adults.  The church service was structured very similar to ours, five songs, a welcome, and offering, a special and the message.  Jerry asked me to sing the special.  I sang Great is Thy Faithfulness.  I told them how great it was the my church (GBC) sang that exact same song the week before.  And that we  bring glory to God by extolling His Character.  And we can do that in any language.  I loved singing in Spanish.  The bassist and the drummer played with me.  It was awesome,  They were both teen boys.  I told them afterwards what a blessing it was to play and worship with them.  Wilson and Byron.  Praise the Lord.   Pastor Jaime preached on repentance of sin, and that if one does not repent one cannot be saved.  He preached hard, named sins and called the people to turn from their sin.  What a great message.  8 people went forward, with tears running down.  The Word is going forth, and God is doing His work.

The church attendance was about 110.  They have been averaging over 100 this year, which is a blessing.  There are a lot more adult women than men.  A ton of kids.  Alot of teenage boys, and I know that Jerry is really concerned and desiring to help those young men grow up in Christ and remain faithful into manhood.  There is a lot of adultery and fornication is this society and it is a struggle even in the church.  Drugs can also be a problem as well, especially for the teens.  This church really needs our prayers and encouragement.  I am so thankful that GBC has sent Leah and I to be here.  My heart has been broken. 

OK, I gotta go.  We have posted lots of pics on our facebook page.  Shawn Ray sent me an email to teach me how to post pics on here, but I have not had a lot of time to figure it out yet.  That is on the list for tomorrow. 

I love you guys.  I missed our church yesterday, thought and prayed for you. 

Kurtis