Saturday, January 24, 2015

Getting Prepared.

It has been a very busy two weeks here as we prepare for 2015. There have been construction projects, repairs, cleaning and many little tasks to finish in order to be ready for our first team of the year. When I arrived, work had already begun on the first major project. Our storage room was being turned into another bedroom and bathroom for people. This involve carrying and cutting many cement blocks, mixing cement and concrete by hand on the ground and bending and tying lots of re-bar. Because we are going to have two teams, working on two different projects at the beginning of February, we will need to house 35 people. This is about 6 more than we have done before. We completed the rooms, got them painted and cleaned about 6:00 last night. That was good timing because we had our first team of 6 arrive at 10:00 last night.

I also have been able to spend some time working with Mike and Cindy Harrington. We went to the Children's home in Santiago earlier in the week and worked on a few small projects to help them out. We built a work bench for the wood shop, repaired bikes, fixed screens and other minor tasks. It was fun to get to hang out with the kids and help out a little at the same time. I always love to spend some time there. The kids make life interesting but it is always fun.

A lot of the work that we have done is difficult or tedious and many would ask why I come here to do things like this. I wanted to share the thought that keeps coming to me for the last few weeks and hope that it blesses you as it has me.

We have limited time to accomplish anything on this earth. Whatever money or possessions we acquire here will eventually decay, break or burn. We work 40 years to have 15 or 20 years of retirement when we are mostly beyond the age of doing many of the things that we dreamed of when we were younger. Life as we understand it is short. Why live for it? In eternity will we be bragging about the car, house retirement plan, vacations or any other thing that we worked so hard for on the earth? We all will die. Why not make the most of the time we are here?

I think that God is telling us to build an eternal retirement. More than that, He is calling us to invest our time here in an eternal inheritance. If we are co-heirs with Jesus and we are Sons of God, doesn't it make sense to forget about the things that we hold fast to and spend ourselves on  building the kingdom of God? Is there any other thing that will pay dividends into our eternity? To build His kingdom means to invest our lives in people. Get to know them. Help them in their need and also help them prepare to live beyond need in the place of their Father's love. It means to live from a Heavenly perspective looking to see the Kingdom on earth as it is in Heaven. Mostly, it means to lay down our lives in worship to the one that created and redeemed us and allow Him to direct our every interaction. I think that this may lead to some difficult places and it may have a cost temporarily but I believe the eternal rewards will outweigh all of that.

2Ti 1:9-12 who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, for which I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher, which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me.

Do you know that you have been called and entrusted? Do you know that you can trust God to hold and to multiply that which you hand to Him? Do you know that your choice as a believer is to work for the temporary, fleeting rewards of this life or to invest in a Kingdom where you have an inheritance? Are you working as hard on the eternal as you are in your preparations for today? Now is the time to prepare.

Thursday, January 8, 2015

On The Move

I have not written in a while and this will be a short post. I just wanted to let everyone know that 2015 is in full swing and I will be returning to Guatemala in 2 days. I have spent the last few days saying my goodbyes to my family and amazing friends. My bags are almost all packed. My ticket is purchased and I will fly out a 2:45 on Saturday afternoon.

I am looking forward to continuing the work that we started last year. We will start the year off with construction on the Church in Memrillal and a concert with Peter Furler as a community outreach in the town of Patzicia. We will continue to work in Zapote as well. This will be another year full of construction and food production with the goal of making Jesus known and His love visible through His body.

I am on track with my fundraising. My goal was to reach 1/2 of my $9,500 budget for the year before I left and I am almost there. If I reach the goal, I will be using a large part of that to go to Spanish School when I have down time. Other funds w ill cover airfare and living expenses. through the end of August.

Here is my prayer requests for the next few month.

  1. I would ask that you be in prayer for the teams that come. Pray that there would be unity in them and with us. Also pray that they would have a vision of working for  the glory of God and to make His love evident to people. 
  2. Pray that the glory of God would be evident in all that we do and that we would work with humility towards one another.
  3. Pray for safety and good health for me and for the friends that I will be working with.
  4. Pray for the finances for me and for all of the work that we hope to accomplish this year
  5. Most of all, pray that the hearts of the people we work with are open and prepared to receive the love of Jesus that He longs to pour out on them.


If you would like to support me this coming year or would like to contribute to a project, you can mail tax deductible contributions to

Life Church, Morris
P.O. Box 679
Morris, IL 60450
in the memo line write Guatemala, missions or the name of the project

Thank you all for your love and support.