Guatemala trip report

I sent a written report to Brian Kaylor, the communications specialist for the BGCM, on my most recent trip to Guatemala to be included in the monthly email newsletter that the convention publishes. That information is sitting on my desktop at the church office rather than here at home on my laptop (I didn't think to email it to myself), but here's the Reader's Digest version of the experience.

The four of us who traveled from Missouri for the fifth in a series of ongoing leadership training conferences for pastors and lay leaders in western Guatemala had an awesome trip. The response of the workshop participants was once again outstanding. They really hang on every word and are so appreciative of our efforts to provide these training sessions for them. Their active participation in the Q & A portion of the workshops is a testament to their interest and enthusiasm.

I mentioned in a previous post about the interviews I conducted with two of the pastors that were filmed by Jennifer Harris of Word & Way. The two men were so encouraging in their comments about the value of these sessions to them personally as well as to their congregations and one even remarked that the different books that we have been giving as gifts each trip have also been very timely to help deal with issues and questions in their local church settings. Jennifer had originally planned to have the story ready for the edition of Word & Way that arrived in my mailbox today, but decided she needed a bit more time to do the story justice. She has already made several comments about the trip and uploaded some pictures from Guatemala to her Facebook account. I can hardly wait to read her story when it comes out.

In the meantime, I'm eagerly preparing for my next trip next month to Guatemala with a total of 9 other members of our church plus the daughter of one of these who lives in Florida. There will be 11 of us altogether and we'll be working with a couple of churches in the Department (state we'd call it) of San Marcos in western Guatemala. The plans call for us to speak in public schools in the mornings, distribute bags of food and share the gospel with some needy families right after lunch, conduct VBS sessions from about 3:00 - 4:30, and then do Adult Sunday School leadership training classes in the evening. It promises to be a very busy week. I'm meeting with the team this coming Sunday evening after church to share a few more details with them. In the meantime, we're just trying to stay warm with the rest of the Midwest.