A team from Union Street Missionary Baptist Church in Monroe, Michigan visited Iglesia De Dios Bethesda in Santa Lucia in July. This is the church we painted and poured a floor in last September. The team blessed 11 families with stoves, water filters, and Bibles. They also passed out 20 manna bags and put on a 3 day vacation Bible school. All the people and the team were greatly blessed and the team looks forward to returning. Our next team will be a stove team from Pittsburg, Pennsylvania in August.

In June we took a group of teens from 3 different churches to put on a Vacation Bible School at a church in Guatemala City, Ministerios Fuego Santo. The young people from Foundation Stone Church, New Life Christian Center, and New Beginnings Church did a great job interacting with the kids. Pastor Randy Kutz preached at the Sunday service and our whole team prayed for the people of the church. We also ministered in the village of Santa Maria de Jesus. We passed out 50 Manna Bags (bags of food supplies) and installed 8 stoves in poor homes in the village. The team also got a day of relaxation visiting Hobbitenango and Antigua. The trip was a blessing to Guatemala and to all of us.

In January a team worked in the Peten, the northern portion of Guatemala. We worked with another ministry, SEW Hope. They run a women’s clinic and a school. We installed stove in homes of families they had identified as being in need. We also helped as they prepared for the January start of the new school year. We built shelves, helped run electrical wiring, and painted. On the first day of school we did face painting and made balloon figures for the children. Then it was back to installing stoves,completing over 20 installations. One family was living in a home that routinely gets flooded. We hope to return in the fall and help correct the problems they are having to deal with.

This past March a team of 9 people from Harvest Field Church in Scott Ohio ministered in the Piedras Blancas region. They installed stoves in some of the toughest locations, put together Manna Bags to feed people, and put on a VBS with pinatas for the local children. They blessed the community and were in turn blessed themselves.