We would appreciate your prayers for our pastor's retreat this week in Guatemala. It's going to be a long trip but I'm looking forward to being with our pastor's from Central America. The theme this year is "Focus on Your Ministry". There is a great line-up of speakers and topics. I think it's going to be a real encouragement! Say a special prayer for this event.

About a month or so ago during prayer I felt the Lord impress upon me the idea of starting a prison ministry. Matthew 25:34-36 kept coming to my mind when Jesus said "For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me"I have never set foot in a prison in my whole life let alone in a different country. I didn't even know where to start. So I told God that if He wanted me to start a prison ministry He would have to show me how to do it. Well, I started talking with some of my church people. I talked with Edwin, he works as an accountant for the prison I thought maybe he could help me. I also talked with Maria, she was good friends with the national prison director. The weeks passed and nothing seemed to be happening. Maria said she had talked with the director and he said that I would be welcomed to hold services in the penitentiary but warned that it could be very dangerous. That scared me. I prayed about it some more and told God that if He really wanted me to do this He would have to give me peace. So we prayed and waited on the Lord. During that time I got a phone call from Maria, she works as a nurse at the military hospital and the director of the woman's penitentiary had come to the hospital for a check-up. Maria told her that I had been interested in starting a prison ministry and the director said to come and hold a service with the women. So we made arraignments and today was our very first service with the women at the penitentiary. It was nothing like I expected it would be like. It's basically like a camp ground on the inside with dormitories where the ladies stay. Nobody is in chains, nobody wears prison garb, they wear normal everyday clothes. I was so surprised. Samuel and Baudilio accompanied me and brought their guitars to sing. There were about 43 ladies that came to the service. God really helped us. Several asked us to come back, they would like us to come every Saturday morning. I feel like this could be the beginning of a new ministry, I need God's direction but I'm very excited about the possibilities. If the Lord would so lead us we may eventually hold services with the men as well. We are just taking this one step at a time.

We got to get out of the city for a little while and enjoy the country side. Daniel and Tiffany Melton invited us to their place for Thanksgiving along with the Delongs and the Robberts. San Luis is a small town tucked away in the mountains with a laid back atmosphere. It was a nice get-away and we really enjoyed the food the fellowship.

Some of the MK's playing together.

Daniel had the honor of carving the turkey. Mmmm soooo good.

Enjoying some really good food!

We got our Christmas tree up! Joseph was so excited, he was my right hand helper as we decorated the tree together. He did a pretty good job.

When I was a little boy this drummer boy was my favorite ornament to put on the tree. I made sure it got on the tree every year, now Joseph has the honors of placing it on the tree. I passed on the tradition.

The old vinyl church sign that we had at Tiloarque was faded and torn. It was time for an update. So the church bought a new metal sign that is bigger and better!! Hopefully it will draw the attention of the people passing by.

Two of the ladies of our church are excellent seamstresses. They often get called to do some big time jobs. Well, after one of those jobs their client gave them all the extra material that she didn't use. So they decided to make new curtains for our church and use the old curtains for Las Uvas church. Last night they came over to work on the project.

Sandra working on the design.

Sandra and Rita hard at work.

Ironing the new curtains.

Part of the face lift on the church was to extend the platform.

The finished product! It turned out really nice.

 Today our church people did a special project for the poor. We took food to the families who have loved ones in the hospital. The public hospital is quite a sight. Healthcare here is in shambles. You have to see it to believe it. Poor people come from all around the country to the public hospitals here in the city. They can't afford hotels so they sleep on the floor next to their family member. Some don't have money to buy food either and they may be there for days. We decided to make 60 burritas to take to these poor families who are staying at the hospital.

Frying platano and eggs for the burritas.

60 burritas ready to go! A burrita is a corn tortilla with fried beans, eggs another tortilla on top then cheese, platano topped with another tortilla.

My three helpers. Samuel started attending our church about four months ago. Laura usually doesn't attend our services but was excited to help her mother Maria with this project.

The people were so grateful for the food. 

This lady was sleeping on the bench when we came by, we woke her up to give her some food.

These people hadn't eaten. It looked like it had been a long night for them.

Samuel and Maria read scripture and prayed with this lady. She had herpes all over her body.

It felt so good to help a few needy people. There were many more we could have helped if we would have had more food. This not only helped the recipients it also encouraged our church people as well.

Joseph loved watching the big dump truck.

Today I bought wood to make the cement forms.

We loaded up on cement.

We also got our water today for mixing cement.

Right now the guys have been working on making the re-bar for the support columns. Everything is cut by hand and put together by hand.

They have most of the holes dug for the support columns. We have a good foundation because everything is solid rock!!

It was exciting to see some of the first loads of materials rolling in. The first to arrive was a load of sand to use for mixing cement.

The first load of bricks arriving!

We ordered 1,000 blocks here are the first 500!

Today we put in our order for blocks, sand, gravel and re-bar. Most of the materials should be arriving tomorrow. By Thursday we should be well underway. Keep this project in your prayers. I'm praying that God will multiply this money like He multiplied the bread and fish.

This gives a little overview of what we got done today. The existing wood frame that used to be the Las Uvas church is now gone!!! Thanks to a donor who donated $4,000 into the Zaid Memorial Revolving Fund we are now able to start building block walls and install doors and windows. It is becoming more and more our personal ministry policy that we just don't give our people everything they need. That's why we came up with the revolving fund. We have donors who like to give to projects but we as missionaries don't like to just give things away because it creates dependency. So the fund serves to meet present needs but gives our people the responsibility of paying the money back to the fund so the money can be used again in the future for other projects. I'm anxious to see how this experiment plays out. It's going to take them awhile to pay it back but it will be worth it in the long run. They will have a greater love and appreciation for their church.

The first step was to take off the tin roof. We plan to reuse this roof, the tin is still in good condition.

Bro. Baudilio was our tin carrier. He stacked the tin and wood as we tore it off.

Baudilio also helped to dig a ditch to help drain the rain water around the church.

Gecko eggs that we found hidden away high in the rafters.

It was a bit of a challenge getting the rafters down. We plan to reuse the rafters so we didn't want to disassemble them.

A rope and home-made pulleys came in handy.

Then we had to pick the cement around the beams and remove all the old wooden beams so we can put in cement columns. 

I picked and picked and picked and picked and picked some more on this one beam. It was kinda funny. These guys are experts with this stuff and here I am learning as I go. My hands are still sore!

My team of helpers!! These guys are great!

The pad is ready for the blocks and cement. I can't wait to lay the first one!