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Christmas in a Box

Two little excited boys who just can't wait to dig into these boxes and see what's inside.
The Beavertown God's Missionary Church sent us some wonderful gifts for Christmas!! How exciting!
A volcano set for the mad scientist!
New pants, candle, toys, games, peanut butter, lotions and so much more. Thank you Beavertown for your thoughtfulness!! It was all so very nice!

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Christmas Morning

We had a wonderful Christmas!! We spent time together as a family, relaxed, and got ready for the new year ahead. We want to say a big thanks to everyone who sent gifts and cards. Thank you for your thoughtfulness. Also a big thanks to the Bethel Holiness Church, the Hobe Sound Bible Church and the Beavertown God's Missionary Church for your kindness in sending money and gifts. We deeply appreciate it!!
Having a blast opening presents.
 
What could this big box be??
Wow!! A big basketball hoop.
Air Jospeh!!
Does this kid have a license to drive??
Two cool dudes during a very cool Christmas!!

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A Cowboy Christmas


At Joseph's school they had a school play with children representing different countries of the world. Joseph of course represented the American cowboy. For the life of us we couldn't find an American flag. So one of our church ladies sewed this one for us. It turned out pretty nice.
Mr. Tex

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Christmas Banquet in Las Delicias


It was another wonderful Christmas!! The week before Christmas we had our annual Christmas drama and banquet. This year we joined all three churches for the event at Las Delicias. Hannah led all the children in songs as they held candles to kick off the play.
The teens did a good job re-enacting that first Christmas.
The church was packed. There was close to 150 people!
The three churches went together to buy a pig. I didn't get to see it before it was cooked but here are the ladies who worked hard at cooking the meat. It was soooooo good. Some of the best pork I think I have ever had. Delicious!
This is the adobe oven that was used to cook the pig.
Getting ready to serve some delicious food!
That night while we were checking out the parsonage construction we found this scorpion crawling around on the wall!!
 

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Central American Pastor's Retreat

 
December was absolutely jammed packed with activities. I'll try to give you some of the highlights. First off was a two week trip to Guatemala. The first week was spent in Guatemala City at our annual H.I.M. Central American pastor's retreat. It's always a great time of fellowship, learning and drawing closer to God. Our special speaker this year was Dr. Glenn Reiff, he did an excellent job talking to us about holiness.
There were pastors from several other missions that came to join us for some of the sessions. We enjoyed getting to know some new faces.
One evening we built a bon fire and sat around singing, telling riddles, and discussing biblical mysteries. Some great memories!
It was nice to have EFM's national church president Misael and his wife visit some of the sessions. He and his wife ministered to us with some beautiful music.
Mealtime as usual was marked with missionary stories, discussion about cultural differences and always a good joke or two. A lot of fun!
Spanish director "two-story" John Dykes. The Spanish guys get a kick out of his height.
It was another great retreat and very enjoyable!

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Tacana, Guatemala

The second week of December I headed to the mountains of Guatemala to a town called TacanĂ¡. It's close to 8,000 feet in elevation and very very cold!!! I wore two t-shirts, a regular shirt and a coat on top of that. Brrrrrr.
The town was packed with vendors in full swing for the Christmas shopping season. It was hard maneuvering through the streets.
One day the local pastor took me further up into the mountain to a little village called "Las Nubes" in English "the clouds". Literally this place was so high that the clouds often float through it. The road was rough getting up there but the views were amazing!
On top of the world!! Las Nubes, Guatemala.
H.I.M. has a preaching point here in Las Nubes and the man seated is the pastor who walks from his village two hours away once a week to preach. One of his church families invited us to eat sheep stew with them at their house.
Sheep and agriculture is the main source of income in Las Nubes. When a family decides to butcher one of their sheep it is a family event.
This was my first time to eat sheep stew. It was scrumptious! The first bowl is my stew, the second bowl has baked potatoes and the third bowl has tortillas. The men all sit together and are served first, then the women and children.
It always intrigues me when I visit Guatemala how much they have retained their traditional ways. Dialects are still spoken, hand made Mayan style clothing is still worn by many of the women, and traditional ways of living are still closely held on to. It's so different than any of the other Central American countries.
We drove another twenty minutes down the dirt road from Las Nubes and crossed into Mexico. These white pillars show the Mexico/Guatemala border.
Cruz Perez is pastoring in Tacana. We stopped to see his grandmother on our way to Las Nubes.
Soccer dominates as the most loved sport.
The winning team took the game by only one point!
Friday thru Sunday I had the privilege of preaching a revival in TacanĂ¡. Many of you were praying for these services, God heard your prayers and blessed us in a special way. I definitely felt God's presence and help.
Michael Mason, missionary in Tapachula, Mexico was the song evangelist and did a phenomenal job!
While driving back to Honduras on the Pan-American highway, I came up behind this van and received a surprise! The license plate said Alberta, Canada!! Wow! I wish I could have talked to the driver to see how far they were going to go. That had to be a super long trip!
 

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Parsonage Construction

There have been some exciting advancements in Las Delicias. God is helping!
Roberto has moved all of his family's belongings to his parent's house and has begun work on the new parsonage! He hopes to have it finished by February.
The foundation work will soon be completed and they will begin laying block for the walls!
On the back side of the house will be a prophets chamber for visitors and evangelists.
If you or your church would be interested in giving towards this project we would deeply appreciate it. We need about $10,000 to cover the expenses. You can make your checks payable to HIM and mark in the memo "Las Delicias Parsonage".

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Weekend in Guatemala

I was invited to speak at an EFM church in La Maquina, Guatemala on the topic of holiness. It was draining 15 hour drive to reach our destination but praise the Lord we had a very good trip. Roberto went along with me and it was first time to see El Salvador and Guatemala. Here he is talking with Eduardo, this family housed us during our stay.
There were lots of chickens, ducks and turkeys running around the house and roosting right outside of our bedroom window. The stalks in the background is sesame. Sesame seeds is one of the main incomes in this part of the country.
In each service we were blessed with some wonderful singing. On the right is pastor Ruben Segura and a man from his church. They make a great duo!
God helped in the services as I spoke on the two types of sin, the steps to holiness and the benefits of having holy hearts.
 We had some very special altar services as people sought God for a holy heart.

The Sunday morning crowd.
The church was just ten minutes from the Pacific Ocean.
Pastor Ruben and his family. We had a great weekend with some great people!!

 
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