What We Do

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We are a non-profit organization that works with pastors, churches, schools, and the local hospital in Chiquimula, Guatemala. We host training seminars for pastors, leaders, and youth from rural areas and we help supply the congregations with Biblical materials to minister to their communities. We visit several public schools to share a Biblical story and play with the kids. We also pray in the local hospital and give out toys, toiletries, and Biblical materials. Ways to Be a Part of this Ministry: Come - We need pastors and leaders to come and teach these pastors and leaders here in Guatemala. Or you could bring a group to work in the churches or schools with construction or evangelism. Financially Support - If you would like to support this ministry, please visit our website at www.eyeswideopenministries.com to donate online or send your donation to: P.O.Box 245 Florence, Alabama 35631 Make your checks payable to Eyes Wide Open Ministries. All donations are tax-deductible. Pray - Please pray we will follow God's leading in all we do.

Saturday, July 28, 2012

Working along side with other groups

We had the privilege of working with a youth group from a Baptist church in Florida who was here with Sarita. We went with them to a school here in Chiquimula and helped with presenting a little Bible study, games, and music to the school. There were almost 400 students at the school!! We played some songs with them. One of the songs has dance moves with it that is for exercise or a drill in the military. The group did some dramas and more songs. Then a guy from the group spoke on the love and renewal we receive from the blood of Jesus. It was very fun and exciting to be able to minister to and play with so many kids!! They then went to Sarita's ministry and performed the same program with the group for those kids. Nancy and Ashley went with them to help with that program. Although it was only one day, we had a great time with the group and hope to be able to work with them again.
We also had a group from Josh and Jessica Byrd's ministry come and stay at our house July 19-23. They did a lot of construction, painting, and evangelizing. I was able to go with them one day and do some construction on the kitchen area at Sarita's ministry, and then later we all went with them to an orphanage in Camotan to help the group present their program to the kids in the orphanage. Then on Sunday morning we went with one of our dear friends at the church on the rock to invite the people to the church service that night were the group did some dramas and the leader preached. Brandi and one of the youth lead worship on a keyboard that the group bought for the church! The church was FULL of people!! The group did awesome in their dramas and the leader delivered a great evangelical message to the church. There was also an artist in the group. She was able to paint a mural on the wall while the service was going on at night! It looked great! There is someone in the church that can paint as well so the group left the paint to finish with more murals and scriptures on the walls. I was very excited for the pastor and the church with their keyboard and beautiful pictures on the walls! Praise the Lord and thank you New Bethel Baptist youth group and Josh and Jessica for blessing the church on the rock! God is good!!!

Daniel

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Pastor Seminar in July

When you invite Mark Adams to do a seminar you know you are going to have a good time! This is the guy my mom doesn't like dad being with because he is a bad influence on HIM! Pretty bad huh?! But we had a great time and so did all the pastors! The seminar was on July 5-7. There were 14 pastors this time and one of them was a first time pastor. Mark taught on "The Calling of a Pastor." This was a very personal and intimate topic. Many pastors shared personal stories and experiences of hard times and testings in their calling and their service as pastor. It was very interesting to hear their recounts of when they were called to be pastors. One of them had a dream while off working that two men came to his house and when he came home they told him they had to talk to him. Then they started telling him that God sent them to tell them He was calling him to preach. Then when he got home he saw the exact same two men that were in his dream waiting for him at his house. He told them that he already had seen them and knew why they were there. The men were confused and asked how that could be because they had never seen him before. He told them about the dream and they confirmed the calling with the word that God sent them to tell him. That's really awesome!! Another told a story about the difficulties of being a pastor where there is no means of financial support in the villages. At one time in their lives they had absolutely nothing to eat and were getting worried, but they kept their eyes on God and knew He was faithful. That night after not eating and crying from worry they woke up the next morning to find a huge pile of corn in the corner of their house. There are some really large ants here in Guatemala that had moved into their house that night and carried over 50 lbs of corn to the house. They were able to cook the corn and eat for a while. Wow!
Mark also shared with them about the responsibilities of being a pastor. Many of them were very attentive and making comments during this session. From what I could see and observe, the pastors were very pleased and encouraged throughout the seminar! There were many comments and expressions of thanks to Mark for coming and teaching them and refocusing them in their calling and responsibilities. Praise the Lord, we did not have any stand up and say that now they know they had not been called by God and were going to stop serving in the church as pastor. Hahaha. I actually had that in the back of my mind! But after hearing their testimonies of how they were called, it was very obvious that God has His hand and calling on them. Thank you for your prayers for the seminar! Please continue to pray for them as they grow and understand more about their calling and responsibilities.
Mark also was able to go to the church on the rock in Salfate and preach at the Sunday night service. Pastor Carlos invited Mark to deliver the message that night. Mark taught on the love we as Christians should show to all the people we come in contact with, even when it is the hardest person to love. He went through many examples of how it is difficult to love some folks and how we miss out on the opportunity to show God's love to others. Many had that look of conviction on their face and were very determined to be that church of love for the community at the close of the service.
Brandi, Nancy, and Ashley cooked the food this time for the pastors at the seminar!! That took a lot of work and time! I was very impressed at how awesome everything tasted and it was all on time! Brandi said they made almost 600 tortillas for the pastors!!! That is a ton of tortillas! And they were still wanting more tortillas! Hahaha But for many of the pastors, this is the only time they get really good food that has, for example, meat with it and vegetables. Normally they eat tortillas and beans and, if they have a little more money, rice. So praise God that they ate good and were very pleased with the girls cooking.
Praise God for His working in the lives of these pastors!! I have already seen and heard a difference in their lives and churches since they started coming and learning more from the seminars! God is soo good and faithful!! And thank you to the pastors who come and teach and the churches that send them! It would be very, very difficult without them!! And thank you to those who support us to make these seminars possible for the pastors!! God bless!!!  Daniel







Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Youth Seminar in June

We had our first youth seminar on June 23 and 24. They came on a Saturday morning and most left Sunday afternoon and the others left Monday morning. We had such an awesome time with them. We had 19 youth come from five different churches and areas. We had seven different teaching sessions. These were the youth who want to become leaders and teachers in their church. We had several different speakers who all did a wonderful job! Ashley Grissom from Alabama, who is staying with us right now for three months, taught on the importance of the Bible, Brandi and I taught on prayer, another young guy from our church, Bryan, taught on worship, Lester, also from our church, taught on Faith, Nancy Perez taught on evangelism, Josh Byrd, our missionary friend here in Chiquimula, taught on Obedience, and I spoke lastly on Success through obedience. Melanie Batchelor, who is also from Alabama staying with us for a month, did all the games with the youth between the sessions. We had another friend from our church, Julio, come and translate for Ashley. Julio and Brandi also lead worship with the youth throughout the day. On Saturday night we took the youth to our church in Chuiqumula to the youth service so they could be with other youth and have a good time with them. For some of the youth this was the first time leaving their village so that was really neat for them to go somewhere new and join in with other youth worshiping God.
Well I had too much fun with them! I hate it for the other pastors here because now all I want to do are more youth seminars! It was like I fit in perfect with the kids! I can't figure out why?? HA! They begged us to fill up the above ground concrete pool in our back yard so they could swim...so of course we did and they were able to swim the last day for a couple of hours before they had to leave. I joined them in playing what was suppose to be volleyball and was on the girls team...we girls rocked!!! I would start laughing and jumping up and down yelling like a girl when we got points and gave everybody high fives. They all died laughing and thought I was even more weird than before! But I was having a great time! I spoke to them while taking them back to the bus to go home and they all shared with me the things they learned and how they were going to go back to their villages more prepared and ready to grow deeper and closer to God. Hearing their person view and what each one learned was really encouraging for us...knowing that they actually listened and learned a little something! Brandi and the girls actually cooked the breakfast and supper for them. So they worked really hard getting them fed and full. We are so grateful to God for allowing us to have our first youth seminar and for the seminar going so great! We are very thankful to our supporters who help us have these seminars through their financial support and prayers! After paying to get them here and back home, feeding them, and providing a place to stay, we spend around $250 to $300. So without y'alls help we could not do this. Please keep these youth in your prayers and also pray that we will have the opportunity to have another youth seminar before the year is up! We are having a pastors seminar the first weekend in July so please pray for us and the pastors as we learn more about the calling and responsibilities of pastors. We love y'all very much and are very excited about what God is doing in the ministry and our family!! God bless!!

Ashley and Julio teaching on the importance of the Bible
Daniel teaching on Prayer
Bryan teaching on Worship
Games
Nancy teaching on Evangelism 
Lester teaching on Faith
Josh teaching on Obedience
Worship
Games
Notes

Games (Daniel and Josh having more fun than the youth)
Each youth shared what they learned