Prayer ministry

Hey Everyone!!  Daniel and I were doing our devotion this morning, and we were talking about how the Lord works and He gives us gifts of the Spirit and talents for His glory (1 Corinthians 12).  He also leads His people to do specific things, and that is when Daniel asked me if I had wrote a blog about a ministry that God has laid on our hearts, which is not anything new, but it is to go pray for people in the hospitals.  Well, although we are just beginning, a group of girls and I have gone around a few times praying for children and adults in the hospitals.  In the few times that we have went, God has already begun to show us how prayer is "powerful and effective"(James 5:16).  The first time we went, there were several babies that were very sick.  One specific baby was fighting a very high fever, and as we asked if we could pray for the baby, the momma kind of looked at us like "whatever".  She clearly did not want us to pray for her son.  After a moment of waiting, she did let us, and we prayed for him and the momma, and then went to the next child.  The next day, when we went back, the same boy was sitting up in bed and looked much better.  We went over to ask the mother how the baby was doing, and she said, with a HUGE smile on her face, that the fever had broken, and he was getting much better! Praise the Lord!  But what really wowed me was that when I said, "Praise the Lord!", she too said, "Yes, praise the Lord!".  Although she had been hesitant the day before, she was very sure that God had healed her son!  What a great experience!!
Another story is one of a little girl that had not used the bathroom for several days because of blockage.  She had to have surgery, but after the surgery, she continued to get worse instead of better.  It was so bad, the doctor himself was saying that they were all fighting for her life.  Again, we visited her several times to pray for her and for the mother, and the last time we went to see her, she was doing very bad.  The doctor was with her, and he said that she was still fighting, and she had been there for 18 days.  I did not pray for her there because the doctor was with her, but I did pray outside the room for them. Five days later, when Jessica Byrd and I went to visit again, the nurses didn't even know who we were talking about.  The girl had been released two days after I had visited her when the doctor said she had been fighting for her life.  The nurses looked through some papers, and another nurse walked up and said that she "just got better".  Praise the Lord!  The girl's mother had been struggling with depression and thought about killing herself if the girl had died too, so God saved both of their lives!!
I wanted to share these two stories today for a couple of reasons.  One reason is because I wanted to testify to the power of God, and another reason is to encourage you to do what you feel God is laying on your heart to do.  Obey His voice so you can experience His power first hand.  We have prayed for several other children and women as well, but we have no idea what God is doing in their lives.  God is encouraging us though to continue to do what He has called us to do no matter if we never see what the purpose is or not. Obey His Word.
So, God has told me to go and pray for the people in the hospital, and that is what we are starting to do.  Please pray for God to continue to lead us to the right people and that He continues to use us to show others His power and love.
Brandi

God's Provision!

God did something AWESOME for us yesterday, and although He always provides for all of our needs and shows us His love and mercy every day, there are just some things He does that just WOW you!
Praise the Lord, we have never been without! NEVER!  God has always provided for us at just the right time.  Right now though, we are going through a season with our finances that requires a little more faith than usual, which is good.  We all need those seasons,  or we would never learn how much God truly does provide for our EVERY need.  Yesterday morning, before church, Daniel and I were talking about how Jesus told the disciples in John 14 "whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.  And I will do whatever you ask in My name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it."  We were talking about how sometimes we just ask God to help us make it through the hard times, and we don't ask Him for the specific things we need because we don't want to burden God or something.  When in these verses, Jesus tells us that we can ask for anything in His name...why? To bring GLORY to God!  
So, last night, I had the opportunity to speak at a church for the first time in Guatemala (the church on the ROCK), and man was I  nervous.  I have taught here and led small house Bible studies, but I have never spoke at a church.  Remembering Jesus's words in John though, I asked for God to speak through my inadequate Spanish, and Praise the Lord, God was gloried!  But what truly WOWED us was that at one part in the service, the congregation took up a love offering of vegetables, sugar, oil, and other foods for someone, and we thought is was for a poor family in the village.  After I spoke though, the pastor tells us that the offering was for us because God had told him that He wanted the congregation to show us His love and provision for us.  THE FOOD WAS FOR US!  This is a very poor church, but they were obedient to what God told them to do!  It broke our hearts and humbled us and made us realize even more that God will always provide for us and He wants to provide for us because He loves us.  

Ask God for the "greater things".  He loves us so much!  Obey His commands, like Jesus continues to talk about in John 14:15, 23, and 24, and show God how much you love Him in return.  He will never "leave you as orphans" (vs 18).

House in San Jacinto

Welp...we finally finished the house in one of the villages close by. We have been in construction for a little over two weeks. This is the house and family that

we met last year in Nov. and felt lead to build them a new house after their house was in danger of falling after the raining season left. Josh and Jessica Byrd came to serve in Guatemala this past Feb. and the Lord opened the door through their ministry to pay for the house. Josh and I worked with three other pastors who are our friends on this project. We also had help from a few other men that lived close to the house. Julio is the man who we are building the house for and he helped also. I got to say, I had no idea how exhausted I would be from working on the house. And I know Brandi has been working just as hard at home with the three kids. But praise God He accomplished His purpose and will for this family. It has been the hottest this year the two weeks we take

to build the house. The temperature has always been right at or over 100 F. Rough stuff, and we came out of it with a couple of bruises and cuts, just Josh and me. The other guys are just fine! But we are still walking and breathing Praise the Lord. They would say that we are accident prone and would laugh all the time. One time after I fell backing out of the house where all the material was stored and Julio's mom started laughing I picked up a block and broke it over her head!! Just joking. But I am thankful that God watched over us while we provided them with entertainment. I don't reckon we are use to walking and building a house on the side of a mountain. It would have been nice to have a bulldozer to level everything out flat. Haha So I wanted to thank everyone for their prayers for this project. The house and all the other expenses came to be right under $2,000.00!  If any one is interested in sponsoring another family with a house there are plenty of folks who have no house at all and others like Julio who need help due to weather or just simply that the mud and sticks used to build the house are not holding anymore. I'm not the expert in construction but I know that God can do anything and we want to be ready when He leads and directs us, even in doing construction. So pray that the house doesn't fall and hurt anyone! Haha Just joking! Thank you and Praise God!!!

It's Hot!!

Well it is 2:30 pm and it is 106 F outside! And it feels worse in the house because there is a slight breeze outside. If I could figure out how to strap a fan to by body and carry it everywhere I went...that would ROCK!! Sometimes all I want to do is go sit in the car or go somewhere in the car to sit in the A/C but with gas being over $5 a gallon that won't work either! I went to the capital yesterday and spent a little over $75 just getting there and back and it is only 100 miles away. But Guatemala is very mountainous and hard to drive with the road conditions. The rain is suppose to be here already, but it hasn't come yet. Brandi and I both have our own fan at night blowing on us. Sometimes I don't know how we are able to breathe. But still manage to sweat like crazy and have to wake up to flip the wet pillow to the other side a couple of times. It would be great if one of them icebergs could float down here and land in our back yard!! Can you tell I'm hot??? Later

Women's Seminar Pictures

First Eyes Wide Open Women Seminar:  April 19th & 20th, 2012 - Thank you ALL for your prayers and support!  God is working in the lives of these precious women and He is using them to do great things in Guatemala!

Worshiping before the classes

Pastor Jendrick and Pastora Claudia from Casa del Alfarero leading worship

Teaching about why we are loved by God

Special diner

Night worship

Dinora Leytan leading a class on Believing that We were Born for Big Things

Prayer time

We were able to give out certificates, flowers, and presents. The presents were donated by Casa del Alfarero

Presentation of flowers and certificates

Hanging out after dinner

Beautiful! Pastora Mary from Salfate church (The church on the Rock!)

The certificates their name, the meaning of their name, and a verse

Precious Anacleta! She could out quote anyone on Bible verses!  Taught to her by the Lord because she cannot read. 

Sidia, who lost her husband this past year. He was a Pastor that was in the wreck with 10 other pastors coming back from a Revival. 

Amazing Odilia with one of her presents!

Back in School!

Well, we went back to our first school this past Friday. I had such a great time with the boys. We played a game with them and then I spoke to them on "How to treat others." The teacher told me that they are starting to fight a lot and hit each other. So I taught them on the love of God and the command that God gives us to love. At the end, they were able to repeat to me that if we do not obey God's Word, then we do not know God. And if we do not love others, then we can't love God. Some of the boys started pointing out other "bullies" in the classroom saying, "He is a liar and does not love God!" Hahaha I thought, "Oh my! I hope this kid doesn't pound him later for saying that." But I had fun with the boys. I also learned that slapping a guy on the backside here does not mean that you are a big tough athletic jock like it does in the States...I won't be doing that anymore. Josh, who is a missionary living here now with his wife Jessica, came and helped me at the school also. He is like 6'3 and all the kids were talking about how tall he is. Many are calling him Goliath! Haha


Then we went to our second school in San Juan yesterday, and it was a little tougher crowd! Nancy, who works with us in the ministry, and I taught on the same subject, and we played games and had a great time, but these students seem to really be struggling more with stealing, fighting, and disrespect. I actually had one 8 year old boy yell out while I was speaking that I didn't know how it was here because I am a gringo and live in the States. He also kept yelling out the wrong answers and being a distraction throughout the entire lesson. I thought about using some of my police moves on him, but I decided to minister to him instead. Good choice I thought. Anyway, after Nancy and I told him that I had lived in Guatemala for a while and after telling him that one day he was going to get the snot beat out of him, he at least kept quiet so the others could listen. Please pray for these kids in the public schools. We have had several people tell us that many of them, like in the States, live with just their moms or with grandparents. The problem is though, the government does not support families like this like they do there. Many of the children are working by the time they are 6 years old, and because of this, they are put in great danger. One child that was selling candy in one of the communities here was stolen and murdered just a couple of weeks ago. So, to tell you the truth, I probably do not have a clue what these kids go through. Please pray that God will use us in the way He wants to minister to these kids and pray that our eyes will stay open to how we can help them in every way we can.

Update on one of our pastors and friends

We have asked for your prayers for our friend where we built the church on the rock. He had a mini stroke about three weeks ago and has had to stop working his construction job. He is taking medicine to help balance out certain levels in his body that are thought to cause strokes. He had to stay in bed the first full week and now is getting back slowly with therapy for his left side which was effected. He is able to move the left side but has no strength in his left hand and pain on the whole left side of his body. He is able to move around now and do a little throughout the day. He has not been able to work to provide for his family. We asked y'all to pray and those who could, to give money to help pay for medicine, medical bills, and food for his family. Well, the Lord provided through your giving in a big way!!! We received $460 to give to him!! PRAISE GOD!! He and his wife were soo excited! They told me that they had to borrow money from other people to pay for the medicine and the medical bills and that would cover that payment and give them plenty to live on while he can't work. They said over and over that they would be praying for all of you who are praying for them and also helping them financially! They were very appreciative and prayed for God to bless each of you! So thank you very much for your prayers! I have received many emails from many of you saying that you are praying or that the church is praying for him. I have relayed all those emails to him. Thank you! And thank you to all who gave money to help them out while he recovers. Please keep praying for a complete and fast recovery for him! He is still preaching too and leading his church and working there for the Lord while recovering, but I have to keep reminding him to slow down and recover while he can! Thank you again!