Ministry Construction Costs and Video

The EWO Ministry Center will be used to host training seminars for rural pastors, leaders (men and women), and youth.  We will also host mission teams from the States here, and we hope to host retreats, revivals, and community Bible studies.  The missionaries will also live at the center.

The construction began in February 2015, and we are still in the construction process.  We continue to raise funds as well to complete the project.

Below you will find the construction costs and a video that describes the entire ministry center. Please consider taking a look.  Thank you!

Construction Costs
The specific amounts we need to finish the EWO Ministry Center are as follows:
1.  One dorm and bathroom are finished and in use!
2.  The roof on the second dorm and bathroom is installed and much work has been completed! We only lack $5000 to get these usable!
3. We will need $10,000 to finish the conference part of the center.
4.  We will need $29,000 to build the cafeteria/dining hall, kitchen, prayer area, office and storage room that are on the other side of the ministry center.  The footings are already dug out on this side, but nothing else.
4.  The ministry house is completed! Praise God!

On behalf of Eyes Wide Open Ministries in Guatemala, we want to Thank You for the donations you have already given to make this vision a reality!  We also thank you for your prayers as we continue this process.

If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation to the EWO Ministry Center, click
DONATE HERE.

Thanks again for being a great part of this ministry!

To see a full walk through of the Ministry Center (taken at the end of 2015), watch the video below!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grt876IJiho

Christmas is just around the corner, and we are so happy to be in Alabama with family and friends.  Although we miss our Christian family in Guatemala, it is very nice to spend time with our grandparents, parents, siblings, nieces, and nephews.  We sure are blessed!  How about you?
Our preacher from Guatemala, Pastor Jendrick Lobos, shared a video on Facebook giving thanks for family.  He said we all have a family to be thankful for, and it is the truth.  Even if we were unable to be "home" for the holidays, we can say we are never alone.  We have been greatly blessed with a ministry family, a church family, and a missionary family in Guatemala.  Our cup is over-flowing with warm, loving family, and all I can say is God knows our personal needs.  Praise Him for His love and faithfulness! He even gives us those "extra"  blessings no matter where we are.

We are also very thankful to announce we have updated and redesigned our webpage at www.eyeswideoopenministries.com!  We are very grateful for my brother, Casey McBay, at Shoals Websites for designing and managing the site.  It is a great blessing to the ministry!  We hope you like it and can get to know a little bit more about what our family is doing in Guatemala.
Blessings,
Brandi

Public School Ministry Pictures 2015:

Ministry Center Pictures in El Morral, Guatemala:

Good stuff in June!

Well we have almost made it through June in one piece! We had to help move some of our closest friends to Belize this month because they are going to minister there now. Really bites, but I know God has awesome things ready for them to do there! But it was great having them here, and our kids loved their kids which are good friends with our kids. But Lord willing we will still be seeing them and visiting them throughout the year! They live really close to the beach in Belize...that was nice and will be a nice get away from time to time!!
We have been visiting the schools, teaching and playing with the kids! Loving it! Getting to know new faces and personalities and seeing the fear on their faces as they get to know me...haha I don't know why folks look scared or just shake their heads when they are around me...I feel I am a pretty normal guy...good looking and charming...haha But there is this new thing happening in the schools with the kids playing some sort of satanic game with chants and crazy things happening! Don't know if it's happening in the States as well, but the kids here don't see the seriousness of the game and only think it's cool and fun! But that's how the devil likes to get in and then kill, steal, and destroy! So please keep them and us in your prayers so we can preach the Word and give them Jesus!

We had a group of teachers from Alabama come and teach the teachers here this past week.

The schools loved them and the knowledge they were able to gain from the "workshops" the teachers brought. This also opens doors and gives us favor in the eyes of the schools! So thank you to the teachers from Bama, and may God continue to work and transform minds and hearts in the schools!

We also had a group from St. Louis and from Texas come two weeks ago to minister in the

mountains, hospital, and schools. What a great time! And great group! God was glorified and lives were changed and will continue to change after that week! We were able to walk with several pastors through their communities ministering with them and praying with the families in the village while handing out food bags to the families. A lot of times we think we are showing up to be this huge light and change their lives when we leave more impacted and touched than the folks in the village. That's God! And good things happened that week to the folks in the group too! I think we might have found a husband for Nancy! She'll kill me...hahaha But time will tell! So thank you to the groups that came this month to minister with us and help open more doors to be able to continue ministering and go to some new places as well.

Dorm room & 2 Bathrroms

The construction is coming along, praise the Lord! We have a group coming in July that will help pay to get the roof put on and then another group that will help move the dirt and level the rooms out for the floors. We don't have any more funds as of now to continue with the construction. We still lack the floors and bathroom items to get the first phase finished and the seminars functioning in there rather than at our rented house. So please pray for God to continue to provide for the construction and the vision He has given us. If you feel lead or want to help with the ministry center, please contact us and we can explain many different ways how you can help.



Thank you God for a great month in June! You are awesome and keep surprising us and showing us your power, love , and faithfulness everyday! Thank y'all for your prayers and support which keep us going and help accomplish all that we do here for the glory of God! God bless!!

Catching Up!

Been several weeks since I have updated the blogspot. I know all two or three of y'all are suffering and dying from waiting for my next blog! Come on! You know your heart is leaping for joy! HA!
We have been getting back into the schools and playing with and teaching the kids! I really enjoy our time with them! Sometimes I feel like it really ain't making a difference, but that's when I slap the devil in the face and get in the car and go and have some fun and pour out the Truth all over the kids! It ain't my job to make sure it sticks or penetrates and grows...but I'm going to keep seasoning it with salt that does penetrate and with truth that sets free those who hear it and get it! God is good and has equipped us with everything that we need to do His good, pleasing, and perfect will!...so let's get out there and do it! Nancy is a huge help in the schools! The kids love her! And we now have another friend helping us, Ruben, with serving and loving the folks here! They are great to have and a true blessing for the ministry!
We have also had several seminars in the house over the past few months. Some with the pastors, some with youth...all went great, praise the Lord! God is so faithful to show up and teach and fill this place with His presence and Word! Even in the kitchen you can fill His presence and blessing over the food! We really enjoy having the pastors in our house and seeing and hearing about the awesome things God is doing in their lives and in their communities!
Brandi, Nancy and Ruben are faithful about going and pouring into the lives of the folks in the hospital every week! They take gifts for the babies and Christian literature for the older folks! It's great to see the smiles on the faces and see the encouragement and the lifted spirits as they pray and as God wraps His arms around them and they experience His presence and comfort in their difficult times! It's probably the more difficult thing we do b/c of the extreme heat inside the hospital and the spiritual warfare while we pray, but God is bigger and stronger and gives us the strength to be His voice and hands to many lives. To God be the glory! For great things the He is doing!
We have come so far with the construction too! Praise God! One of my friends asked me one day if we were almost out of money and about to stop working...I thought that since day one that has been the case! HA! And we are still working three months later every day with out stopping! So I don't know how to answer that question...Only God knows! And God is faithful to complete what He has started and will do it in His timing! I just read in Haggai where He said that He is the owner of all the silver and gold so He will provide what we need to do His will...in His timing! So we are trusting God and moving forward in faith with what He has given us to work with for today and will keep doing so until He says otherwise. It ain't easy!! Don't get me wrong...very trying and testing sometimes when it seems to be overwhelming and everybody is asking so many questions about the next thing...But I try to keep my eyes fixed on Jesus and let the Spirit lead my next step. Please keep us in your prayers throughout this process! God is so good and faithful!
The family is doing good! Have had some sicknesses that felt like it sucked the life out of us! Ha! But we bounced back with God's strength and have been doing good! The kids finished their school today! YEA! And the groups are about to start coming in June and don't stop until the middle of August! So it'll probably be another 4 months before I blog again! Haha But I'll try to keep the blogs updated. We are using the ministry facebook a lot to post pictures and updates! www.facebook.com/eyeswideopenministries Go check it out!
There you go....

Pastor Seminar

Pastor Seminar

Youth Seminar

Construction Site: Dorm Room and Two Bathrooms

School Ministry

Ministry Land and Immigration

We met with the architect and went over all my beautiful hand-drawn plans...bless their hearts. I think maybe Uriah could have done a better job. HA! But they got the gist of it and said that they were going to start the plans and have them ready to review in a week. I felt very nervous and uncertain about that whole step but after talking to them, I felt better. And that's one step closer to getting started. We also bought close to $1,000 of re-bar to start forming columns and getting started on the cistern and septic tank. Esau is going to be the foreman over the construction and found a great deal on that re-bar. Thank you Jesus. I think Esau might be more excited than we are about God's leading and direction to buy that land and build the ministry house. Whenever I talk to him about an idea, he says that they...his family who are also construction guys...were up late discussing the same idea and making plans and drawings to show us. Love it! We really felt God leading us to put Esau in charge of the construction...and now I see why! Good stuff!
We are still in the process of getting permanent residency for our two oldest kids. It's been over a year now...and I still can't believe the things that happen at immigration here in Guatemala! Simply mistakes that shouldn't happen in an office that only works with immigrants from all over the world...like putting your whole name on the forms or spelling your last name right??? I guess with all the weird names that exist in this world that might be understandable but not when you have a thousand forms in front of your face with the name spelled correctly! Good grief! But God's grace is sufficient and His mercy is new every time we go to that office! We had a friend here that told us we should stop praying for patience because enough is enough! Haha! But Lord willing, we will be finishing the process this coming Monday...like I haven't said that 40 different times! But we are still praying and hoping for it!
But God is good and faithful!! And we endure all things and give thanks IN...not FOR...all circumstances because God and His love are just that good!! It wipes the other little short-lived problems of this world off the plate! God bless!!