Englewood, CO 80113
February 17, 2016
God has been faithful to answer the prayers of God’s people regarding the Bible Club in San Juan Obispo, Guatemala. Praise be to Him! We were there for four weeks to minister to 35 older children (who could read) and 10 younger ones. We taught from Genesis, and presented 4 chapters from the life of Joseph through drama.
Another purpose of the trip was to take school supplies to the children since they start their school year in January. Usually the Guatemalan government provides some school supplies, but this year we were told there were none. Hope Community Church together with Aurora Christian Women provided a generous amount of school supplies. Aurora Christian Women also donated 15 New Testaments plus flip-flops and shoes, and Hope hosted a packing party to help us prepare for the trip.
Marianita, a widowed seamstress from Jocotan, made 20 small orange-and-red backpacks which we added to the 15 backpacks generously donated for our ministry. Total: thirty-five full backpacks! Gleeful children carried them fully loaded out of the Club. Ted carried the heavy backpack loaded with line and graph notebooks. Each child received at least 15 pens and pencils, and there was also an abundance of crayons and scissors. Some who excelled at memorizing verses even won staplers, hole punches, and many more assorted school supplies.
Little Emerson shared with us that his father left him at age seven months and his mother later. Emerson lives with his grandmother, and has beautiful clothes, but they can’t take the place of his parents. Emerson marched in the parade to earn school supplies, and he repeatedly thanked us for helping him to learn Bible verses.
The church had a special service to bid us farewell. Martir, a member of the church, took time from his work to transport everything to the final clausura (conclusion of the Bible Club).
Ted drafted the plans for raising the roof of the church, which is required in order to add a second floor to the building (this is the church where the Bible Club meets). The Pastor said he believes the drawings will help sell the additional floor to the town council. For years, the council has declined to give approval to the second floor plan, but now there is a new mayor who has promised to help those endeavoring to remodel the church and other buildings.
Ted is committed to learning Spanish. He reads four chapters in the Bible in Spanish every morning, and his pronunciation is great.
Thanks so much to everyone at Hope for your prayers and support!
– Ted and Carol Schmidt