Guatemala Update 3

mosaic friends and family,

thanks for giving me some grace in my lack of posting yesterday.  with full intent, we came home late from a fantastic day of ministry with fellowship guatemala around 10 pm, only to find that the one computer at the hotel was booked till past 11.  my missions alarm clock was ringing in my head so i´ll call it like it was...i went to bed.  what a day though!  we went throughout the local communities as small teams sharing the gospel with families that were on the ´being prayed for by the church list´´.  it was a special balance of needing of great courage, and the element of relationship.  every one of our students shared their testimonies, along with the gospel, multiple times with the help of a translator.  they were un.be.liev.able.  i was so proud.  at the end of our time, 21 people had prayed to receive christ and asked if they could be followed up with by means of discipleship, accountability, and-or small group particiation.  it stretched our comfort zone...but was  so so good.  many comments by students about how ´´it only works when you do it´.  many shared about friends back home they would like to pursue in a similar fashion. so incredible. god is good. in the afternoon then, we led a compassion international kids program that meets in the church.  praise the lord we came prepared!  100 kids jammed full the church and for two hours we did crafts, games, songs, and our shadrach, meshach, and abednago skit. lots of fun memories and big hugs from those adorable kids

today was our day of rest. and boy...did we need it.  we went to antigua, a beautiful tourist city 45 minutes outside of the city.  we were there from about 930 till 330 siteseeing, shopping, eating well, and drinking mulitple cups of coffee `<`parents, your students just may come back as coffee addicts...sorry<  we then came back to iglesia biblica and put on a program for their student ministry. they were having a soccer tournament that we participated in.  really fun, we realized our feet our slow, but our hearts and bodies are big.  very useful to push around lighting fast guatemalans...for the gospel of course.  then mateo preached a gospel message with some neat worship.  it was special

well, time for bed. we have a long day of travel tomorrow. parents, we will see you at about 530 at the nwa airport.  please do not leave quickly, as we would like to pray together as a team before we all go our own seperate ways

can´t wait to see you all. thanks for praying
mateo, marta, los estudiantes

Portland Update 2

Hey friends and family! A few incredible days here in Portland. We've been walking through the Story of God, a narrative that walks from Genesis to Revelation to explore who God is and who we are in light of that. We've talked a lot about the Gospel and what it means for the Christian today. It is not just the A, B, C's of faith, but the A to Z of faith. We've examined our own hearts for idols that get in the way of Jesus, and asked the soul-piercing question, "Do we trust Jesus to be our Savior in all things?" It's been a growing week for all of us.

We've also been able to serve the bread & wine community by prayer walking neighborhoods and serving people in the community with basic needs to build bridges for the gospel. Thanks for your prayers.

blessings,
Nick and the portland team

Guatemala Update 2

i was able to hold true to my promise by getting in a blog in by thursday!  even if it was by 11;30 guatemala time.  by the way...if some of the words come across funny, guatemala makes their keyboards different from ours.  i still can't find the capitalizing button...hahaha.  our time in the mountains was fantastic.  truly was a blessing from God to see the students do their thing. who ever thought there would be or could be a justin bieber dance party in the middle of nowhere...leave it to us to pull off though. so fun.  we spent each morning planting lemon, orange, and avacodoe trees for families with great spiritual potential and that have growing relatiohsips with hugo and susannah, our missionary partners.  this was an ongoing illustration also of planting seeds of the gospel and seeing the ongoing fruit that it prayerfully would produce. we would pray for each family during and after the planting of the trees. it was very special.  we would then use the afternoons to play with kids through games, crafts, skits, and pinatas.  i can't wait to show you the pictures and videos.  major props to our students for boldly sharing their testimonies, bible stories, and the gospel many times in front of many kids.  highlight of my time personally was being with 3 potential church planters as pastor chip drew out the triad of discipleship and church multiplication literally on the dirt floor of one of their houses. so cool

we left this morning and got into the city where we met up with pastor daniel bran of fellowship guatemala.  what a great man!  we spent the afternoon going to houses of needy and hurting people, praying with families and sharing the love of jesus.  erika and bonnie got to lead 3 people to the lord during this time!  one of the men who prayed to receive christ was a very hard and difficult man, and has been prayed for for months by the church.  who new 2 white girls from arkansas would be the knock out punch of truth and love!!!!  we then attanded an outreach service tonight at pastor daniels church.  they asked us 30 minutes before if we would like to have some of our kids play in a band for them, and if our students would share their testimonies with the church. by the way, there was 200 people there.  so cool when our students without blinking an eye volunteered fearlessly to do both.  the band was made up of luke on drums, brianna on piano, alex on violin, erika and matt singing, with matt playing bass.  it went great!  reid also shared his testimony using strength as his theme and illustration...quoting then 'i can do all things through christ who gives me strength'.  he killed it...so proud.

well...i am absolutely sueno...translated...sleepy.  i will be able to post again tomorrow night.  pray as tomorrow we put on a kids program, pray with more families, and talk more church planting strategy in guatemala

we love you all...we are safe and sound. nobody sick, everybody pretty well rested.  God is certainly good
mateo, marta, and faithful/passionate/humble student team

Memphis Update 5

Thursday was a very full and emotional day. We spent the morning finishing up a couple of projects and the afternoon at our respective gyms. It was very hard to say goodbye to our new friends. We worshiped with FSM again tonight and had a great experience with the Lord. The students have had an incredible week. Parents, please talk to your students about their week. My guess is they will tell you about a life-changing experience. Thanks again so much for all the prayers. We can't wait to come back next year! We will see you in Northwest Arkansas on Friday.

(Carol Holmstrom has been providing these updates each day. Big thanks to Carol - Nick)

Memphis Update 4

Today was another great day. We spent the morning scrubbing floors and working on a landscape project. We got to spend some good time with the kids this afternoon. Tonight the students were treated to an Arkansas/Memphis baseball game in Redbird Stadium. Some of the kids from MAM joined us and had a great time! The students are displaying incredible servant hearts and we couldn't be more proud of them.

Memphis Update 3

Tuesday was a very full day. After breakfast and our morning devo/quiet time (we are studying 1 Peter), we cleaned one of the gyms in the morning and then split into our groups again and got to love on the kids in 2 locations. Some great relationships are being formed. The students are being impacted in a huge way. We then went to Central BBQ and then had worship with Fellowship's Sunday Morning students who are also here this week. It was incredible to see 200 students from NWA worshiping together here. It was a sweet night. Thank you so much for praying for these students this week. God is moving here in Memphis!

Portland Update 1

Hey guys,
Incredible first day. Travel went smoothly (well kinda. we had a bit of a bumpy flight). Upon landing in Portland, we took a train and then a bus downtown before meeting up with the bread & wine team at the Urban Grind, a really cool coffee house in NE Portland. We heard a little bit about the church and then started "the Story of God," a narrative that presents the story of the entire Bible. We did a quick cleanup of the Urban Grind and then headed off to our hosthomes. Good first day. Excited to see how God will grow us and encourage the church here.

blessins,
nick and team