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Guatemala
Byron E. Benitez & Hawatthia "Hi" Jones
Guatemala Mission Work
Kingsley Terrace Church of Christ
2031 E. 30th Street
Indianapolis, IN 46218
Tuesday, May 25, 2004
Greetings from Guatemala!
We hope and pray that you and your loved ones are doing well.
We are thankful to God that the congregation at Linda Vista is recuperating
from the difficulties that it experienced recently. It was great to see the
church pull together, though there is still more work to be done in this
area. We see from this and other experiences how God uses difficulties to
teach us to depend more on Him and grow from them.
We are also very grateful to the brotherhood for their continued support.
Not only are you who support us making this ministry possible, but also your
prayers and constant words of encouragement are just what we need during
these trying times. At the same time we want to thank those who have come to
Guatemala. Through your presence alone you encourage us greatly, not to
mention your service that you render for the benefit of the church here.
In particular, we want to mention our gratitude to Jay and Amanda Smith, and
Judith Benitez, who recently visited us. Jay and Amanda are Christians from
Tennessee who worship with the Clarksburg congregation. They have been
interested in our work and expressed a desire to visit and encourage the
church here. Thankfully, that desire became a reality this month.
On Saturday, May 15, Jay and Amanda arrived to Guatemala. There was not
much time to rest, however. We picked them up from the airport and drove
straight to the Linda Vista building. The ladies of the congregation
normally meet each Saturday afternoon, and on this occasion were anxious to
have Amanda address them and encourage them. We received very good comments
about Amanda's time with the ladies. The Linda Vista ladies are hoping that
Amanda can come back very soon.
On Sunday, May 16, Jay became the busy one. He delivered all the lessons on
that day: two sermons and one Bible class lesson. Byron translated for him.
In addition, he also taught the Wednesday auditorium class. His lessons on
unity and evangelism were very timely and well received by the brethren.
Amanda was scheduled to teach the children on Wednesday evening, but
unfortunately she came down with some type of respiratory infection,
possibly a sinus infection, and was not able even to get out that evening.
We are grateful that she was feeling better the next day just in time for
both of them to depart back to Tennessee.
Judith Benitez is Byron's sister. She became a Christian in October of 2002.
She came to serve as translator for Amanda and we are informed did a great
job. This was her first opportunity to serve in this capacity for the Lord
and she was very excited to do so. She worships at the Visalia church of
Christ, in California. She stayed with us through this past Monday.
Also, while Jay, Amanda and Judith were here, we began a new program of
visitation and evangelism that we had been planning with several of the men
for several weeks. We were excited with the turn out of members that came
out and committed to be involved. For many of them, visiting and evangelism
is something completely new. You could tell they were nervous, but it was
great to see that they were still willing to be involved and to serve the
Lord. Our hope is that we can continue to keep the momentum going and serve
God as He deserves.
The visits from Christians from other places are something that continues to
be a blessing both to the church in Linda Vista, and to those who visit. We
pray that more will take advantage of these opportunities to the glory of
God. Thanks again, Jay, Amanda and Judith for giving of your time to serve
your brothers and sisters here in Guatemala.
On a final note, we must tell you about the Ladies Day that took place this
past Saturday. We must admit, that with the dilemmas we have been facing,
most everyone was a bit nervous as to what would be the turn out. The reason
for this is that one of the ladies that has chosen to leave Linda Vista has
a lot of influence amongst the ladies of the capital city. However, to
everyone's surprise, the day was a complete success and we feel brought much
glory to God and to His church. There were approximately 175 ladies that
attended. Of this number, there were several non-Christian women that heard
a message from God's divine word. Everyone reported being blessed by this
great event. In addition to all the adult women, there were over 70 children
that came with them. Our ladies were prepared and had a group organized to
give special classes and have activities with the children. Again, all the
glory goes to God Almighty for the way He works to achieve His purposes.
We have included some photographs of Jay's, Amanda's and Judith's visit.
There are also a couple pictures of the Ladies Day (NO, we did not attend.
The pictures were taken by some of the ladies : -) We hope that you are able
to view them without any difficulty.
We will close for now. We ask that you continue to pray for the church here
and for us.
Hawatthia
Byron
Amanda Teaching & Judith Translating |
Ladies' Day |
Linda Vista Ladies |
Visitation & Evangelism |
Jay Preaching |
Read previous newsletters:
April 15, 2004
March 17, 2004
February 15, 2004
February 13, 2004
February 2, 2004
“Teaching the CENTRAL MESSAGE in CENTRAL AMERICA!”
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