This was not only our last team for the year, but, the largest team we have had the whole year of 2008 - and - contrary to what we may have previously thought to expect, one of the best - and - certainly, one of the more enjoyable. They did Vacation Bible School for 100 kids morning and afternoon - and - we might add, a terrific job at that! We appreciate all the efforts put forth and their great attitude every day. The last day they handed out Barbie dolls for every little girl and matchbox cars for the boys; wish you could have seen their faces! Pastor Herberto, at the church there in Los Laurelles, gave an invitation and 31 children prayed to receive Christ - God be praised!

Our last team was from Columbus, GA. They worked in Jalapa doing door-to-door evangelism and inviting people to a Vacation Bible School for adults and children to be done by the next team coming on Nov 22nd. They were lots of fun and we had a great time, but I do remember going to bed early every night, so it must have been hard work also. We are so blessed to have the opportunity to be with and to do work with these people - til next time, maybe next year!

This is our newest acquaintance in the neighborhood, Maria and she is 6 years old. She told me her family does not observe Christmas and she had never heard the stories from the Bible of David & Goliath, Jesus, etc. She took our small Children's Bible home & her mother read her the stories, whom we have not met yet, but, hopefully some day. She is very patient with our Spanish and loves to visit us.

These are our 1st trick-or-treaters in 3 years (actually, we didn't have any on Old Beason Well Rd, we lived too far from the road); instead of saying "trick-or-treat" they said "candy-candy-candy....." They came @ 6pm and we have had none since; oh well, k cannot have the rest of the candy!

Below is a slideshow from a 6th Grade Graduation, all girls, in Zone 5 of the city of Guatemala. We arrived at 8 and left at 11am; it was still going on, but our cab had arrived. The first part of the ceremony was spent in praise & worship to God & Jesus Christ; this is a public school, not a private. They marched in to Stevie Wonder's "I Just Called To Say 'I Love You'" and lit candles to the tune "Under the Boardwalk" - live music from a keyboard. It was quite enjoyable.

Graduation in Guatemala

Make a Smilebox slideshow

We had 4 people from Arkansas and 9 from Alabama; I ask you, could there be a better combination? Two days were spent in Patulul working with a sister church from Santa Barbara; the last day was spent working with de Iglesia Bautista Belen, Santa Barbara, Such.Guatemala. The sister church in Patulul was their 10th mission started from the church in Santa Barbara; would you say that church has been busy working? The team had the opportunity to work in a school that morning with boys from kindergarten to 6th grade. They were privileged to see 41 people pray to accept Christ and 4 reaffirm their faith in Him. The Lord blessed in many ways and to Him we give the glory & praise!

Well, we were not at church on Sunday night after we joined that morning, but this is what happened. Two guys came in & robbed one of the men sitting on the back row & took his vehicle. The Pastor saw what was happening & of course, the rest of the congregation; the men did not have masks on. Guess where we sit when we go to church?

This is Iglesia Bautista Aposento Alto (Upper Room Baptist Church) where we attend church when we are in Guatemala City. We joined last Sunday, (that does not mean we moved our membership from ISBC) as a part of our training in 'Kaleidoscope' for Guatemala. The Pastor is aware of the fact that we are out with teams every other week and will not be able to attend. We really enjoy the worship, Sunday School & preaching. It is much like our church at home, with a praise band; their services are fellowship and people oriented, not as time oriented as we are in the states. SS begins at 9:30, 11am for preaching (not necessarily begins at that hour) and you may be on your way back home by 1pm, maybe. Everyone hugs everyone, not just shake your hand (yes, k does too!)

WHAT IF EVERYONE LIVED NEXT DOOR TO JESUS? by Gary Stone, a friend of ours & fellow missionary here in Guatemala. This is his first book published through Hannibal Books & available online at www.hannibalbooks.com or can be ordered through Barnes & Noble or Books A Million. Gary is a great storyteller and weaves great tales of his adventure in this book. He has devoted more than 20 years to a life of missionary work in Ecuador, Australia & Guatemala, leading he & his family into remote jungles, beautiful barrier reefs & mountain villages. He is adept at bringing important lessons & truths that will tie the everyday to the spiritual. A really down-to-earth book from a really down-to-earth guy that I know you can relate to & enjoy. Good reading!

Our last team was from Alabama and we worked in Boliva near Mazatenango, Guatemala with a wonderful church group who will be doing the follow-up in that area. They already have property and soon hope to have enough from those visits to form a church. We were given many excuses just as those people in the parable of the Great Supper, but, just as someone said from the Alabama group "you don't always know what you do as a worker, but you thank God you are a part of it & just watching Him work is a great blessing!" This team was a great blessing to us as well.

Kids from La Paz; there are around 18,000 children and only room for 8,000 to go to school. The team was able to go into 3 schools and take some supplies along with the Gospel.

This is our last group 08/16-23/08 that came from Alabama with the Marshall Baptist Association. Three churches were represented: South Sauty Bapt Ch in Langston; Mt Vernon Bapt in Boaz and Shiloh Bapt in Leesburg, AL. We worked in La Paz for 5 days, witnessing, praying with the people, inviting Bible Studies in their homes and passing out the book of Luke. As a result, there were 3 homes for Bible study, 32 professions of faith and 13 rededications; God tremendously blessed the efforts and they had a wonderful time. We appreciate all the hard work and their great attitude for it!

This was a small team from Clarke County Baptist Association in Alabama. They did a tremendous amount of work in Zacapa. We stayed in Santa Cruz, which made us about a 40 minute trip to and from there every day, but it was well worth it to work with Pastor Rolando and his church. They were ready every morning with at least 3 to 4 of their members to go out with us. The people were very gracious and listened; we had at least 24 who prayed to receive Christ. The church of Zacapa will do the follow-up on this.

This is the sun setting over Guatemala City taken from El Portal del Angel Restaurant; where we take a lot of our teams. Seeing this picture reminded me of how short life can be, from the rising to the setting of the sun. My brother Frank's life seemed that quick after it was over. He was only 51, but he seemed to have lived it to the fullest with a joke and a smile constantly. His life spoke volumes to many people; this we found out at his funeral last week. Frank played in a gospel group with his wife, Angie, and when not out with them on Sundays and Wednesdays, he was at church. That comforts my heart to know and, he showed great faith in the peace he experienced at his death. I want to express my thanks to all those who prayed for us during this time. There is another void in my life, but heaven seems a little closer now. Keith & I are back in Guatemala now and life will go on as before - the LORD will strengthen our hands and our heart!

Prayer Request

My younger brother, Frank, has been diagnosed with lung cancer. The results from all the tests indicate this mass has spread to his bones, liver and cranium. Frank is 51 years old. He and his wife, Angie, have no children; they live in Kingsport, TN. On July 1st they gave him his first radiation treatment. He is very weak because he cannot eat anything. We appreciate all the prayers and support we have received. Keith and I are in Kpt at this time. If you want to keep up with his progress, you can access the website http://www.caringbridge.org/ and where it says 'enter website name' type frankbaker. Continue to pray for wisdom and peace as we continue this journey. We know God is in control for we have seen His Hand in all that is happening. Pray He may receive glory through it all.

Coming back from Jerez, a scouting trip for Op Go on Monday, we had our 2nd car accident here in Guatemala. It could have been much worse, Keith was able to slide into the side of him (a big truck), instead of plowing into the back, or hitting the concrete ditch on the right side. We felt very blessed that we were not injured. The guy just drove off, you could not tell that his truck had been hit (it was old anyway), our Toyota was drivable, but K had to get out the passenger side. It was just another grand cultural experience for us. Our 1st accident, neither had been our fault, thank goodness, a guy hit the back of our Toyota, damaged his front, but not ours. We really mean it when we say 'thank you for your prayers'; we feel them and we give Him praise for sustaining us while being here. Other things, there is not the space for, just know He is working in all that is happening and we are grateful to you and to Him. Saturday we leave again with another team from Elmore Baptist Association - pray His will be done on earth as it is in heaven; we are so privileged to be a part of that here in Guatemala.

The last team was from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary & they were anything but boring here. We had such a good time with all of them & God truly blessed their efforts they put forth & His protection & provision was mightily evident throughout our stay in Rio Hondo. It is a privilege for us to be a part of the teams that come to Guatemala; God sends us His best.

This is our home church from ISBC in TN. They came to work with us in Operation Go in Jalapa with Pastor Herberto and his church. We had a great time; the Lord really blessed with seed sowing and harvesting. They blessed us with their presence and gifts and it was such an encouragement to us to have family (which is how we think of them) here and work together for His kingdom.

This is our community of about 30 homes - at the far end you can see the gate which has barbed electric wire on it and all around this compound - we live in 'lucky #13' - just behind us is a plant that dehydrates potatoes - we don't hear the street noise or the many car alarms as we used to, but the one thing we are blessed with is barking dogs - they seem to think that is the very reason they are here - that language I have yet to learn.

The last month has been a blur for the 2 of us. Our crate arrived the same day that we moved into our apartment here in Guatemala City. We also had to purchase appliances and that can be a real fiasco when your language is not up to that level of communication yet. Nevertheless and in spite of it all, we are moved in and believe it or not, becoming acclamated to living, breathing and driving in this country. The Lord has been so good to get us through all of this without much problems. I have tried to put a picture or two on with this update, but for some reason the blogsite is not accepting it - maybe later. This is 'Semana Santa' (holy week) for the people here and just about everything is shutting down; sounds like a good excuse for the net also. As soon as we are up and running with it, I will show you our place. It is in a gated community; we were told it was either that or a house with a live-in maid - K was not much for that at all, I kinda liked the idea, kinda. Anyway, the guards and our neighbors seem really nice. K and I are the only North Americans here, with 1 other Colombian and some Koreans and the rest Guatemaltecos! We hope they at least like us as much as we like being here!

Why am I so amazed that God is working somewhere before we even get there?! We scouted an area today called Jutiapa with a local pastor, Lucas. He took us to the office/home of a Dr. Noemi who has been praying for a Baptist church to begin in that area for the last 8 months. She had contacted the Guatemalan Baptist Convention, but had received no response until 4 weeks ago. At that time, Pastor Lucas visited Dr. Noemi and implied a possibility of a Op-Go team to work in Jutiapa. On Sunday, Feb 9th, the first Op-Go team will work close to Dr. Noemi's office/home with the hopes of beginning Bible studies in local homes and the end result will be the beginning of a church. Pray for this team as they work from the 9th-14th of Feb; that doors will be opened for hearts & lives to be changed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Well, I drove for the first time in Guatemala City; a city of 4-5 million people & I think they all drive a car, especially from 6:30am to 5pm in the day! It is "in-cray-eebly" -so to speak in espanol. I pray very specific before going out on the street. God is gracious to have provided us a tank, such is the 1998 Toyota Landcruiser we drive, which has a cattle guard on the front bumper (no joke!). I am very grateful for it, except I kissed the gate while exiting onto the street for the first time (I forgot it stuck out somewhat on the side as well as the front!). You sit up very high in it; I like that a lot, and, when you are inching along, that cattle guard, when you get the nose of it in just an inch usually gets you in the rest of the way, so I act just like all the big dogs and get around very well. I have not been out on my own yet, but, I am sure that will come as I get more brave. Thanks for all your prayers for safety & protection.

Just wanted to announce the arrival of our newest grandchild

'Andrew Pete Bartley' - born Jan 07 '08 6:29am 6 lbs 12 oz 19 in We were out with our first team from the states, but the lady at the hotel let us use her computer to bring up the pictures - we are truly blessed!

First Team in Jocotenango, Guatemala

Our first work in Guatemala was in Jocotenango, a small village close to the church Mision Bautista Torre Fuerte of Antigua. It was a 13-member team from the Caroline Baptist Association in Arkansas. We worked all week visiting door to door, evangelizing, handing out tracts and inviting people to the church.