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.