Archive for the ‘Guatemala’ Category

26
Jun

June 2014 Update

   Posted by: Jesse & Sara Eggman

Here is the link to out June update:

On The Road Again

Blessings,

Jesse, Sara & Makai Eggman

8
May

Important Update

   Posted by: Jesse & Sara Eggman

Click HERE to see our important May update.

8
May

Training & Transitions

   Posted by: Jesse & Sara Eggman

Click HERE to see our April update Training & Transitions.

20
Feb

Life & Life Abundant

   Posted by: Jesse & Sara Eggman

Click HERE to read our Feb update Life & Life Abundant.

 

Blessings,

          Jesse & Sara

14
Jan

It started with a hard boiled egg…

   Posted by: Jesse & Sara Eggman

Yesterday Jesse, Makai and I got to go visit with the orphans at Remar. We have been praying that God would help us build relationships with the children and that he would open their hearts to us. It is incredible how powerfully God has answered our prayers. Within 5 minutes of being there we were talking and laughing with the kids as if we’d known them forever. It felt so natural. So right. We played many fun games with them. Many were similar to the games duck duck goose and London bridges falling down in the US. One game included me accidentally tripping on a rock and knocking down the stick that was holding the line full of clothes!!! I was a bit embarrassed but they seemed to love it.

We sat down and shared with the kids an illustration about sin. We used a hard-boiled egg as our prop. We asked the kids what sin was and to give us some examples of sin. As we talked about it I wrote the words on the egg (lying, cheating, murder, hate, selfishness, unforgiveness, pride, etc.) We shared with them how the egg reminded us of our hearts when we don’t know Jesus. Our hearts are dark, dirty, and hard. We shared with them who Jesus was and how he came to save our lives and take away our sin. As we shared with them how Jesus died for us we began to peel the shell of the egg. What was left was a soft clean egg. We explained that when we ask Jesus into our lives and when we choose to live our lives obeying what he told us in the Bible our hearts become clean and soft. When we ask for forgiveness for our sins He comes and takes them and we are no longer hard or dirty. How when Jesus comes into our life he gives joy where there was pain, heals what was once broken, and brings love and peace where there once was none.  We asked the children if there was anyone who did not have Jesus in their life. We asked if there was anyone who had never committed to live their life obeying Christ. Two young teenage girls raised their hands and said they never had and wanted to have Jesus in their lives. It was so awesome to pray with the girls and lead them in committing their lives to Christ!!! Afterwards both girls were crying and could not keep their composure. It was so beautiful to see the power of Christ’s love working in them.

delete me

Please pray for these two young precious lives. One girl is named Megan. She is now an orphan at the home. Her mother just died on December 23rd.

The second girl is named Ingirs. This is Ingri’s fourth time returning to this home. She was taken away from her mother again after her mother gave her into prostitution.

As you can see both of these broken lives need God’s healing touch and restoration. Please pray with us that they would feel God’s deep love for them. Also please pray that God would continue to pour out his Spirit and grace on us as we keep ministering to these precious children.

Thank you all who partner with us through prayer and finances! Together we are reaching the lost for Christ and making a difference in Guatemala!

Blessings,

Jesse, Sara & Makai

5
Jan

New Beginnings

   Posted by: Jesse & Sara Eggman

Sara and I are excited to announce our partnership with the Kekchi Bible Institute. Classes will be starting in a few days and we feel like this is a dream come true! While we were in the USA Sara and I talked to many of you about how we felt God leading us to become involved with training up new leaders through a Bible School or Ministry Training Center. This vision has now come to pass and we want to fill you in on the details. We believe that this is a sustainable way to quickly reach every single unreached Mayan village here in the Petén region of Guatemala. We made a short video about KBI, its goals and purpose. Click on the play icon below to watch it.

Blessings,
Jesse, Sara & Makai Eggman

 

26
Dec

December Update

   Posted by: Jesse & Sara Eggman

Greetings,

We hope you had a wonderful Christmas! While we very much missed friends and family this was still one of our all time favorite Christmases!

The week of thanksgiving my (Sara) heart felt very heavy during a time of prayer. I had such a strong sensation that I was not fulfilling the call of God for my life and that deeply saddened me. Since I was a child my heart has been for the orphan, the unwanted, and the outcast. God has placed in me a passion for these groups of children to know their value and identity as sons and daughters of a king. I asked the Lord when the time would come for this ministry to come to fruition.  At the end of this time of prayer I felt in my heart that I was supposed to pray and keep my ears and eyes open. God is so awesome! Just 3 days later I learned from a missionary friend of mine that there was a Children’s home in our town with these exact types of children!

The first week of December Jesse and I went to visit this children’s home named Remar. Remar is an international Christian organization that helps to bring restoration to broken lives. The children’s home here in our town is specifically for orphans who have been abandoned by their parents or children who have been abused by their families. There are about 10 boys at the house for boys and about 30 girls at the house for girls. On our first visit to Remar we met a precious 4 year old little girl. It was heartbreaking to listen to this little girl’s history. She was rescued from her father who had raped her and then cut her head open with a machete. When she walked up I opened my arms to her and Jesse and I were amazed as she walked into my arms and allowed me to embrace her. Many of the children at this home have similar horrific experiences. The most heartbreaking news is that a large number of these children return back to their abusers due to the lack of a strong justice system in Guatemala.  The directors of this home are beautiful people who are trying their best to care for these children and help them recover from their traumatic experiences. The directors expressed to us their desperate need for children’s ministers. “We are doing our best to provide shelter and food for the children. However, there are not any people on our staff to just spend time loving on the children. We need someone who can come and love the children. We need someone who will play with them and teach them the bible and about the love of Jesus.” Their words were like water to my soul and an answer to my hearts cry. In that moment I wanted to jump up and say “YES! ME! I WILL DO THAT!!!” This is my ministry heartbeat. These precious children need so desperately to know their value and worth as children of God. They need to know the pure love of their heavenly father. I believe that God has led me to these children and He has placed it in my heart to reach them. I believe so strongly that these children’s lives and circumstances can be changed by the power of Christ.

We were blessed to be able to spend Christmas Eve with the children from Remar. We set up a sheet and played the nativity story in Spanish from a projector. We were able to buy jump ropes, a few jumbo balls, and some group games for the kids. God helped me make 2 turkeys and bake 100 cookies for them as well. We know that these children are very close to God’s heart. He made that very clear to us over the past couple of days. We had called the gas company and ordered a cylinder of gas to be brought to our house to cook the turkeys with. An hour after delivering the first cylinder they returned with a second cylinder of gas saying that they had received a call saying that we needed a second cylinder. I told them that we hadn’t called them but that maybe God knew that we would need a second cylinder and went ahead and bought the second one. Sure enough we needed both cylinders to cook the two turkeys. God pulled the strings to make sure that the children would get their turkeys! We are so excited to be partnering with Remar in helping these children. We are looking forward to seeing what God has in store  as we begin working more with them next year.

Thank you SO much for partnering with us. You are truly making a difference in these children’s lives. We are so grateful for all of your prayers, encouragement and financial gifts that continue to make the ministry here possible. We pray that you have a blessed New Year!

Our next update will talk about a second partnership we have made here, one that we believe will eventually help us meet our goal of reaching every village here in the Petén with the Gospel.

Blessings,
Jesse, Sara & Makai Eggman

4
Nov

October Update

   Posted by: Jesse & Sara Eggman

Family Photo

Click HERE To see our full update for October with additional photos.

Things have been going really well here in Petén, Guatemala! I think that Jesse and I finally feel at ease being parents and raising a baby in a foreign country. Makai has been so wonderful throughout the whole transition and he seems to be really happy here.

IMG_2369

There are definitely some challenges in being a foreigner as well as a parent here in this culture. It seems that everywhere we go everyone wants to touch or hold the “Greengo baby.” It can be stressful at times but God is giving us grace in how to handle each and every situation.

IMG_2559

This past month we had the amazing opportunity to minister at a church about an hour away from our house. We were excited because the pastor had invited Jesse to preach and a special singer for the service. This service was awesome and quite the cultural experience! Neither of us had ever experienced anything like it before.

The service started at about 7:30pm and did not end until almost 11:00pm! It consisted of 4 different singers who altogether sang about 20 songs! In the middle of the service a woman came up to lead the congregation in prayer. She was so loud, that at one point I had to ask Jesse if Makai was crying because I could not hear him screaming at the top of his lungs even though he was sitting right on my lap! Finally… around 9:30pm after all the singing and praying Jesse had the opportunity to preach to the people. After Jesse preached the pastor invited two other people to come up and share the word. By this point it was almost 11:00pm. Although all of this was a huge stretch for us culturally Jesse and I were so blessed by the pastor and his congregation. We have never been in a church here that was so full of praise. It was amazing to see and hear them sing with everything they had. You could really see that they truly loved Jesus. Jesse preached to the people about Matthew 6:33. “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.” Jesse encouraged the congregation to continue living faithfully to God when they have needs and to seek God for help and trust him to provide for them. The people responded and almost the entire body responded to the altar call. We were able to pray for strength for the people who were struggling with different needs and encourage them as we believed with them in faith for God to provide for them.

 

One Highlight we wanted to tell you about was getting to help Pastor Eugenio and his family evangelize the village of San Juan Villa Nueva. Pastor Eugenio recently moved there to plant a church and we journeyed to help him get started there. We were able to go from hut to hut talking to the people and inviting them to come to the church that evening for a special service and to watch a movie. We played the movie Courageous after worship and ended the evening with sharing a little and prayer. It was a great success as the church was full with people and there were even many outside looking in threw the doors and windows! Please pray for Pastor Eugenio’s family as they start the new work there and for the people of San Juan Villa Nueva.

IMG_2313

IMG_2321

We are so happy to be in Guatemala and we are really excited about some amazing doors God is opening up for next year. God has put such a vision in our hearts to see unreached villages touched with the power and love of the gospel. We are eager to share with you in our next update about the strategy God is revealing to us and the different partnerships he is blessing us with!

We are so thankful for each and every one of you who is praying for us and partnering with us financially. We appreciate you so much. Our family and our ministry would not be the same without you! Thank you for the sacrifices that you make with your time and finances in order to be our partners in the work God has called us to. We love and cherish each of you. We pray that God would just bless you and your families abundantly, that he would pour out and multiply back to you a hundred fold what you have sowed into us!

14
Sep

We made it!

   Posted by: Jesse & Sara Eggman

 

This week has been quite an adventure! We want to say thank you for praying for us and our trip back to Guatemala. Everything went so smooth. We had the Lord’s favor and did not encounter any problems! We arrived in Guatemala City on Monday around lunch time. All of our luggage made it in great condition and we did not encounter any issues at customs. We spent two days in the city finishing up all of the legal paperwork for our application for our residency. Wednesday morning we made the 8 hour drive from Guatemala City to our home in the Petén. Since then we have been busily working to get our home back in order. We came home to find that mold had grown over most of our clothes left in the house. Our dishes were also covered in dust and spider webs. Finally after 12 loads of laundry and 3 hours of washing dishes our house is looking like home again!

2013-09-09 11.00.18

Makai did really well on the trip. He was such a trooper. He didn’t have any pain during the flights and he slept almost the entire 8 hour drive back to the jungle. Throughout the whole trip he was curiously looking around and enjoying all of the different sights. When we were packing in the United States I (Sara) did not want to bring a whole lot of luggage. Jesse however was wise enough to insist on bringing Makai’s pack n play and music mobile. I am so happy that we did. These two things along with Makai’s favorite blanky have been such a comfort to him. When we first arrived to our house Makai started crying and did not stop for about 2 hours which is very unusual for him. We called our directors and got some people together to pray for us, our household and especially for Makai. Makai went to sleep right afterwards and has been doing great ever since!

IMG_2099

We have been so blessed to have my parents make this trip with us. They helped bring our luggage and take care of Makai while we met with the lawyer and have been cleaning right along with us.  They have been such a huge help. I don’t know how we would have ever done everything without their help.

Yesterday Jesse along with my parents went to Las Gaviotas to minister to the people. While we were in the States we were given little beauty bags with soap, shampoo, and other goodies to give to the women in the village. My mom was able to hand out the bags and encourage the women with the Word of God and prayer. My dad was able to encourage the men in the village to work together in unity as they work to finish building their church. It was so exciting to see my parents being a part of the missions work we do here in Guatemala.

IMG_2134

IMG_2136

We are so grateful for all of your prayers and for your partnership with us that made our return to Guatemala possible! Thank you!

Please keep praying for us, for the legal work for both our residency and for the title for our truck, and for the ministry here to bear much fruit!

Blessings,

Jesse & Sara Eggman

8
Sep

Back to Guatemala

   Posted by: Jesse & Sara Eggman

Just wanted to let you know that God willing we are flying back to Guatemala in the morning (Monday Sept. 9th). Our first flight is at 6am and we should arrive in Guatemala City around 12 noon. We will be staying in Guatemala City for two nights. While in Guatemala City we will be going to see a lawyer in an effort to get “Rentista” residency in Guatemala. This would allow us to not have to leave the country every 3 or 6 months. We will also be trying to get a vehicle title transferred into our name. We plan on driving the 8 hour journey back to our home in the jungle in that vehicle on Wed morning (Sept. 11th). We would appreciate your prayers for a safe, fun and fruitful journey that is blessed in every way as well as success in getting our “Rentista” Visa and quickly getting the truck title transferred into our name without any trouble.

Thanks so much for your faithful prayers and partnership with us!

May God bless you abundantly!

Jesse, Sara & Makai Eggman