Christmas Eve in the IDC...

Christmas in the IDC - The reason for the season.

The light of the world - Jesus the Christ.
Merry Christmas!

Children's Christmas...

I love watching what God is doing. And as always I am in a front row seat. This year as we approached Christmas there was a group in the church that wanted to help others.

We had our first Angel Tree event helping others that would not otherwise had a Christmas. This was a wonderful event. Thank you to all who made this happen.

The Co-Op...

In September of this year we we given the opportunity to serve a group of home school students studying in co-op with other home school students. What seemed like a simple process of a couple students grew quickly to accommodate as many as 25 students studying a variety of classes, from sciences to the arts.

Every Thursday, the building is hopping with students in activities. What a joy it is to serve these students and their families.

Tour of things to come...

This week Bill Losasso came for a visit and he brought with him several men with agendas from seeing what was happening in the IDC to what products may be good to export. In the middle of this time were visits to the Pastores computer labs and leather shops - bringing National Baseball leagues paraphernalia to Guatemala - Tipico fabrication in Santiago Zamora - a church in Santa Maria de Jesus - just to name a few.

Time will tell how this investment will produce good things...

EFL Graduation...

One of the foundations of this ministry has been English as a Foreign Language. April and her team have done a great job in this ministry. This week we ended our school year of classes giving certificates to 70 students and graduating 10 from our highest level.


It is wonderful to serve.

El Es El Camino Workday...

Just after services today, we (being 30 of our best friends from IDC) took a couple of hours to dig drainline trenches in the colonia for Pastores. While we always have welcomed the help from churches in the US on this project, it was fun to be a part of the construction as a church - Iglesia Del Camino.

Yea God!

El Es El Camino continued...

12 homes finished... and now to finish the infrastructure...

... this is the continued work to replace housing and lives taken during Tropical Storm Agatha.

PNC Breakfast...

Round three of an event that we are already seeing God use to open doors, breakfast with the National Police of Guatemala, Station 74. Yea God!

The great guys...

We have been blessed these past couple of months to get to know James and Seth. They put their lives on hold and came to Guatemala to see what God would show them here.

Wanting to be connected they plugged into the work of IDC. They are nothing short of amazing.


Of their less than glamorous work was building houses, digging ditches and sorting medicines.

The church was robbed???

This past Sunday, a good friend of mine approaches me with a very concerned look on his face. The tone of his voice was very somber and deliberate. He asked me directly, ¨Did the church get robbed this past week?"

I looked at him, not sure if my internal Spanish translator was functioning. It seemed so out there, that I must have not understood him correctly.

Again he asked me, "What happened at the church? Did anything of consequence get stolen?" He went on to explain that his friend that works in the University next door to us, saw all of the Police coming and going from the church street entrance and was very concerned. Why else would the police be in our church except that they were there to investigate a robbery.

It turned out that he had been referring to the 7am-9am time slot when we host motivational meetings with Valor and Service for the National Police of Guatemala. Why else would police come to the church? I can tell you it was because they accepted the invitation to come for breakfast and hear the teaching of Biblical values. Woof!

Baptism w/ a Twist...

This past week we were blessed to add a new feature to the IDC services. prior to being this building, we had very little option but to rent a pool recreation facility and go have a church party. While this is certainly a good idea it is also expensive. With a little bit of creative thought from members of the church counsel and more so the wisdom of God, this is what we came up with.

1. Buy a 5,000 liter cistern...


2. Cut the top off - build some stairs to get in and out...


3. You have yourself a baptismal pool...


4 more made a public profession of faith in our first in service baptism.
Yea God!

Passing of a friend...

This week I said goodbye to good friend. Etty Gracia Guerra - an elegant lady with an odd connection to my family. First meeting her 4 years ago, she showed an incredible interest in the young church of Iglesia Del Camino. As conversations pursued we found out the connection that she had traveled to the United States as a young women and attended Bob Jones University at the same time my parents were there. Small world.

She is survived by her two daughters and three granddaughters who are a part of IDC.

Pastores Housing...

Since our encounter with Tropical Storm Agatha, we have been working with the city of Pastores looking for solutions to provide opportunities to restart the lives of the 12 families that lost nearly everything. The help provided for the short term emergency was enormous, but after that time, the Mayor of Pastores approached the church to help with beds, stoves, homes - life stuff. The solutions have been presenting themselves.


We are helping to build a new "colonia" to house these families. We still find of the $60-65,000 estimated for the total project that we still need $25,000 to complete it. Since July, we have been blessed to have teams bringing support and manpower and this will continue on through to completion. But cash will be needed for the furnishings of the homes.

Should you wish to give assistance here is how to do so... Click Here - and follow the directions.

PNC Breakfasts in IDC...

Once again, God is opening doors that I never would have thought possible. A couple of weeks back we were asked to host Prayer Breakfasts for the National Police in Sacatepéquez. Working along side the leadership of ¨Valor y Servicio¨, we have approximately 75-100 men coming and hearing the word of God. Prayer is a good thing - please keep it coming.

Team Visit - Eagle Baptist

This past week were blessed with the help from Eagle Baptist Church from Florida. This group got their hands dirty with malnutrition-ed children, more church renovations, and digging ditches for the new housing project for Agatha Relief victims. They found the mass graves from tragic epidemics a hundred years ago.

Oh the things we see here in Guate... This is a rural taxi...

This team played a significant role in a Agatha Relief clothing and food distribution. We were blessed to partner with Hope Haven International, Eagles's Clothing donations, and a new mission plant just the other side of a mountain or two... from Antigua, you can't get there from here.

Job well done team. Yea God!

This Café Rocks...

This month the cafe had been doing quite well. Of course the World Cup has certainly helped. We have been full and rockin'! Yea God!

San Pedro Las Huertas...

This afternoon I sat in a meeting in San Pedro Las Huertas. An aldea of Antigua. This had to be one of the most beautiful days I have seen recently for the valley. I guess the location and the purpose of the meeting are what I found the enigma.

Still reeling from Tropical Storm Agatha, the details of life - post disaster - are still with us. There are people whose lives will ever be changed from this storm. There were 14 homes destroyed in this aldea just kilometers from more death and destruction in the neighboring community of San Miguel Escobar. While the Mayor of Antigua has replaced the land to the home owners that lost everything - to a different location - the children living with their parents, the home owners are now out on the street (if there was one - figuratively speaking) because the new land space is smaller than what the parents owned before the storm. Their grown children have no place/space to live with their parents as they used to.

This meeting was with these families, some 21 or so (approximately 100 people), in the very river bed that their homes were once located in.

From this vantage point you can see Antigua in the background.

Rain and Sand Don't Mix...

This last week I visited a friend's church in Zone 21 of the Guatemala City. You can walk out the front door of their church and see the Volcano Pacaya in all of its fury. They received a significant amount of the volcanic ash that fell after the eruption. Before they could clean it off, Tropical Storm Agatha soaked the ash with rain. Bad things ensued.

The roof collapsed during services. Thankfully, no one was hurt. But this is a church that needs a roof. They have packed into a provisional roof half the size of what they need. A replacment roof is estimated at Q30k - Q35k - this is about $4500 dollars US. As of today , they do not have the means to replace it. If you would like to help, please contact me I will show you how. mike@iglesiadelcaminogt.com

Games and Ruins...

About 45 minutes - 22 miles as the crow flies to the north/northwest of Antigua are the ruins of Ixmche just this side of Tecpan - the original capitol of Central American Colony. Here you can find a worship/retreat center that was begun 1500 years BC. If you were to look at a Biblical time line, that dates these ruins to the time of Moses and the children of Israel leaving Egypt.

These ruins included recreation and worship of the Mayan gods. They were in operation for nearly 3,000 years. They "coincidentally" stopped about the time the Spaniards arrived roughly 1500 AD - imagine that.

This first photo is of an ancient Mayan Ballgame field that resembles in some ways the modern day soccer/fútbal. The exception being that as we use our feet primarily, they used only shoulders and hips with protective gear made of armadillo shell and such. They could not use their hands and the goals were rings mounted on the sides of the pay area. For us the losing team goes home sad. For them the losers were killed. It is my understanding that this game played a significant role in the spiritual/religious traditions.

This next photo is of an active section of this ancient worship/recreation center. Here they still practice sacrifices to the Mayan gods - without the human sacrifice element. Too bad they are still playing games with God - the losers though lose more than their lives.

Kid's Getting it Done...

Today was a special day as honored the children's ministry with the quarterly awards. These children were waiting for their partner in class to arrive on the stage. This particular group is the "Bosques" or "Rangers". What a blessing to see these kids actively involved in learning how the Bible applies to life.

Your prayers and financial support help to make this happen. Thank you.