Author: E3 Global Teams

After a yummy breakfast at Hotel Bambu in Mazatenango, we drove 45 minutes to the town of Retalhuleu.  While other churches in the area are growing, Iglesia Evangelica Bautista Sendero de Vida is struggling… having just a handful of regular attendees.  Today we took the time to visit, encourage, and pray with some people in the area.  Some in our group shared Jesus’ love with the lady at the tortilla stand near the church, others visited Karina, a mom of two kids that stopped going to church over 3 years ago.  We visited Vila and her daughter Susie. Vila was one of the early members of the church but because of her knee condition she has difficulties walking and participating in the church.  We visited Marcos Antonio at his wood shop who helped lead his brother to Christ but now has stalled in his walk with Christ. Before lunch, we visited the nearby school and invited the kids to come over in the afternoon to the church for activities.  Over 35 kids arrived at the church and we played with them – soccer, jump rope, and tag both before and after our lesson.  We shared the story of Adam and Eve and Henry presented the Gospel to them. We played two games to show them that Jesus is the only way to the Father.

What to pray for:

• please pray for the town of Retalhulue and the people we visited today – for them to feel the Holy Spirit to lead them back to church and to invite others to learn more about Jesus
• pray for new leaders to have a vision and direction for the Iglesia Evangelica Baustista Sendero de Vida
• pray for the Whites to find ways to connect with the town of Retalhulue to help them grow, perhaps by sending teams for longer in the future

-Marian

Greetings from Mazatenango, Guatemala!

This is a first for our teams. While we usually head northeast toward the villages surrounding Chiquimula, this time we’re working in an area west of the capital called Mazatenango. It’s also a first (for me anyway) that we’re vising during the rainy season, so the ride from Guatemala City was filled with rolling green hills and overflowing creeks…and a pothole or fifty!

It was a long, rainy day, but everyone on the team has been joyful and supportive of each other. Even poor Marian, whose luggage didn’t make it out with her from the airport, cheerfully endured a shopping trip for some necessities and kept a sweet and positive attitude through it all. I probably would have just been in a corner crying! (By the way, she got a text that her bag was found a couple of hours ago!)

Ben and Cruz became fast friends with the James kids – I knew they would! – and we all got to visit with David and Regina while eating and riding. I’m so excited that the whole family is able to join us on this trip!

We’re ready to start our first day of ministry tomorrow. As a reminder of why we’re here, I shared from Romans 10 during our evening devotional. “How then will they call on him in whom they have not heard? And how are they going to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent?” Perhaps a little cliche for a mission trip, but these words have been echoing in my mind for days now. We’ve been preparing for months, and we’re ready to go out share the Good News of Christ!

Please keep us in your prayers, Church family. Pray against sickness, pray for boldness, and pray that hearts would be changed for eternity! We’re grateful for you!

-Jennifer

Hi Church! 

Sunday, June 9th we will be sending out a team from our church to go serve in Guatemala alongside our partners David and Regina. They will have the opportunity to spend time with and encourage the Whites, serve some struggling churches, and seek chances to share the gospel along the way. They will be gone from June 9-15th. 

Here’s a picture of the team! 

It is such a joy to see the age range of those going on this trip. What a great reminder that no one is too young or too old to serve God overseas with the desire to see the Great Commission fulfilled! 

As we are sending this team out, remember that though not all of us in the church are going on this trip, we still have a part to play. While they are serving, it is our joyful responsibility to support them through prayer. Let us be faithful to keep this team in our prayers!

Here are some things we can be praying for as the team prepares to leave: 

• Pray for opportunities to share the gospel with the people of Guatemala. Ask God to lead them to persons of peace whose hearts the Spirit has prepared to hear the message they are bringing. 
• Pray for the team members to have peace, as many of them will be experiencing their first trip overseas. Pray that they would trust in God and grow closer to Him.
• Pray for unity among the team members. Pray that they would have great times of fellowship and serve with the same mindset: that the nations come to know God. 
• Pray that the team members’ hearts would be prepared spiritually for this trip. Ask God to remove any distractions as they are prepare to go.
• Pray that the Whites would be encouraged by this team’s presence and be filled with joy from their fellowship. 

Like previous times, the team will be posting blog updates during their trip, including ways that we can specifically pray. If you have not already, subscribe to this blog and you will receive an email every time the team posts an update!

Today we had our last training of this trip. Though there is always the temptation to slack off at this point, I think it’s safe to say that none of us did. God was still faithful in giving us the words to say and in giving us the energy and mindset to finish this trip just as strong as it had started! Sam even felt led to change up his sermon a bit for this training, reminding the people of the importance of taking the call of making disciples seriously. During the training, I became friends with some of the little girls and boys who were sitting behind me. It was so encouraging to see them being trained up in the truth at such a young age! (Especially after the horror of seeing the children at the temples being trained up in a false religion.) 

I also got to talk with Sister P, a young woman who translated part of our training. She told me her testimony which blew my mind and really expanded my view of how God is working in India. She mentioned that her parents are still Hindu and that she and her brother are the only believers in her immediate family. She said that this caused some issues in her family since her parents don’t agree with her or support her choice of living for Christ. I was able to pray with her that she would remain strong in the faith and for her parents to come to know Christ. She then told me that it was so inspiring for us to have come all this way to be here with them for God’s glory. If only she knew how much we have been inspired by them and their faith! 

After lunch, we said goodbye to Brother E and his family since it was time to part ways. We then met partners D & A at a coffee shop where we got to talk with them, ask them questions about the work here, and pray with them. In the middle of conversation, Brother D said, “By the way, elephant.” In response to which Sam ran outside and proceeded to hop on the elephant with the rider helping to pull him up! We all got a kick out of that. 

D & A then dropped us off at the airport and then we hopped on a plane back to Delhi. Joey and Logan were able to share the gospel with a secular Indian man named Ramneek on the plane. The man seemed very receptive and even accepted a Bible the guys gave him! They told him to read the gospel of Mark and he said that he would. 

We hung out in the airport until our flight at 4am and should be home by Sunday night! We are sad to leave… all of us agreed that we don’t want to. This has been such a great opportunity. I thank God for all He has opened my eyes to on this trip and for how He has chosen to use me for His glory in India. 

As someone who was very scared of going to India beforehand, I would encourage everyone to go. It definitely was not as scary or dangerous as I thought it would be. There is no reason to be afraid when God is in control! He will use you in ways you can’t even imagine if you just take the steps of obedience to go as He has called us to do. Not only that, but it will stretch your faith in a way that can’t be done from the comfort of your own home. Isn’t the gospel worth a little discomfort, travel, and time? 

As our time in India has come to a close, please keep these things in your prayers: 

⁃Pray for Sister P to be an example of Christ to her parents and that her parents would come to faith. 

⁃Pray that God would work on Ramneek’s heart as he looks into the Bible; ultimately that he would come to faith. 

⁃Pray for our partners as they continue the work here, and for the Indians to be receptive to the gospel. 

⁃Pray for the disciple makers who have just graduated to actively apply what they have learned from their training, making more disciple makers. 

⁃Lastly, please pray for us to come home changed! Pray that we wouldn’t leave what God has taught us behind in India, but that we would bring it with us and not simply coast back into normal life. 

Thank you so much for your prayers while we were overseas! It was so encouraging knowing that there were people back home supporting us through prayer.

See ya soon! 

Shelby

Today we participated in the 5th of 6 graduations in a city in northwest India. This was the largest of the graduations so far as 5 different training centers all came together. It is amazing how the Christians here will travel over a hundred kilometers to attend these graduations we have been doing. Many of the Christians here have to wake up at 3-4am to travel by bus every week to attend church on sunday. Very different from the US where some people will not travel over 20 miles to go to church. During the graduation, a lovely woman L shared how she has been able to lead 8 families to Christ since she had started the training program. This was just an ordinary churchgoer with no special training or theological education. She was simply being obedient to the command to go and make disciples that applies to every member of the body of Christ, not just the leaders. The trainings we have done and the testimonies we have heard have only increased my conviction that making disciples is for the whole church, not just the pastors, teachers and evangelists. During the graduations I have been concluding the training by preaching a sermon on Ephesians 4:4-13. I am no experienced preacher, but God has graciously allowed me to grow in this area while I have been here. In verse 11, Paul says, “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.” Some members of the body of Christ were given specific roles in ministry through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. And their role is to equip the saints for the ministry of reconciliation. In 2 Corinthians 5, Paul discusses that Christ gave all of those who have been reconciled to God by Jesus Christ the ministry of reconciliation. He tells the church at Corinth that we are now ambassadors of Christ and that God makes his appeal for people to be reconciled to himself through us. If you are a member of the body of Christ (the Church), you have a role to play in this ministry of reconciliation. You may not have the specific spiritual gift of generosity, but all people in the church are to give generously with thankful hearts. Not all of us have the spiritual gift of evangelism, yet all are called to share the gospel. You cannot leave the work of ministry to your pastors to do. This is too heavy a burden for them to bear themselves. I have been challenging members of the body of Christ in India to discover their role in the ministry and begin to fulfill that and I want to challenge the church back home as well to do this. The church is the means by which God will bring worshippers from all tribes and tongues to himself. Ask yourself, what is my role in the ministry and are you doing it?

After the training we headed to our next city by car about 2 hours away and once there we headed to the Golden Temple where people of the Sikh faith worship. Tomorrow we will head out to our last training and last day in India. Can’t wait to tell you more about our trip when we get back!

God bless,

Sam

Joey’s Birthday

I love you, O Lord, my strength.

You gave a wide wide place for my steps under me and my feet did not slip.

Psalm 18:1 and 36

Praise the Lord

Hallelujah

Thank you God

These three phrases in hindi are the most repeated that I have heard. And what a joy that that is because we are not the focus of worship but God is. We have been to three stations so far and at each station they may sing songs that differ in tune or instrument but they are praising God for who he is! We began in the cool mountains of India, then we traveled to a hotter city, and then yesterday (May 8) we stayed in the beautiful city. As Shelby pointed out though we do not know Hindi our hearts cry out to the same God. This has been an irregular experience as I find my heart hearing truths of God flowing out to him.

Yesterday while hearing a song I could hear “Jesus is the God who pulls me up” Is this what they sang? Likely not, but we join in one accord with them singing back to God. My heart still needs to focus more on praising God for who he is, not just for what he has done for me. We are growing closer as a team, through this busy schedule.

Our teaching has become clearer each time we have spoken. Today we are heading to our fifth training to share again after we arrive into the city. Pray that we do not rely upon our flesh but only upon the spirit for we know he gives us life and peace as we set our minds on him.

We ended our day at SJ’s house where we enjoyed a great meal and shared birthday cake for Joey. Our church is so blessed to have this man of God. He has shown his ability to teach here in India. His passion for the nations has been so encouraging to us all! Pray for God to bless him.

Pray for clarity as we teach and that those who graduate will go and make disciples!

Pray that each of us will be better disciple makers when we get back to the states.

We miss you guys and can’t wait to see when we get back.

-Logan

Today was a very busy day, but filled with joy, and adventure! We started our day early by driving for two hours to the location of our second graduation ceremony in Virat. Sam led our time in the word on our way sharing from Hebrews chapter 6. We talked about apostasy and how we must be checking our hearts periodically against self-deception. Brother T our driver then sang us a song he had composed himself, and one part hit me which said, “though we are poor in this desert, we are rich in God’s grace.” It was just another wonderful reminder of the Gospel, that those who are poor in spirit shall inherit the kingdom of God!

We arrived at the church where we were welcomed with such warmness from the believers and joined in their worship before we began our teaching and then the graduation to follow. This worship was very different from that of the 1st graduation, but one thing was the same: their joy and passion as they worshiped the Lord! Here they worshiped with bongo drums and lots of clapping, filling the small room with a joyful noise! As we were teaching, I was reminded that the task of discipleship and evangelism is not just for these people, but I need it just as much as they do. Please pray that we would not become deaf to the words we are teaching, but that God would continue to stir in our hearts a longing for his word, to make disciples, and to share the gospel. I have been so encouraged to hear how many of the believers who have gone through this discipleship training are actually being obedient to the word of God and are making disciples! They have very little materials and resources, but they do have the word of God and the Holy Spirit, and still they are more faithful to obey God’s word than many of us in the church at home. This is convicting for me. I want to be more obedient to God’s commands rather then caring so much about how much I know.

When our training was finished, we moved straight into the graduation ceremony where we celebrated with those who completed their 1 year discipleship training program. Brother E spoke to them saying that this was not the end and their certificates mean nothing if they are not continuing the work of making disciples who multiply.

Hi friends and family,

We are sending many blogs at once because our internet access has been very limited the past couple days. I don’t have much to share with you about our day today as we spent most of the day traveling. We left our first city of training, saying goodbye to our dear brother A, and headed to our second city. It is in a different state so it took us two separate flights to get here. It is late now and we are about to go to bed to rest up for our 2nd training and graduation tomorrow. Two of the training centers will come together in one place tomorrow for their final training and graduation.

From here on out we will be training and traveling, training and traveling. So over the next 5 days we will be traveling to a new city every day and having a training and graduation each of those days. In other words, the remainder of our time here is packed! Please pray for us to continue to have energy! We’ve been very encouraged so far and count it a privilege to be a part of what God is doing across Northern India and Nepal.

I will try to post a video of our time with our brothers and sisters in Training City 1. We’ll see if this works with our internet… 🙂

Liz

Yesterday, we arrived in our first Training Center city. Now among believers, we experienced a huge contrast to the dark idol worship we witnessed in Delhi. We had the pleasure of meeting Brother A who is an evangelist. He traveled with us during our time in this city in which we were able to hear much of his story and his passion for the gospel. He had our team over to his house for dinner and for his family’s daily time of fellowship and worship. We sung a few worship songs with them, shared some scripture, and prayed together. It was so inspiring to hear that they have this time of family worship every day. Brother A said, “We work all day. We can take an hour at night to worship God.” The way they prioritize worship was convicting as I think of how often back home we put other things above our time with God. To see this family’s devotion to worshiping God together was also encouraging as they did so in such a joyful and bold manner. To put it in the modern American lingo (although an understatement), it was goals. 

The next morning (Day 5), we took a short taxi ride through the mountainside’s hairpin turns to reach the church/Training center #1. Since it’s Sunday, we were able to attend their church worship service before the training. The worship was incredible, yet humble. Two young men played guitars while Brother A played a drum set. The many voices of the people joined together as they sung with such unrestrained joy. Though we couldn’t understand the language, we didn’t need a translator to understand that these were praises they were lifting up to God from the bottom of their hearts. They were clapping and dancing with such energy that I’ve never seen at a worship service before. One man even pulled Joey and Logan over and had them join in their dancing for the Lord! It was obvious that the excitement they have in praising God was not just a show, but was a true display of the joy they have in the Lord. I even dare say that you have not seen such joyful, genuine, unashamed, and heartfelt worship until you have experienced that of the Indian believers! 

After worship and a warm welcome, they turned the service over to us. Sam introduced the first training and then each of us shared a portion of our prepared material. When Logan was speaking on the last section about sharing the gospel, I was reminded of the powerful message we have been given to spread under God’s authority. I think I can speak for the whole team in saying that it is invigorating to be here with the opportunity to challenge and encourage these fellow believers to be disciples who abide in Christ, make other disciples, and share the gospel. Overall, this first training was great and I thank God for giving all of us the boldness to speak this message in front of this church’s congregation! 

After the training, there was a short graduation ceremony for those who completed the discipleship training course, and a delicious lunch. We then went into the city with Brother A and Brother E for some sight-seeing and souvenir shopping before heading back to the hotel. Tomorrow we will be traveling to the next city where we will speak at Training #2 on day 7! 

As we continue on our trip, please pray for: 

⁃Sister A (a believer I met on a plane), that she and her family would continue to grow in their faith and be bold to share the gospel among her people. 

⁃Brother A to continue being bold with the gospel, and that the people at his church would put into practice the training they have received. 

⁃Rest and endurance as we will be traveling and teaching at trainings all in one day for the majority of the rest of our time here. 

⁃God to continue working in and through us as we share with nonbelievers and encourage believers. 

Jai Masi! 

Shelby

Over the past few weeks the Lord has revealed what a biblical mindset for worship is as he has shown me that worship is not about preference but about honoring the glory of God. Our partner E spoke the first morning in Delhi  that we worship the Lord because he is beautiful and this has really helped focus me today as we traveled from Delhi to a city in the mountains of West Bengal. Today was a change of pace from yesterday, a time to travel and more restful to me. While I was very weak yesterday and not feeling myself due to jet lag, God gave me strength to share the gospel with people we’ve met so far. God reminded me today of why I am here; not to prove myself or to impress others but because he is worthy despite how I feel. I was able to share the gospel with a man named Raji on the plane and for him the evil of suffering made it hard for him to believe and trust God. He said he trusted what he could touch and feel. Writing tonight, I see how much that Raji and I are alike. My tendency is to worship God when God makes me feel good. I admit God is showing me that I should worship him always. I shared that Jesus is the one way to God and the one that created all that he touches. Pray that he will read the Gospel of Mark as I challenged him to do so. Pray that God will reveal  himself to him. Thomas did not believe when the disciples shared, and how often do we trade the one true God to worship something else? Thanks be to God that he would allow Thomas to touch his scars. God meets us as we need so let us repent and believe let us go and share of the worthiness of God. Pray for us as we begin teaching our brothers and sisters that God will empower us.

– Logan