Guatemala City February 26, 2018 Dear family in Christ, Greetings from Guatemala, in the name of our Merciful and Loving Father in Heaven. On this 2018, we hope that all your purposes and goals come true, for you and your children! May God give you strength and wisdom to achieve these goals and purposes. On our part, we have the compromise with God and with His church to continue working hard, and continue enlarge His Kingdom. How will we achieve it another year? Doing the same thing again, and again: (1)Preaching the gospel to the lost; (2)spiritually strengthening the saved ones and (3)spreading a hand of mercy (benevolence) to all, in the name of Jesus. What more else can we do -that was also biblical?- Nothing else! But without your spiritual support, we could not have the inspiration to be in the first line of this battle! But without your financial support, we could not equip ourselves to fight this battle. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Galatians 6.9 Thank you for all your support and efforts; rest assured that we strive and do our best efforts to serve with excellence and love. For we are taking pains to do what is right, not only in the eyes of the Lord but also in the eyes of man. 2 Corinthians 8.21 For all this, is a privilege to us, share with all of you the marvelous things that God continues doing between our ministry in the Kingdom during the months of January and February: 1. Beginning of the preaching school BICA: As you know, BICA -is the way for us- to reproduce in others all that we are like servants of Jesus. In BICA we train preachers and evangelists -that when are graduated -after 2 years of studies with us- they return to their home churches to serve and work for the Lord as self sufficient preachers. On this 2018 we received 41 new students in BICA Guatemala! It is a record in the number of students, in the history of BICA. And 21 new students in BICA Honduras. Plus 19 students of 2 nd year in Guatemala; 14 students of 2 nd year in Honduras= 95 students in both schools. All this is a challenge for us. My roll as executive director is a roll of service in BICA. My duties are: help the staff, in each school, to maintain the good work in the schools; help to invite teachers to teach in both schools; help to maintain the good relationships between BICA and the local congregations; promote BICA in all the countries where I am preaching; help to enroll new students etc. I maintain daily communication with the staffs of both schools. Also during the first two weeks of January I translated the first class of evangelism, in Guatemala and Hoduras. This class is taught by
brother George Hall, the founder of BICA. George is an excellent and hard teacher of evangelism. I translated for him 9 daily hours. I am so glad that our students enjoyed, learned and matured through this important class. BICA HONDURAS = 35 students BICA GUATEMALA = 60 students Also, during January 29 th through February 4 th we have our first evangelistic campaign. BICA Guatemala, with the church in Pinares= 22 baptisms. Our brother James Glasscock from Early TX was the speaker in our campaign. He did a wonderful job! BICA Honduras has also evangelistic campaign with 2 churches Mezapa=14 baptisms and The 36 th congregation=8 baptisms. In both campaigns the total result was 22 baptisms Glory to God! We started to send our students two by two, every weekend, to help small churches. In Guatemala we are helping 29 small churches and in Honduras we are helping 15 small churches. As result of the weekend work of our students we had on February 19 baptisms in Guatemala and 14 in Honduras. 2. Beginning of Kyrios Christian School: Kyrios means The Lord (Jesus Christ). This is an academic school, supervised by the laws of Guatemala, with the purpose of: provide education of excellence to the poorest children of our community and the most important teach the Word of God day by day. Through education we break the circle of the poverty. We provide education to the poorest children of our community, since 2 years old through 9 th grade. After 9 th grade, a person can find a job in Guatemala. Our students finishing 9 th grade are working in gas stations, groceries stores, hard ware stores etc. But the most important: we teach the Gospel of salvation day by day to all the children in our school. The 100% of the children studying in Kyrios are confronted and instructed with the teachings of the Biblie. For the glory of god every year we have an average of 30-40 students baptized, as product of the teachings of the Bible in Kyrios School. But unfortunately the financial resources for this ministry are decreased substantially, especially on this 2018. For this reason, we were forced to decrease the number of children that we are helping. From 967 children on 2017, we reduced on 2018 to 773 children. This breaks
our hearts, because the children that we can not help really need it. We saved resources in some areas; but still we need to pay the salaries of the same number of teachers: 46. Please pray for this wonderful ministry that is maybe the only one ministry of this nature of the churches of Christ in all Latin America. If some of you maybe know some potential donor, please send me the information and I can contact him or her and inform about this wonderful ministry. Now, something important: On January we had our first student baptized! Glory to God. He is Abner - 16 years old-. On February 4 more kids were baptized: Alex, Silvia, Gloria and Ricardo. Baptism of Abner 8 th grade Silvia 7 th grade Gloria 9 th grade 3. Evangelistic Campaigns conducted by Roberto during January and February: January 8 th gospel meeting in Pashot II, Quiche = 4 baptisms January 19 th -21 st evangelistic campaign in Chichicastenango COC = 7 baptisms February 11 th gospel meeting in La Brigada COC, Guatemala City = 1 baptism February 16 th 17 th evangelistic campaign in Maczul Segundo COC = 9 baptisms Baptism in Pashot II Beautiful attendance in Pashot II Gospel meeting in La Brigada 4. Spiritual strengthening to the Christians during January and February: (with the help of God we are part in the organization of this activities, many times we teach in this activities also) January 27 th Seminar for leaders, in Downtown COC subject: The grace. Attendance: 200 leaders January 20 th monthly ladies of the city meeting in Amatitlan COC. Atendance: 250 christian ladies. February 17 th youth of the city meeting in Dowtown COC. Subject: The history of your life. Attendance: 350 youth Christians.
February 10 th monthly Christian ladies of the city meeting. Ciudad Real COC. Subject: The perfect woman. Attendance: 200 christian ladies February 24 th dinner for Christian couples in Pinares COC. Subject: The communication in the couple. Attendance: 62 couples. Attendance to the Seminar for Leaders in Downtown COC Ladies monthly meeting in Amatitlan COC 5. Helping others with benevolence in the name of Jesus: Programa Amor por los niños (love for the children): The history of Luz Maria: Luz Maria was raped by a gang member, when she was 15 years old -two years ago- and as product of this, she was pregnant. She grew up in a very dangerous neighborhood without a father. Her mother Evelia washes and irons other people s clothes and clean houses. At the beginning Luz Maria thought about aborting the baby, but we talked with her and taught the Bible and she was convinced to not do it, thanks God. Now Mariita (little Mary) has 2 years old. Luz Maria attends the church in Pinares, and trough the program Amor por los niños, we provide milk, vitamins and medicines to Mariita. This is another more history of love for the children! Thank you to the ones that are helping the children with their love and financial support! Luz Maria, and Mariita Youth reunion in Downtown COC
6. Report of Conversions during January and February in the churches of Eastern Guatemala for the Lord: As you know, we are involved in this dream to plant 100 churches in 25 years in the Eastern of Guatemala. After 15 years we can see 63 congregations planted in the Eastern of Guatemala! Glory to God! Pinares COC= 27 baptisms; Downtown COC= 5 baptisms; Palencia COC= 2 baptisms; Sanarate COC= 2 baptisms; Zacapa COC= 3 baptism; Pacayalito COC= 1 baptism; Las tres marias COC= 2 baptisms; Tasharte COC= 1 baptism; Timushan COC= 3 baptisms; Las Tunas COC= 2 baptisms; El Amaton COC= 4 baptisms; Jutiapa COC= 1 baptism; Guastatoya COC= 5 baptisms; Calderas COC= 3 baptisms; Trapiche COC=2 baptisms; Estanzuela COC 3 baptisms; San Cristobal COC 2 baptisms; El Aguacatal COC = 1 baptism; Esquipulas COC 2 baptisms TOTAL BAPTISMS IN CHURCHES THAT WE HELP DIRECTLY = 44 Dearest family in the Lord: As servants of God, we are so grateful with all of you for your wonderful spiritual and financial support. Thank you very much because for your sincere love to God, to His Church and to the lost, all of you are making tremendous efforts for support our missionary work. Please not faint you and us- in our efforts to save the lost; for glorify God, because, I assure to all of you, that if we are victors we will receive the promised reward by the Grace of God! Thank you, and thank you thousands of times for your partnership with us in this holly adventure! With love, Roberto and Martha