Guatemala Diary, Day #3 – A Day of Three Oportunidades
No, these have nothing to do with today's story, but I thought they were pretty, so I thought I'd include them. Gladys tells me they're called "camarones" (shrimp), and I guess i see the similarity. There are all sorts of flowers, fruits, and vegetables growing in the garden here!
Time-Sensitive Prayer Request: Dr. Gladys de Chávez, my hostess and translator for most of my time here, has been sick con gripe (with the flu) ever since I arrived, and she seems to be getting worse, not better, despite repeated times of prayer for her. She is to translate Sunday morning and for two two-hour sessions on Monday and Tuesday. (Her sister-in-law, Lilian [yes, no double “l”] will translate for me Thursday and Friday.) Please pray for complete healing for Gladys. And as a matter of prevention, please pray that I won’t catch este gripe from her. ¡No lo quiero! (I don’t want it!) Now back to our regularly scheduled daily blog post…
Me gustan las oportunidades de Dios. I love it when God gives us opportunities. That should be even more true when those opportunities are beyond our means to seize, and we have to rely on Him. I had three opportunities today, one pequeña (small), one mediana (medium), y una oportunidad grande (large).
My Teaching Materials Are Finished: The day started early, as days do around here at Casa Chávez. Maybe the six singing canaries outside my bedroom [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
Al Strickland,
Atilio Chávez,
Bobby Hoyle,
Gladys de Chávez,
Guatemala,
Jorge Cerritos,
LendAHand Mission Teams,
Marlón Villa-Toro,
missions,
Sue Strickland
Guatemala Diary, Day #2
Our planning meeting at Hamburguesa del Rey. Following the "U" from left to right -- Dr. Gladys de Chávez, Pastor Jorge Cerritos, Pastor Jorge Perez, Superintendente y Pastor Atilio Chávez
I got to bed at 22:30 local time (half past midnight home time) last night, and were I still in the habit of praying my childhood prayer of “Now I lay me down to sleep,” etc., I would have gotten as far as “Now I lay m….” At 4 AM it seemed like the whole neighborhood, maybe the whole city, erupted in fireworks. I woke up for an instant, processed the noise as a celebration of “el día de la madre” (Mother’s Day is today, whereas in los estados unidos, it doesn’t occur until Sunday), then I passed out for another two hours or so.
Gladys fixed un desayuno (a breakfast) of homemade granola, huevos con queso (eggs with cheese), refried beans, and sliced plantains boiled with cinnamon sticks. Then we were off to our morning appointment at Hamburguesa Del Rey [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
Atilio Chávez,
Glady,
Guatemala,
Guatemala Journal,
Jorge Cerritos,
Jorge Perez,
missions
Guatemala Diary, Day #1
Coat of Arms of Guatemala
I’m writing this day after, because I was too wrung out to do it last night. Al Strickland, bless him, picked me up at “o’dark thirty” (04:40 to be precise), and I was being checked in at the Delta Airlines counter by 05:10. Both flights went well – on time, aisle seat, empty seat next to me, onboard WiFi working (until somewhere over the Gulf of Mexico). It was a productive time. I caught up on my New Testament reading in my pocket Bible, did my Old Testament reading on my Kindle (a weight-saving packing alternative) and fired off various e-mails and a few Facebook messages.
Upon arrival, the lines were short for inmigracion, but long for customs. Yet once it was my turn to be processed [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
Atilio Chávez,
Gladys de Chávez,
Guatemala,
Guatemala Journal,
Jim Kerwin,
missions
Guatemala or Bust!
Flag of Guatemala
There’s not much time to write this. In 29 hours, Al Strickland is going to be loading me and my suitcases into his SUV, so that I can get to Norfolk International Airport by 5 AM. About an hour after that, the sun will rise here on the East Coast, and by 7 AM my Delta flight should be “wheels up” and nosing toward Atlanta. Assuming that flight arrives on time, I’ll have just 75 minutes to catch the flight to Guatemala City, which leaves at 10:10 EDT.
Our prayer requests for trip, along with a bit of other info, is contained in this month’s newsletter. If you received a copy in your e-mail inbox, then great; you need not [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
Al Strickland,
Colossians 4,
Costa Rica,
Guatemala,
missions trips,
Philippians 4
April Newsletter: The Treasure in Guatemala
Guatemalan pastors Fermin and Lilian Chávez baptizing a special candidate
Our latest newsletter was sent out on Easter Eve. It’s all here–Jim’s upcoming missions trip to Guatemala, quadrupling podcasts, and “a face that’s made for radio.” If you didn’t receive a copy, but would like to read it without being on the newsletter mailing list, then follow the “Read the Newsletter” link. Read the Newsletter.
Tagged as:
2 Corinthians 4,
Colossians 2,
Guatemala,
James 2,
missions trips,
National Prayer Chapel,
newsletter,
Pastor Ray Greenley,
Pilgrim's Progress,
Powerful Poetry
The website logo for Anointed Christian Links
“A blessing from God’s Pockett”? Yes, Pockett is spelled correctly. For sixteen years (an eon on the Internet!) Australian Graham Pockett has been running and editing his website, Anointed Christian Links (ACL). ACL is an alphabetical listing of “well over 2,500 non-commercial [Christian] sites,” many of which, in Pockett’s opinion, “could give you weeks, or even months, of browsing.”
All these sites are submitted by their respective owners and representatives, but Bro. Graham personally visits [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
Anointed Christian Links,
ECA (Evangelical Church Alliance),
Finest of the Wheat Teaching Fellowship,
Graham Pockett,
Nicene Creed
Daily Bread – Reading Through the Word of God in a Year
by Robert M. McCheyne (1813-1843)
(Message #33 from the book Memoirs of Mccheyne, Including His Letters and Messages)
Thy word is very pure; therefore thy servant loveth it.
Psalm 119:140
Robert Murray McCheyne (1813-1843)
HE APPROACH OF ANOTHER YEAR stirs up within me new desires for your salvation, and for the growth of those of you who are saved. “God is my record how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ” [Philippians 1:8]. What the coming year is to bring forth, who can tell? There is plainly a weight lying on the spirits of all good men, and a looking for some strange work of judgment coming upon this land. There is need now to ask that solemn question: “If in the land of peace, wherein thou trustedst, they wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?” [Jeremiah 12:5]
Those believers will stand firmest who have no dependence upon self or upon creatures, but upon Jehovah our Righteousness. We must be driven more to our Bibles, and to the mercy seat, if we are to stand in the evil day. Then we shall be able to say, like David, “The proud have had me greatly in derision, yet have I not declined from thy law” [Psalm 119:51]. “Princes have persecuted me without a cause, but my heart standeth in awe of thy word” [Psalm 119:161].
It has long been in my mind to prepare a scheme of [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
2 Timothy 3,
Bible reading,
Jeremiah 12,
Malachi 1,
Matthew 18,
Numbers 21,
Philippians 1,
Psalm 119,
Robert Murray McCheyne,
Song of Solomon 8
Painting of Martin Luther (not to be confused with Glen Steinson)
Sometimes we think “out loud,” and I guess it happens sometimes when we write, too. I sent an e-mail to my friend Glen Steinson about a free software add-on from the American Bible Society that allows webmasters to have an entire Bible passage pop up over their page. (You can try it by clicking on this link — 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18.) My friend and fellow ECA member Jerry Johnson of Christian Concourse Ministries had sent the information to me, and I found it so helpful that I wanted to share it with another Christian webmaster and podcaster; hence my e-mail to Glen.
But while writing the note to Glen (who interviewed me on his podcast a while back), another thought spilled out. Glen’s podcast, [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
Christian Concourse Minsitries,
ECA (Evangelical Church Alliance),
Glen Steinson,
Jerry Johnson,
Martin Luther,
Prayer,
Stewardship Weekly,
tithing
Sunday morning, 9 October 2011
Flowers Along the Occoquan. (Part of worship is stopping to enjoy and give thanks for God's handiwork.)
Volunteering, as I have been, on the NationalPrayerChapel.com website over the weekend, has an unexpected perquisite—waking up each morning in Pastor Ray Greenley’s guest bedroom with a clear view of the thin golden hair of pre-dawn light silhouetting the horizon across the Occoquan River. After I’ve dressed in the dark and finished my hour of Scripture reading, I can steal off for a prayer walk along the Occoquan.
Two songs have been “singing me” me this morning. (Those of you who have read my blog post, A Song Singing Me, will understand.) The first song arose within my heart from the moment my eyelids popped open, and second one was triggered in my spirit by the sight of [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
All Creatures of Our God and King,
Creation,
hymns,
Jim Kerwin,
National Prayer Chapel,
Pastor Ray Greenley,
St. Francis of Assisi,
When Morning Gilds the Skies,
worship
Percy Gutteridge
One of my two fathers in the Lord, Pastor P.H.P. (“Percy”) Gutteridge, was born this day, September 26th, in 1909. I was speaking with my friend Brian Fettes from Calgary, Alberta, today, and we both marveled that Percy has been in the presence of Jesus for thirteen years already.
Some of my readers knew Percy well; others, not at all (except perhaps through his writings found on FinestOfTheWheat.org and his audios both there and on this site in the Grains from Gutteridge podcast). An overview of his life is told by his son and daughter-in-law, John and Ann Gutteridge, in their Brief Timeline of the Life of P.H.P. Gutteridge. Another son, Peter, relates some humorous and poignant anecdotes in [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
Ann Gutteridge,
Faith Is Substance,
Foundation for His Ministry,
John Gutteridge,
Percy Gutteridge,
Peter Gutteridge
