October Quarterly Update

MINISTRY UPDATES

Some of what has been going onSee other ministry reports on our tumblr account

Outreach Teams

The summer is the base's busiest time for receiving teams. June and July had one every week bar one (when we were supposed to receive a church group with teenagers that cancelled as a precaution due to the volcano). August had another couple of teams, we had another couple in September, and we had one with us this month. But that's it for this year now! 

As well as getting involved in our usual ministries and helping out with tasks around the base , the teams also did house visits to some of the families that we minister to in our community, and many teams went to the shelters set up for those displaced by the volcano. Many people had difficult stories about losing family members to the molten mudslides. Teams ministered to families in many ways and it was a significant time. 

Kids Ministry

We have both (and with our kids) been getting more involved with the kids' ministry of the base which was handed over from the couple who are on sabbatical to the Voncannons who themselves are going to be away for a while now too (see our previous update). The month of September was Superhero month, looking at a different hero of the Bible - Esther, Ruth, Paul, and, of course, Jesus.

Finances & Admin

There has been a lot of admin work to do recently as the base is updating the base manual, which covers every area of base activity. There has been plenty of time spent on reviewing the policies and procedures, as well as updating the documentation of various departments.

Also, now that David has had to leave, Peter/Francis has been placed in charge of the finance office, which involves all of the bookkeeping for the base. It has been a frantic week or so of becoming familiar with the financial processes of the base, and the finance office itself is in the midst of a big transition as the base has only recently become recognised as a legal entity. 

Discipleship Training School (DTS) Planning

The DTS is another thing that is now somewhat up in the air, as the Voncannons were the school leaders. The base leadership is considering what might happen regarding the leadership of the school, so please pray for wisdom and for the Lord to direct the right people to take it on so that the school can go ahead, since we already have students signed up.

FAMILY UPDATE

All photos from on our instagram account

We are doing well as a family, with the exception of a teething baby and a headlice outbreak (which we think we are finally past...). The above is us on McDia Feliz, a day here when all money raised from the sale of Big Macs goes to the Ronald McDonald children's charity.

The kids are doing well - this was them on children's day, which is another day in Guatemala that we don't have in England (my mum always used to tell me when I asked why there was a mothers' day and fathers' day but no children's day that "every day is children's day"!) They each received a toy, but we're trying to teach Charlie that JJ's toys are JJ's toys!

We love having fun together and the kids are growing up to really love each other and their wider family. We had a weeked in Puerto Barrios with Andrea's family again back in August to celebrate birthdays and wedding anniversaries, and are planning to be there next in November for Andrea's dad's birthday and for Jonathan's first birthday!

PRAYER & PRAISE

We post prayer and praise points to our twitter account