Lumpy's blog

wow ok so it’s been awhile since I have written anything here…

I have been really busy but nothing too exciting.  We did have Cassie’s birthday, and James’ birthday and Valentines day, but no pics or video to post about that and nothing really crazy exciting to say about it either.  sorry. I have been working really hard recently (mainly for the upcoming Bible Quiz Nationals), but again nothing too exciting.  I will mention this though, my ministry has been going through some changes recently.  I have been doing more discipleship & in various, unique ways.  for example I will be starting an online Bible study starting early May (more info on that later).  it’s a dream I have had for a long time that God kept saying not yet, but now He has given me the green light and I am very excited to see how it turns out and what God will do with it.

another discipleship tool that I have implemented is having my padawans more involved in my family life.  almost to the point that they ARE part of the family.  Every Tues in the youth center I help run we have discipleship day.  basically we close the youth center to the public and make it invite only.  the teens we invite are ones that we are discipling so we can have some good one on one time with the sheep and not have to worry about the wolves.  it has worked out great for me! after an afternoon of one on one time in the Bible and basic talk about their day to day life, I take one of my padawans, Harry, to my house for dinner and to be a part of my family. he plays with James and Cassie feeds him, then we play video games the rest of the night.  on these Tues discipleship days, we study Daniel.  I have been really impressed with how Harry has absorbed it and looks forward to it every week!  I am doing this Tues thing along with my Friday Bible Study and now I am taking Taylor to church with us every Sunday.  it’s the only way I can guarantee that he goes to church.  we also talk about the message on the way home and a lot of the time Cassie will feed him as well.  I like how discipleship focused my ministry is becoming.  I look forward to see what God is going to do with this time.

on the family side of things, James is growing by leaps and bounds! both physically & mentally!  He is getting to be very smart! it’s really cool to see how he remembers things like the way to church and knows that is where we are going by just the scenery we pass on the way there.  and how well he has learned his numbers and letters and now colors.  He likes to sit in our laps now and look at magazines or newspapers with us and asks “what’s that?” and we tell him and he will look for that thing later on and recognize it and remember what it was called.  it’s pretty cool.  since this past weekend was Easter and we weren’t able to travel to see family, we celebrated with some close friends at Gods Mountain.  they did 2 Easter egg hunts, one inside and one outside.  James loved them, though he was a bit confused as to why we wanted him to pick up candy and put it in a bag, it made us happy and that was enough for him.

the videos are on youtube. here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/user/gmlumpy#grid/user/215343D938B1DAB0

well that’s it for now. I leave for Bible Quiz Nationals in Pittsburgh, PA in a little over a week. pray for safety, energy and that everything will go smoothly (I have a lot on my plate for that one).

I know it’s February, but I did write this in January, I just forgot to put it up here. so here it is.  just click here to download and read it (it’s a PDF).  and pass it on to some one else who might be interested.

thanks,

Lumpy

well I have been home for 2 full days now. It was good to see James again ad he is really happy we are home. Fri and Sat were pretty much travel days, with the exception of going to see some ruins just outside of Santa Cruz. it was interesting. then we went and did some shopping in another town (I forgot the name of it) I didn’t get anything but Cassie got a nice hand-made purse. it was really nice. after that (and the 8 hours in the bus) we got to the siminary where our translators went and we all went straight to bed. the next morning we had breakfast, toured the college and went to the airport. our 1st flight was almost an hour leaving so we got to Huston late! when we landed we had 15 min to get to our connecting flight!!! so we literally ran through customs (I think we set some sort of record there) and then through security and rechecked out baggage and ran to our connecting gate. apparently they held the plane for us (we made up about half the flight!) so we made it. but as we were running to it they were in the process of selling our seats to a few other people (who were a lot happier about us showing up then I would have been). so we made our flight and they even loaded out luggage for us. we did miss our window to take off and had to get in the end of the line to use the runway (twice) but we finally took off and got to Kansas City airport and home by 10:30. it was really nice to be home again. we were so tired! and we had to wait until the next morning to see James but he was very happy to see us. we went to church Sun morning and relaxed the rest of the day and Monday. now I am back to work and trying to get back in the swing of things… but I will never forget the people and experiences of Guatemala, and I can’t wait to go again!
thanks for reading this blog and for praying. come back and read my blog from time to time, I plan on keeping it going with updates of my ministry, family and anything else I feel like writing about. it’s the best way to keep informed of my day to day life (and of course seeing pics of James).
so until next time,
take care and God bless,
Lumpy

so this might be my last update until I get home, but I will write one out tonight and post it as soon as possible.
ok so last night was very powerful and humbling… the little kids did a drama that we called sin box (it’s sin chair with a box) it was really good and cute. then during the worship the worship leader asked Jodi and some of the girls to come up and do the motions for one of the songs, Lord I lift Your Name on High. they had fun with it. and the message was very good. Pastor David reminds me of a TV evangelist, except he actually preaches the gospel. it was really powerful. after the message, Pastor David called us up to the front and presented us with gifts from the church. little bags hand-made here in the city. we were very blessed. he prayed for us and thanked us all and was blessed to call us brothers and sisters in Christ. it was a great wrap up to the week, but it didn’t end there. after an emotional good-bye, we went to Pastor Brady’s church and prayed over it and blessed it for him. he was very honoured that we did that, he also brought his 1st few members to pray with us (his 1st service is tonight, Fri). and then it was another emotional good-bye. I will never forget Pastor Brady, he has been and inspiration to me this week. I hope to come and see him again, to see what God is doing with his church.
after that we had our evening debriefing and it was really interesting to me to see how the members of our team were affected this week. it really was a powerful week. I almost don’t want to leave… but I know I need to go back to my mission field, and I am more fired up for that now then I was last week. so many memories here, so many wonderful people, and places (and food ). everyone should go on a missions trip no matter your age & if you don’t know where to go I can suggest a place that will touch your heart. from Santa Cruz, good bye and God bless,
Lumpy

ok so I will be completely honest with you, the crusade hasn’t been going as well as we had hoped… the 2st 2 nights we had only 40 or so. and we handed out over 2,000 flyers! so yesterday I was thinking and praying a lot about that…are we doing enough, what else could we do, why is this not working as well as we had hoped… so I prayed about it a lot looking for opportunities and I was ready for the chances God gave me. so yesterday afternoon we took to the streets with a different approach. we decided to reach the kids hoping that they would bring the parents. so we quickly learned how to make balloon animals. and some of them played hacky sack. it was a HUGE success!! we had a TON of kids come and get balloons (even though mine were terrible). and so we were pumped for the crusade. so 7 pm came we went to the crusade and it started late (like everything around here seems to do) and at 7:20, there was no one there… we were all kind of discouraged about it. I was praying asking God if we are doing enough what else should we be doing? and a thought came to me that this crusade is not based on what I can do but what God wants to do. so I stopped with the negative feelings and thanked God for the chance to come here and for the seeds that were planted and that no matter who comes or doesn’t come I would give Him glory. and for His will to be done tonight. after that moment the seats started to slowly fill up and soon we went from 25 people there (counting our team of 18) to over 60 NOT counting our group!!! and 2 ladies came to know Jesus as their personal Lord and Saviour, and 2 more did that afternoon when we were in the park & they were there last night!! Pastor David spoke and did a message about the 1st passover and compared that to what Jesus did for us (He was the male, perfect lamb who’s blood had to be shed). and it was really good. it was a really powerful night. oh we also played soccer which was a lot of fun but it was the low point of the day compared to last night. but it was pretty cool to watch (I couldn’t play because of my back).
today we are going to see a Mayan worship…area I guess to call it and a Mayan priest is going to show us around. we want to see what the enemy is doing here so we know what we are up against. also we are seeing the textile area outside of town. that’s where they make pretty much everything they sell in town and it’s a little bit cheaper. so pray that God will protect us and teach us what we need to learn there. also continue to pray for the crusade and for our balloons and such this AM in the streets.
and now a note from Cassie:

Buenos dias! We are doing great1 yesterday we played soccer or, futbol, with the local guatemalans, and I had a blast! I actually was better at it than I expected. Then I spent my afternoon in the park by the market making balloon animals for the kids and advertising the crusade. I had a great time. well, it was sad when I ran out of balloons and I had to communicate to all the sad, adorable faces that I there was no more.
The balloons worked, we had about 50 more people at the crusade last night compared to the other nights. We will be doing balloons again this morning. I was really exhausted yesterday, but I feel better this morning. coffee helps.
Please pray for us today, for spiritual protection. We will be going this afternoon to an area with many Mayan worship places. I know that he who is in me is greater than he who is in the world, but prayer always helps. I will tell you all about it later. Much love! -Cassie

morning my American friends! lol so we aren’t eating at “Camp Chicken” as often now bc Pastor David and his wife prepare lunch and supper for us. their hospitality is amazing!!! and pastor David’s wife is a great cook!!!! I thought I would loose weight here but with her cooking it’s not going to happen. lol
anyways, our work is going really well. we found out yesterday morning that the flyers we passed out earlier had the wrong address on them. so we corrected them and handed out a lot more yesterday. the crusade is going well. the evangelist that was going to speak had to cancel becuase his brother died for Pastor Brady spoke and did a great job. I dont know if I have written much about him, but he is the pastor that is planting a church here in Santa Cruz. He felt led to do so a few months ago and told his church at the time, they were upset about the decision, and stopped paying him for the last 2 months before he moved here. He is an amazing man of God and an inspiration to me. I will talk more about him later, but one funny thing, he doesn’t speak English only Spanish, BUT he knows English. so he has been laughing at our jokes because he understands them it took us a couple of days to realize this. but he is a great guy and has an awesome family.
now Pastor David & wife run the church that we are partnering with here. they run a nice church in town (we went to his church on Sunday, read that post for more info). but his wife (I don’t know her name) is a GREAT pastors wife!! she has an amazing voice and a great cook and a great mother. she has been so nice to us this week, she has truly blessed my heart. I will write more about Pastor David and family later, but for now time for breakfast.
I miss you guys keep praying and leave some comments I like reading them (I’m talking to you Mr Rogers! ).
until tomorrow, God bless,
Lumpy

ok so I don’t know if I’ll get a chance to update later today so I will give you guys something to read today.
like I said lat night our translators are really cool. they are really funny and sarcastic with us (especially Shane). because Shane is working on making contacts here so he has his own translator, named Victor. and they talk smack to each other the entire time! except when it counts. last night Shane spoke to the church and Victor transalted for him and they were very proffesional. afterwards we went to dinner and the restaurant was very full so Shane and Victor sat with to local guys and witnessed to them hard. those of you that know Shane know that he doesn’t beat around the bush. he basically told them that they are going to hell. and he sat with them through the entire meal. and they got to know the real Shane. it always surprises me to see Shane tell some one they are going to hell in a loving way. and you could tell after the meal that they knew that he cared about them and that’s why he was talking to them. it was pretty cool.

the other translators are really cool as well. Robert is from Canada originally, he has lived here for a few years among other places and speak fluent english and spanish. he is married and has 2 kids a 4 year old and 1 year old. (BTW, Victor is married but only for 1 month, and he is here with us, which we tease him about all the time). anyways, Robert is a youth pastor. he is here getting his masters at the seminary. but he has a heart for teens he has that same passion that I have and the same enthusiasm.
anyways, breakfast is almost here so I got to go.
take care and pray for our crusade tonight at 7 PM (we are in the same time zone)
God bless,
Lumpy

so today we actually saw the city. we walked through the market, we met the locals, we handed out flyers and we went to a church. i didn’t understand most of it but I could still feel the Spirit working. it was indescribable!
ok so we just got back from the church service and it’s still fresh on my mind so i want to talk about that 1st:
the church is really small in our eyes, but everything is here. the pastor’s wife lead the singing and she started out with Then Sings My Soul, but in spanish. and it was incredible. i didn’t need to know the words but wow you could feel the entire church worshiping God. we then gave a plague to the pastor to recognize the the combined ministry we are doing together, and the work the church is doing here. we then prayed for the pastor and another pastor who is planting another church in town. then the pastor preached with an interpreter. his message was on vision during trails. it was a really powerful message. he used this analogy of having eagle eyes. the eagle sees from above not from below. the eagle doesn’t see the filth that we look up from. it was really powerful. then during the alter call the pastor asked us all to come and pray for those who came forward. I prayed for a lady that went forward and for the pastors wife. it was a great feeling to be asked to pray for them.
to shift gears fast bc I am running out of time, but a few funny things: our translators are hillarious!!! one of them has latched on to Shane and they shoot insults back and forth all day it’s really funny. we keep eating at the same fast food chicken restaurant for every meal… hopefully we will have some variety later on this week… so far we all think that Guatemalans only eat fried chicken .

I will take an entire post to talk about the translators hopefully tomorrow. they are amazing Godly people with great stories. they all go to the seminary in Guatemala City.
but for now, it’s the end of our 1st day of work, we are tired and hungry.
continue to pray for us here, specifically for the crusade we are doing on mon-thur nights. and for us to be open to opportunities to be His Hands.
Lumpy

so today we actually saw the city. we walked through the market, we met the locals, we handed out flyers and we went to a church. i didn’t understand most of it but I could still feel the Spirit working. it was indescribable!
ok so we just got back from the church service and it’s still fresh on my mind so i want to talk about that 1st:
the church is really small in our eyes, but everything is here. the pastor’s wife lead the singing and she started out with Then Sings My Soul, but in spanish. and it was incredible. i didn’t need to know the words but wow you could feel the entire church worshiping God. we then gave a plague to the pastor to recognize the the combined ministry we are doing together, and the work the church is doing here. we then prayed for the pastor and another pastor who is planting another church in town. then the pastor preached with an interpreter. his message was on vision during trails. it was a really powerful message. he used this analogy of having eagle eyes. the eagle sees from above not from below. the eagle doesn’t see the filth that we look up from. it was really powerful. then during the alter call the pastor asked us all to come and pray for those who came forward. I prayed for a lady that went forward and for the pastors wife. it was a great feeling to be asked to pray for them.
to shift gears fast bc I am running out of time, but a few funny things: our translators are hillarious!!! one of them has latched on to Shane and they shoot insults back and forth all day it’s really funny. we keep eating at the same fast food chicken restaurant for every meal… hopefully we will have some variety later on this week… so far we all think that Guatemalans only eat fried chicken .

I will take an entire post to talk about the translators hopefully tomorrow. they are amazing Godly people with great stories. they all go to the seminary in Guatemala City.
but for now, it’s the end of our 1st day of work, we are tired and hungry.
continue to pray for us here, specifically for the crusade we are doing on mon-thur nights. and for us to be open to opportunities to be His Hands.
Lumpy

so we got up yesterday at 2 AM and got to the church by 3:15 AM. we got to our hotel at 6:45 PM (all central time) so it was a long day. the country os beautiful. lots of mountains and volcanoes! the city is very crowded. the streets are very small (1 car length). The buildings are basically one big building with allies between them. you can tell it’s a 3rd world country. I am excited to see what God will do with us this week. check here for more updates.
Lumpy

a note from Cassie:
Hello everyone! We are so excited to be in Guatemala. The trip was LONG but everything went very smoothly. My favorite part was the bus ride. It is funny, because that was the part of the trip I was imagining would be miserable. But all 4-5 hours of the winding, bumpy drive I was rapt by the view. I am not talking about the features of the earth which, though beautiful served only as the backdrop for what I was really seeing. The people, the villages and cities, all transporting me into a completely different world. It is hard to explain here in a little note, but I can say now that I am quite thankful that God has sent me here, if only to come to this new level of cultural, economic, and social awareness.