Life on Life

These are some of the pictures from this last week with the men in San Pablo as my teammates Alan and Pat Colton and I taught a course called Spiritual Life I. The format of PEB (Bible Education Program) is designed intentionally for the pastors and teacher(s) of the course to live and share life together a week at a time. This means we spend about 12 hours a day with the men and in the case of this last week, their wives as well. Typically, the wives receive their course the week after their husbands to avoid conflicts with work schedules and child-rearing. This week was neat in that we could spend time getting to know the men as they spent time with their kids. Having been able now to participate in 3 of the first 4 courses - I Timothy/the Pentatuch/Spiritual Life 1 - I feel as though I'm really getting a sense for their lives and ministry around the lake region. Carlos (pictured with his 15 mo. old son, Pedro) is with his pastor, prayerfully considering where they might be able to begin a new church in San Pedro, the next town over. Nearly all of the people in this region (San Pedro, San Pablo, San Marcos) live somewhere between what the government considers to be poverty or extreme poverty earning less than $2 a day. The picture of me teaching was taken in the Nazarene church which is partnering with SEPAL in the PEB program by allowing us to use their sanctuary for the classes. The largest need in the church according to these men is for biblical discipleship and for sound teaching on what it means to be a Christian. Many people here in Guatemala think that being a Christian means a list of do's and dont's. My role in this course was to teach the men concerning sanctification, contemplative prayer and scripture meditation in the spiritual life. God is using your prayers and financial contributions for His purposes here in San Pablo to change lives one by one. We couldn't do this without you, THANK YOU! GO TEAM!