I just wanted to give a quick update about the new skate facility in Cobán. In a previous post titled, “It is Finished” I made the mistake of posting before going inside and seeing it with my own eyes. When I went in a few minutes after posting, I thought oh no because the water and electricity wasn’t even hooked up.

Now it is truly ready and yesterday the skate mission team helped us get the ramps inside the new facility. Today we will have the grand opening with music, prizes, contests etc. On Thursday, we will hold a skater Bible study for the first time in the new building. A skate session will follow and in the evening we will serve them hot dogs and show them the Spanish version of Livin it, an evangelistic film produced by the Palau Association that focuses on Skateboarding and BMX bike stunts. We are stoked about the eighteen decisions that were made for Christ on Sunday and now is the time to follow up with them to get them a base knowledge of the Word of God. Please continue to keep this ministry in your prayers.

The ramps are in & ready to go!

Check out this video summary of the first three days of our 2010 Skate Missions Team!

One of the six portable ramps

We are excited to announce that six portable ramps will soon be a part of our equipment for our Extreme Sports Ministry based in Coban, Guatemala. God is opening up doors so that we will be able to hold mobile skate sessions in different cities in Guatemala as well as other countries in Central America. We are currently in the process of purchasing the used ramps with the proceeds from a 2009 fundraiser. This will allow us the opportunity to have an even bigger impact in communities where extreme sports are rapidly growing in popularity. We hope to have them here before our skate mission team comes in July, so that we can use the ramps to do demos in local schools. It has been quite a challenge to find a way to get them to Guatemala. We have tried to get them here in the back of vehicles that are being driven down, to no avail. We also have tried to find someone who is already sending a container by barge to allow us to use one pallet’s worth of space. Please pray for us to find an efficient cost effective way for us to get these ramps shipped to Guatemala.

Maribel Rice with team members in Costa Rica

It was with lots of fears and nervousness that I left my country this time, since it was my first time flying alone. When I arrived in Costa Rica, I didn’t know how blessed I would be for two weeks. During the first week God showed me that sometimes you only have to be quiet and HE will do the rest. I spent the first fives days with a missionary family and I enjoyed the time that we shared together. I also worked with a group that had arrived at the Bible seminary where they live and serve. I enjoyed working in construction with the group so much that I was tempted to work with them instead of the medical team because I am not a doctor or a translator.

When the medical group arrived, I already knew about half of them even though I hadn’t spent much time with them before. The other half of the group were complete strangers, but in a short time I saw that they were wonderful people. In the beginning I doubted that I was where God wanted me, but that’s when I realized that sometimes, we ourselves may feel out of place and in reality we are exactly where God wants us. We worked in many different places with lots of different people that are really not much different from us. They were people that not only needed medicine, they needed to be loved and not just any love; it’s only the never changing love of God that softens the hardest of hearts! So my first mission trip outside of Guatemala, has filled my life with blessings because I was able to serve and God allowed me to get to know many awesome people!

Maribel Rice

Maribel left for San Jose Costa Rica on Saturday February 13th and is staying with our friends there until the medical mission team arrives this Saturday, the 20th. Then, she will be joining with the medical mission team from Life Covenant Church to serve with them for four straight days of medical day clinics. She will be returning to Guatemala on Saturday February 27th. This is the same church that brought a medical mission team to Coban last February. Please pray for God to use this team mightily for HIS glory and that they would make an eternal difference in the lives of others!

Maribel Rice

Maribel has an opportunity to go to Costa Rica and serve on a medical mission’s team on February 20-27, 2010. She was invited to join our friends from Covenant Life Church on their upcoming trip to Costa Rica. This is the same medical mission’s team that came to Coban in February of 2009. Afterwards, we were able to visit and speak at the church last spring when were in the US. Our ministry would like to pay for the airfare and send her on this trip out of our General Fund. We found a great price of $346.42 on the internet. If you feel led to contribute to our ministry so that she will be able to serve the Lord in Costa Rica, you can click the contact link and send us an email. We need to purchase her airline ticket as soon as possible, before the airfare starts to get more expensive. Thank you in advance for always helping us make an eternal difference in other’s lives!

Steven skating the quarter pipe

Calling all Christian skaters! Come to Guatemala for a month to serve as a skate intern. You would skate with the locals, teach at our weekly Bible study and help us set up for the 2010 Skate Missions Trip to Guatemala. Check out the event page on website or our Skate Outreach page, for more info.

We have several short-term mission’s trip opportunities on the horizon for 2010. All of our outreaches are designed to use a popular activity as a platform to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to join non-believers together with the local church. Please pray to see how God would have you be a part of these activities and help us by sharing this info with your friends.

2010 Skate Missions Trip-The 2009 skate mission team helped us build our skate ramps and kick off our Extreme Sports Ministry. This set into motion our Skate Outreach which is where we are skating with the local kids a few times a week and holding a weekly skater Bible study. Six of our regular skaters just made decisions for Christ in December!

The 2010 team will build upon this solid foundation by helping us use skateboarding as a platform to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to strengthen our witness to the local skate culture. All the fine details are being hashed out, but the main event will be a regional best trick contest; hopefully at Central Park. If we have lighter, portable ramps by then we will do demos at different schools, but if we don’t then I think we learned our lesson with the last team So we will need skaters for demos and judging the contest and non-skaters who have a passion to come and serve God through this event.

October 2010 Sports Camp Outreach-For this mission trip, we will be joining forces with UW Sports Ministry to facilitate and teach a sports seminar to Guatemalan pastors and Christian leaders. This will teach and empower Guatemalan Christians to use soccer and basketball camps as a platform to reach more kids in their communities for Christ!

On August 24-31, a team of seven Americans came to Cobán to be a blessing to the local skateboarders. In a very short time period, we built pro-style ramps, put on skate exhibitions in schools, repaired skateboards and shared the Gospel in Central Park.

At the end of the trip, we held a big event to introduce our ramps to the people. The American Skaters did more demos, taught local kids a few tricks and shared the word of the Lord through testimony. A short evangelistic message was also given by a local Christian leader. Regular outreaches are being held with the ramps and it is helping us build stronger friendships with the kids.

You can find out more, on our website. There are tons of new pictures on our Photo Page and a video documentary on our Skate Outreach Page.