Metal Trusses are in place

As you can see from the adjoining picture, the metal structure for the roof has now been fabricated and welded into place. The roof support is made out of metal trusses and will be covered by long sheets of tin roofing material. Both of which are very typical styles for most construction in this area. The roofing tin should be installed soon and then the floor would be poured next week. The cement floor will need to dry and start to cure before we will be able to hold skate sessions there. So we are probably looking at a few more weeks of dodging raindrops and lifting 350 lb. ramps, before we inaugurate the new facility. Currently, we are holding outdoor skate sessions on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons with the Skater Bible Study being held at the beginning of the outreach activity each Thursday. Please continue to keep our Extreme Sports Ministry in your prayers!

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!

Ray Wolfe

We wanted to give you a quick update about our friend Ray Wolfe’s participation in medical relief flights to Haiti last week. Ray was one of a five man flight team that made multiple trips between Florida and Les Cayes to carry a medical team and much needed supplies to the island so heavily damaged by the January 12th earthquake. Ray is a Captain with Southwest Airlines and volunteers for our ministry in the area of Web Development. The unique part of their relief trips was the ability of the Albatross seaplane they were flying to land in the water as opposed to the overrun airport. There is much more info available, including pictures and stories on the Albatross Haiti Relief Mission’s page on Facebook.

I just wanted to give you all a quick status update about the construction of the building that we will be using for the Extreme Sports Ministry. We have spent the last week getting the ground smoothed out and ready for pouring the floor, including the removal of excess dirt, rocks, roots etc. One of the local skaters helped me shovel dirt and God allowed me the opportunity to mentor him about his current circumstances. He’s really searching and I know its only a matter of time before he realizes that the Lord is capable of fixing his messed up life, just exactly like he did for me in years past.

The actual floor pouring will be done after the metal roofing is in place. Currently, the huge, metal support structures are being fabricated offsite and will hopefully be ready to install sometime next week. Until then, we’re just waiting; which is the toughest part for me. I am definitely ready to get back to the busy routine of holding regular skates sessions and our weekly Bible study for Skaters. We are also hoping to use the building as a youth center where the locals can come hangout, play games or shoot pool, and learn more about God. We don’t have a pool table or video games yet, but we believe that God will open those doors when the timing is right.

Thanks so much for those of you who are keeping this project lifted up in prayer!

Catherine with Hector & Carmen

We have been blessed to have a strong friendship with Hector and Carmen Coc for many years. We first met them at a patient screening for children with physical impairments in March of 2007. Their daughter Evelin Suleymi was a special needs child who was born with Spinal Bifida and Hydrocephalus. Our ministry helped her receive needed surgeries and a custom wheelchair before she went home to be with Jesus on January 8, 2008. Our involvement with them during a tough time in their lives built a strong bond between our families. When they returned Evelin’s wheelchair to us, Maribel told Carmen about the necessity for a woman to take folic acid several months prior to becoming pregnant to improve the chances of the fetus forming correctly.  Before they left, Maribel gave Carmen a huge bottle of folic acid with about a year’s supply. We visited their home with a mission team last August to share a meal with them. At that time, I happened to notice that Carmen had put on some weight and I asked Maribel if she thought that she could be pregnant. Maribel didn’t think so and I didn’t have the nerve to ask. This morning I received a phone call from Hector saying that Carmen gave birth to a perfectly healthy baby girl last night. Praise the Lord for His faithfulness with this family! We are so happy for them and are anxious to see her. Click here to view Evelin Suleymi’s story.

We have been praying and asking the Lord for a tangible way to get involved with the relief efforts in Haiti. This morning our prayers were answered when I found out that one of our volunteers is going to be heading to the devastated island this weekend. We will now be collecting financial contributions to send with him since he will  be able to personally disperse these funds in hard hit areas. We encourge you to take advantage of this special opportunity to make a difference in the lives of people in need. 100% of all monies received for this cause will go to Haiti; no questions asked! Contact Us to find out the best way to make your donation.

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!

We are super excited to report that God has supplied and directed us to have a ministry facility here in Coban, Guatemala. Last summer, we were blessed to have new skateboarding ramps built and that began a concentrated effort to reach out to the local “at risk” kids through skate sessions. We have been borrowing space from a local school for skating and for storing equipment. A few friends from the US saw the need and have committed to help us with the building’s rent and expenses, Praise the Lord!

Construction to be completed in about three weeks

Across the street from the shopping center!

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!