Bruce Ahlberg
The past 3 months have been filled with different activities at the base. Our DTS is currently on outreach in Indonesia and will be returning to Guatemala to complete the final 3 weeks. Our next DTS will be held in February 2020 and we are praying for a class of 12 students from different countries to attend.
At the end of April I was able to attend the YWAM DNA Conference in Mazatlan, Mexico. Over 250 YWAMERS from 33 different countries attended the two week training conducted by YWAM founders Loren and Darlene Cunningham and David Hamilton. It was a very important conference that helped each participant understand more clearly the various words of instruction and covenants that have shaped YWAM since its foundation almost 60 years ago. During the conference the Mazatlan base dedicated its new addition to the base as well a ship that will service Mexico and Central America. Another DNA conference is scheduled to be held in Cartegana, Columbia in April of 2020.
Our base construction is getting closer to being completed. We expect everything to be done by the end of June. The additional space will provide more dorm rooms, office space, a meeting room and garages for 3 vehicles as well as storage space. We are installing a large cistern that will keep us supplied with clean water in the event that we have any difficulties with the city water system.
One of the ministries that we have been involved in during the past 5 years is “Eliminating Bible Poverty”. Each YWAM base has been encouraged to give bibles to every family in their community that does not have one. The bible has the potential to transform lives as well as nations when it is put into practice. If you would like to help by financially supporting this ministry, you can make a donation on our link on this website. We have been able to purchase bibles for $2.50 for a complete bible in paperback.
We will be conducting our Summer Spanish School and Outreach July 8-August 3. There is still time to register for the class. Information is posted on our website link. Participants will have 20 hours of Spanish language instruction each week for the first 3 weeks and the final week will be an outreach to a community that will include ministry the participants develop during the first 3 weeks.
Our base is currently hosting a group from Texas called Wonder Voyage. They are spending most of their time ministering to the families that were affected by the Volcanic eruption that occurred one year ago. We will also be hosting 5 more teams throughout the summer months. It will be a busy time for us but we always enjoy working with the teams.
Please keep our base in your prayers as we continue to pursue the mission God has given us. You are always welcome to visit or work with us throughout the year!
Susy de Ahlberg
Teaching and Training at Shekinah Church.
We are about to end a 4-session Evangelism Class at one of the Churches in our area, Iglesia Shekinah. This Friday we will have the final session and we will teach a drama for them to perform in parks, streets, schools, etc. Most of the students are young and eager to share the Gospel. During session 1 and 2, we taught the “One Minute Witness” evangelistic tool. During session 2, after 20 minutes of practicing with a partner, they were told to go out in the streets and share their one minute testimony as they had practiced. They left in pairs. When they came back, they were given a time for testimonies. One of the ladies shared that right after she left, she decided to go home because she had things to do. She asked another girl to partner up with her partner, so her partner would not be alone. However, she felt that the Holy Spirit was telling her to go share the Gospel, but she had told the other two girls that she would go home. The three of them walked to a store to buy something, and that’s when she listened again to the Holy Spirit. After she listened to the Holy Spirit a second time, she chose to obey Him. The three of them went to share Christ and two people were saved as a result of that conversation. She acknowledged that she would have missed out on rejoicing with new believers had she not obeyed the Holy Spirit’s guidance.
We are happy for the privilege to partner with Churches in our area to train youth and anyone else who is willing to learn how to share the Gospel.
Brenda Roldan
These past months God has taught me a lot about my character and my relationship with Him has been put under a test in which I have been asking myself “do I really trust you God? Am I really going to let you do your work thorough me?” And while I’m in an adventure itself because of being a staff in this DTS, relying in Him was definitely the first step in this stage, and trusting Him for the outreach was the second step I took. To be honest, I was naive and didn’t know what was leading an outreach like. At the beginning of the year, God surprised me with a wonderful man to whom I said “Yes, I will marry you” and during the DTS lecture phase, we realized that marrying this November as we wanted to, wasn’t going to be a good idea because of me going away for outreach and being full time with the DTS. So we decided to postpone the wedding date to next year which was the best decision so far.
Now, half way through the outreach and I have seen God’s hand move in so many ways. We have worked with a refugee school, homeless and street ministries, churches and many more and each time we go with a willingness to serve, God surprises us with something new we didn’t expect.
So my prayer requests are protection to the different ministries we still have ahead, provision to finish raising the money for outreach and wisdom to make any decisions for the students.
Estos meses pasados, Dios me ha enseñado mucho acerca de mi carácter y mi relación con él ha sido puesta a prueba en dónde me he preguntado a mí misma ¿de verdad confío en Dios totalmente? ¿de verdad voy a dejar que él haga su trabajo por medio de mí? y mientras estoy en una aventura por ser personal de la EDE, el confiar en él ha sido el primer paso de esta etapa y para la cruzada fue el siguiente paso. Para serles sincera, fui ingenua en pensar qué significa dirigir una cruzada. A principio de año, Dios me sorprendió con un hombre maravilloso al que le dije “sí me casaré contigo” pero durante la fase teórica de la EDE, nos dimos cuenta que casarnos como queríamos en noviembre no era lo mejor y movimos la boda para el siguiente año.
Ahora, vamos a la mitad de la cruzada y he visto la mano de Dios moverse en muchas formas. Hemos trabajado con una escuela de refugiados, ministerio de las calles y de indigentes, con iglesias y muchas cosas más y cada vez que vamos con la disposición de servir, Dios nos ha sorprendido con cosas nuevas que no esperábamos.
Mis peticiones de oración son protección de los diferentes ministerios que todavía nos faltan por hacer, provisión para terminar de levantar los fondos para la cruzada y sabiduría para tomar las mejores decisiones para los estudiantes.
The Moms’ Ministry continues to impact the community. Every week, new moms attend and enjoy the time praising God and learning more about Him. On May, we honored this precious women!! We had a a Mariachi band at our Mother´s Day celebration!! The Mariachi band played beautiful songs where many of the moms cried of happiness and joy saying that this celebration was the best gift ever they have ever received!!
Renzo and Emma Lopez
The Men’s ministry that Renzo directs, continues to be a blessing for many fathers. Once a month, the fathers meet for a bible study, for worship, for prayer, and a dinner afterwards. We see the importance of working with both so that couples will center their marriage and their family on God and so they will raise their children in a way that lovingly teaches them the ways of God.
Also, Renzo and I are still working with the families who were affected by last June’s volcano eruption. Through different visits, prayer, and the generous donation of some friends we have been able to provide clothing, food, fruits, and vegetables as donations for 32 families who continue to live in temporary housing.
Francis and Andrea Frizelle
We continue to have been very busy as the second quarter of this year has been nearly wholly devoted to the DTS. Andrea has been most closely involved and the Lecture Phase months (Feb-Apr) continued much as was discussed in the previous update.
Since then we have been on our phase (May-June) which started in San Miguel Chicaj, in Central Guatemala, which was a bit of a change for us. First of all the temperature was much higher than we had all grown accustomed to in Antigua, and it was the kind of heat that even if you aren’t doing much just drains the energy out of you. We ministered to children in schools, church, and a kids club, we shared with a addiction recovery group and in a prison, and we did some other work to help with what the base is doing there.
After that we travelled to South East Asia! This was a crazy journey that involved: a 3.5 hours flight to Atlanta, Georgia, a 17 hour layover there, a 14 hour flight to Japan, a 3 hour layover, a 7 hour flight to Singapore, a 12 hour layover, and then 2 hours more air travel before getting to our destination. The month we had there was great – the temperature was just as high but everywhere has air conditioning, a family known to us lent our team a car for the month which was completely unexpected but a huge blessing, and we were able to serve in a variety of settings. We helped out in a homeless ministry, a school for refugee kids, a church, and more, also doing some practical work in a few places. The return journey was just as long (same route but different layover times).
We are presently up in Puerto Barrios, which is Andrea’s home town, for the remainder of the outreach where we have been ministering at the city dump, in the children’s hospital, at a kids club, and have more places ahead – old folks’ homes, an orphanage, churches, and more. We are grateful for all of the opportunities God places before us and hope that we are a blessing to each and everyone we help.