Sunday, September 7, 2008

The Road Less Traveled...September 2008

The summer rush has ended with our final group visiting 2 weeks ago. It has been a blessing for us to be able to work with so many groups during the past few months and facilitate ministry and housing for them. We will have a break with the groups until November which will allow us to focus our attention on several areas. The DTS we had scheduled and were making plans to conduct had to be cancelled due to insufficient number of students. We had lots of interested students but only a few were able to make the decision to come in September. The students who had registered were able to enroll in another DTS. We now have time available to focus on some other areas. There is plenty of ministry opportunities to be involved in and we will be busy with Kid's ministry at the base, offering seminars at the coffee house, construction projects, ministry in the schools, ESL classes, expanding our hours of operation at the coffee house just to name a few things. There is never a shortage of things to do to advance the Kingdom of God. I will be organizing a week of construction in San Pablo La Laguna for the last week of January 2009. One of the projects I would like to assist is Pastor Efrain's health clinic. There is still work to do to finish it and I would like to see it completed so it can be used in the community. There are also a couple of families that are in need of homes and I would like to help them as well. If you are interested in coming as an individual to help or bring a group of people to help with the project please let me know and I will get in touch with you to provide details. For those of you in the cold northland, January is a beautiful time of year in Guatemala. It will be warm, sunny and no rain (or snow) in the forecast! You will also have an opportunity to be a tremendous blessing to the people you will serve and it will be a great time of fellowship among all who will be participating. We have had some changes at the coffee house and have a new staff member,Dayna and her daughter Sierra, from the YWAM Chico base joining us for the next 3 months. We will be expanding our menu at the shop to try to bring in more people and revenue to help us during the next couple of months that have traditionally been very slow months because of the decrease in tourism. We will be opening a prayer room in our meeting area in the coffee house. We have construced some moveable walls and will be decorating the area to make it a place where anyone can stop by for a time of reflection and prayer. There are several people interested in establishing a prayer room that will be open 24/7 and we would like to be a part of it as the Lord leads and provides the facility and staff to make it a reality.It has been almost a year since I applied for temporary residency in Guatemala and I am still waiting for the process to be completed. The wheels of government turn very slowly and with the change in administration it seems to move even more slowly. After I receive residency status we will be making application with the government to be recognized as an organization in Guatemala. There are many benefits to obtaining this status and I would appreciate your prayers that the process for both things will be completed soon. I have created a blog and will be updating it on a regular basis with news of the ministry in Guatemala. The blog will also be linked to our website: www.ywamantigua.orgIt will contain photos, stories, messages, links to audio and other items of interest. If you want to access it click on the link below.
http://guatemalaministry.blogspot.com/
Thank you for your prayers and support of the work in Guatemala. This past month has been very challenging for me personally with times of great encouragement as well as times of being very discouraged. Through it all God is faithful and he renews our strength and helps us view things from His perspective and motivates us to press on to finish the race. It is comforting to know that I do not run alone but have a group of faithful supporters who partner with me in the work of the ministry. For Him,Bruce

Correspondence Address:Bruce Ahlberg
6ta Avenida Norte #33
Antigua, Guatemala

Contribution address:
YWAM Chico17850 Richardson Springs Road
Chico, CA 95973
(Please attach a note to designate your donation)

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