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If you've been to Guatemala and are willing to share with others about your experience please let us know!
Thank you for the opportunity to participate in the construction process at your new location it was very enriching to work with other talented and committed men to further your mission. I thought the construction process was why I felt moved to help out and that was something I felt qualified to help with, but by the end of the trip I knew God only wanted me there to carry a bible that was set in front of me, up a few stairs to a young man in a remote village and He will take care of the rest. That was easy! I end up doing what I feel least qualified for, it took no special talent and it also makes the biggest impact for both of us. Bet that's not the first time someone has experienced the same thing.
I can think of many things to say about how great a job you are doing by helping the people, how wisely you proceed and the enriching time I had, but the only thing that mattered once I returned home was that I carried that Bible, easily the simplest thing I did all week.
So when do I/someone get to go back to that village? God has unfinished work there. Two people I know of, the man who restrained the drunk person from disrupting more than he did and the boy who got the Bible.
Thanks for the work He does thru you and your family.
Jay Brace
Hey Dan and Heidi,
I went to Guatemala this past summer and God has truly blessed my life since then. Lately I have been feeling a tug to go into missions. I feel like every chapel service at college and Sunday service are telling me to help the poor, widowed, and orphaned. Dan, I talked to you about how to get into missions and you mentioned something about getting an internship down in Guatemala. I was wondering if you are still looking into that. I would love to know the "behind the scenes" work and be able to help other people experience God in this way. Thanks for helping open my heart to God's leading.
-Katie Dykstra
"The Lord is gracious and full of compassion" - Ps. 111:4
Dear Dan & Heidi,
Thanks so much for your wonderful recap of our week in Guatemala. I have to admit that God stretched me, opened my eyes to see that I truly can be used for "HIS WORK" and also made me see the need in my own heart for some much needed cleaning. I can't begin to express how much serving with you has impacted my life. I guess I should say that I never was very confident in who I was and how I could be effective in sharing the gospel. Yes, I needed to see that my words aren't the only way to share God's Love & Saving Grace. I must now admit that many of the people I touched physically over that week are now etched in my heart and in my daily prayers spiritually. I am one who is so looking forward to seeing them again in Glory! Praise Be to God for those hearts that we open to His Call!
I thank God for you and your work among these people. I understand now why so many that have served with you come home with such a passion and desire to return. I have a feeling you will be seeing Brian and myself again someday along with many other people from Immanuel. I want to encourage you to continue planting seeds among the mountains not allowing satan to make you weary in the work you are doing, for God is working and blessing your efforts. I also thank you for ministering to all of us who came to serve, your words and actions were a blessing to us as well.
Please keep us informed as to what is needed and happening at Paradise Bound. We assure you of our prayers for your work and your family.
Blessings to you both with our thanks for your willingness to be used by God in this way.
Praising God for Paradise Bound and its impact on the lives of many!
Sincerely,
Phyllis Wigger ~ Immanuel CRC Hudsonville, MI
Dan and Heidi,
I can't even begin to tell you the feeling I felt when I saw that the messages were from you! Even though I was so homesick for Michigan, now that I'm home all I can think about is you guys and the people in the villages. It's amazing to tell the stories, and see the tears of the people here who hear them. I personally wanted to thank BOTH of you for all the work that you put into making the week what it was. I was so nervous to go, I was to the point of backing out, but I know now why God sent me to Guatemala. My life is changed, but more imporatantly the people of the villages will forever be changed. I love looking at my pictures, I can barely set them down I miss it so much! I knew that God had a huge plan for me I just wasn't sure of what it was, and I had felt imcomplete, but now I am able to see that God does better when he is in control, and even if I can't feel him there with me the same way I did in Guatemala, I know that he is still there!!
Thank you so much again for everything that you did!
In Christ,
Renee Vander Lugt
Hi Dan!
Thank you so much for the Team Rockford Update email - I shared it will all my friends and family to help fill in the gaps regarding our trip. I had already spent hours and hours sharing my experiences, of course, because there was so much to say! I hope all has been well these past few days and I REALLY hope you all are getting rested up for the next team. If you remember, tell Kevin and Christen, the kids, and Hermano Jesus that I said hello.
Dan, you will be so excited to hear all the wonderful things God has been working on in me that He began down in Guatemala! I remembered what you told me at the airport on Tuesday morning (that perhaps the plans I have made ARE His, but that I just need to give them back to Him). My heart was really softened throughout the week, and really broken on Monday night, when I was finally able to take baby steps toward handing my future and my plans over to Him. Anyways, the materialization of the whole thing came when I got home and realized that God had really impressed it upon me to learn Spanish, for whatever of His reasons. So I took the next logical step to switch my Business secondary major to a Spanish minor, and I am trusting that the kinks of switching will be worked out, because I know it's right. Also, I had always wanted to study abroad for a semester in Europe, but none of the programs seemed to fit right for me. Nothing felt like it was the right place for me to go. But like He does, God put the desire in my heart and the right program in front of me when I got home, and I am now hoping to study in San Jose, Costa Rica for a semester during the 06-07 year (hoping I get accepted to the program). I just fell in love with the Latin American culture that I experienced in Guatemala and have a thirst for more interaction with it and its people, to learn their stories, to live how they live. I'm going to keep my primary major (public relations), because it is also something for which I have been given a thirst and an interest, so we'll see where that leads me. But to think....all that switching and changing, just from my experiences for one single week, to change the way that I am obedient to His callings, whatever they may be. And now, despite the ongoing difficulties of schedule changes and such, I am so at peace about where I will be taken and what I will do for His glory. Thanks be to God for working through Paradise Bound and all who serve Him in it! And for letting Him work through you and being obedient, thanks to you as well Dan (and the others).
Thanks again- hope all is well and blessed in Guatemala!
Under the Blood,
Kimmy Coon
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