December 2024- Part 1
Hey y’all Merry CHRISTmas and happy new year we hope y’all have had a blessed time celebrating the birth of our LORD JESUS and are excited about the plans HE has for you in this new year 2025!!!
Things have been rocking the past month of December as you may have seen in my last blog post where Keaton from West Virginia came down on the first of December. He hit the ground running as we had a young adults retreat start on campus the night before he arrived. We took some craft supplies to a church for them to use with their kids at their upcoming vbs, Abraham received the church group on campus. That next morning (Sunday December 1st) Keaton arrived early into Guatemala and we led a hike up the mountain and a devotion with the church group after arriving from the airport.
On the second of Decemeber we headed to the store to buy food and baskets for 24 pastors out in Totonicapan and began traveling to the church as it is about a 4 hour drive from campus. We arrived and visited with Pastor Antonio and family as they prepped the things for the pastors meeting the next day. On the 3rd we woke up and packed the baskets and goodies for the pastors. They arrived and we presented the baskets to them, prayed for them and hopefully encouraged them in their ministries, then headed back home from their. On our way back we stopped and visited another pastor friend of ours who had received the call to pastor in another town about three hours from where he was before. It was a surprise visit for them as we had an extra basket and the town they now are at pastoring in was on the path home. It was a good visit to say the least.
The rest of that week it was work on campus as we had some block layers finishing some detail work and then get ready for a women’s retreat that Saturday the 7th.
On the 9th of December we went and helped kick off vbs with the church we donated the craft supplies for. Then we worked on campus again with cleanup, small jobs, etc while also running some errands in the city one day that week. We hosted a wedding on campus on the 14th for a pastors son from san Lucas where Keaton and Abraham handled things on campus in the afternoon while Vilma, I, and our kids headed to take the inflatables to close out the week of VBS in Yepocapa.
We returned fairly late and then got up early to celebrate Keatons birthday. Was blessed to take him to lunch and then we headed to a wedding we had been invited too from a lady that we met at a school back in August.
We have seen GOD work in many ways amongst the activities and here is a cool one. . By us having the retreat center campus we are blessed to meet many people from time to time who are wanting to grow in the LORD and tech others to grow. Wether it be churches or ministries it is an area where KINGdom connections are made. When the bride invited us to her wedding we were somewhat surprised as we had only met her one time when the school she teaches at invited us to do an evangelism activity by only speaking in English to the students at a Spanish school. We thought sure we will go to the wedding as it is an honor for us to be invited. We arrived to the wedding thinking we will not know many people apart from the bride and a friend of hers who lined up the meeting at the school back in August. However to our surprise the church that did a youth camp and a young adults camp the last two weekends in November were at the wedding as the bride attends that church. Not only that, but the groom was at the young adults camp and he and I had actually bragged on GOD amongst each other while we were doing the hike. All that was a neat experience while also meeting a brother and sister at the wedding, who don’t go to that particular church, that are on fire for the LORD. There testimonies were a blessing to hear on how faithful GOD is. That is all that happened up to the middle of Decemeber the 15th.
We then started packing and finishing the last minute prep work for a quick trip to Honduras for ministry and helping a pastor their. We (Vilma, I, the kids, and Abraham; Keaton stayed back as he left for home on the 18th) headed out on the 17th. We picked up Pastor Antonio and his wife Floridama as we left the city where they were visiting family and headed to Honduras. After a mishap on my end with an expired drivers license we were able to get it fixed and renewed on the way allowing us to continue the mission and arrived late at night to the pastors house in Honduras. The next day we went and bought food etc to visit families and share the gospel. Later that evening we had a service with the kids. We saw GOD work in mighty ways and brought hope and healing in ways that only HE can do. We pray that HE was glorified and that those we met and those that received food will truly know HIM as LORD and Savior in a personal way. I was informed after the fact that two young adults gave their lives to CHRIST and received a bible that we had taken out.
On Thursday the 19th early we began our trek back, crossed the border into Guatemlaa and about an hour in got into traffic and didn’t move for about 5 hours. Yet we made it through eventually and finished our 21 hour travel journey safely at home. A blessing that sometimes we may take for granted is safe travels. May we not take it for granted and count our blessings.
Thennnnnnn..:…….
Stay tuned for the rest of December in next post.
Also please let me know what you think about the post, in example too long, hard to read, etc.
I’m fully open for feedback/criticism.
Blessings in CHRIST,
The Clemmons Family Guatemala
