Acklen Missions

We’ve gotten several reports from Hi and Byron.

Check them out:

July 2011 Mission Team Report

The New Work in San Cristobal and Two Baptisms

Three Added To the Kingdom at Linda Vista!!!

WEI Report 2011

Student Presentation Newsletter

Update from the Millers:

Team Mwanza Mar 11

Baptism Update from Hawatthia Jones and Byron Benitez.

From: Hawatthia Jones and Byron Benitez
Date: Thu, Jun 3, 2010 at 10:04 PM
Subject: More Than an Eventful Weekend
To:

Thursday, June 03, 2010

Greetings from the South,

Thanks for your love and concern for the church family here in Guatemala and for us. Your calls and e-mails have meant so much to us. We probably had the most eventful first ITL Lectureship that we ever could have had. And, through it all, we are thankful to God that we and those that we know are doing fine.

First, on the night of the banquet, there was a volcano that erupted. This particular volcano, called Pacaya, is about 20 miles from where we live. We did not feel the eruption, but received a whole lot of the ash. On that evening it was raining and the rain was black. As a result, the airport was shut down and travel became hazardous. What a way to start the lectureship.

Second, while in the midst of the volcano episode, we were hit by the tropical storm named Agatha. It started raining on Thursday and did not stop until Sunday. There was a lot of flooding and sadly some people lost their lives and others their homes. This especially happened to people who live on the hillsides in Guatemala. Even though it is a known fact that flooding is a common problem during the rainy season, the country’s leaders do not seem to take any measures to confront and help this situation.

The third is the VERY large sink hole in Guatemala City. This disaster has probably received the most media coverage of all that has taken place. The huge sink hole (approx. 60 feet in diameter and 200 feet in depth) is in zone 2 of the city. This is the second sink hole to happen in this zone of the city since we have been here; the first was in 2007. It is believed that the hole is a result of the poor compaction of dirt that was replaced after the instillation of sewer pipes many years ago. It is possible that pipes might have been leaking for some time and the eruption of the volcano and amount of rain received only aided this disaster. Much like the time before the occurrence of the sink hole of 2007, people had heard noises from below before the land collapsed.

THANKFULLY to God almighty, we are all alright. Many, however, are still in the clean up mode from all the ash that fell from the eruption of the volcano. To our knowledge there were not fatalities amongst those that we know. We have heard of none amongst the churches on the coast. God is definitely good to His people.

Now you are probably wondering about the lectureship. Even though the attendance was smaller than expected, we believe that God was glorified and that His people, who were able to attend, were edified. We had some of the best speakers from many places and some of the best food (PLENTY OF IT) to be found in Guatemala. Hopefully, we will be sending out more information about the lectureship very soon.

Thank you again for your prayers, love and concern. We are grateful to God for people like you. Please continue to lift this country to our Father.

Con el amor de Cristo,
Hawatthia
Byron

“Teaching the CENTRAL MESSAGE in CENTRAL AMERICA!”

1st Qtrnf

Updates from Milan!

Guatemala Nesletter 1st Qtr 2010

Check it out!

Available here for download is the September Instituto Teológico Latinoamericano (ITL) Newsletter.

Check it out. This is one of the newer efforts we’re supporting. It’s really ideal when we can help Guatemalans reach their own community. They understand their unique issues. They can frame the gospel better for their neighbors. (Not to discount Hi and Bryon’s abilities of course!)

We are grateful to God for your prayers, your financial support and your encouragement as we continue to labor in this part of the world.Thankfully, the Lord’s work is progressing quitewell and we have many things to report since our last newsletter. We will try to be as concise as possible in sharing these events with you. Guatemala is known for its “winter” season. That is, it is known for the 6 months of frequent showers and a green landscape between May and October. The season this year is almost behind us and it simply has not rained as usual.

E-MAILS
Please allow us a few lines to vent our frustration. This year has been an unusually busy year in which God has granted us many opportunities to serve. However, it has also been an unusually frustrating year in regards to our E-mails. Aside from not keeping up with our correspondence as we prefer, we have had one problem or another in sending out our reports or newsletters. We have changed ISPs (Internet Service Provider); we have attempted various methods; yet, it seems that something always comes up. We appreciate your patience with us as we have tried to work through these communication difficulties this year.

LINDA VISTA
A Sister Goes Home
Long ago, Solomon wrote, “To everything there is a season…A time to be born, And a time to die…” (Ecc. 3:1-2). And, so it is the case here. Sara Calderon, the mother of one of our leaders, Maclovio Calderon, went on to her reward. Although technically not a member of Linda Vista, she began her walk with this congregation. Several years ago, already an elderly woman, she expressed her desire to be baptized. We were able to use the Tikal Futura Hotel’s pool to accomplish this. After several years of persevering in her faith, she passed from this life to the next at the age of 94.

New Births
Again, we remember Solomon’s words, only this time we use them figuratively in reference to four spiritual births at Linda Vista. Walter Wilfredo Dardon, his wife Nohelis Mijangos, José Alberto López Saucedo and Brian Alexander López Saucedo came to Jesus since our last report. Please pray for this young couple and these young men as they begin their new walk with the Lord. We will send more information on these and other baptisms in Coban and other locations. Reports will be coming soon!

Local Programs and Work
Because of the number of teams that have visited us and the activities related to their visits are numerous, we will only make mention of them here, but will give more details in a separate report. In June, we had our first World English Institute (WEI) team arrive to Guatemala for two weeks. This was the first year that we tried using this method of evangelism and we were somewhat nervous about the outcome. We will be sending more information all three WEI teams in a separate message. In addition to WEI, in July we had a team made up of Christians from various places that came to Guatemala for 10 days. They did a great work and blessed the lives of many people. Again, a separate report will give more details.

Fanny Ramirez
We are grateful to all of you who have been praying for Fanny Ramirez, Anibal’s wife (Anibal is the local preacher). After receiving some light treatment, the doctors saw positive results against the cancer in the first degree they had discovered in her body. However, around June of this year, the doctors determined that it would be necessary for Fanny to have surgery. She was scheduled for surgery on September 6, at Health Talents’ Ezell Clinic. An unexpected fever prevented that from becoming a reality. She has since received treatment for the cause of her fever and hopes to have surgery on October 4. Please continue to keep Fanny and her family in your prayers.

COBAN
It is difficult to know exactly what God has in mind for the work in Coban. The church began very well and many people have become Christians (31 baptisms thus far) since it was established in February of 2008. Plans were made to bring in an additional evangelist, Wualter Osorio, to help with the work, but that did not work out at that time. Then, while we were discussing with Wualter the possibilities of his returning to work with Rogelio Calderon after all, we received the news of Rogelio’s health problems getting worse and his need to return to Guatemala City, which came as a shocking and disappointing surprise. This made Wualter’s return more necessary. We are happy to report that Wualter is now in Coban. He arrived on Thursday, September 10, from Honduras and traveled with Anibal to Coban on Saturday, the 12th. Then, this past Sunday, September 13, we traveled to Coban and participated with the brothers in a special service in which the transition was made from one evangelist to another. The mantel is passed from Rogelio Calderon to Wualter Osorio. We are grateful to report that there have been several baptisms. Seven occurred while the ITL students held a campaign there in July. We will make mention of this in the report about the Institute. There were 3 baptisms that occurred very recently: two on Saturday, September 12th, Maria Leonor Chinchiya, and Petrona Chub; and one on Sunday while we were there, Rafael Herrera.

Thank You
As we close this newsletter, we thank you for your generous support, for your encouragement and for your prayers. Look for more newsletters and updates as the work develops in 2009.
- Byron E. Benitez and Hawatthia “Hi” Jones”

Greetings from Mwanza! After the busy summer of blessings (visitors, interns, village meetings, supporters meeting) we are fully settled into the more routine fall season here in Tanzania for our family and the work here. Of course, fall season here doesn’t bring with it any change in leaf color but we have been experiencing a fairly good start of rainy season so far for which we are very thankful.
For this update, we want to catch you up with what’s going on with our family and the work here, and also share some prayer requests with you.

As you probably remember from our last email update, we have been without a car to use in the villages since having a car accident a few months ago. We are very thankful to update that all the funds have been generously provided by the Acklen Ave., Smithville and Overland Park congregations so that we are able to order a new vehicle! All 3 churches gave to this need sacrificially and have been in continuous contact with us to check in and do all possible to help with the situation. The car will be shipped from Gibraltar and takes 1-3 months plus time in port at Dar es Salaam so we will look towards having the car later this year or possibly early next year.
Obviously not having a car for village work has altered our family’s focus for these upcoming months, specifically in the areas of writing and translation. Jason will be writing lessons determined in part by the long term goals for the Sukuma work, as well as translating already written lesson from Swahili to Sukuma or vice versa. Some of these goals are building up the general spiritual depth of the churches, unity, and leadership strength in the congregations, especially on the “kanda” (cluster) level. Of the 100+ congregations we work with, they group themselves into 11 clusters based largely on proximity to one another and which leaders came to plant the congregations in the area. These clusters work together many times much like it seems like the leaders might have done in Acts 15. Emily will continue to work on Sukuma language learning and on writing lessons for the women’s ministry together with Marisa (Bailey). Although we won’t have access to our own vehicle for some weeks to come, being on a team with 3 other families involved in the same work among the Sukuma people has allowed for some borrowing of vehicles as needed for our family and/or the work of the team.

In family news, one exciting development of the last few months is that we are expecting our third child! The baby is due in mid April and thus far the pregnancy is continuing well and mother and baby are healthy. Currently it is possible to have medical checkups monthly with a female American physician here in Mwanza who is a visiting doctor at the main Mwanza hospital, although she is returning to the States after December. Due to her departure and due to the inadequate birthing facilities in the area, we are planning to travel to Nairobi for the birth of the baby next Spring.
For other family happenings, Judah is nearing the end of his first half-term (6 weeks) of school at the international school and is making big strides in adjusting to his new routine and making new friends. His class is a large one for a kindergarten age class with 25 students, but the teaching staff is great and they have 1-2 assistants in the room together with the teacher. The make up of his class is: 12 Tanzanian, 3 American, 1 Belgian, 1 Swiss, 1 British, 1 Italian, 1 South Korean, and 5 Tanzanians of Indian descent so it makes for an interesting group. They use English and Swahili in the classroom and as is the case with most kindergarten classes, they help the children learn through doing, playing and discovering- with a little bit of reading and writing thrown in. Judah’s highlights of the last few months in addition to starting school are definitely his new-found skills of bike-riding and swimming (with floaties).
Ezra is growing in leaps and bounds and brings us days of joy and frustration as he tests out his toddler independence. He is saying more and more in English and Swahili and loves to build with blocks and climb anything in sight. Now that he has a chance to miss his big brother while he’s at school they seem to enjoy their times together playing more and have fun chasing and wrestling with each other.

Prayer requests:
-thanksgiving for the rain so far and for a continued good rainy season, especially for the villages of Igunga, Kanyalele, Isanzu, Sangila, Igando, Ibongoya, and Ng’walunde that have been having a harder than usual year for growing crops
-for the Sukuma leaders in spiritual growth/maturity and unity with each other
-that the momentum from the women’s summer seminar will continue to encourage more women to reach out to those around them and to dream big for the future of their work
-for continued health of our family, especially for Judah, Ezra and the pregnancy
-that all the details of a Nairobi birth will be taken care of smoothly
-for Judah’s continued adjustment to school life

As always, we thank you for your continued love and support of us here, your partnership gives us energy and strength for the work there is to do here. If you have a chance, we’d love to hear what is new with you and your family,

the Millers
Jason, Emily, Judah and Ezra
Mwanza, Tanzania