Early Friday morning, our Guatemala team will meet at the church to travel to the airport to catch a 6 AM flight heading south. During their 10 days in Guatemala, they will need your prayer support in many areas.
In the spiritual realm, it is important that they remain alert and that the lines of communication remain open and unhindered. The team always remains flexible – they move quickly from physical labor to spiritual intercession, to spiritual warfare on a daily basis. They will spend time blessing orphaned and sick babies, praying protection and healing over senior citizens, and praying for people from the village. They may hand out food to the homeless and the hungry and speak words of encouragement, blessing, healing over their bodies. They may carry dirt or dig holes in order to further the ability of the Hope of Life mission to reach more of the community in the future. All of this activity can cause the connection with God to become distracted because some may be unaware that the enemy may take advantage. Often the enemy will use a physical attack to mask his spiritual weapons.
Please pray that their spiritual connection, protection, and health remain in the realm of God’s kingdom.
In the physical realm, pray that they remain alert, healthy, and strong. Our team will put in long hours and have opportunity to accomplish many things. It is important that they pay attention as things are different in Guatemala when it comes to safety. They will have to remain alert to potential places of injury. Their health can be adversely affected by the change of food, by inadvertently drinking the water, and the heat. Anytime you become physically affected, you can lose the joy that God’s kingdom has for you. Discouragement can settle in when you become physically unable to participate in what you planned on doing for the last nine months. And of course, pray for their strength. We try to remind the team to pace themselves so they can work the entire week. Sometimes, in their excitement, a student may over-do it in the first day or two. When the strength is gone, it can make for a very long week.
Pray for our leaders, Will and Rebecca. Pray for their creativity, discernment, and focus. Because they are traveling with students, sometimes they may need to be creative in the way they overcome the obstacles that may get in the way. They, of course, will need to remain flexible which also requires creativity when it comes to the way a job can get done efficiently or while waiting for the proper equipment or transportation to arrive. For discernment, pray that they can interpret what is physical and what is spiritual when it comes to things that may be affecting students or themselves. Also, for how they pray and what they pray for as they speak into the atmosphere and discern what God is doing. And for their focus – that they take the opportunities to step into the students’ lives and help them grow and learn from the amazing circumstances God will bring them through. If the focus becomes distracted, they may lose sight of what is available to them.
I look forward to posting information and updates from the Team on our Facebook page. I will also make sure to post an update in next week’s E-news.
Thank you for your prayers and support,
Pastor Bob