Wow, It's hard to believe holy week has come and gone! For those that don't know holy week is the week leading up to easter and in Guatemala as well as most latin american countries it is a huge week of celebrations and processions and festivities. So most everyone has the week off form work or school or what not and they all have a huge party. Unfortunately the party doesn't revolve around the resurrection of Christ, by easter sunday most people are heading home from the hottest vacation spots and trying to recover from them week of partying so they can return to work on Monday. yeah, in this sense it is a sad time. However, I appreciate your prayers as over 20 people made decisions for Christ on thursday after some evangelistic dramas! We have been praying that people would know the truth this easter and not just have a cultural festival and God is good and we have new brothers and sisters in Christ! Praise God!
I enjoyed the week throughly, spending time with friends and relaxing from work. The processions and saw dust murals were not as exciting for me since I have seen them in years past. I more enjoyed quality time with people. We had a post retreat meeting from the youth retreat on Saturday. It went well and was well attended. the church continues to seek to raise up the youth and guide them. We had a good group on Easter Sunday, I translated for the english speakers. The bible study on Sundays is going really well. God is really blessing it and our group is growing. Praise God.
Overall it was a good week. I ask for your prayers for friends that are returning to the states or other places for ministry. I have already had to say good ye to some good friends and many more are leaving soon. Another cycle of people have come and now are leaving. It is always hard to say goodbye to people you have really gotten to know and become friends with but God has his plans for them. Pray for them as they go to continue in God's will and for us here to recieve and welcome the new people and continue God's work here. Thanks guys! I love ya all!

Hey guys, April 10, 2006
I have had an awesome weekend!!! I went on a retreat with the spanish church youth. There were 84 of us at this military training base for the weekend. I was a helper/co-leader for one of the groups and our worship team lead worhsip all weekend. It was great. It reminded me of hume lake but the age group was from about 10 to 28 not just high school age. There were teams and we had to make up cheers and have competitions. We all slept in this huge meeting hall with a cement floor... not exactly the most comfortable but we didn't sleep all that much anyway still we got up to the trumpets wake up call early early early and the activities and services normally went late but we all were told not to bring watches or clocks so we didn't really know what time it was. The services were good, on different themes and several people made decisions for Christ.
When I got back I had to get ready for the Sunday Night Bible study which I am leading this month. I was nervous because I didn't have as much time to prepare for it and over the retreat I was really convicted not to worry about it and truly trust that God would provide and speak and take care if it. And I konw it sounds great but it was hard to let go of the desire to spend every spare moment preparing and thinking and planning and relax and enjoy the retreat. So yeah, I enjoyed the retreat a ton was kinda nervous for the Bible study but it went great. God really did provide, and speak and take care of it. I was sooo blessed. Praise God. I pray the same for the next two weeks that I would not worry about the study and that God would speak.
Well, this week is holy week AKA Easter week and Antiuga is going to be filled with people coming to see the street saw dust murals and parades. I hope that they learn more about Jesus' Resurrection this easter than about parades or murals.
I gotta go. Thanks for all you prayers. Take care and Happy Easter! He is Risen. He is risen indeed!
nancy

Dear Friends, March 30, 2006
Greetings in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ! I trust you are well in the Lord as I am. I am excited to share the events of this past month and the month to come.
At the Escuela Integrada we have just finished off our first quarter and are starting the second. My students did extremely well in Art. In English, I had a couple of classes that have some room to improve. I ask your prayers for our fourth grade class that is lacking in study skills and attention and their grades are suffering for it. I ask that you pray that God grants me and the 4th grade teacher, Bradler, the ability to give these children the special attention, love and patience that they need.
Thank you for your prayers for Andrew and Rebecca’s trip to the states. Praise God, it was successful in raising needed money for the school. Speaking of trips, we just had a mini visit from Green Hills Baptist Church. They came for a couple days to check out the ministry here. And let me tell you what a blessing! It was great to share with them and be encouraged and blessed by other Christians! Praise God They brought along an electrician that installed lights in three of our classrooms that didn’t have electricity. They spent time at our Antigua school and we visited the new extension school in Chuchuca, by Patzun. Also, I was able to send prayer cards for our students with them to give to my mom. If you are interested in praying for an individual student, as I would encourage you to do, please seek out my mom and get a prayer card. It has the child’s photo as well as information about the their life, family and future dreams. Future dreams! Dreams are foreign to most of our poor students. It is so touching to me that we can give these children hope for the future so they can dream!!! Amen! Praise God!
Prayer is such an important part of living out God’s will and ministering to people. I have felt lead to invest time in prayer each day for a teacher and her students. I started a couple of weeks ago sending a little card to the kindergarten teacher informing her that I would be praying for her and her class every day that week and if there were any special needs I would love to know about and pray for them. That day she shared a request and that week I prayed for her and her students by name. The next week I did the same with 1st grade but this time the teacher sat and shared with me for 20 minutes about what was going on in her life. Wow, God! Do your work. This next week is our first section of 2nd grade. I invite you to pray for Professor Ruben and his students this week.
God has been moving not just in the school, but in the local Spanish church (Vida y Fe) and the English ministry here as well. At Vida y Fe we had a friend’s night on Saturday, March 11th and over 25 people made decisions for Christ! Praise God!!! AND the 25th of March, Master’s Commission from Phoenix came and partnered with Master’s Commission Guatemala and held a youth event at the Higher Grounds coffee house (English Speaking Ministry). They had dramas and dances and more importantly, God’s spirit touching and changing lives, over 20 youth made decisions for Christ! Amen! We have reason to celebrate everybody! God is moving and saving lives! Praise Jesus!
I want to thank those that have prayed for having quality times with believers. As I mentioned being blessed by the visit from Green Hills, I have also had the opportunity in March to open up my apartment on different occasions to have people over and spend quality time together. It has been a real blessing to share not only my home with others but my life. Relationships are so important and in this transient town even more so. And God is providing! Our Saturday morning women’s prayer group has grown from 3 to 8. Praise God!
It has been a great month and I look forward to what God has in store for April. I will be leading the Bible Study on Sunday nights at Higher G