New haircut

By popular demand, here´s some photos of my new haircut.

As you can see, I´m rubbish at taking selfies ... but I´m not sorry!

Team developments

On Saturday we also had one of our monthly Latin Link prayer meetings. It´s always good to get toegther, and catch up on each others news, as we support each other in various ways. This week, we´ll be saying goodbye to a family of Striders who have been with us for a year.

 Although there´s always a fair bit of change within the team, we love being able to support and encourage each one in their journey with God and in missions. And we love an excuse to have cake too!

And as we invest and celebrate in the short termers who serve with us in Guatemala, we also want to plan for the future in a way that is strategic and meets needs within the Guatemalan church. So on Saturday morning, the long term team here in Guatemala spent some time together dreaming and discussing what a 5 year strategic plan might look like. 2 weeks ago, I had a similar discussion with our National Advisory Board (of local leaders and pastors). We don´t want to rush things so will be continuing to discuss and horne the process over the next year or so.

Missions breakfast

I´ve had a busy weekend. It started off with a great breakfast conference with these guys....

 Sadoc and Vivi are assistant pastors in their church here in Guatemala, but are preparing to serve with another church in Dalry, Scotland. One of the ways in which they are informing people of their plans was a special breakfast conference on Saturday....

 It was a time to hear more about Latin Link, and how Europe has become a new mission field. We also heard from Sadoc and Vivi about the specific church they will be supporting in Scotland, and a reflection on the book of Acts, as a blueprint for mission-sending churches.

We also had a great breakfast!

The process of raising personal support in Guatemala is a bit different to my experience in the UK. Here, although some people are interested and passionate about missions, the employment situation makes it quite difficult to plan ahead. Very few people have job security. Even those who are professionals, may not have long term contracts, so people are reluctant to make an ongoing commitment to support mission workers (or anything else!). Thankfully some do, inspite of the risk.

It´s great to be a part of Sadoc and Vivi´s journey to Scotland!