ABUNDANT RAIN MINISTRIES, INC.

JOSEPH HOUSE INTERNATIONAL FOOD RELIEF PROGRAM

GUATEMALA CITY, GUATMELA 2009

Abundant Rain Missions Team

 

Abundant Rain Missions Team, Pastors Ron and Terry Spradlin of Abundant Rain World Outreach Church, John & Kristie Thompson, Jared Steeley, Jackie DuVall, Walker Crow, Christi Dougherty, Ashley Sloan, Kim Mason and John Castro networked with Edwardo and Debra Gomez of Siloe Baptist Church to deliver food into Guatemala orphanges, elderly homes and the city dump. 

Before Abundant Rain left for Guatemala we networked with Kids Against Hunger and packaged two thousand meals.

We delivered food as we visited orphanges and during our outreaches, but it was not nearly enough food to meet the needs of the people.  We distrbuted food to three orphanges in Jalapa. According to national news Jalapa is on famine alert.

It has been reported that three thousand people go to the city dumps in Guatemala City to go through the trash trucks as a means of provision. Some of these people actually live in the dump.  Abundant Rain Missions Team entered the dump to deliver food to these families and individuals.

The Ministry of Agriculture of Guatemala announced August 24, 2009 that over 58 million Quetzlaes (approximately 7.25 million dollars) have been lost in crop production in the geographical areas affected by severe drought. The areas affected the most are El Progreso, Zacapa, Chiqulmula, Jalapa, Jutipa, Baja Verapaz and Santa Rosa.

Nationwide there are a total of 4,059 communities that face food crisis, at high or very high risk level. A flurry of disorganized, uncoordinaed activities from national organizations and the international agencies, NGO's and churches occur. Accusations are launched against the government that happens to be in power. Private Foundations, TV stations, radio stations and private citizens collect food to be sent to the affected communities.

Thank you for your support!

Abundant Rain World Outreach Church and Abundant Rain Missions Team would like to thank you for your financial support and thank you for your prayers of intercession.

When we arrived in Guatemala we had thirty minutes to take our luggage to our room before we left for ministry. The first place we went was to a park in a fenced in community where we played baseball, soccer and basketball with youth.  Afterwards we ministered to these youth with many salvations.

Next we went to a home cell meeting where we had worship and gave testimonies. John Castro ministered in Spanish and there were salvations. One of the men at the meeting asked for the salvation prayer in English. His mother had brought him to America during the forty year war in Guatemala. He had recently returned back to Guatemala. It was a pleasure to meet this wonderful family.

On Saturday, we drove to orphanges by bus. It took us as long to drive to these orphanges as it did for us to fly from America to Guatemala.  We had an awesome time meeting with the kids. They were all so beautiful.  And we took food to these orphanges.

Our bus broke down one early evening after ministering in a drug and alcohol rehab. We were on the side of a volcano mountain and our bus was stuck in the curve of the road with buses and semi's coming both directions. We had to overcome some interesting challenges.

Everything Drama

Abundant Rain Missions Team carried out the Everything drama in public schools across Guatemala. Everyday beginning at 7:00 a.m. and going until late at night our team traveled across Guatemala ministering. A special thank you to Edwardo and Debora Gomez for all of their hard work and dedicaation to open unlimited doors of opportunity to preach God's word.  During this drama John and Kristie Thompson, Walker Crow, Ashley Sloan, Kim Mason, Jared Steeley, and Christi Dougherty were awesome. They emphasized God as our creator and His power to deliver us from all temptation. in this drama God destroys the temptation of false love, false friends, love of money, self idolatry, vanity and addiction of alcohol. 

Often during this drama you could look through the crowd and see teary eyes as many people could relate to the bondaage of sin and the power of God's deliverance.  We have complete freedom through the blood of Jesus Christ that overcame Satan and gave us power to be free.

The Heart Skit

Abundant Rain Missions Teams has been performing the Heart Skit for ten years in many countries. It is a really fun opening drama to get the attention of people in crowds which allows us to minister the love of Jesus Christ. Jared Stteley and Christi Dougherty peformed at public schools in Guatemala City. At one of the schools Jared spontatenously jumped from the stage to do pull ups from the ceiling in order to catch Christi's attention. The youth at the school loved it and they all began to cheer loudly as Jared was showing off. It was a huge crowd pleaser, but most importantly, it allowed our missions team to minister the love of God to this generation.

In the beginning of this skit Christi is praising God and has given her whole heart to the Lord. But then Jared comes up to her and does everything to steal her heart and attention. Jared does pushups and pullups.  He bring flowers and drives a "pretend" motorcycle to impress Christi. In the drama she finally gives her heaart to Jared and he immediately begins to play basketball with it and throws her heart to the ground and stomps on it.  Christi falls on the ground crying and picks up her heart and gives it back to God. Then God speaks to Christi to have Jared give his heart to the Lord.  When Jared finally complies with her request they both put God first in worship.

Pastor's Conference

Abundant Rain Missions Team held a three day's pastors conference at Siloe Baptist Church. Ron Spradlin, John Castro, and John Thompson instructed pastors on the 21 Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell.

This conference included one hundred pastors from all denominations. These churches united together in Guatemala City to capture their city fo the glory of God. On the second night of the conference a woman inside the church received deliverance and healing. Her countenance changed and she began to dance and praise God in the church. The people in the church were cheering so loudly that you could hear the noise outside in the city streets.  Two drunks were passing by and heard the shouting and stopped to see what was going on.  One man pushed the other one in and they both began crying out to God. The glory of God came down and one of the men began to shout "Forgive me, Lord" as he laid on the floor weeping before God. Awestruck.

Are You Born Again?

In all of our years of international missions this was the first time that we saw a major impact on one nation that was implemented by the unity of all the local churches.

They had an advertising campaign that was flooding their nation that included the words "Are you born again? Jesus Christ" It was a note from Jesus to the nation of Guatmala and it was on bill boards all across this nation, on television, on trucks that drove through town carrying billboards through the streets and through hand-outs that the nationals passsed out to every individual in their city.

We were blessed to arrive in the midst of such an awesome campaign and we were a part of this ministtry as they allowed us to pass out cards to indiviuals while we were ministering. This "Are you born again card" lead people through the message of salvation by starting with the messaage Jesus gave to Nicodemus asking him to receive spiritual rebirth and cleansing from sin through the blood of Jesus Christ. Nicodemus, teacher of God's word, had to learn the most important lesson of all. We must be born again. Jesus Christ our savior is the only way to God our Father.

Sign Language to I Can Only Imagine

Ashley Sloan, Kim Mason, Christi Dougherty and Kristie Thompson performed sign language to the song I Can Only Imagine. The music was played in Spanish for the people of Guatemala. The girls are also singing out loud in English so that they can carry out their sign language at the same time.  This was a very hard task because they are literally presenting three languages simultaneously.  They were very elegant and beautiful and this was a huge blessing for orphanges, schools, churches, elderly homes, drug and alcohol rehab.  A special thanks to Kristie Thompson for choreography. This was our first year to put together a team performing sign language.  Kristie also performed sign language to the song I Will Praise You In The Storm.

God is Love and we are a Royal Priesthood

One of our scripture reference's for our Guatemala missions trip was 1 Peter 2:9 you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

We ministered across Guatemala as we declared the praises of God from the nation of America to the nation of Guatemala. We had this scripture placed on purple shirts. 

Our other scripture reference for this trip was 1 John 4:16 God is love. We preached the love of Jesus Christ our savior that died for our sins and gave us His saving grace. We had this scripture placed on red shirts.

Next is testimony by Jackie Duvall

Acts 1:8 says, "but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth."

I was truly blessed on this trip to Guatemala. The Lord allowed me to see His Spirit kindled in many pastors at the Leadership Conference. Who’s to know if they have ever seen or felt a powerful move of God as we witnessed there. At the conference, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmities that was cast out. She had club feet and the next evening, she was in high heels. It was a true miracle from God. She came expecting and left receiving. That is what our Lord wants from us. Just to believe and you will receive. I was asked to speak with some elderly people at a nursing home and tell them that even if they didn’t see their families very much they were loved and thought of, the young just don’t realize the importance of letting the older people be a part of their lives. I told them "As we get older, we are still young in heart, even if our bodies are older and make it harder for us to what we want to do." But one day, we will have our freedom of mobility again when we get to heaven, no more pain, no more tears, no more anger, no more loneliness, only joy and worship for the Lord. At an alcohol rehab for men I was given an opportunity to share God’s love and trust and to tell them that they weren’t alone on this journey, but Jesus and their families were also praying for them. It wasn’t even me speaking, it was God speaking through me, and I am thankful when God uses me for His Kingdom. It’s a feeling so unlike anything in this world. You and I may not fully realize the impact we made in Guatemala. But the Lord has put a love in my heart to minister to people who need to know our Lord and Savior’s unconditional love for them. Thank you for your support while I was on the trip and God will bless you for it.