Children's Day & Neon

This past weekend was such a blast! Because of David & Debbie's incredible connection with the local churches here in Guatemala, we get to be a part of some great activities. On Saturday, we were invited to participate in Neon, a children's conference hosted by Vida Cristiana.

Group Photo!

During this conference, children got to attend workshops on a variety of skills aimed towards the ministry. There were many classes including, drama, choreography, shadow theater, face painting, ballooning, and drawing, just to name a few.

Face Painting with the Girls

The kids spent all morning in their workshops and then were able to present their talents in a talent show that afternoon. To wrap up the day, the children's worship team  hosted a stellar concert.

Robot Michael

I was able to sit in on the class for drama. During the two hour session, nearly thirty kids learned two different dramas. They were taught elements of drama including facial expressions, body movement and how to use drama to transition into an alter call. The children had tons of fun and sucked in all the information quickly.
Michael operated the video camera and floated for much of the day until it was time for his big debut! He was asked to be a dancing robot during the presentation for choreography. He was such a hit. All the kids wanted a picture with him after he got off the stage. It was as if he was dressed as Mickey Mouse at Disney World!

Petting Zoo

On October 1st, Guatemala celebrates Children's Day. It is a very important holiday here in Guatemala. There are parades and festivals and special prizes and discounts at stores and restaurants. Its just a day to celebrate children. Last Sunday, we got to celebrate Children's Day with Manantial De Vida church.

One of my favorite little girls!

They hosted a huge festival at a local school. They had food, inflatables, prizes and rides for the children. All of it was completely free to the kids and an opportunity for the church to connect with the local community. More than 1,000 children came through the festival that day.
Michael and I got the opportunity to spend time hanging out with the children and helping them navigate the festival. It was a great day of ministry. It was a joy to stand beside the church as they ministered to children of their neighborhood.

Crazy Corn, a Guatemalan favorite that includes ketchup, mayonnaise and cheese

Both churches that we work with on a regular basis are incredibly passionate for the children of Guatemala. They have incredible leaders and a faithful support staff consisting mostly of teenagers.

Prayer Time

These folks are committed to their children and work tirelessly to serve them. It has been a huge example to Michael and I as we watch them and learn how children's ministry is done effectively in Guatemala.

Missions while doing missions

It's hard to believe that we have been in Guatemala more than a month already. Starting on Friday, One Way will  receive our first team from the US. We have three teams coming back to back during the month of July. Each of the teams will focus on evangelism in the schools. We will also host a medical clinic and work on a construction project to build a children's wing of a church. Michael and I are excited to work with these teams from the US. The last team in July is coming from Alabama and they have 65 people in their team! Wow! God is going to do great things through these teams!

When there are no teams coming, the focus of OW is support local children's ministry. Last Sunday at Vida Kids (the Sunday School program at our church), they were learning about missions. In fact, Vida Kids will host a 4 part series on missions. On Sunday, we were focusing on Africa. Wow. It was unbelievable to watch the children of Guatemala become inspired for missions. The children learned about the food and people and culture of Africa.

They also learned about how important it is that we make disciples of every nation. I learned that, for the first time in history, there are more missionaries sent out from Latin America than from North America! How exciting to see God working across the globe to reach his people! It was an awesome opportunity to inspire the children. I believe that God was sparking missions in the hearts of children on Sunday. I am excited as the kids will learn about Asia next week!

What a great opportunity the Lord has given us all to talk about missions no matter where we live in the world. God cares about everyone and desires that every tribe, tongue and nation comes to know him.
Please pray for the children of Guatemala to be raised up by the Spirit of God so that they can spread the gospel around the world!

Settling In

Posted by : Shannon

Much of our time since we have arrived has been spent just getting settled in. There is a lot of "housekeeping" to do when you move to a new country! David and Debbie have helped us tremendously by showing us the ropes and getting us set up.
This week were able to get start digging into some of our work.  On Monday and Tuesday, we visited an area called Xela (pronounced Shela). This is the second largest city in Guatemala after the capital. We have have a missions team coming in July that will do evangelism work in this area. So, the One Way team was scouting out logistics for the trip and visiting local schools. When the group comes from the US, One Way will take the team into different public and private schools around Xela.

 We will be taking a team to this school to minister to over 200 kids!

We will teach the group different choreographs and songs . We will then do a presentation and an alter call. God has given One Way a lot of favor in the schools. When we visited the school pictured, the principal actually asked us to bring a bible to give to each of the children. WoW! What an awesome opportunity. Each time we ask permission to enter a school, we have to trust that God is going to open the door. The schools in Guatemala are particular and protective so it can be very difficult to gain access. David and Debbie have established wonderful relationships with local people in the churches around Guatemala. The people of the church then help us gain entry into the schools in their areas. These relationships have proven so valuable. The church body is Guatemala is thriving and hungry to see salvation come to the rest of their country. We are lucky to have such partners in the ministry.

Today (Sunday) we were back at our local church in the capitol. We will be working in the children's ministry there, called Vida Kids. Today was our first Sunday to participate.

Michael's attention has been captured by a little one.

At Vida Kids, when you are a visitor, you are taken up on stage and the kids sing a welcome song to you. We were ushered on stage today for our welcome song. Afterwards, the kids all came up and greeted us with a hug. Imagine over 100 beautiful, Guatemalan babies coming to give you hugs and welcome you. The sincerity of the children was overwhelming. I could feel their love pouring out. It was so astounding, it nearly took my breath away.
Michael and I each got to be in charge of a small group of kids. The kids are divided into "pods" by colors. We had such a wonderful time getting to know the kids. Our Spanish is struggling as we work to figure out what the kids are saying to us. But they were very forgiving to the new gringos in their Sunday School class. We are looking forward to pouring into these kids more and more as time goes by.

We feel so blessed to be in Guatemala and getting to participate in what He is doing here. The Lord has much ahead of us. We are grateful to all our supporters who have made it possible for us to minister the children of Guatemala. There are many kids waiting to hear the gospel and we are able to be here because of your support! Thank you!

We have arrived in Guatemala!!!!

Posted by :Michael Skyles

Well everyone, we are here after almost 2 years of prayer and preparation! Praise God we are in Guatemala!Thank You, Thank You, GRACIAS! for all of your help and support to make this day possible! We arrived in Guatemala City Very late on Friday night, we where welcomed with open arms and the customary kiss on the cheek by probably 20 people from vida christiana. (our new home church). we are SOO grateful to have the support of such wonderful families here in Guatemala city. It truly makes this adventure all the more rich knowing we have such great friends and family here.
     After we loaded up all of Dave and Debbie Amslers luggage,the luggage of  Another great young lady named Kaylee from Illinois who will be interning with Dave and Debbie(D&D) for 2 months while she is on break from college. and then our own luggage, we hit the road and headed to the town of naranja ( or Orange in English ). This is where our new house is. We walked into our new house (I will post pictures later ) where adella vargas and some friends from the church had covered the house in balloons and streamers for yet another warn welcome and celebration!
      Yesterday we all slept in late after our long journey.When we woke up we headed to the Walmart here. since the last time we where here 3 years ago, Walmart has built a ton of stores here in Guate. They truly are taking over the world LoL. anyways, we got some essentials and headed to the mall to get our phones situated and grab some much needed lunch, it was a great day and a productive one, but I have to admit my brain is fried from operating in Spanish speaking mode!
     Today was our first Sunday back at Vida Christiana. Wow, what a wonderful presence of God and what a warm and wonderful group of people. while the  service was starting we had the opportunity to make a visit to the upstairs part of the church where they have childrens church. and this service ( 1 of the 4 services) had about 70 kids in it. Marvin the youth director brought us up on stage and gave us the opportunity to say thank you to the kids for all of their prayers. and Gave us the chance to tell them how much we love them and that we are so excited to be a part of their lives. then all the kids came up on stage and  everyone of them hugged us and greeted us, wow what a special moment. This is what it is all about, building relationships with these beautiful kids and their families and having the opportunity to be a part of God pouring into their lives.
    Tonight we will be visiting another church just down the street from our house in zona 7. This is a church that we will be spending a great deal of time with as we all partner together to make a difference in Guatemala. We are very excited to visit and get to know our new friends there.
      Please continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers, and we will definitely keep you in ours. also, please be sure to follow our blog as we head out on this year long journey. We will be adding stories often and I hope that you will enjoy reading about our adventures here in Guatemala! Thank You!