Praise God, our first week to teach the Bible in public schools was a big blessing!  A few setbacks, but over all, our committed teachers were wonderful, the children were paying attention, and the directors were happy!

 All of us realize that this is God's Program and only with His direction and help, will it succeed, so we start every teaching day with prayer for wisdom to reach the hearts of the children that God has given us.

 In this school, the director brought all the children out into the courtyard to introduce our teachers and welcome us into their school.

 Our lessons for this year are from the book of John and emphasize who Jesus is. Ex. Lamb of God, Son of God, Teacher, Living Water, etc.  We are taking two weeks for each of the 14 lessons. The first week, to teach the story and introduce the lesson's quality;  the second week, to review with pupil's books, teach the memory verse and follow up with examples of the quality.

 This teacher, Juan Jose, is teaching two classes each week.  In this particular school, this is a small class because it is older teens who want to finish primary school.  He had their rapt attention for the entire time - awesome!

 As I said previously, we did have some setbacks and need your prayers:

• Wed.'s director forgot which day we were coming and planned a special event that day, so we couldn't start in this school this past week.
• Two of our teachers just didn't show up, so we are in the process of trying to get ahold of them to find out why (don't have phones) and looking for teachers to take their place.

• We also need to find willing substitutes for each of the 3 teaching days.

God has so blessed us with His provision for this project that we are trusting fully in His continued grace to provide what we need for this year!  Thank you for your continued intercession for continued open doors and for the children to whom we minister.

Bible teaching in public schools

Since spring of 2011, when we heard about a program in Huehuetenango to teach moral values based on the Bible in public schools, God has been touching our hearts to begin such a program here in Panajachel, Guatemala. We traveled to Huehue to observe how this program works and found out that it has been in place for over 20 years and is now in over 22 public schools, with 150 Bible teachers, entering public schools for one hour each week, teaching Bible stories with a corresponding character quality.

This blew us away!  What a wonderful opportunity to impact the lives of children who will never enter an evangelical church in Guatemala!  So, we came back home and began the process of speaking to many evangelical churches in our area explaining the program and entreating them to participate. After receiving about 20 names of potential teachers and meeting with them to ascertain their commitment level, we began to ask God to open doors of public schools to receive us.  Directors of 3 public schools received us with enthusiasm, as they are concerned about the moral values of their students! Each school gave us a day and time to teach over 600 students!

 Scheduling a time to train our teachers with the material was a challenge, but when they arrived, they were anxious to begin!  We have been pleasantly surprised by the quality of teachers who have volunteered for this ministry. 

With new ideas for teaching Bible verses,   new choruses for children, and learning how to teach the Bible stories with the character qualities,  they proved to be enthusiastic and eager learners.
God had given us teachers, open doors to public schools, but we were having problems finding the material that we had decided to use.  We were a little concerned, but felt sure that God would provide.  After contacting over 10 people and stores in Guatemala and the U.S., we finally found a Bible store in Quetzaltenango who had just the right amount of teachers manuals that we needed!  What a wonderful God who provides all our needs!  From a special donor in the states and our ministry funds, we were able to provide a kit of teacher necessities such as glue, construction paper, etc, as well as student books to correspond to the lessons.
Our starting date to begin teaching is the week of Feb. 13, so we will continue to update our blog with pictures and information.  Please pray for the continued favor of the school directors, the commitment of our teachers, and especially, that God's Word would penetrate the hearts of the children with the desire to know our Savior.