It's hard to believe we're saying bye to October! It has been such a busy month! We held our annual Pastor's Congress, hosted a team from Arkansas, one from Virginia, celebrated Stitches of Blessings graduation, held a Zona Cero leadership training, worked hard preparing for VBS next week in Zacapa and Zona Cero in a few short weeks, and started a Bible Study/Devotional for the older girls in Happy Tummies. It's a lot of work, but when our goal is to serve God, to give Him all the glory, and bring more souls to the Kingdom, our work seems lighter. We also want to thank all of you for the prayers being lifted for Papi, Pastor Luis' Dad. As of right now he is doing better! Once again, thank you for praying.

Our Pastor's Congress isn't only for Pastors. We have many of their wives join them, as well as laymen and women, Sunday School teachers, members of the congregation, and even non-believers.

During this last Congress God moved in many ways. All speakers, without planning it, spoke about very similar topics. We know God planned it this way because He knew everyone needed to hear what they had to say. We heard a lot about healing, and resting both physically, mentally, and emotionally.

The last day of the Congress we had one young woman step forward and share her testimony. She said the following: (we will not share her name or post her picture to respect her privacy)

"I wasn't planning on coming to this Congress, but my sister signed me up and told me I would learn a lot. I'm the kind of person who likes to learn new things, and so that's why I came, to learn. I had no idea I would actually come to heal. I've been married before, I was married for 4.5 years. During that time I had two babies, both were born with disabilities and both died a few short months after coming into this world. After our second baby died my husband and I had some lab work done and were told we would never be able to have healthy babies. Shortly after that he left me. I felt so alone, so broken. After this Congress, I am restored, and renewed and I know God has big plans for my life."

There was not a dry eye in the room after she shared with us, we had been with her for a couple of days and no one ever thought she had such a tragic story behind her smile. But we are so sure that in Christ her story will be one of victory and that through her healing she will glorify His name!

You anoint my head with oil;

my cup overflows . Psalm 23:5b

I don’t know how many times you’ve read this particular verse in your lifetime. And, I don’t know how many times you have paid attention to or even know its meaning. It is a beautiful and significant lesson to learn and it may surprise you.

The shepherds in Jesus’ time anointed the sheep’s heads with oil just as shepherds today still do. Why? Because many times the sheep have so much wool that it traps them in the bushes and underbrush. The sheep also have unique chemicals in their noses that will attract many bugs. These bugs are very bothersome and sometimes, the sheep get so tired of the bugs that they try to free themselves. To free themselves the sheep will start hitting their head on rocks or trees and can kill themselves trying to be free of the bugs.

The wonderful symbolism of the oil in our lives is the Holy Spirit. This is why David says, “you anoint my head with oil.” Sometimes we are trapped by our thoughts and we begin to hit ourselves emotionally, spiritually, physically, and sometimes we can die or burn out from our stressful, negative thoughts. 

David, in Psalm 23, says the same thing that the shepherds do with their sheep, our God does with us. He anoints us with the oil of the Holy Spirit. In that way we don’t need to get trapped in our thoughts or in our crisis. Praise God for His Holy Spirit!

Many of you have been staying up-to-date on Juanita's story. After many, many, many doctor's visits we have a final prognosis. The doctor has told us her eye needs to come out. It's doing her more harm than good and is running the risk of popping out on its own. So, she will need her eye removed and a prosthesis; and her good eye will need medicines for the rest of her life.

We know this isn't the news we 'hoped' for, but we know it's news that will help Juanita live a better life. She is a strong girl and we know this will make her life better.

In order for Juanita to have surgery, and get her prosthesis we were looking to somewhere around $700. We figured we'd need another $800 to cover other expenses such as: hospitalization, transportation, medications, and meals & lodging for the adult accompanying her.

As our staff was trying to organize our thoughts and pray about where the funds would come for her to get this done. God amazed us once again! Before we even made the need public God had provided! How awesome is He?! He is Jehovah Jireh - Our Provider. May His name always be glorified!

Here in Guatemala the end of October and beginning of November means, graduations time. Here, all graduations are a big deal! Kids will have about 5 graduations throughout their education and they are all equally big! All this must start out in Pre-K, then Kindergarten, then K-6, and then a big graduation! Next they'll start 1st grade and go up to 6th. After 6th they'll have another big graduation. The next step is to start middle school (7th-9th grades) and graduate from that as well! After 9th grade most will pick a career path such as: teaching, accounting, medicine, computer science, etc. Their choice determines how long high school will be, anywhere from 2-4 years, and yes, you guessed it, another graduation! College is next and again, depending on their career choice, it can take anywhere from 4-8 years with, yes, another graduation! All this to say that each graduating class picks a sponsor. A sponsor, in this case, is someone who they feel is a good example for them to follow. The sponsor needs to be present at the graduation ceremony and it is customary to have a gift for each kid. Needless to say Impacto is sponsoring 3 different graduating classes: 1 from 6th grade, 1 from 9th grade, and 1 from high school, for a total of 81 students! It's a bit more work and time but we are so humbled to know that the community views Impacto staff as good examples and we will forever give all the honor and glory to God!