Dear Friends and Family We have been back in Guatemala almost two months now, and sometimes it feels like a lifetime. With all the devastation of the hurricanes, flooding and landslides we have had some busy times. There is always a certain amount of stress involved in some of the decision making, in prioritizing the requests and even in how to access to certain areas ... very difficult and some areas, very dangerous because of the terrain and landslides. It might be hard for you to imagine when in North America, generally, there is very good infrastructure. When a natural disaster happens, there is plenty of equipment and manpower to step in and fix it. In Guatemala only the areas of highest priority get the equipment and manpower first. Everyone else waits, or tries to fix it by hand, and sometimes they wait for months, and sometimes it never gets fixed. Many of you sent additional funds to help with relief efforts and we thank you so very much for that. We have been able to offer relief in a variety of ways. We have provided food and medical to individual requests, and we have provided food and medical to other ministries for their own areas. I think almost every shelter in the area of Coban, San Cristobal, Santa Cruz and Tactic have had the benefit of Gleaners Soup. The food, medical, and seeds have gone by car, truck, helicopter, boat, raft, mule, and by being carried on the backs of men. We have met and worked with some amazing Guatemalans during this process, those who love their own people and their country. It is an honour and privilege for us to join them. For many villages, it will be a long road to recovery. Not only many homes and all their personal belongings were lost, but crops of corn, beans, coffee and cardamom were lost, and for many of them, their storage of corn and beans that keep them going until the next harvest was ruined. The invitations to show the Jesus Film and The Hope in the villages have begun again, and both films were recently shown in two remote villages in which food was brought after the floods, both showings were to a packed audience. We are moving ahead with Pastor training. We’ve made a connection with a fellow CTENer, Pedro Samuc, who has been working in Bible translation into the indigenous languages starting back in 1982. Meeting Pedro was such an answer to prayer. He is mature, he is humble, and he comes with some incredible skills to bring to this Pastor training project that the Lord has put before us. He is indigenous himself, and he said his heart is for those mountain pastors who have little opportunity to increase their knowledge and training of Biblical principles. We met with him and Sergio, Chris and Leah and ourselves and it was decided in the end that it might be best for the first three months for them to be taught how to study the Bible. Pedro will undertake those classes and Sergio will translate into Q’eqchi’. We will then assess the program from there. Currently, a number of applications are out in the communities, and once we receive them back, a decision will be made on the admissions. We are very excited to undertake this venture. We have often thought “who are we, (just regular people) that God would take us and use us for His purposes, through our failings and our weaknesses and give us such joy in the doing”. We see, as we have taken little steps of faith over the years how He has been with us all the way. It’s as we look back, we see His provision. This gives us the courage to keep moving forward. Such a great God we serve. Although hard at times, missing family and the ease and familiarity of home, we do love this life He has called us to and how He has grown us and is growing us still into the image of His son. We know it will be a lifelong process (we are far from perfect) and we don’t know what tomorrow brings. But by faith, we take the next step with Him. A verse that encourages us often is from 2 Corinthians 12:9 But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me. Please pray with us for the Lord’s purposes to be achieved in this Pastor training. How beautiful on the mountains are The feet of those who bring good news, Who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, Who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!” Isaiah 52:7 We wish you all a Merry Christmas and your New Year full of joy and wonder. Blessings Denis & Eileen Nogue Galatians 6:9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. A few years ago when we were working hard on getting the North Okanagan Valley Gleaners going, a good friend encouraged me one day with this verse, as we talked out in the parking lot. It has come to mind many times over the years. This journey God has given us is not always easy, but as time goes on and we look back we can often see how each instance, however difficult, is used for His glory. The people of Guatemala suffered much with the Government lockdowns during covid. We wrote about that in previous updates and you all graciously donated enough that we could bring a container in response. That container has about 1/4 of the contents left and is emptying quickly. We made the decision to send another container in October and that container has just arrived in Port and expected to be released next week. When we arrived in Guatemala on Oct. 29 we had a couple of really beautiful tranquil days to settle in and then Hurricane Eta hit. High winds and heavy rains for 5 or 6 days has left a trail of devastation in it’s wake in our area of Guatemala. Mudslides, trees down everywhere and worst of all the flooding of so many communities. The community of Campur which is where Calixto lives, the amputee whom we recently helped with a prosthetic, is completely under water. Calixto had begun a small business out of his home and lost almost everything. He is only one of many. In another community about an hour from us, there was a mud slide that buried much of the community. They estimate over 100 dead and have only been able to retrieve 6 bodies. I include a photo (below) of a man who was away working when the slide killed his wife, three children and 20 members of his extended family. The pain and grief in his face says it all. Samac, another community where we have been many times and a friend and interpreter for us lives there, is also under water. Around 2,500 people affected. We don’t even know the total numbers yet. Sergio, Denis & Chris just visited a community of 35 families who lost mostly everything, including their crops of corn, cardamom and coffee. They delivered basic food supplies, and we will be going back to bring basic hygiene supplies. There are many villages just like this one. The response from local Guatemalans has been amazing. Many Churches and schools have opened as shelters, and food donated in order to prepare meals. Guatemalan friends in Antigua have prepared and sent supplies of all sorts and hygiene packs for us to distribute. There are an estimated 70,000 people in shelters. Guatemalans are an amazingly resilient people and we always come away truly in awe of their perseverance in the trials that they face. They just get down to work and start with the most basic tasks to bring life back to normal. We believe it will be some time before the full extent of the damage is known. We are providing Gleaners food, blankets, and the hygiene items as they are donated to us. We are putting together packages of food staples like beans, corn, rice, oil, salt, sugar to go along with the packages of Gleaners Soup and attempting to help those whom have reached out to us. It has been quite the year, and we don’t know when we will be able to get back to our regular ministry plans, but we trust in the Lord to lead and direct. Proverbs 19:21 says, Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails. For now, we walk beside the hurting Guatemalan people as best we can and provide as we can and we wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. We would appreciate your prayers as we minister to those who have lost everything. It’s not an easy time. And now the news is saying that Hurricane Iota is bearing down on Central America. Please pray with us that this hurricane be diverted. **If you can financially support our efforts to help the people of Guatemala during these difficult times, your donations are greatly appreciated. The links to make donations are found below. Blessings, Denis & Eileen Donation options:All Donations are greatly appreciated and TAX DEDUCTIBLE
Canadian residents cheque's should be made out to: Arrow Lakes Alliance Church (write Seeds To Harvest on the memo line) 339 Alexander Rd. Nakusp, BC V0G 1R1 or e-transfer [email protected] (write Seeds To Harvest in the message) or to: Commission To Every Nation Canada (write Seeds To Harvest on the memo line) PO Box 22017 11500 Tecumseh Rd. E. Windsor, Ontario N8N 5G6 You can also donate online at Commission to Every Nation, CTEN here: http://www.cten.org/denisnogue United States residents cheque's should be made out to: Commission To Every Nation (write Seeds To Harvest on the memo line) P.O. Box 291307 Kerrville, TX 78029-1307 You can also donate online at Commission to Every Nation, CTEN here: http://www.cten.org/denisnogue Like us on Facebook! Facebook at Seeds to Harvest Ministries/Denis & Eileen Nogue |
Join Our Mailout List!
Archives
February 2025
|