December 2024

Dear Friends and Family
This photo was taken as we left the village of Santa Marta after our Christmas celebration with them.  It epitomizes our life in Guatemala in so many ways.  We are invited to a village.  We visit.  We share food to help meet the needs of the poor.  We show a film that shares the Gospel, or our interpreter/Pastor shares the Gospel through a message.  Seeds are planted.  In gratitude we are gifted a chicken, a papaya, plantain, or bananas.  

And although we are not evangelists, and we don’t know the Q’eqchi’ language, we believe that God uses each and every one of us when we step out in faith, and we are willing.  We use the resources given us and compassion, hospitality and generosity of what we have been gifted with.  1 Corinthians 3:17. Says … It’s not important who does the planting, or who does the watering. What’s important is that God makes the seed grow.

At this celebration we reminded the Church at Santa Marta that we are all missionaries.  Some are called to go to another country.  Many more are called to be missionaries in their own community.  

They are a “young in the Lord” group.  They need a Pastor.  In the meantime Pastor Erick and ourselves will try to go twice a month on a Sunday.  They are about an hour and a half from our home, on a winding, narrow road.

The Santa Marta Church roof is on.  Lots of other work still ahead, but it is amazing to see the progression so far. 
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We enjoyed a Christmas celebration with the mostly elderly residents of Casa Hogar, whom we have supported with food and blankets and medical equipment for a few years now, and more recently began visiting them with the Church we attend, Nations Church, about once a month.  We had tamales made for the residents and staff and brought ponche made with the Gleaner’s apples.  Tamales is always a favorite Christmas food in Guatemala.

They loved the music and the visit.  Erick preached a Christmas message in Q’eqchi’ and one man in particular worships in a way that is so heartfelt.  It is a joy to spend time with all of them.  The staff always say to us, “these people are the forgotten and abandoned ones, please come back to visit”.

We made a visit to the community of one of our Pastor training graduates, Mario, who lives in the community Nuevo Amanacer.  It is about 2.5 hours from where we live on a rough road.  It had been raining a lot and is the type of road that if you meet another vehicle, either you or they have to back up to where the road is wide enough to get by each other.  Many steep drop offs, and huge puddles.  Many parts 4 wheel drive only.

I (Eileen) put word out to a few people asking if they could pray.  To be honest, I was feeling a little anxious because of the amount of rain that has been coming down.  We left in the pouring rain.  When we got to the worst part of the road the sun came out and it dries quickly when the sun comes out.  We showed an evangelical film called Magdalena in Q’eqchi’, which has a strong central gospel message.  It was well received, we had ponche, visited, handed out food bags to over 70 families, and as we left the rains started again.  We didn’t end up leaving quite as soon as we wanted and so the last part of our trip was in the dark,  however praise the Lord we made it there and back safely.  The joy on these ladies faces was worth the trip.  ​

Since the installation of the 30 stoves, funds have continued to come in and we now have enough to install about 40 more stoves.  We just met with a new village this week to discuss the stove program, and they are interested.   It looks like we will be lining up the installations with a team from Alabama who are coming on a mission trip in March and are interested in participating in a project like this.  Here are a few more before and after photos.  A big thank you to all who have invested in cleaner air for these people.  
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Pastor training is ready to start Jan 15 with around 25 students.  This will be held in a village about an hour from us and so we will be a little less hands on with this group.  

We made a pre-Christmas visit to see Yeimy, and we praise God for her continued health over these last 3 years.  When we consider all that she has been through, it has been a miracle, and no doubt that God put us in the right place at the right time to help.  We continue to tell her story because we want you to see the goodness of God in her story.  Her Dad continues to recover from his motorcycle accident.  He is still unable to work.  Yeimy’s 3 year old sister is in the photo on the right.  ​

We took a walk through our local market in Coban the other day, all decked out in their Christmas traditions.  It was beautiful and festive.

Sometimes we reflect on and miss the familiarity of the white Christmas’s we celebrated in Canada when our family was young, but just as that was a season in our lives that passed so quickly, we find this season of our lives to be passing just as quickly.  

Each year we learn a little more what it means to live for Christ and that our lives are not our own.  We recognize that much of what we do on the mission field is about what God is teaching us and not so much about what we do for others, although it is all important in God’s plan.   Jesus is with us.  He is never changing.  He is our strength and He is steadfast.  Thank God that our hope is in the one we call Emmanuel … God with us.  

Blessings and wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  

Denis and Eileen Nogue
 
Seeds to Harvest Ministries
Commission to Every Nation

 
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