GUATEMALA PICTURES and 2.5 weeks left update

Just some pictures of what it looks like here:) This is only a small fraction of what I see every day, but it  will hopefully take you in a little bit! We have two more weeks left here. This next week we'll do our last round of vacation bible schools which have been super powerful. We've gotten some really encouraging feedback from the pastors of the churches we've been doing the VBSs at. It's awesome to know we've actually been able to powerfully bless this country, when most of the time "short term missions" are less about our sacrifice and more about learning....God has been gracious and blessed us with the ability to really touch the people here. Not to say that our lives aren't being powerfully changed at the same time, because they truly are. Praise the Lord! The week after next is the El Tizate school "campamento". It's a camp they do every year. This year's title is "The Holy Spirit" Pray that the Lord reveals himself to us, that we would be humbled, and that all the students, teachers, and leaders would be powerfully blessed by the Spirit of God ministering to us that week. PERSPECTIVE; It's a beautiful thing to gain from the body of Christ. Heres some pics!!

Climbing some active volcano

My 3rd and 4th grade buddies

Angel wearing my sunglasses

Us relaxing in Atitlan

View from our lake cabin in Atitlan

Cool plants n such

More atitlan

Jasmine. She's pretty much the cutest girl I've ever met.

more cool plan life

we eat good

Kaitlin, Tracey and Hannah at Atitlan

Ellis conquering a volcano

Our building site for a family's house...before... 

street in El Tizate...pretty much what it looks like in the village. It's a big street going up a mountain!

Me next to a blue wall. They have cool colored buildings.

Kat's (our leader) artwork in an El Tizate building

Our leaders Katrina and Christoph

My beautiful team mate Claire.

Black widow in our bathroom.

view from our worksite

puppet show practice for our VBS

cool bugs here

Joti:)

TWO AMAZING GODLY OBEDIENT POWERFUL HUMBLE MEN.

Mayan ruins

our host family feeds kevin and I very well

me'n my guys again

being fed by a church we did VBS at in Puerto de San Jose

Writing from the BEAUTIFUL Atitlan!

Well it has been just over three weeks since my team and I first showed up in Guatemala. We’re half-way done in Guatemala! Many things will stick with me that I have learned here, but there is one thing I’ve been meditating on for a while today. One of our team leaders, Christoph, said at the beginning of the summer, (paraphrasing a little) “You cannot expect to have a powerful, life-changing experience here simply because you’re in the Global Shore summer program. You’re only going to reap from this summer what you sow into it. This summer is yours. Every day you’ll have plenty of opportunities to choose: The first choice is to sit back and watch, wait for something to happen, and just go with the flow of everyone else. The second choice is to make every day your own and to use your own legs to step out into the new territory, the unknown, the mysterious, and the powerful side of eternal life that God has set apart for you.”

-I’m putting this on my blog for two reasons: I want to testify that God has been completely faithful in fulfilling my desires and showing me His glory as I have done my best to choose to pursue Him to a greater level day after day during this program. The other reason is because the above quote from Christoph is something that every person who calls him/herself a follower of Jesus should strongly consider. In fact, before you read on, you should read this rephrased quote again right now and let God speak that truth over your heart.
-“You cannot expect to have a powerful, life-changing experience on earth simply because you’re a Christian. You’re only going to reap from this relationship what you sow into it. This life is yours. Every day you’ll have plenty of opportunities to choose: The first choice is to sit back and watch, wait for something to happen, and just go with the flow of everyone else in the world. The second choice is to make every day your own and to use your own legs to step out into the new territory, the unknown, the mysterious, and the powerful side of eternal life that God has set apart for you.”

 It is my firm belief that the second choice leads us to abundant life. The bible says that the Holy Spirit leads us from glory to glory. The Devil is doing everything he can to distract us form this powerful journey into the glory of God. One major distraction he uses is the world; as long as he can make you satisfied or preoccupied with the things of this world he can take you away from your true purpose and commission. This summer I have found that the best way I can follow God is not by striving and striving to obey Him and seek His face, but it has been by surrendering, surrendering, and surrendering everything to the Lord at all times. For it is the HOLY SPIRIT that will take me into obedience of the Father and give me grace to see His face.

Recap of what we’ve done since my last update:
-Another week of running a vacation bible school in Jocotenengo (20 mins away)
-Saturday we did a one day VBS in Puerto de San Jose. Pretty impoverished area we were in. This was the hottest weather I’d experienced in my life; over 35˚C. We swam in the ocean when there!! Super cool and beautiful. Black sandy beach.
-Sunday, some of our team and I climbed an active volcano. Unreal experience of the power of God! So beautiful.
-This week we ran our 4-day VBS program at home in El TIzate!! It went amazing and we could see the Holy Spirit healing and blessing so many of the kids throughout the week. Some kids come in looking so scared and broken, and many left looking like burdens were lifted and they were equipped with truth. We will continue to see these kids in the streets of our town so followup will be great! Many of the kids kept asking when church was too- which was awesome, because how often do you have 9 year olds asking over and over to make sure they and their family have the correct information to make it to church?! Thought that was cool.
-Construction of the house for a family in Tizate is going great-I’m working on the site 2 days a week. We’ve also had some pretty amazing times evangelizing in Antigua. The Lord is awakening us to His glory, and to His kingdom come. Repent and believe the Good News people! Heaven is invading earth! We have many testimonies, but I can give you is about a man that approached some of our team members. He was drunk at the time but as the people listened to his story and told him about the love of Jesus for his life he got down on his knees and was crying and praying to God. It was all in spanish so my group members weren't exactly sure what was going on but they knew that the Holy Spirit was working in the situation. Praise the Lord!

This weekend we’ve gotten away to relax in Atitlan. It’s about 1.5 hrs away from Tizate and it’s basically paradise! Probably the most beautiful place I’ve been before. Tropical lake fully equipped with waterfalls and the glory of God! I’ll hopefully get some more pictures of everything up soon!

Thanks again for taking the time to read- I’m so blessed to have amazing friends and family and God has continually been filling my head with thanksgiving and prayers for all you amazing people. I truly am so grateful.

Much love,

Braden

One Week In Guatemala...

Well Guatemala is pretty amazing! It´s always the people that make the place, and Ive been incredibly blessed by the family of God over here. Kevin (teammate) and I have been very blessed to live with a family of five who cook us AMAZING food and teach us Spanish and LOVE us. Two parents Javier and Ana and four children Sarah, Carlos, Sonja, and Roodie. Each of us on the team have a different responsibility every day. We´re either on construction, evangelism in Antigua (half hour away), or working in the school with the kids/helping the teachers with school projects. If you´re a white Canadian visiting this school you will literally get bombarded by hugs. It doesn´t matter if its the first time these kids have seen you, they´ll simply pour out love on you because they believe you´re made in the image of God and that you represent their sponsors over in Canada. Anyways, BLOWN away by the love for God these kids have. They are absolutely PASSIONATE during worship/devotional times in the morning before school and two of the kids preach a short sermon every morning. Tough sermons too!! E.g. What happens when you die, baptism in the Holy Spirit, seeking God´s face, the antichrist...and I´ve been impacted by every one, and it probably helps that whenever the student speaks he/she has a testimony behind the words they speak. 

So the team´s been working really hard to prepare a powerful vacation bible school programs for kids around the country. As well as working with the school in Tizate, we´ll be traveling around Guate and doing these VBS programs for the remainder of the summer. I´m currently writing this blog entry from the city of Huehuetenengo which is about 1 hour from the mexican border and about 7 hours away from our home town in El Tizate. Last night the city here was having a "celebration" LITERALLY declaring that the demonic spirits of darkness have dominion over the city...those are the words they use. Spirits of drunkenness, homosexuality, prostitution, and abortion. It was kind of creepy driving in seeing everyone wearing these weird masks...there was just a heavy presence in the city so it was GOOD timing that we came here to be a light! So please pray for these cities we enter, pray that our VBS days impact the kids we love on, and that our evangelism times are more and more filled with the love and authority of Jesus Christ!! Thank you!!

By the way, I made OVER the amount of funds I needed=ALL of which are going towards work with the school in Tizate and its ministry. WHoohoo! I seriously love all you guys and am praying for you. Hope this was a good update for ya! Post a question on here and I'll answer it for you:) Post a prayer request and I would love to pray for you:)

The first part of Revelation 3:3 hit me pretty hard last night as our team got done listening to Pastor Omar here in Huehuetenengo. He finished telling us testimonies of God's power. One testimony included him praying for a man about a week ago who was dead for 3 days because he had hung himself...committed suicide. After Omar prayed, the man was raised from the dead. Pastor Omar told us that its not because hes been fasting, or living a perfectly righteous life, but it was because he and those in his church continually BELIEVE that there was nothing in the bible that said we should put limits on our prayers. God is ready and willing and DESIRING to make His kingdom come, but he is waiting for those who are ready and willing to pray, believe, and put God's name on the line. God can handle it:) Above all, lets walk in LOVE!!

Revelation 3:3 "Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent..."

Much love,

Braden

God Rocks!

Thanks for your prayers! God is doing so much as we work in the barn! We're having more and more opportunities to tell people about the love of Jesus every day, so please keep praying that the the Holy Sprit touches their hearts!

Here's one example of my day in the barn: There's one 14 year old tough guy name Peter who I run into quite a bit as I work. I'm trying to teach him about the truth of Jesus, which I don't think he really hears about much in his church. I keep calling him "King Peter," jokingly but completely serious at the same time;) I told him that he is royalty as a son of the God who created him, and for that reason I treat him like a king and not just kid working in a factory. Every time I say "Hey King Peter!" he tells me, "No man, I'm not a king, I'm just a box maker," with a bit of a smirk. He's a kid I know has taken a liking to me, cause he watches my every move, so pray that the glory of God touches his heart, and that he truly receives a revelation of the Father who loves him!!

A quick something God convicted me of and I want you to be blessed with:
Revelation 2: 4-5 "Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place."

I was actually very convicted by the entirety of this letter to the church, but this section stuck out. So much of the time when we read through the bible and we come across a rebuke or a correction we tend to push it to the side and say, "You know, I think that's for someone else. I've been doing pretty good in that area of my life so God probably has another correction for me." This statement may have truth to it, but it is easy to let this become a habitual response. We often form and a mindset of indifference to God's correction- and I think it is often because we don't really understand the INCREDIBLE reward of repentance to these convictions. It's all to bring us deeper into the POWERFUL glory of God and intimacy with Jesus!!

Jesus is speaking these words to the church, and I am the church. Yes, "we" are the church. But I'm not taking ownership of these convictions enough if I forget about the "I" aspect of the church. Why am I complaining about complacency and lack of passion in the church when I myself am not overflowing with an unquenchable fire for Jesus? I must take up this conviction in my heart and let it move me to act. I must do this if I am going to step out in confronting the church and correcting those in the body of Christ. I gotsta walk the talk!!! Amen. We all need to return to our first love-to never stop pursuing a deeper passion for Him. Be blessed in your pursuit because Jesus says "To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God." Haha, PARADISE!!!

My prayers are with you all! Because I freizenheizen love you all with the love of Jesus!!!

Week 3 Update

I am incredibly appreciative of everyone who has been praying for me and supporting me. I am seriously unbelievably blessed to have my God family love on me in such a Christ-like way. I'm amazed at the generosity of God's heart, because it is made so clear by the actions of all of you! Thank you- I love you all so much and pray for you as you come to mind- which is often!

This is my second week in the asparagus pack-house barn. It’s tough! My average day is about 12 hours. We don’t really have a set end time but we start at 7AM every morning. The job I was given is super physically demanding which I asked God for...but it definitely requires much leaning on the Lord! I’m the “floor collector” so I take all of the finished pallets of packed asparagus and move them into the cooler, which I call the mines of Moria. Every time I think of Lord of The Rings I think, "man God, I want a crazy adventure like that." Praise the Lord that EVERY day of our lives with Him is a powerful risky adventure with the Maker Jesus Christ!!

We’re working with more or less all employees that are Mennonites from Mexico where many of the women aren’t allowed to leave their houses, education is pretty much looked down upon, and love and affection is minimal to none in all the families. It all stems from a very religious type of Christianity and only a SMALL fraction of the 300 have a personal relationship with Jesus. So all to say, our mission starts here, we pray for our coworkers every day, and are doing all we can to follow the Spirit in how to supernaturally love and serve and reach these extremely sad hearts...seriously, so many of them look so broken and sad. So pray for God encounters in their lives and more opportunities for us to effectively show Jesus Christ. They know we’re Christians and many know the story of Jesus, but to KNOW Jesus Christ is eternal life. Amen Hallelujah- “of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end” !! LOVE YOU ALL SOOOO MUCH!!!

Lake Erie sunset. Yes, I am very much being blown away by His beautiful and powerful glory.

Life in the grand ol' Port Burwell!

My first time flying in a jet plane in about 8 years was pretty grand! I figured it was pretty cliche to bring God encounters to people in an airport/airplane, so I invited God to do so! Had some great encounters with people where I got to pray and/or talk with them about life with Jesus. It was a great start to the summer! Arrived here in Port Burwell at midnight on Saturday, April 27th. I kind of feel like I'm in Kansas or Nebraska or something. It's kind of the middle of nowhere. The land is flat and filled with plots of fields and wind turbines...but it's SO beautiful. And I'm already sunburnt by the wonderful weather! We're literally a five minute walk away from the shore of Lake Erie which is BEAUTIFUL and sandy.

All the people on my team are fantastic! 6 guys and 8 girls. Four are students from Trinity Western University, my friend Claire and I are from UBC in Vancouver, and the others are pretty much from around Ontario. As we've begun to tell our testimonies and get to know each other, all the team members have been encouraging me in Jesus so much!

We've been receiving discipleship from our amazing team leaders Christoph and Katrina. Our pastor, Jacobo, from down in Guatemala is up here with his wife for the week just to teach us. We're having 2 teaching sessions a day with this PASSIONATE man who serves about 20 different churches in Guatemala, pastoring and preaching full-time at the one which we will be attending in El Tizate. Thus far, biblical teachings Pastor Jacobo has taught us include "Powerfully encountering God: truly knowing God", "Identity In Christ", "Developing Our Spiritual Lives", and "Prophetic Acts". GREAT stuff. We are all being extremely challenged to seek God with greater fervor and to abide in His heart so we can supernaturally effect those around us with the Kingdom of God; that we may truly walk more like Jesus did! Oh- we're also doing a lot of shouting HALLELUJAH!!!

Tomorrow (Monday) we start work in the largest asparagus harvesting and packing facility in the country. But I'm quite excited to see how the Lord fills me and uses me during that time as well! Reading "Practicing the Presence" by Brother Lawrence which should get me ready for the monotonous work in the packing plant! I'm expecting powerful encounters with the Lord even during the next couple months as I work and get to love on the 300 other employees here. Love you all SO much!! Blessings! More to come soon!

Around the "Ark" (our team's home!) and Places Around/Near Port Burwell

First arriving in Toronto. My first 'kind-of-east-coast' sunset!!

Looking out front of our property.

Jesus time out by some old tobacco buildings on our property.

Lunchtime!! We are blessed with amazing cooks...that cook for us. Wow!

Trip for IceCream! in Port Rowan.

To my friends and family:

You are all an unbelievable blessing in my life. Thank you SO MUCH for taking the time to read my letters and for supporting me in prayer and fundraising!!!! I've been praying for all of you as I have read your responses to my letters and from your notes and cards to me before I left. And thank you to all who came to my going away party and helped send me off on my flight to Ontario. I've been so blessed by all that you've written me and encouraged me with!! May you be blessed by the powerful gracious spirit of Jesus Christ! I'll give a financial update soon! Hallelujah! May His Kingdom come in your lives!