Posts by Stephen Mainer
First Mission Trip Reflections of the Week- Olivia Hundley
This year’s trip to Guatemala was my first ever mission trip. Even though I had high expectations for this week and what God was going to do both in and through our group, it highly exceeded those expectations. The thing that most exceeded my expectations was how attached I became to the people here. Everyone…
Read MoreLast Day in zone 21 / First day in Patzun
Today we traveled from Guatemala City to Patzun, a rural town in the mountains. With the high altitude came some fun surprises, such as hand sanitizer bottles exploding and soup sticking to our lips. We visited a school in Guatemala City before the two hour ride to Patzun, Jeanine told the kids stories, Pat did…
Read MoreSchools and Construction Monday in Guatemala
Monday 7-23-19 Day 3 in Guatemala City Following a great day of worship and house visits yesterday (Sunday), our team split in to 2 groups today. One group conducted 2 assembly sessions in a public school. In these sessions the danger of drugs and alcohol were addressed and our team’s younger members actually conducted an…
Read MoreA day of celebration and reflection
Today we were able to be a part of the celebration of the 7 year anniversary of the Zone 21 church. What a great day of celebration it was! Not only were the members of Bautista Elim Church in Zone 21 in attendance but also members from each of the other 3 churches that they…
Read MoreDay One Guatemala
Hello church family. We would like to thank you for your support in sending us to Guatemala. Not only your financial support but your spiritual support. Your prayers are needed. We spent our first day traveling, shopping for supplies and preparing for the week. Tomorrow we visit Elim Bautista Church in Zone 21, Guatemala City.…
Read MoreObservations Ivy Creek Baptist Guatemala Mission Trip 2018
Ivy Creek Baptist Church sent a team of 14 people to Guatemala City Zone 21 and Patzun. Our purpose was to share the gospel of our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus. We partnered with two pastors, Jaime and Jorge Perez Aguilar. They pastor two churches, one in Guatemala City’s zone 21 and the other in Patzun,…
Read MoreYouth Are Great Teachers
First, before I explain what I mean by “Youth are Great Teachers” lets give some statistics that Pastor Jamie and Jorge gave us this evening at dinner. We have seen and shared the gospel as a group to over 1500 kids, we were able to share the message with over 60 kids at VBS today…
Read MoreMission Day in Patzun-Wednesday
We had a great day in Patzun, Guatemala. We made house visits to encourage families in the community near the church. The team also went to an elementary school in Patzun. Last year we brought Spanish Gideon Bibles which were distributed to the school. One team was telling the story about Zacchaeus. When the Luke…
Read MoreSomebody Has to Pay
We begin the morning with another school visit in Zone 21. The kids were amazing as we were able to share the message of The Gospel to over 400 kids from ages 4-14 years old. Our teams were awesome loving on and playing with all the students. The presence of The Spirit was evident and…
Read MoreJuly 9, 2018: Schools Visits
One of my favorite things that Pastor Jaime does is his work with the public school system in Zone 21. Today, we were able to experience that work first hand. Because of the work that Jaime has done at the school, we were able to go into the schools and share the plan of salvation…
Read MoreChurch Service and House Visits in Zone 21 Sunday July 8th
Today started off well, with a wonderful church service at Elim church. Stephen shared his testimony and Dave preached on 2 Corinthians 5:21. After the service we all went on house visits in the Zone 21 community. I’d love to go into vast detail about them all, but I don’t think many people could endure…
Read MoreHola from Guatemala
Our mission team has arrived, and we were greeted warmly at the airport by Pastors Jamie & Jorge, Ingrid, and Walter. Today has been a day of planning for house and school visits and buying supplies. A highlight of my day…when we arrived at Seteca-our place of residence for a few days-we had four children…
Read MoreNew Year, New Perspective: Pastor Dave Wiley’s thoughts on the mission trip to Guatemala
My first trip to Guatemala with Ivy Creek was last year. In regards to the trip, I was nervously excited. I had been to Guatemala before, but I was taking a youth group and I was the leader of the trip and we went to a different city. In being the leader of the trip,…
Read MoreThanksgiving, Dreams, and Fears
Guatemala……. Stephen Mainer asked me to write a blog about what I am feeling and anticipating about the upcoming trip to Guatemala. Thankfulness comes to mind. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. I’m thankful for a son that told me last year it…
Read MoreGuatemala 2018 Pre-trip thoughts
As we close in on the final few weeks before you send us to Guatemala I would like to ask for your prayers that we will be spiritually prepared to serve the people of Guatemala for Christ. Also, to be prepared for Him to work in us as we grow in Him. We have planned…
Read MoreGuatemala Mission 2018
In just a few weeks you, Ivy Creek Baptist Church, will be sending a team of 16 people to Guatemala. The team will be serving in Guatemala City, Guatemala Zone 21 and a village in the mountains, Patzun, Chimeltenago, Guatemala. Zone 21 is a high crime, gang ruled area of Guatemala City where alcohol use…
Read MoreFriday, July 14th
Today was our last full day in Guatemala. As the group shared the last breakfast together, we went over our best highs, overall we all shared a common belief that we have been so blessed on this trip and wish to stay longer. Later in the day we headed out to San Juan, Sacatepequez where…
Read MoreThursday, July 13th
Today was great day, we woke up really early to head out to the cafeteria where we had our breakfast, came back to our dorm where we prepared pb&j sandwiches to take on our trip to Patzun. It was a long trip, we got to see a lot of Guatemala that we hadn’t yet seen.…
Read MoreGuatemala Wednesday 2017
We had a very good day today. We spent our 3rd and last day in class. The children were excited to see us and we enjoyed our time with them. Lily, Emma, & Jaelene hated to leave their new friends. Pastor Saul’s wife is Dr. Lila. She took us on a tour of the clinic…
Read MoreIvy Creek Guatemala Mission Tuesday 7-11-2017
The ICBC team had breakfast this morning here at SETECA cafeteria. Pat & I met Herbert from Rome, Ga. he was telling us that he was born in Guatemala City and came back to be with his mother who is ill, while here he is attending school to become a teacher. In Rome he had attended…
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