It has been wonderful this past week to have our pastor, Rick Banda and his son Luke here visiting us. Rick has been hugely instrumental in helping and guiding our ministry. He has a huge heart for reaching the lost, and has for years opened his own house to do it. Their visit has been a very fun and relaxing time for us to be together.
While here, Rick spoke with the parents of many of the children at Casa Shalom during their monthly “Visitor’s Sunday”. He shared about his own past and how God really is his Heavenly Father. He also spent a lot of time with our guys and also with Yuli’s family. The highlight of the trip was that Elias and Yuli’s brother-in-law Mauriel both decided to be baptized! It was amazing!
We also spent some time just relaxing together and enjoying each other’s company. Luke and I took the teen boys on a hike up a volcano one day. It was a lot of fun, but we were up in the clouds so there wasn’t much of a view.
And we went on a relaxing fishing trip another day in the beautiful lake Atitlan.
For me personally, the best times were the times in-between when we were driving back and forth between activities. I enjoyed and learned so much from our conversations. Rick has had years of experience of different kids growing up alongside of his own kids. Now with our own baby, this is so important to me. I want to be used by God to help and minister to these guys that the Lord has given us, but it should never be at the cost of being a bad parent to my own children. Rick’s wisdom has been incredibly helpful to us.
Rick has a very interesting blog about his time with us in Guatemala: