Guatemala

Brent’s Birthday

Yesterday was my 32nd birthday. Besides a few grey hairs that have started to appear, I don’t feel any older! But this birthday has been a good time for me to think and reflect over how God’s blessed my life in so many ways.

  • He blessed me with incredible parents and family, and through them He introduced His son Jesus to me.
  • Ten years ago He changed the course of my life when He brought me for the first time to Guatemala. The kids and the country captured my heart, and I was never the same again. He opened my eyes and gave me a vision and a purpose. I was forever changed.
  • Five years ago a quick trip to Guatemala to visit the kids turned into a many month stay at Casa Shalom. During that time I met my future wife Yuliza who had started to work there as a teacher.
  • Almost two years ago Yuliza and I were married. God provided me an incredible wife and helpmate, and now we’re working side-by-side in Guatemala with the children.

I really feel like my life is far more wonderful than I could ever have hoped for!

One of my favorite verses for a long time has been Jeremiah 29:11:

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

This verse gives me so much hope and allows me to rest assured that God cares for me. But the next two verses have become even more important to me:

“Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”

God’s love and care for us is fundamental for every Christian, but these two verses give us purpose and a plan: seek the Lord with all your heart, and you will find Him. These past ten years I have prayed and sought the Lord, and He has listened to me. He has shown me a life that I never imagined that I would have, and He has helped and blessed me much more than I deserve.

And now I think ahead to the next ten years: what does God have in store for us next? My birthday wish is that you pray for Yuliza and me: that we would continue to seek the Lord and that we would always be led by Him.