🌎 Hope! - Great Comission response to Guatemalas Needs

Love Letters from the Abeggs: "…to those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ: May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you." (Jude 1:1) "…we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." (Eph.2) Last week I shared about our visiting churches and supporters across the United States. Today I'd like to introduce you to, and ask you to pray for UWM's work with national partner ministries in Guatemala. Claudia, Nico and I just returned from a 3 week visit that both encouraged and broke our hearts for this country. We had the privilege of visiting UWM missionaries and partner ministries over a three week trip to Guatemala.  The most populace country in Central America, Guatemala ranks the fifth poorest in all of Latin America, with over half the population below the poverty line and 1/4 in extreme poverty. This group includes nearly 80% of Guatemala's indigenous population, many of whom do not speak Spanish but one of 22 distinct Mayan dialects.  Though heavily evangelized for nearly a century, the Guatemalan church in general remains undiscipled. What was the great commission our Lord gave us in Matthew 28? "Go into all the world and MAKE DISCIPLES of all nations…teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you…" The majority of rural pastors throughout Guatemala have never had the benefit of theological training, much less being equipped to preach, disciple, manage a church or provide Biblical counseling to their flock. Often these pastors are men with good hearts and a desire to serve, but without the proper preparation they can drift into heresies of prosperity gospel or mixing Gospel truth with indigenous beliefs. Over the years I've visited rural Churches that were attended to once a year by a traveling priest who would administer mass and then move on to the next town. The rest of the year local leaders performed actual animal sacrifices in accordance with their ancestral beliefs, and this on the very same altar used by the priest. Though not always this blatant, syncretism (the blending of different beliefs) between the gospel message and indigenous practices is all too common in rural areas. At times these cross into the areas of sexual abuse, as we often see in our anti-trafficking work, such as practices of incest or a ritual of "deflowring" a bride before her wedding night.  You can see the need to provide training and support for the faithful, under equipped pastors who are hungry to receive instruction.  Centro Esdras, one of UWM's partner ministries is doing just that. Their primary focus is to take sound theological and practical training to pastors and churches in remote areas of Guatemala, where 70% of the rural population have no online access whether internet or cell phone. At the same time, in order to combat the cycles of poverty, C.E. provides family and community health instruction as well as biblical environmental stewardship training.  Claudia and I with UWM missionaries Carrie and Justin Stafinski visiting Centro Esdras directors Israel and Lilly Ortiz Centro Esdras has been through a particularly hard couple of years with staff significantly reduced as foreign missionaries returned home due to the pandemic as well as the passing of their Director of Relations, Fundraising & Communications earlier this year. Founder Israel Ortiz (71 years old) was hospitalized for 3 months with Covid but thankfully recovered and is currently seeking "a practical visionary" to take leadership of the team. I'll include some prayer requests below, but if you'd like to learn more about CE visit them at: Centro Esdras.(Helpful hint, if you don't speak Spanish and want to read English translations of any of the partner ministries websites, grab their URL and drop it into Google Translate for a link to a translated version of the page).  Please join us in prayer for: Provision of staff, finances and health for the CE Team. Wisdom for reaching pastors and communities in need of training, especially as Guatemala struggles with increased Covid cases. A future director to lead CE when Israel is no longer able. Guatemalan nationals and missionaries equipped in language (Spanish and Mayan dialects), theology and teaching ability willing to travel and train rural pastors. Endurance and provision for rural pastors, their churches and their flocks, especially in light of the pandemic which continues to spread in rural Guatemala. For UWM, the Stafinskis as missionaries in Guatemala and Claudia and my leadership as Regional Leaders in seeking to assist CE and other national ministries in their Gospel Calling. Selling fruit in the Antigua marketplace.  You're Invited, so SAVE the DATE! Though we had the opportunity to see many of you on our cross country trip, there are many we still missed. Claudia and I will be doing two online gatherings to share about our ministry to Central America, have a time of Q&A and catch up with as many of you as possible. We'll be sending out invitations soon, but for now, please save one of the following times to join us online:  Tuesday Nov. 16 @ 7PM Eastern / 4PM Pacific Thursday Nov. 18 @ 9PM Eastern / 6PM Pacific Partner with us in the Great Comission:  Prayer Team: Send us note to let us know you're praying for us, and let us know how we can be praying for you.  Financial Support Team:  Visit: Abegg Missionary Support Page Give via US Mail: Send a check with accompanying note stating: "For the Abegg Family" to: 205 Regency Executive Park Dr. Suite 430, Charlotte, NC 28217 Give Via Phone: Dial 800-825-5896 and talk to a very helpful person. For past issues of our newsletters and other posts visit our Blog.

🌎 Mission Central Am/Carib. - Summer Wrap Up & Catch Up

Love Letters from the Abeggs "…to those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ: May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you." (Jude 1:1) "…we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." (Eph.2) Greetings from Miami…finally! We're close to wrapping up a season of travel following 3 weeks of partnership visitation in Guatemala preceded by 2 months of visits across the US which included "deploying" Jeremy to college in Idaho. There's a lot to catch up on, but first to all of you who've been supporting us in prayer during these past few months, THANK YOU on behalf of our family and those we serve in Central America & the Caribbean. You make our work possible. As missionaries, at times we have the opportunity to visit our supporters and partner churches, so over July and August we covered 9,000 miles crossing the US. Covid limited many of our planned visits, but we were still able to connect and fellowship with many supporters along the way. It was a joy to see many of you, but for those we missed, we're looking forward to an online gathering next month. We'll keep you posted! If you're interested in seeing some of the travel highlights, please visit our US Travel Photo Journal. Our recent and current travels which will wrap up in early November. About halfway through our US visitations we found out that Claudia's father, Ramon, had been hospitalized in Chile, and remains there today. Even now, three months later the doctors are finding it hard to stabilize his heart and lungs due to a collapse of his immune system not related to Covid. We're prepared to go, but given Chile's pandemic restrictions and limited hospital visitations we've agreed with Claudia's sisters that it is best to wait, especially in light of our extensive travel of late and not wanting to inadvertently bring yet another virus for his weakened immune system to fight. Our hope remains (though with no assurance) that he'll improve enough to return home, at which point we'll plan to visit. For now, please keep Ramon and the entire family in your prayers, especially Claudia's sister Barbara who is shouldering much of the care management.  Claudia's family during a visit a few years back. Front row with Claudia and I are mom Teresa and dad Ramon. Sister Barbara is behind Claudia with Nico and Jeremy back right.  The last week of our journey was to be spent getting Jeremy settled in Moscow, ID at New St. Andrews College before heading home. You may remember our prayer request about replacing our 2002 Honda that was not up to this journey. Instead we drove Jeremy's car to Moscow and arranged the purchase and delivery of a 2018 van, but "the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry." Due to labor shortages, Carvana (online used car company) was unable to deliver as arranged, leaving us stranded for an additional week! Still, God was at work in ways we couldn't have anticipated, providing additional time to help Jeremy settle in, and getting to know his landlords who graciously took in Nico, Claudia, myself and even Sherlock! We were able to connect more deeply with the Moscow community and Nico, though only in his 3rd year of high-school, was offered an internship and potential job in his desired area of videography. This will be with the same company that produced the fantastic, God honoring nature documentaries & upcoming series "The Riot and the Dance". If you haven't seen these, I HIGHLY recommend them, and as an added bonus, the narrator and guide is none other than Jeremy's landlord and NSA Biology professor Gordon Wilson. (See them on Amazon or Vidangel.) Jeremy ready to take on college! …And a few days into classes. He is actually loving it, but please join us in prayer for endurance, diligence and continued growth in wisdom and the spirit of our Lord.  Eventually our car arrived and we sprinted back to Miami in order to have one week at home before flying to Guatemala, a trip that had been delayed 3 times due to the pandemic. We'll share more about this and other ministry updates in our next newsletter, but for a sneak peek you can see a post from the Stafinski's, our fellow missionaries in Guatemala. Please keep Justin and Carrie Stafinski in your prayers as they lay foundations for more missionaries to join our Guatemalan partner ministries.  Our new (to us) van. Thank you to the many who helped us replace our ailing '02 van! Final Note & Prayer Request. PLEASE pray for the God honoring pastors and their churches in the the Majority World (3rd world Latin America, Africa and Asia). Covid and subsequent government mandated shutdowns are decimating thousands of small Central American churches that can't support their pastor whether as a result of no work in a destroyed economy or due to regulations that forbid gatherings. Imagine if your church were shut down for 7 months with no options for online services, alternative gatherings nor online giving. Much of the Majority World continues to face these circumstances, forcing pastors into a crisis decision of abandoning their flock in order to feed their family. Please join us in prayer for our brothers and sisters in Central America and around the globe.  Partner with us in the Great Comission:  Prayer Team: Send us note to let us know you're praying for us, and let us know how we can be praying for you.  Financial Support Team:  Visit: Abegg Missionary Support Page Give via US Mail: Send a check with accompanying note stating: "For the Abegg Family" to: 205 Regency Executive Park Dr. Suite 430, Charlotte, NC 28217 Give Via Phone: Dial 800-825-5896 and talk to a very helpful person. For past issues of our newsletters and other posts visit our Blog.