Dear Praying Friends,

 It has been a very exciting and busy two months. We want you to know all about it so you can rejoice and pray with us.

 Since January we have been working in the Divine Grace Baptist Church in a much more direct way.  This is the church that we started last May with Eli and Sara Rojas. They are doing a wonderful job building and pastoring this infant congregation. We are now serving as youth ministers in the church. We made initial contact in this community through the teen Bible club we started in a local school over one year ago.  Now we moved the club to the church facilities and are reaching out into the immediate neighborhood. Each Saturday afternoon the group meets for two hours of games, teaching and discipleship. Most of the youth come from very under privileged homes and they respond well to the love and attention they receive at church. Just two weeks ago the church celebrated its first baptism service with three adults and one teenage boy following the Lord in believer’s baptism. Other new believers decided to wait to be baptized. Please praise the Lord with us for the advances in this new work! And pray for the continued growth and development of the congregation.  Please also pray for Pastor Eli and Sara Rojas.

 We also have been busy hosting area wide youth rallies four times a year. They are an encouragement and challenge to teenagers from over twenty area Baptist churches.   Saturday, February 5^th was the big day for our most recent Youth Encounter. The “Noche de Gala” provided an elegant banquet setting and moral purity was the topic for the evening. Over 300 young people attended. Several of the teenagers produced a short video entitled “Don’t be a Squeezed Lemon”. It made a powerful impact.  I then preached a sermon on keeping yourself pure until marriage.  Many teenagers came forward to make personal decisions and to sign a moral purity contract.  It was a great night of victory and excitement. (See photos below.)

Also in February, we organized a special anniversary service for missionary couple John and Yolanda Rice. This year they are celebrating 50 years of service as ministers of the Gospel, fifteen years in Guatemala, and twenty years in Brazil and fifteen years in the United States. 750 people from 20 area Baptist churches attended this very special service.  Family and friends of the Rice’s flew in from the States to make the day even more special.

In March we hosted a medical/dental missions team from Tennessee and Georgia. In just four days we were able treat over 200 people. God gave us a great week. Twelve people professed new faith in Christ and many new contacts were made for the churches.  It was our first all ladies team. Sarah and Charleen enjoyed all of that sister fellowship and I was really out numbered.

Pastors’ camp is always a great time. This year it was held in March with 75 pastors and workers attending from 5 countries. Pastor Joaquin Hurtado from Los Angeles, California was the invited speaker.  He challenged us on vital themes from 1 and 2 Timothy. It was great week of edification and fellowship.

 Presently we are in the States for two months to share our ministry with four new churches as well as visit a couple of our supporting churches. We are also very excited about the trip because most of our family will be meeting Brianna Grace for the first time. Please pray for safety as we travel many miles over the next few weeks.

 In closing, we would also like to share with you all two important ministry needs and ask you to please pray for them with us.

 First, we have been asked to help with the start up of a new church in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. This is the second largest city in Guatemala with about 800,000 in population. Temple Baptist Church is a mature congregation in Quetzaltenango and desires to plant another church in a new and developing area of the same city.  We are already busy working on this project and the new church is scheduled to begin Sunday services the last weekend in July. There is much to be done and there are several expenses involved, from renting a meeting place to buying plastic chairs and purchasing children’s materials and printed Gospel literature. Would you prayer fully consider helping us to raise $3,000.00 needed to help see a new church started?  We are committed to helping the Temple Baptist Church to reproduce a new church in Quetzaltenango. Just like before the arrival of a new baby, several preparations and purchases need to be made so that everything is ready: a crib, a baby carrier and car seat, a stroller, a changing table, etc.  Even so, for the birth of this new church we need to make some basic preparations to make sure everything is ready.  Would you like to be part of this very special event?

 A second important ministry need is also related to the new churches being started.  We desperately need to make a new shipment of Gospel literature to Guatemala. Right now we have three separate orders on hold: 50,000 Gospels of John and Romans in West Virginia, 40,000 full color Gospel tracts in Texas and hundreds of Sunday School materials and lesson books in Sebring. Florida.  The tracts and Gospels have been donated and the other materials have a reduced cost of $1,000.00 but all must be shipped to port and then shipped to Guatemala. The total cost for everything will be just at $5,000.00 to get the literature where it needs to be. These materials will directly benefit 40 different churches in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras who will use them to start four new churches and to edify their own churches. We need your help.  We need to raise these funds. My home church, the Hollywood Boulevard Baptist Church in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, has committed to give $1,000.00 towards this need. $4,000.00 is still needed. Please pray with us for this need.

 Thank you for your prayers and interest in our family and in God’s work in Guatemala. We appreciate so much each one of you. May God bless you as you continue to do His will.

 Sincerely,

 Phil and Sarah Humber, Charleen and Brianna Grace