Do you ever wonder "what does the Impacto staff do when there are no teams?" Well, for sure, we stay busy! It is a time that Bryce can work on his special ag/green projects. Dusty and Tyler remain busy with home-schooling. By the way, Tyler begins his 9th grade studies this month - go Tyler! Sarah continually works on responding to emails. Dusty is working on getting mailing list for snail mail updated and updates the Zona Cero Facebook page and website. Fred updates the Impacto Ministry Facebook page with photographs and descriptions of ministry work. Tony, Andrea, Fred, Fredy, and Bryce all work on projects Pastor Luis assigns.

For example, this past week, Fred, Fredy, Bryce, along with Pedro, took the red truck up the mountain in San Pedro and got soil so that Bryce could begin to plant grass at the San Juan Happy Tummies site. Once they had all the soil and were back at the Happy Tummies' site, Fred, Bryce and Fredy began to prep the ground for planting the grass. While they were there, they decided to show the children the Jesus film for children.

Last Sunday, August 25, was International Day of the Bible. The children from Happy Tummies marched in the parade in San Juan! Impacto was able to purchase each child a shirt and shorts "uniform" that has Happy Tummies on the shirts with the Impacto logo and a huge banner which some of the mothers carried throughout the parade. It had rained all day on Saturday and started out raining Sunday morning. We feared the parade would be canceled but the sun peeked through and even though it was later than 9 a.m., the parade took place. There were two stopping points and at the second one, Pastor Luis presented a message about the importance of the Bible and the children sang two songs.

Saturday, August 31, Tony returned to the lake for a Zona Cero meeting held at the Promised Land. This was also attended by Fredy, Bryce, Tyler and Fred. The meeting was to encourage and motivate the San Pedro youth who are "hosting" Zona Cero participants December 5-8, 2013. After the meeting the group visited Bethel School in San Pedro to see if it would be available and have all that is needed to use as the site. Tony is going to be providing a short write-up [in English and in Spanish] for the Impacto website and for the Zona Cero Facebook page.

Sunday, September 1, Fred, Tyler, and Bryce took tables from Shalom Church to the Promised Land. This is the first step in moving everything from the kitchen there to the kitchen at the Promised Land. We all are excited about this and cannot wait to see the Promised Land kitchen set up and in use. Our plan is to begin using it with the St. James medical team coming September 27. Please keep this effort in prayer that we will be able to get everything situated and set up in time.

Fredy will be checking with Lucia about Abuelitos schedule. Once he has cleared dates with her, he, Fred, and Bryce will visit three days a week and share a Bible story and do something with them, whether it be a craft-type project or simply talking, visiting, and some simple exercises. These elderly people are very dear and love to have staff (and teams!) come to visit them. Dusty will be preparing the nutrition drink for the guys to take at least two of the days they visit each week.

Also, Bryce, Fredy and Fred are visiting Happy Tummies and working with the children on a regular basis. Those of you who have visited Happy Tummies know how precious these children are and how they love on the staff and the teams when teams come. It is a joy to be able to see them grow both physically, and even more so, spiritually. The changes seen in each child as they get fed a daily nutritional meal, receive a vitamin, learn about personal cleanliness, become more disciplined and eagerly listen to the Bible story is such a huge blessing. Also seeing their grades improve in school is a wonderful thing that we know will help them greatly should they decide to go on to college. Thank you to each person who supports this project. It could not be done without you.

Andrea and Tony will be making trips to visit the churches in Zacapa, Alta Verapaz, and in Guatemala City. They will meet with the youth boards of each church to speak about Zona Cero and to learn about the needs of the youth in each specific church. This, of course, will require a lot of traveling for Tony and Andrea so please keep them lifted in your prayers for safety and also for the boys to be good travelers!

Fredy will be doing the necessary calls and visits to candidates for houses to be built during 2014. This is a time-consuming process. Sometimes Fred and/or Bryce go along just to help show Impacto's presence. Please keep this process lifted in your prayers. We always want to be able to help those in need and building a house is a life-changing event for families. They go from corn-stalk houses with mud floors to a nice block house with a cement floor. Can you imagine the difference this makes? It is a prime opportunity, too, for teams to present the Gospel to the families and neighbors who come to see what is going on during the construction process.

On September 7-8, all staff will be participating in 2 days of planning meetings. We covet your prayers for this time as we work on plans for the rest of 2013 and 2014. We will be meeting at the Promised Land and putting the multipurpose room to good use! Please pray specifically that we can have clear minds and that God will provide His wisdom and discernment as we make decisions and plans.

Pastor Luis and Dinora are back and forth to the States. They are just completing a move from Virginia to Florida. Praise God, everything was accomplished safely and effectively with the help of some great friends from Riverview Church in Virginia. These men have served on teams ministering with Impacto in Guatemala. September 14, Pastor Luis will be preaching in Bolivar, Ohio. September 21, he will be preaching in Eden, NC. October 26, he will be preaching in Plymouth, IN. In between those dates, he and Dinora will be traveling back to Guatemala to participate in Pastor's training seminars, staff meetings, district ladies meetings and who knows what all!

So you see, the Impacto Staff does keep busy, year-round! But, we are not complaining because we each feel very blessed to be called of God to do such wonderful work. Thank you to all of you for your prayers and for your financial support. We know that without both of these, our work would not be able to be done. Please think about joining us in 2014 and we can minister side-by-side to the wonderful people here in Guatemala.

God bless you all, richly.

Serving Him Together,