Resignation as Youth Pastor

Sunday, December 26th, I sadly announced my resignation as youth pastor at Fairview Church. January 3, 2010 will be my last official day. This was a must so that we can proceed with our new calling as missionaries and begin raising support. Our plans are to be on the field in Guatemala January 2011. During this time of raising needed support I will also be working on learning the language, getting our house ready for sale, and working on the business end of moving to another country. I plan to return to Guatemala for short-term trips several times throughout the year to build much needed relationships with some key contact people, and learn some of the culture and language.

In Christ,
Danny

Guatemala November 2009

Kim and I had the blessing to go to Guatemala City November 7th - 14th. This was our first trip to Guatemala and to the people that God has told us to go. What an amazing experience this trip was to us. Words cannot begin to describe the need for Christ that we saw in this country. Guatemala is ranked by the UN as 120th of the world's 173 countries based on criteria such as income, life expectancy, school enrollment and literacy. That's the lowest of any North, Central, or South American country. In 1996 a Peace Agreement was signed that ended a 36 year civil war, an estimated 200,000 Guatemalans had been killed, a million made homeless, and untold thousands had disappeared. Our trip opened our eyes even more for the need for our family to move to this country and share Christ with the people. During this week long trip we witnessed an unknown total of people to accept Christ for the first time. We had the opportunity to do VBS in three different places. We fed some of the people of the dump with much needed physical nutrition while praying with them and sharing the Gospel (meeting their much needed spiritual nutrition). I have posted a few of the images here on this blog that we saw each day. You can see more of the images on my facebook page www.facebook.com/dkblopez. There is story after story I would like to share with you, but this blog page could not hold all the information. I hope to get to share some of these stories with each of you face to face in the coming months. I plan to go back in March for 3 weeks. Please keep our family in your constant prayers as we continue to try and be obedient to the call God has given us on the people of Guatemala.

In Christ,
Danny Lopez














Where some of the 100,000 dump dwellers live.














The Alverez family needs our prayers.











Some boys at the Tabitha House before having to send them back
out into the dump.
















Children in the kitchen of the Tabitha House.














Happy faces of the dump kids at the Tabitha House.














Street VBS in Zone 5 of Guatemala City.












Children that follow you waiting to receive part of your lunch.
















VBS at New Jerusalem Church.














VBS at New Jerusalem Church.

It's Official!

It's official! Monday, October 26, 2009 Brianna was adopted legally through the Morgan County Probate Judge office into the Lopez family! She is now Brianna Nicole Lopez! We are so blessed that this adoption is finally complete and praise our Father for this wonderful daughter of ours that He has aloud us to have! Thank you to everyone for all the much needed prayers and concerns throughout this past year and a half. Please continue to pray for Brianna as she grows and learns to serve God. This coming Sunday, November 1, 2009, we will be dedicating her to God. May she grow to know Jesus as her Savior at a young age, and serve Him throughout her life. May she be kept safe both physically and mentally from the clutches of Satan. May she be an example to many other kids throughout her childhood, and help in furthering the Kingdom of God.

.

Guatemala Update

Our trip to Guatemala will be Nov. 7^th – 14^th and we will be staying in Guatemala City. Most of our trip will be centered around working with children/families in the city dump. The poverty is immense, and the need for Christ is great! We are looking forward to seeing how God uses this team to work for His Kingdom. Here are some updates below:

• There are 18 people on this team: a group of 6 from Birmingham (Danny and Kim, JT, Greg and Kathy, Amanda), a group of 5 from Northstar in Alpharetta, GA, and a group of 7 from Bible Baptist Church in North Vernon, Indiana.

• There are two translators who will meet the team on the day of arrival and be available all week to help with translations.

• The group will be working at the dump, in the Tabitha House (a local ministry house with preschoolers and school aged children who live in the dump), and at a local church.

Currently, the following items are needed for this trip (we just received this list from Carol, our point of contact in GC):

• Music for VBS type events in the school (this would need to be something that kids can do, repetitive, and easy). e.g. The B-I-B-L-E, Rise and Shine, Jesus Loves Me, Jesus is the Rock

• Puppets (we could use 3-4 puppets; we can always make a stage) – the team can do Bible skits with these and easily tell a Bible story.

• Prizes for games (small prizes – 400-500 of these; can be pencils, small notebooks, stickers, fingernail polish, …a good variety)

• Recreation supplies – basketballs, volleyballs, soccer balls – if someone has access to nets for these, that would be awesome too. We will leave any rec. supplies there.

• Teaching material for preschoolers, elementary school and teenagers.
  

• Hats/sports caps for the teenagers

• School supplies – backpacks, paper, pencils, markers, construction paper, crayons, glue, rulers, etc for the Tabitha House

• Medicines for the kids – Tylenol, cold medicine, Neosporin, bandaids, alcohol, Hydrogen peroxide, Motrin, cough medicine, etc.

More details to come…..

Brianna's Adoption Hearing

Greetings all! We just wanted to let everyone know that Brianna's court hearing for her adoption is still on schedule for October 26th at 9:00am. We are anxiously awaiting this final step with her adoption. Please be in daily prayer for God's will to be done in this situation.

June '08 in Arizona

June '09 at our home

Brianna's birthday is 3/28/2007

Kim is Going to Guatemala!

God is doing some very amazing things in the lives of our family! We recently added Kim on the November Guatemala trip! This was not planned by any means. I had talked with our trip leader and felt it completely necessary for Kim to be on this trip with me. We had to make sure it was possible with the flight, get my mother lined up to babysit, and expedite a passport. But Kim is now on the trip with me! We will be spending a week in Guatemala City working with an orphanage and working in the Guatemala City dump evangelizing with a few of the 10,000 people that live there. During this trip, Kim and I will be celebrating our 13th wedding anniversary!