News > Latin America

Guatemala UBF

Three people from Guatemala visited M. Moses & Sarah Chang in our neighboring country, Belize. It took us 21 hours by car driving 2 nights and 3 days. As soon as we crossed the border into Belize, the language of the people changed to English since Belize used to be a colony of England. It was amazing to learn that only in Belize in Central America people don’t speak Spanish. The wooden houses looked like a movie set or as if we were visiting an English town. In Belize there is no medical school yet, so people go to Guatemala or other countries to study medicine.

White sand, unpolluted seas, nature and untainted beautiful Belize made me angry at the political leaders of Guatemala who lost the land to Belize. But I could thank God when I saw that M. Moses & Sarah Chang could come to Belize without a language barrier to serve the pioneering work of God. They left their privileges in the USA and came to Belize to serve the work of God and set a good example. God loves Belize and is working on his redemptive history in his own way.

We visited the campus and sheep. We had time to talk together and pray. We got to learn about the country’s traditional food, ate Chinese steamed bread, played cards, played in the water and did gardening together. Although it was short, we had a wonderful time together and returned home.

They asked us to recommend that M. Jose Ahn visit them and, if possible, hold the Latin American Directors’ Conference in Belize. In the midst of their pioneering ministry, they enrolled in a seminary program taught in English and completed it. The weather is so hot that they have to keep the fan going all day long, but they are adjusting well. Especially, M. Sarah was filled with joy and thanksgiving because of the grace of Jesus in her life. They reminded me of a year and half of our pioneering period alone in Guatemala 23 years ago.

In Belize UBF right now Brother Lino Leal is growing faithfully and around 10-12 students are coming to 1:1 Bible study. M. Sarah encouraged me to pray to attend the Latin American Directors’ Conference in Spain this December together.

In Guatemala UBF, five messengers are taking turns to deliver Sunday message from the Gospel of Luke: Dr. Abraham Gilberto, Sh. Edwar, Sh. Dimas, M. Marcos Nahm, and M. Josue Ham. Around 35 people attend Sunday worship service.

My oldest daughter, Sara, who entered Guatemala Military Academy this January, is doing well. Even though she broke her left foot twice, she doesn’t complain because she chose the school. She has final exams this week and next, and in the middle of August, there will be an award ceremony for the honor students, and Mr. Lim, the president of the Korean Association, is planning to attend the ceremony.

There is a trend now that Korean immigrants are sending their children to the universities of the country where they live in order to develop a better relationship with the country. Although they still send their children to other countries for their Master’s or Ph.D. degrees, they have them return to Central and South America to work in the mainstream society. So Mr. Lim is looking into sending his second child to a university in Guatemala. He showed much interest in my daughter’s entrance to the Military Academy and congratulated us.

Our second daughter, Rebekah will be entering the 11th grade this August, and we pray that she, too, can find a major she likes and is good at and enter a university so that she may be prepared to be used by God for world mission.

I have a special prayer request for my family. My coworker, M. Josue began working with one elder of a Korean church in his new consulting company as a programmer and translator and interpreter. M. Josue had been praying to be able to invite 50 missionaries through the business as Dr. John Jun suggested. He believes that God will open the door through this company. But there has been a problem of transferring funds from Korea to Guatemala, so he couldn’t receive his salary for the last 9 months and my family met our limitation economically. I‘d like to ask for the prayer support of God’s servants. Once the projects start, the company needs to bring people from Korea and we pray that we will be able to invite missionaries. Thank you very much. May God give you good health and fill you with the Holy Spirit!

From Guatemala
M. Josue and Ana Ham