Please let Sarah know if you will be bringing a team by emailing her: spoythress@newlifelaplata.org   

Team and funds needed! VBS in Guatemala City is the largest with over 1,500 children expected to attend. The costs are tremendous for this outreach week because extra space has to be rented, chairs and tents have to be rented, food purchased for daily meals for the children, etc. Estimates now are around $10,000 to hold this evangelistic outreach for 4 weeks. Please pray for funds and for teams to come help! 

Team Responsible for Daily Craft:  Craft should go with the daily Bible lesson and/or memory verse. Simple crafts will be needed for younger children would be good to have more involved craft for teens. We highly recommend that any cutting or sorting that would need to be done for the craft be done by the team. The churches do not have scissors, glue, crayons, pens, pencils, paper, staples, string, ribbon, etc. ... nothing in the craft supply category so teams will need to bring everything necessary for the craft they plan to do. It also is very helpful (but not a requirement) to have items for what one child needs to make the craft separated into Ziploc-style bags to distribute. This is especially helpful if the craft uses beads! 

Teams that are going to be in Guatemala City (Iglesia Adonai) usually provide the craft for one day, for all ages. They teach the other teams how to do the craft and then all teams help the different classes/ages do the craft.  This has worked really well because it means a team has to come up with one craft and provide the supplies for that craft. With 1,500 children expected to attend, that reduces the cost, coming up with ideas, etc.  (If your team wants to come serve this week, I will put you in touch with the other leaders so you can coordinate crafts.) Teams can use afternoon and evenings to prepare anything needed for the next day's craft. Everyone works together and lasting friendships are formed among teams (added bonus!!).

Teams that are going to be in the lake area churches can prepare two crafts and go to two different churches. This way, teams only have to come up with two crafts and the supplies to go with those two projects. If enough teams sign up, this can also work for Zacapa and Coban, however, until August 15 deadline, this cannot be determined. Lake area, Zacapa, and Coban churches are expected to have anywhere from 150 to 400 children each day.

Teams do not have to prepare the Bible lesson for the day. That will be done by the team from Iglesia Adonai and they will travel to the lake, Zacapa and Coban to do the same there.

Here is the weekly theme and Bible verse and the daily lesson topic, scripture, and memory verse.

Theme:  Against the Flow

Theme Verse:  Romans 12:2 (NIV)  Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

                                                                   Lessons for the week

1.  Walking on Dry Ground

Exodus 14:10-31 (NIV)  As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the LORD.  They said to Moses, "Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt?  Didn't we say to you in Egypt, 'Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians'? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!"

Moses answered the people, "Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still."

Then the LORD said to Moses, "Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on.  Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground.  I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them. And I will gain glory through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen.  The Egyptians will know that I am the LORD when I gain glory through Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen."

Then the angel of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel's army, withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from in front and stood behind them, coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel. Throughout the night the cloud brought darkness to the one side and light to the other side; so neither went near the other all night long.

Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the LORD drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.

The Egyptians pursued them, and all Pharaoh's horses and chariots and horsemen followed them into the sea. During the last watch of the night the LORD looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army and threw it into confusion.  He made the wheels of their chariots come off so that they had difficulty driving. And the Egyptians said, "Let's get away from the Israelites! The LORD is fighting for them against Egypt."

Then the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may flow back over the Egyptians and their chariots and horsemen."  Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea went back to its place. The Egyptians were fleeing toward it, and the LORD swept them into the sea. The water flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen—the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed the Israelites into the sea. Not one of them survived.

But the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left. That day the LORD saved Israel from the hands of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore. And when the Israelites saw the great power the LORD displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the LORD and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant.

MEMORY VERSE:   Psalm 25:4 (NIV)  Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths.

2.  The Great Catch

Luke 5:1-10 (NIV) One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the people crowding around him and listening to the world of God, he saw at the water's edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.

When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch."

Simon answered, "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets."

When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. 7 So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.

When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees and said, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!" For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, 10 and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon's partners.

MEMORY VERSE:  John 10:10 (NIV) The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

3.  A Monstrous Story

Jonah: 1-2 (NIV)  The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai:  "Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me."

But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the LORD.

Then the LORD sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. The captain went to him and said, "How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us, and we will not perish."

Then the sailors said to each other, "Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity." They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah.

So they asked him, "Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?"

He answered, "I am a Hebrew and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land."

This terrified them and they asked, "What have you done?" (They knew he was running away from the LORD, because he had already told them so.)

The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, "What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?"

"Pick me up and throw me into the sea," he replied, "and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you."

Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before. Then they cried to the LORD, "O LORD, please do not let us die for taking this man's life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, O LORD, have done as you pleased." Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. 16 At this the men greatly feared the LORD, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows to him.

But the LORD provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights.

Jonah 2

From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the LORD his God. He said: "In my distress I called to the LORD, and he answered me. From the depths of the grave I called for help, and you listened to my cry.

You hurled me into the deep, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me.

I said, 'I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.'

The engulfing waters threatened me, [the deep surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head.

To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever. But you brought my life up from the pit, O LORD my God.

"When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, LORD, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple.

"Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.

But I, with a song of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. Salvation comes from the LORD."

And the LORD commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.

MEMORY VERSE:   2 John 1:6 (NIV)  And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.

4.  Floating Steel

2 Kings 6:1-7 (NIV)  The company of the prophets said to Elisha, "Look, the place where we meet with you is too small for us. Let us go to the Jordan, where each of us can get a pole; and let us build a place there for us to live."  And he said, "Go."

Then one of them said, "Won't you please come with your servants?"

"I will," Elisha replied. And he went with them. They went to the Jordan and began to cut down trees.  As one of them was cutting down a tree, the iron axhead fell into the water.  "Oh, my lord," he cried out, "it was borrowed!"

The man of God asked, "Where did it fall?"  When he showed him the place, Elisha cut a stick and threw it there, and made the iron float. "Lift it out," he said.  Then the man reached out his and and took it.

MEMORY VERSE:  1 Peter 5:7 (NIV) Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

5. Jesus Calms the Storm

Mark 4:35-41 (NIV)  That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, "Let us go over to the other side."  Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him.  A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped.  Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?"

He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Quiet! Be still!" Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.

He said to his disciples, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?"

They were terrified and asked each other, "Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!"

MEMORY VERSE:   John 14:27 (NIV)  Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.


You can see that this is a huge undertaking and we need lots of help! 

If you have questions, please do not hesitate to ask. I will do my best to get answers for you!  Thank you and we hope to see many of you in November!!

Blessings in Christ,
Sarah
IMPACTO
Luis Martinez Spanish Ministries<:od>