Watch here for updates on our missions trip to Guatemala.
- Thank yous: Before we wrap this whole trip up I would like to thank some people and churches that made this whole mission possible and helped us bless this great church and wonderful ministry in Guatemala City:
Larry Kennedy and New Wine Fellowship in Clackamas, OR for helping to send such an excellent servant of God – Larry also left some equipment and cds with them that will help and encourage the ministry along with some amazing teaching on pastoring and intimacy that will influence their growing ministry at Elim for years to come. Though they were really hoping you would have left your Taylor with them!
Nathan Lopez and Wasilla Assembly of God in Wasilla, AK for releasing such a wonderful ministry to the body of Christ – Nathan left some equipment and cds along with a rich deposit of teaching in the hearts of the worshipers there. His song, Sacia, was a huge hit and you should be hearing more about that in the future. Right now I think he is in Columbia in South America reconnecting with family and ministering.
Steve Diamond and Life Bible Church in Harrisburg, OR (as well as Steve’s company AIG in Eugene, OR) that not only sent Steve, but paid for his way and sent some great microphones and a lot of sound equipment to Elim to help them in the development of their sound department. He hopes to return soon for a full 3-day sound seminar to thoroughly establish their sound and sound people.
Pastor LJ Abalos and C3 Church in Lake Oswego, OR for sending some guitar pedals to bless the budding guitarists at Elim.
Pastor Todd Beal at TrumpetShout Ministries for sending a great microphone for the ministry down there.
Pastor Hector and Marylin Nufio and Pastor Paul and Kathy Nufio at Elim Central in Guatemala City for being such gracious hosts and taking such good care of us while in Guatemala. You made our ministry time with you such a great joy. Thank you for entrusting your teams to our ministry and embracing us with open arms. You are an amazing group of people and we know God will continue to pour out His favor and delight upon your church for years to come!
And a personal thank you to Larry, Nathan and Steve for responding so readily and so capably to the need for help in our ministry to Guatemala. You all were stellar and we are so proud of what you did to the glory of God! Your servant’s hearts shone brightly down there. Thank you my friends. You all walked worthy of your calling!
Thank you all for your part in making this time of ministry such a powerful success in Guatemala!
- Monday, January 31 – Our last day in Guatemala we had the delight of having breakfast in
Antigua, a beautiful colonial city that has been preserved wonderfully for hundreds of years.
To walk among old ruins and ancient buildings is awe-inspiring and humbling too. Where people lived and died and wept and cried through many difficult times for centuries. But it is a gorgeous place to visit and to walk around and enjoy the scenery and the beautiful people, the colorful buildings, the striking colors of 
the many birds there, the calm that seems to pervade the streets – in striking contrast to Guatemala City! I wish we had more time there, but we had to catch our plane in the afternoon. (which we did, after sad goodbyes to the Nufios, and then back to LAX!) We stayed overnight (3 hours) in a hotel in LA, much thanks to our friends Pastor Davie and Christiana Copp! Then flew home safe and sound Tuesday morning, February 1! What an adventure, what a delight, what a quick trip to Guatemala – yet so fulfilling – Thanks to all our friends in Guatemala for making this such a great success (especially Pastor Hector and Marylin Nufio, Pastor Paul and Kathy Nufio, Alejandra, Amilcar, Marcos, Otto, Rayner, Eduardo, Juan Carlos, Jhonathan, Marcos 2, and all who served us so well and made this an amazing time!) and thanks to my team for standing with me and stepping up amazingly! Maryl, Larry, Nathan and Steve! Thank you all! - Sunday, January 30 – Our last day of ministry in Guatemala! Maryl went to the early service with the
youth and challenged them in their giftings and callings. After that she had a short workshop on drama that apparently really got then rolling! In the second service, we got to enjoy their great worship team lead strong worship with about 3000 people in attendance and they gave a wonde
rful altar call before the sermon! Powerful example that God is moving throughout the service not just for the Word! I spoke on Persevering Worship using Abraham, Job and David as great examples of worshiping under duress – especially when it affected the next
generation, our own sons and daughters. Then I showed pictures of great worshipers around the world, who despite their circumstances today, love to worship Jesus and continue on in their love for Him: lepers in India; widows in India and Uganda; orphans on the islands of Lake Victoria in Uganda! All giving glory to God against all odds! God is so good and gracious and takes good care of His kids. We had a wonderful response at the end of the service to not give up and to persevere through the hardest of circumstances. - Saturday, January 29 – A full day of teaching and impartation from the beginning to the end. Because of my coughing my voice was very rough so I had Nathan and Maryl step in when I needed help in the Singers
class and Maryl taught most of my Leaders class. How wonderful to have strong and faithful people by your side in your weakness. Simultaneously, Steve was doing more intense work with the sound guys and Larry continued showing the musicians more on the flow of worship. 
We were able to give great tips for singers’ voices, warmups, voice care, posture, breathing, blending and balance throughout worship. They improved in front of us! We shared with the leaders on constructing a good list and then conducting a good rehearsal and releasing worship in the service. Simple tools that are so effective for releasing the team and the congregation in worship. The third class was my first opportunity to teach Music Theory to the whole seminar! It was exciting to show the beauty, logic and power of music that God put intrinsically in the construction of notes, intervals, scales, arpeggios and chords. Each student was given a paper keyboard to play notes and chords. When we got to the Circle of Fifths and the wonderful relationship of the I IV and V chords, lights began to come on. I love teaching this and demystifying the music we use to worship Jesus. At the end, I had the band come up and play some of the common chord progressions in songs and show how they are all related on the Circle. - Saturday, June 29 PM – In the evening, Nathan taught a class on songwriting to a group of budding songwriters for the church. We believe this is a big part of what we are called to do: to equip songwriters in churches around the world to find and release THEIR new song to
the Lord. (Psalm 40:3). After the class we had an amazing time of worship (got to play the cello one last time!) and flowing back and forth in the Spirit. At the end I quickly shared on Prophetic Worship, the new song and our response. We were able to get them singing their own songs from the Word, then singing/praying that over their lives and finally praying/singing that over each other’s lives prophetically – allowing God to sing over our lives! We ended with a time of consecration, sanctification and setting apart for the ministry of worship. The singers, the musicians, the leaders and the audio-visual team – all vital parts of what God wants to do in His church in Guatemala – all lifted their hands in a final prayer of consecration and commitment to the calling of God in their lives. It was powerful!
- Friday, January 28 – The day started with Steve Diamond sharing his philosophy of sound in worship. (I had to stay back at the hotel all day with a very bad cough, etc. – I couldn’t even think straight let alone teach anybody anything) The whole team was up to the challenge, so everybody got to teach a lot of things throughout the day. I don’t think anybody was bored. My only problem is I wasn’t there so I don’t know all they taught on, yet. Once I see the video I will share it with you. I do know Larry worked more with the musicians, drummers, guitarists, etc., Nathan worked more the musicians too as well as recording, sound and keyboard midi. Steve worked hard with the sound guys for two days to refine and
clean-up everything (they seemed very grateful – I found one bowing to him – which Steve was very embarrassed for!) Maryl ministered on Understanding Relationship in Ministry – powerful. The evening was more sound and recording teaching by Steve and Nathan and then an amazing night of worship with their youth group. Apparently the worship was fantastic and they did Nathan’s song Sacia, again. It’s the song of the seminar! Way to go, Nathan. This was the world debut of one great song! Then Nathan preached the rest of the night. More details to come, but thanks team for a successful day without me!
- Thursday, January 27 – One very busy day, triple workshops in the morning with me working with
singers and worship leaders, Nathan working with the musicians and recording in a separate site and Larry speaking to many local pastors concerning pastoring worship. We came together for the third set with Larry teaching on the Pastoring worship theme. Profound and moving. In the evening Larry taught on intimacy in worship from his wealth of experience. He also shared a beautiful song that he wrote called Father, Father or Padre, Padre in Spanish. Good job, Larry.
We had a powerful night of worship with Pastor Paul Nufio leading and us joining on our 
instruments. The cello is a pretty nice they were able to get for me so I felt totally released in the worship. Got some dancing going on and some pretty radical moments of worship! I shared the second half of the Vision of Worship for Elim. Great response. (personal note: Pastor Hector had his doctor check out my cough and put me on antibiotics and allergy medicine – my voice was going out) Steve Diamond from Eugene, OR joined us around 10pm for dinner. He get’s to go full throttle on Friday and Saturday. We are so excited to have him.
- Wednesday, January 26 –
We started the day on the Elim radio to all of Guatemala talking about Worship Without Borders, worship and Jesus with Maryl and Larry. I started the official worship seminar with the Purpose of Worship and Maryl shared on the Life of a worshiper. Over 100 in attendance with some from as far as Mexico! Nathan Lopez showed up from Alaska. In the evening we lead worship – in Spanish! (got to play a very nice cello here too) and taught them Stronger (Poderoso in Spanish) and Satisfy (Sacia) a new song written by Nathan. Powerful! Then I taught on the Vision for Worship in the church. Great response. Pastor Paul Nufio is doing a masterful job of emceeing and flowing with us. We have already had some amazing flows and prophetic songs in the worship times.
- Tuesday, January 25 – We have arrived safe and sound! We are in the hotel in Guatemala City. Cabana Suiza. Beautiful little place and peaceful. We got to meet Pastor Hector Nufio and his son Paul for breakfast and they took us to see this amazing church and all that they are doing for the glory of God. Wow! What an honor to serve these humble yet mighty people. Our first service is tonight at 7pm.
- Tuesday pm Wonderful time in Guatemala City tonight. Great time of prayer with all at Elim Central. Love the interactive style of prayer and worship here. Maryl and I sang ‘Open Up the skys’ in Spanish “Abre El Cielo Hoy’ with Larry on the drums then I preached on Expectations of the Holy Spirit – great response. On the radio to all of Guatemala. Good start! Tomorrow the conference starts at 1pm
- Monday, January 24. Larry Kennedy, Maryl and I flew from PDX this afternoon to LAX airport. We have a long layover so we have had the opportunity for some good talks, a good meal and now some online updating. We are all working on our Spanish as well as some beautiful Spanish songs and our notes for all our workshops. This will be one of the most intense seminars we have been involved with over the years. Pastor Hector Nufio and his son Paul, have invited us to minister for 6 days in their great church in the heart of Guatemala City. We fly out in an hour and should arrive by 7:15am in Guatemala. This is our first time in Guatemala and all of Central America. Hopefully not the last. Be praying for a smooth transition, good health, strong voices, receptive hearts, open heavens and great fruit! Personally I love to sing in Spanish and we look forward to releasing our hearts with these lovely people.
Nathan Lopez joins us on Wednesday from Wasilla, Alaska, and Steve Diamond joins us Thursday night from Eugene, Oregon. What a team! What a time we are going to have!
We are excited to announce that we are taking a team into Guatemala, January 24-31 – to Elim Central Church of Christ in Guatemala City – for our first WWOB seminar in Central America! We are teaching a week long worship seminar for this great church along with many other pastors, worship pastors, singers and musicians from many other churches in the area! We are very excited to announce three new team members joining us for the very first time! Nathan Lopez from Wasilla, Alaska and Pastor Larry Kennedy from Clackamas, Oregon and Pastor Steve Diamond from Eugene, OR. All are anointed leaders and will be adding a lot in their areas of expertise. We will be teaching on various subjects such as: Vision for worship, singers in worship, sound in worship, pastoring worship, musicians in worship, music theory, flowing in worship, songwriting, releasing the new song in worship, keyboards, guitars, leading worship, sound and recording, intimacy in worship and more. We would appreciate your prayers as we impart the fresh vision of a glorious Jesus in worship to a wonderful church.
Thanks for the prayers. We feel them all the way down here.
Your worship missionaries: Tim and Maryl Smith
Be sure to consider donating to help transform our next trip to India, March 9-21!