May Newsletter

Greetings!

The last few months have been amazing and busier than we ever imagined.  God has been moving and blessing the ministry in Belize in ways that we never dreamed possible.  We want to catch you up on some of the things God has been doing and the joyful excitement that accompanies His work.  We have been busy about our Father’s business…building, building, and building. 

Building the Kingdom:  Since the first of the year we have seen many people receiving Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.  We have been keeping the waters in the rivers stirred with several baptisms.  The joy is contagious as people are experiencing the love of God and following the Lord in baptism.  The crocodiles are getting a little annoyed at the increased activity in their waters, but if God can seal the mouths of lions He can handle the crocs!

Building strong leadership through pastor’s training:   We hosted another pastor’s training conference in February, and the attendance was even greater than the conferences before.  How refreshing to see such a hunger for the Word of God as these leaders come expecting to have someone pour into them great truths about our Father and His Word.  A group from Albertville, AL led the training sessions and teachings were focused on the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper/Communion.  The attendees were taught the Word of God regarding the significance of the sacraments as well as how to serve communion.  In addition they were given several sermon outlines to assist them in teaching the same to their local congregations.  At the end of the meetings, everyone enjoyed partaking of the Lord’s Supper together as a group.  We are so grateful for First Baptist Church Albertville who donated communion sets for each of the GEM pastors to take to their local River of Life churches. 

 

Building church buildings:  Along with all of the other activities mentioned previously, we also have 5 building projects ongoing.  God has blessed us with five sponsoring churches from the United States who are each funding a church building in five different villages.  We now have church buildings under construction in San Benito Poite, San Marcos, Frank’s Eddy, Maya Mopan, and San Pablo.  Praise the Lord!

 

We have also had the privilege of hosting nine great short term mission groups already this year.  Harold Renfroe of Corinth Baptist Church spent a week on the maintenance and repair of all of our vehicles to get them in tip top shape before the arrival of any other teams.  Roy Boas of Living Hope Bible Church put a new roof on the shop building that was destroyed by a tree last summer.  Three medical teams treated a total of 1998 patients in various villages.  Other teams ministered in a variety of ways including food distribution, VBS activities, construction, Bible studies, and door to door evangelism.

 

As far as Gaither family news, Sheila and Micah are enjoying an extended summer break from school.  Since we didn’t have any snow days to make up (boo hoo) and we don’t observe holidays (so far Micah is none the wiser…don’t let the cat out of the bag), the school year was over by the end of April.  Woo hoo!!  Brandon has survived his second year of college and is rejoicing about being at the halfway mark…well, with an undergraduate degree anyway.  As mentioned earlier, Randy has been keeping the crocodiles on their toes and the roads well worn both in Belize from village to village and in the U.S. from church to church.  Randy, Sheila, and Micah have dubbed “On the Road Again” as our new theme song which in retrospect is a praise report after the transmission in our truck went out along I-40 in TN.  Special thanks to Harold, Ken, Beth, Brian, Bro. Don, and Corinth Baptist for taking care of us and getting us back on the road …again.

Blessings,

Randy, Sheila, and Micah