PERU 2012

Greetings friends, family and supporters!

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We hope that this email finds you blessed beyond measure! We certainly are! We wanted to let you know that Christian will be traveling to Peru this Wednesday, February 29th where he will spend a few weeks with the Iris Latin America team (who he traveled with through Central America late last year) in the Amazon jungle of Peru. they will be traveling, mostly by boat for days at a time up the Amazon River and it's tributaries from Pucallpa to Iquitos in search for the un-contacted, un-reached and less-reached tribes in order to bring Jesus' love and glory to them. There is always the potential for danger as we travel to the darkest places of the earth, so we ask for your prayers of protection for the team, as well as for open doors to the hearts of these tribes. Can you believe that there are still primitive people groups that still spear each other out there? We want to see the Kingdom of God manifest in every tribe, nation and tongue and are so thankful for this opportunity to continue to do so.

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Originally we both wanted to be able to make this trip during our kids' Spring Break, but God provided us with one ticket so we decided that it would be best if Christian went into the jungles with the team. Please pray for Christy and the children as they once again hold down the fort here in the U.S. while Christian is away. We don't expect to be doing trips separately in the foreseeable future, but together as a family. In fact, this last month we purchased the tickets for our entire family to travel first to Mozambique for two months in June of this year, and then making the move to the island of Pohnpei in Micronesia in August. Once again, God is so faithful to us and through two tickets being provided for Christy and Jonas, three sets of buddy passes for Christian, Jordan and Justine and rewards points and miles, we were able to keep the costs to $7,000 for our entire family to move to Micronesia via Mozambique. This is amazing as it would have normally cost us close to $20,000!!! God is so good to us! We still need to pay off the $7,000 amount as well as any finances that Christian will need while on the ground in Peru. If you feel led to partner with us in reaching the remaining 6,916 un-reached people groups of the world by financially supporting us (either with a one-time gift or ongoing), you can do so by going to our missions blog:

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http://jungworldmissions.blogspot.com

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Once you get to the blog, you will see a PayPal button on the upper-right side of the screen. That is the best way to support us online. If you would like to support us by sending a check, please make checks out to "Whipple Creek World Missions," with "Jung family" in the memo section, then send them to:

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Whipple Creek World Missions

8802 NW 9th Avenue

Vancouver, WA 98665

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All donations are tax-deductible and you will receive a giving statement at the end of every fiscal year. We are so blessed by you all. Thank you so much for your prayer and financial support of our family. Please feel free to forward this email on to anyone else who has a heart to reach the nations. We would also love for you to visit our missions blog over the next month to keep up with Christian and the team as they venture through the Amazon jungle of Peru. We love you all!!! Catch up more real soon!

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Many blessings,

The Jung Family

THE WORLD 2012 - Iris Relief Coloring Book Ideas

At the Iris reunion with Heidi Baker at Pismo Beach this last year, we had a little pow-wow with Yonnie, Naomi and others who have been a part of or have an interest in Iris Relief. It was really cool to dream together about how we can respond and bring physical, emotional and spiritual relief to victims of natural disasters worldwide, and we continue to do so. In that meeting Lyle had prophesied about a coloring book that would be distributed to children worldwide that would help them understand who God is in the midst of the terrible loss they have suffered because of the natural disasters.

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I know that there have been some pretty amazing ideas that have surfaced as we have continued to dialogue with Yonnie about the coloring book. I asked my friend Josh if he could come up with some artwork for the coloring book as I sat down with him and went over the storyboard that Christy, our kids and I came up with for a coloring book idea. I don't want to go into too many details about the coloring book, but our idea was to go through the story of creation, friendship with God, temptation, the fall of man, the story of Jesus, faith, restored friendship with God and natural disasters that were promised to take place more and more as His second coming is imminent. This is just one of the ideas for a coloring book. Our family wanted to call this coloring book idea, "God loves us" as it would focus on how God loves us and wants to draw us to Himself through these crazy events that are taking place worldwide; that God isn't angry with us and that He wants to be our friend.

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Anyway, check out these pages that Josh has come up with so far. We would ultimately want words at the bottom of each page that could be translated into whatever language we needed it in, depending on what country we would be traveling to in response to a natural disaster. Again, these are just some ideas. Thanks so much Josh for offering your time and your talents. Please pray for Iris Relief as we want to bring the love of Jesus and the freedom that God offers everyone in tangible and relevant ways.

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Christian Jung

THE WORLD 2012 - Jung Family Moving to Micronesia via Mozambique on June 9th

Greetings friends, family and supporters!

HARVEST SCHOOL OF MISSIONS IN MOZAMBIQUE

On June 9th, 2012 our family will be flying into Pemba, Mozambique where Rolland and Heidi Baker, along with the leadership of Iris Ministries have asked us to staff the Harvest School of Missions, where we ourselves attended and graduated back in 2009. This is huge for us, as over the past few years God has been expanding and refining our vision to train up a generation of missionaries who can take the gospel of Christ and carry His love and glory to the ends of the earth, especially to the unreached people groups. For two months this summer we will be responsible to facilitate all classes for the 300+ students in the Harvest School of Missions, fostering an atmosphere of intimacy with God and bringing the fire of the Holy Spirit so that these students can be released into their destinies and sent out as missionaries. If you are interested in attending the Harvest School of Missions or learning more about Iris Ministries, please feel free to visit the Iris website:

http://irismin.org

NEW IRIS BASE AND MISSIONARY TRAINING CENTER IN MICRONESIA

On August 11th, 2012 our family will be flying from Pemba, Mozambique to Pohnpei, Micronesia where we will will be moving permanently, building our own house, as well as spearheading a new missions base and missionary training center with Iris Ministries. We have had an opportunity to travel worldwide to nearly every continent over the past few years, making contact with and bringing the gospel to unreached and less-reached people groups, with the knowledge that we will be training and sending an army of missionaries to these and other people groups. Our vision for the missionary training center that we will be starting in Micronesia will be modeled after the Harvest School of Missions in Mozambique and focused on training, equipping and sending students directly to the nations to reap a great end-times harvest of souls. We also want to bring revival to the islands and reach out to the broken and hurting on the island of Pohnpei as we establish a new Iris base. There are already many Iris missionaries who are interested in joining us in Micronesia and running with us to the ends of the earth.

FINANCIAL NEEDS TO REACH THE NATIONS

As most of you know we are faith missionaries who live and minister solely on the support of Christ-followers who partner with us financially to bring the gospel of Christ's love to every tribe, tongue and nation. We DO NOT go around to people or to different churches soliciting funding for our ministry. We DO share our vision and what the Lord has been doing through our hands worldwide with our family and friends, and if Holy Spirit stirs people to support us financially, we provide them with the information needed to do so. Let me just say that I have heard from our supporters that they are reaping tremendous blessings, spiritually and fiscally as they have partnered with us as missionaries. The destiny that God has placed on our lives is enormous and even seems overwhelming to us at times. We have been prophesied over, had dreams and visions from the Lord as well as a burning desire to see the remaining 6,000+ unreached people groups reached with the gospel of Christ in our lifetime. With such an enormous vision and destiny comes great responsibility and takes an incredible amount of resources to fund. We don't ever worry about how these needs will be met, we just trust that our great God will provide for them as it is He who has called us to this. Last year we had an open door to move in with some of our best friends in order to save our support money to make the move this summer. We were doing really well with this until the transmission in our Honda Civic gave out on the way back from visiting my parents in California and set us back $2,600. Amazingly, friends and family rallied around us and paid for part of the costs of the repair, and now only need to pay $2,000 off. Thanks to Iris Ministries and one of our faithful supporters helping us with Buddy Passes, the traveling expenses for us to be able to make this move in the summer is very little, considering we are a family of five. We expect that we will need to pay another $2,000 for all of us to make it to Mozambique and then to Micronesia! So our personal finances are looking pretty good. It is the construction of the new Iris base and missionary training center that will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. We don't know how this will be funded, we just know that it will. Thank you all for you continued financial support of us as a family and the ministry that God has called us to. Please FEEL FREE to forward this email to anyone else that you know of who would want to partner with us in this amazing task of seeing every unreached people group in the world reached with gospel in our lifetime. The best way to support us financially is through the Paypal button on our missions blog:

http://jungworldmissions.blogspot.com

All money donated is tax-deductible and all donors will receive a statement at the end of every fiscal year. We have even seen firsthand God do amazing things with people's tax returns as they have felt led to invest that money into fulfilling Christ's Great Commission. On our mission's blog you can also read about the stories, see the pictures and watch the videos of how God is changing thousands and thousands of people's lives worldwide by the love and the power of the gospel of Christ.

THE LAST YEAR AND A HALF OF OUR "FURLOUGH"

Coming back to the United States from Mozambique has been a time of rest and healing for our family. Living as full-time missionaries without electricity and running water (which makes normal tasks and household chores take ten times as long), trying to home school your children as well as battling sickness and spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places becomes exhausting. It also brings to the surface things in our lives that need to be dealt with in order to make the long haul as full-time missionaries. We are confident that the Lord has done an amazing work within all of us to this end. While we have been back on furlough, we have focused on getting re-energized to serve Him, yet have also had some great opportunities to continue to change the world both locally and globally. Here in the Pacific Northwest, our family has been able to spearhead the Vancouver House of Prayer where people from different churches all over Clark County come weekly under the banner of love and unity to lift up heartfelt praise and worship as well as focused prayer. We are seeing an incredible move of God here in Clark County where worship and prayer leaders are coming out of the woodwork to join us at VHOP. Please drop in and visit our VHOP Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/vancouverhouseofprayer

I have also been honored to be a part of the Clark County Prayer Connect where a handful of influential prayer leaders gather weekly to pray and cultivate unity in the body of Christ through prayer and worship events and such, including the Global Day of Prayer event held last year right on the Colombia River where our family and other friends of ours were able to lead the time of prayer and worship. We have seen our son, Jonas develop into an amazing worship leader and songwriter and over the past couple of months he has written and recorded his second full-length album called, "Every Waking Moment." You can listen to and download for free all of his songs at his Band/Musician Facebook Page:

http://www.facebook.com/jonasjungmusic

Our family has also continued to serve at Whipple Creek Church, which is our home church. Christy has been leading worship for the children's ministry downstairs on Sunday mornings for Power House. Jonas has been leading worship and teaching at Reveal Youth Group on Tuesdays, as well as helping out on the worship team on occasion during the main service on Sunday mornings. Jordan now attends youth group, too, which blows us away, and Justine attends Sunday School every Sunday. I continue to serve as a licensed pastor and just last year was made an elder at Whipple Creek Church. Once a month or so I get the opportunity to lead worship at Whipple during the main service and have been able to share about our adventures in missions with the congregation. We have witnessed a number supernatural miracles take place through the prayer ministry at our home church as well as we have had the opportunity to lead some healing services. Last year we saw people instantly healed from stomach cancer, esophageal tumors and infertility. We are right now in the middle of a church-wide 21-day fast and will be holding another healing service next week!

I have had the opportunity to take short-term trips to various countries last year. In March of 2011 I joined a team of Iris missionaries in Thailand where we began the process of starting a new base to rescue women from prostitution and sex trafficking. We ministered to the "least of these" in the brothels, streets and slums and even threw block parties where Thai people were saved and healed. In April and then again in July of 2011 I co-led a team of Iris missionaries in Japan where we responded to the devastation left from the earthquake and tsunami. Our hearts broke for the tsunami victims as we wept with them in the shelters and brought them physical, emotional and spiritual relief. You can read about what Iris Relief has done and continues to do, not only in Japan but in Thailand and the Horn of Africa as well:

http://irisrelief.org

From September to November of 2011 I co-led a team of 25 Iris missionaries from the northern border of Mexico through Belize, Guatemala all the way to El Salvador in a convoy of vehicles. It started out as a dream that we had to bring revival fire to South America in our living room when we were missionaries in Lichinga, Mozambique, and it is revival fire that we saw burn every where our tire tracks have gone through all of Latin America. From taking the gospel to unreached people groups who are the descendants of the ancient Aztecs and Mayans and seeing entire villages saved, to "stopping for the one" in the streets, slums, prisons and hospitals, we have seen hundreds and hundreds of people saved, delivered and healed and have partnered with other churches and organizations who continue to disciple them. The team continues to blaze a trail of revival fire in South America and is currently in Colombia. You can read about their continued adventures at:

http://irislatinamerica.blogspot.com

We continue to be in contact with them and are helping them as much as possible from here as they continue on through the entire continent over this next year. We were hoping to make a short trip to Peru this Spring to minister with them on the Amazon River. We will see what doors God opens for this to happen. Currently our family is in the process of making the transition back to the foreign mission field as full-time missionaries. We covet your prayers as we make this move. You are precious to us and we are so thankful to have such a phenomenal group of friends and family around us who believe in us and continue on this journey with us. We love you so much! We will keep you posted as we move forward.

Love and blessings,

Christian, Christy, Jonas, Jordan and Justine Jung

LATIN AMERICA 2011-2012 - How to Continue Following the Iris Latin America Team's Journey

Central and South America

Friday, December 16, 2011

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How to Continue Following the Iris Latin America Team's Journey

I have been back in the United States for a few weeks now after co-leading an incredible journey through Latin America with a team of radical Jesus-lovers. Our Iris Latin America team continues to carry revival fire through every country in Central and South America. I was originally planning on documenting their continued journey here on our blog, but have decided not to as we would like to keep our personal missions blog more about our journeys as the Jung family. Christy and I are hoping to rejoin the team somewhere in South America during Spring break this next year. Please feel free to continue to follow the team's journey at the official Iris Latin America blog:

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http://irislatinamerica.blogspot.com

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You can also click on the various teammates' blogs on the right sidebar of the Iris Latin America blog, as well as on our own personal blog to even get more stories, pictures and videos.

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Iris Ministries has also places our Iris Latin America team under their ministry bases on the official Iris website:

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http://www.irismin.org/latin-america

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I hope that you are able to continue on this adventure with us through all of Latin America. It is truly a historic journey that I am honored to in some small way be a part of.

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Christian Jung

UNITED STATES 2011 - A Prophetic Dream about Reaching the Nations

Vancouver, Washington

Sunday, November 27, 2011

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A Prophetic Dream about Reaching the Nations

It is rare that I remember my dreams when I wake up. Even when I do remember them, they aren't often very vivid. Last night I had what I believe to be a prophetic dream. It was so clear and vivid, and I woke up remembering the entire dream. At first I just dismissed it as my imagination. Yet as I sat down to spend time with God this morning, Holy Spirit spoke to me about it's significance.

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THE DREAM

I found myself in a foreign land. All around me was a desert for miles and miles, except for a river that flowed to my right. God began to speak to me about building a "modern day Noah's ark." But instead of a boat that would save people and animals from God's wrath in the form of a flood, I was to build an enormous metal vehicle with giant wheels that would collect and contain people from all nations on the earth, especially the remaining unreached people groups. This vehicle would then transport these people from every tribe, tongue and nation safely into the heaven. The schematics and blueprints were so clear. I knew exactly what this vehicle was to look like before I even began to build it. But in my dream, I found two other guys who I shared this heavenly mandate with in order to get some help in building the vehicle. When I approached them about it they simply took the blueprints from my hand, brushed me off and told me that they would build it without my help. I wan't upset at all about this, as I was just so thankful that this vehicle was going to be built, as God had commanded.

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Time passed and the two guys that had taken the blueprints from me came and let me know that they had finished building the vehicle. As they unveiled their finished work, I gazed at a vehicle that had very little resemblance of that which was laid out so clearly in the heavenly schematics. I shook my head in disbelief and told the two guys that it was entirely wrong. The vehicle in the blueprints was to be indestructible and over thirty feet tall, made of unpainted brushed-chrome with wheels nearly twenty feet tall. The vehicle they had made looked more like a Disneyland tram that was long and painted nicely to make it attractive. In my dream I believed that these guys weren't trying to purposefully do anything wrong in taking creative license and deviating from the original plans, forming a vehicle that they had genuinely thought would accomplish the task more effectively. But it was still not the vehicle that God had wanted to be built.

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Just then two large blue stones fell from the sky which the two guys caught and tried to carry with a great amount of difficulty. I then saw lips form from the sky itself and the voice of Papa God telling the two guys that they had really blown it and the vehicle not only was displeasing to Him, but incapable of finishing the task of bringing the nations and unreached people groups into His Kingdom. God then told me that I was to build the vehicle to the exact measurements that He had originally given me in the heavenly blueprints. Of course, I agreed and built the vehicle. It was an amazing thing to behold. People from every tribe, tongue and nation began to fill the vehicle as it made it's way to heaven. Then I woke up.

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SOME INTERPRETATION

As I sat in God's presence this morning, pondering this dream, it became clearer and clearer to me what it meant. Of course, most of it is pretty obvious to me, as there have been many prophecies over my life concerning reaching the nations. Much of the imagery in this dream simply confirms that which God has already spoken to me for many years now.

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Heidi Baker spoke prophetic words over our family as well as Jesse and Tanya Gellatly, who are not only our close friends, but co-laborers and missionary team mates who have run and will continue to run with us to the ends of the earth. She spoke about us as being a "new model" and a "new breed" of missionaries that would run to the ends of the earth together as a team, modeling what love and family looks like.

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As we have now traveled to nearly every continent to reach the remaining 6,000+ unreached people groups, we have tried to partner with other missionaries from various missions organizations. As a whole, most of these missionaries operate under a program which their missions organization has given them as a "blueprint" to reach the nations. It generally starts out in learning the language and building relationships with the indigenous people they are attempting to reach and spending years laying a foundation through the Old Testament leading up to Christ. Yet when we visit with these missionaries, they find that after as many as twenty years or more, they have only seen a few people come to Christ, and are frustrated at the meager fruit that the many years of their labors have produced. Of course, there are exceptions to this, and we have partnered with many different missions organizations and churches, but even so many of the churches that have been planted on the foreign mission field in the years past have turned into religious establishments that don't look much at all like the Kingdom of God that Jesus spoke of. I am not in any way trying to criticize missionaries or missions organizations that operate in such ways, nor do I think that any fruitfulness that has been produced in years passed is somehow invalid. More than anything, I have compassion on these missionaries, organizations and churches, and would love to see the tides turn for them. I believe that the vehicle that wasn't built to heavenly specifications by the two guys in my dream is symbolic of this older pattern or model of missions that may have been established with pure motivations, and may have even worked a bit for a season. It is a model that creates boxes which become limitations to the Spirit of God truly moving among the nations. It is a religion that becomes stagnant like all still water that hasn't been stirred. It is an unholistic approach to reaching a world that has needs on so many levels.

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There is an end-times harvest of souls waiting to be reaped in every nation. The vehicle described in the heavenly blueprints in my dream is one that is built with the love of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit. We have seen thousands of people come to Christ in many nations over a short period of time because we have asked God, "What does love look like in this culture?" and, "What are heaven's strategies in reaching this specific people group?" Love looks like feeding the hungry. Love looks like digging a well and giving a village clean water. Love looks like rescuing girls from sex-trafficking and placing them in a loving environment where they can be healed and given back their innocence and dignity. Love looks like adopting children that have no parents and starting a children's center. Love looks like healing the sick. Love looks like raising the dead. Love looks like preaching the gospel. Love looks like starting a Bible school to train indigenous people in Kingdom culture. Love looks like dreaming with a people group about sustainable projects that will ensure their village's existence into the future. Love looks like a lot of things. And it is heaven's strategies that we must have if we want to see every unreached people group and nation brought to Christ in our lifetime. I am tired of people dying and going to hell because they haven't had an opportunity to hear and respond to the holistic gospel of Christ that I have been talking about. With a new breed of missionaries of laid-down lovers of God, the vehicle of my dream that is huge and indestructible will be filled with people of every tribe, tongue and nation.

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On a personal note, God has really been speaking to me about all of this, especially on the Iris Latin America trip. It would be so easy for my family and I to spend our lives living among a people group, learning their language and culture, hearing from heaven and bringing them to Jesus. In fact, we have done this in various settings over the years. But what the Lord has really been speaking to me about is the fact that my family, or Jesse and Tanya on our own can only bring a handful of people groups into heaven in our lifetime. But if we invest into other world-changers and train them, we can see much more Kingdom impact than simply running on our own. This was evident to me in Central America over the past two months. I saw tremendous growth in each of the team members as Jesse, Tanya and I did our best to lead them in love, in power and in freedom. I believe that this dream has something to do with our involvement in training missionaries with Iris Ministries, both in Mozambique and in Micronesia. I know that we will be able to run to the ends of the earth with this great end times army and build the vehicle of my prophetic dream according to Papa God's specifications. I am still not sure what the two large blue stones meant in the dream, but I am so in love with our God who speaks to us in various ways.

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Christian Jung

EL SALVADOR 2011 - Great Photos of our Iris Latin America Trip

EL SALVADOR 2011 - Ministry in an Area Devastated by Flooding

La Pita, El Salvador
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
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Ministry in an Area Devestated by Flooding

Yesterday our Iris Latin America team once again split up in order to cover more ground here in El Salvador. One group went to a government-run orphanage for boys ages 10 to 17. The group that I was in drove to the south-eastern part of El Salvador to minister in an area called La Pita that has been recently devestated by flooding and mud slides. We went house to house praying for the families and inviting them to a church service. Mostly we just wanted to encourage their hearts and love on them as most of their homes had been flooded so badly that each familiy took their children to the street above the flood line and lived under plastic tarps until the flooding subsided. Many of the people lost their livestock which is really their livelihood. We went to pick up one lady who couldn't walk in her own strength and bring her to the service. It was hot even with the fans running. The pastor started the service with prayer and singing. Maria gave a testimony. Roberta shared a word that God had given her. Then I taught from Isaiah 43 and Psalm 40 about the waters not being able to sweep us away and God taking us from the mud and setting our feet upon a rock. After the message nearly everyone present came forward to have their hearts encouraged and receive a touch from God. We also got to drink coconut water straight from the coconut that had been opened with a machete, which is always a treat. It has been really neat partnering with YWAM here in El Salvador. They have been lovely hosts and given us great opportunities to serve alongside of them.

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Christian Jung

EL SALVADOR 2011 - Holy Ghost Parties at Four Church Services

La Libertad, El Salvador
Monday, November 14, 2011
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Holy Ghost Parties at Four Church Services

Our Iris Latin America team split into two groups yesterday and led four church services in total. The group I was with first drove to a suburb of San Salvador to lead a service in a gated community where the pastor uses a part of his house as the main sanctuary. It is a small church made up of mostly children. In fact their ministry is focused around these children, most of whom come from broken homes; many of their fathers are in prison, involved in gangs or alcoholics. The violence and gang situation is so bad in El Salvador that every home and building has tons of barbed-wire fencing on it. There are even posters everywhere that say, "Do not murder" in Spanish from Exodus 20. At this first church servcice we led worship, preached, performed the luchador drama, held a children's service and had a time of prayer where people came forward for healing. We also had the children come forward and prayed for the tough situations in their families. We heard that just this last week alone there were eight gang related murders in that neighborhood alone. The people were blessed and we ended by praying for the pastor and his wife.

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Then in the afternoon the group that I was in drove less than an hour from San Salvador to La Libertad on the coast. This was a much bigger church with vibrant worship led mostly by youth. Our group was introduced after the worship time. We started with the luchador drama, which everyone seems to enjoy is it is quite comical. We change it up a little depending on what country we are in and what the major strongholds are...so we've added the spirit of violence and the spirit of seduction to our act here in El Salvador. Breck and Serena then shared what God had placed upon their hearts. We then had people come forward for healing and had many words of knowledge. We ended our time at that church with a Holy Ghost party including a huge fire tunnel exiting the church building where everyone got blasted by Holy Spirit as our team prayed for them. We heard from the other group that they had Holy Ghost parties at the church services that they led as well.

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Christian Jung

EL SALVADOR 2011 - Trouble at the Border

San Pedro Al Barado, El Salvador
Sunday, November 13, 2011
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Trouble at the Border

From time to time on this blog I try to include some practical information that would in the future help other fellow missionaries or travelers. I consider this blog post to be one of those times. Yesterday as we entered El Salvador from Guatemala at San Pedro Al Barado we had a little glitch with one of our team member's passports. We had already heard that this would be one of the worst and most dangerous borders that we would cross. We also had prophecies that new angels would be meeting us and joining our team at every border that we crossed so at the end of one year and many borders, the angelic army would be huge. So I wasn't really worried about anything. It all seemed safe enough.

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El Salvador along with Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua is considered to be a CA-4 country. Upon entering Guatemala from Belize, our entire team was given stamps where the border official wrote in 90 days for the allowable time to be in these four Central American countries. The problem is that when we first started getting our passports stamped in Guatemala they tried to collect a fee of 24 Quetzals (about $3 U.S.) each. It wasn't until a few people in that we realized we didn't need to pay anything and those team members asked for their money back. The rest of the team didn't pay anything. This must have made the official upset as he was quickly losing his extra income. We thought that everyone had been given the normal 90 day stay in the CA-4 countries. Unfortunately that same official wrote in 01 days on the stamp of this one individual and didn't scan his passport into their system as entering the country. This is what gave us such difficulty at the El Salvador border.

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When the El Salvador officials noticed the stamp on this team member's passport, we had heard that they detained him and took him into an office on the El Salvador side. We went looking for him and when I found him in some obscure office, he was being reprimeanded in Spanish for something. When I realized what was happening, I tried to reason with them. They would budge and tried to keep his passport. I told them that this error was not our fault, but the fault of the border official in Guatemala. They then told me that we either needed to go back to Guatemala City to figure it out or pay them a fee of $140 U.S. to fix it (they use American currency in El Salvador). I grabbed the team members passport from their hands, left the office on the El Salvador side and walked quickly with him to the Guatemala side to see if we couldn't get them to figure it out. The El Salvador official was very upset (because he was losing his extra income I'm sure) and ran after us for a bit.

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Once we got to immigration on the Guatemala side, we made our case. They were at least more pleasant. They couldn't fix the stamp or tamper with their computer system, but could only give us an extension and a receipt number for 140 Quetzals (under $20 U.S.) that would allow this team member to enter El Salvador, but would enable him to stay in the CA-4 region for another five days. Of course our team will be in this area for another few weeks. So now we have to go into San Salvador on Monday and pay for an extension that will allow this team member to continue on with us for the rest of our time in these Central American countries. Why? Corruption. The love of money. This is why we are here. To carry God's character into countries that lack integrity. I'm not finger pointing at any one country in particular here as our family has experienced this sort of corruption on many continents. So my suggestion would be that whenever you cross a border into another country, inspect the stamp you are given in your passport carefully to save yourself the drama later. It would've been easy to correct this at the border in Belize if we would've caught it then.

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Christian Jung

GUATEMALA 2011 - Headlice and Construction Projects

Chimaltenango, Guatemala
Friday, November 11, 2011
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Headlice and Construction Projects

Challenge after challenge comes our way here in Latin America. The most recent challenge has been a huge epidemic of headlice that nearly everyone on our team has been dealing with. We are staying at a children's center for special needs boys and girls and our team has been combing through eachother's hair, checking for lice, shampooing, and removing lice and eggs.

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As well as loving on all of the children here, we have also been trying to make the best of our time by engaging in construction projects needed around the place. We were able to paint a wall for them as well as build a set of shelves. Tomorrow we leave for El Salvador minus our Dodge Durango that again is in the shop for repairs to it's transmission.

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Christian Jung

GUATEMALA 2011 - Random Pics from Guatemala

GUATEMALA 2011 - Jesse's Tale: Living on the Edge...Literally

Chilmaltenango, Guatemala

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

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Jesse's Tale: Living on the Edge...Literally

Here is Jesse's account of our adventure through Guatemala over the past few days:

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The only transmission mechanic specialist in the whole northern area of Guatemala was able to go find the parts needed to rebuild our transmission. After waiting a week for the repairs we were finally ready to move on to our next destination in Guatemala, an orphanage in a city a day’s drive south of us. After fifty miles our rebuilt transmission went out and only first gear continued working. We called the mechanic who refused to come down and help sort out why his work didn’t work. So with no other options we continued for hundreds of miles in first gear with our caravan of five vehicles and campers. We camped the first night on the way and continued our journey all the following day as well.

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That evening as we entered a small remote town on the way people gave us directions and we figured that by the map we would make it soon and not have to drive too much at night which we have been frequently warned against here in Guatemala. We soon found ourselves on a small bumpy dirt road climbing mountains. We hoped the roads would turn better but it only got continuously worse for hours into the night. Roads worse than any Africa jungle track we’ve experienced being visited by our two RV’s, SUVs’ pulling tent trailers, and a low riding Buick station wagon.

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On the way up this first narrow steep rocky mountain passage one of the trailer tires popped and was wrecked twisted underneath and off the rim. There was no other spare, this was the spare, and the other one had already popped earlier that day. There was no way to turn around, there were not many options other than to pull it on its rim or leave it behind. Ben and I ran up to the vehicles waiting about ¾ miles ahead to get help and tools. Many crazed dogs jumped out from the bushes and chased us the whole way. We threw rocks, even a tire iron but it seemed there were not enough rocks. As we ran up this mountain with dogs barking and growling at our heals every time I turned my head back all we saw was dozens of glowing eyes right behind us from the glare of my head lamp. When we unhitched the other camper to have the Durango taxi us back because the dogs, Taylor and Victor had miraculously fixed the tire. They had found a rock to beat the rim back into shape and some string to tighten the broken tire to the rim and with a can of fix a flat and our small compressor had the trailer ready to go again. I wanted to turn back seeing how it was constantly getting worse and then one young man passing by said it was only forty minutes further to the next small town. Many hours later we realized he was wrong.

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We winded back and forth up and down steep mountain slopes. The road was often muddy and slippery on the edge of high steep cliffs. The drivers had to stay very alert especially because of many areas where the road had fallen off as a landslide over the cliff. Sometimes the danger was so high because of drop offs on both sides of the road that I even had all the passengers exit the motor home and walk and I drove solo because of high chance of vehicle plummeting over the edge. We noticed that the rear vehicles had stopped again and I got out walking back to them. Just then Gillian comes running up the mountain towards us shouting, “Come quick! The vehicle is falling off a cliff.” We ran down to find that the Suburban pulling a tent trailer was on the edge of a cliff stuck with the soft edge breaking away underneath. With all the manpower we could muster we tried to push the vehicle forward and back onto the road but the tires just spun sending the vehicle nearer to no return. We unhooked the trailer and were able to get the vehicle along back on the road and then with everyone working together we lifted the trailer and pushed it up a steep hill to where we could find traction and reconnect it. We were successful; How? I honestly don’t know.It was in the middle of the night and we didn’t think we could endure anymore but locals warned us not to stay the night in those mountains because it was not safe. Everything was flying everywhere in the motor homes and people got injured just by falling objects and falling down. The bottoms of the vehicles were hitting the bumps so often with no way to avoid it, not being able to stop in the muddy holes. We completely wrecked our sewage tank unrepairably meaning no working toilet in our RV unless we find new sewage tanks for sale somewhere.

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We finally arrived in the middle of the night surprised that we had made it and found a rundown hotel full of roaches and mildew. As soon as we had made it down the last steep mountain and entered into this old town the brakes in our motor home and the station wagon over heated and stopped working. If that had happened a few minutes earlier we wouldn’t be here writing the story. But God allowed it to happen once we arrived in this town to show us that He had been with us the whole time protecting us. We slept okay regardless of the gunfire and horns blowing, and other strange noises. In the midst of all the dangerous and stressful circumstances, most all of our team had great attitudes and joy.We are overjoyed to be missionaries and these last couple days reminded us of many similar experiences around the world that we have had while carrying this Gospel to the darkest places. It is all worth it from eternity’s perspective! We are now at the orphanage making it by mid-afternoon on our third day of travel. We have a transmission mechanic coming tomorrow to look at the Durango. Pray he is better than the last one. We hope to be heading over the border to El Salvador within the next couple days. Please keep all of our team in your prayers.

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Jesse Gellatly

GUATEMALA 2011 - Ministry in San Jose and Yaxja

Yaxja, Guatemala
Friday, November 4, 2011
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Ministry in San Jose and Yaxja

We took our team back to the village of San Jose yesterday to minister where we had made contact with the Maya Itza people the previous day on our scouting trip. There was a huge political thing going in in the center of town when we arrived. We walked up the very steep street to Rejenaldo's house. Right as we arrived a torrential downpour of rain came. As the rain tapered off we all went to visit other homes in San Jose. The small team that I was on prayed for two ladies in one house; one who had knee and back pain, the other had a lot of pain in her head...both were healed. We shared the gospel with them as well. Then the lady who was healed of the pain in her head led us to her home where we prayed for her two daughters and grandson. God's healing power was present and I could literally feel waves of magnetic heat leaving my hand as they received healing. We also explained the need for a personal relationship with Jesus Christ with them.

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Today a small group of us traveled with a Guatemalan evangelist named Freddy to the village of Yaxja. On the way we spotted a man laying down on the side of the road who ended up being demon-possessed as we stopped to see how we could help him. Then we drove on to Yaxja where we stopped and led three young men to Christ. Then we found a house where a man was suffering from an extreme tooth ache. We prayed for him and his family. I gave his three daughters some toys that our children had picked out of their collection for me to bring to Latin America and give away to poor children. They were so grateful and the man's wife prayed to receive Jesus.

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Christian Jung