The churches…had peace

If you take out the names
reading the gospels and the
book Acts, you may get a
feeling you are reading the
same book! Preaching,
persecution, healing, raising
from the dead. Well, the
answer is on the surface – it is
the same Jesus in all these
books. He was bound by time
and place in the gospels and He
was unbound in the Acts. But it
was still the same Jesus. We
live in the era when He is not
bound by time and place. He
wants to continue doing the
same things but, this time,
through us. And, there is a
constant writing of the book
Acts going on, this time,
including our lives.

Family Summer Camp

Our highlight of the year is
coming up. The dates of the
camp, June 26-31. Please be in
prayer for spiritual protection
of all participants. Pray for safe
travels of everyone to the site.
Pray for all necessary equiment
to come. Also, pray that those
non-Christians there may see
the light of the gospel in the
camp. Pray for those who are
born again to grow spiritually.
Finally, pray for us to “present
every man perfect in Christ”.

Other Prayer Points

As we wrote to you previously
we got involved with children
and teens in our neighborhood
during the lock down. Now we
meet with them every night for
some games and fellowship.
That leads us wanting to make
a next step – make a vbs type
program. Please pray for their
sensitivity to the good news.
Pray for their parents to give
their permission to continue to
meet with us.
Pray for preparation and a fresh
start of a next year for our ESL
school. As I wrote we need to
come up with a new name for
the school. There might be
some other adjustments that
we will have to make. Pray for
wisdom!

Friends and Family

Tim has passed his finals. Big
relief for us and time to
recuperate before the new
school year. Liliya dad’s health
continues to deteriorate.
Please be in prayer for that
also.
We thank God for each of you
who dedicated time, talents
and treasures for the cause.

You can make tax deductible contribution to
Ufa Bible Ministries which is recognized by
the IRS as a 501c3 non-profit entity. Make
checks payable to:
Ufa Bible Ministries
PO BOX 1761, Columbia, SC 29202

So much news! Where to begin??

Containers… lots of them

After shipping 2 containers in January a third one containing food was shipped in February.  After the 2 containers arrived in Haiti they were sitting on the dock waiting for the inspector to approve them and a gang came and emptied both containers, dumped out boxes, stole many things, mainly food and left a giant mess.  It has been a headache trying to get everything back to the right mission as we had 7 missions on these two containers.  When things got dumped, they were picked up and placed in any box so we just returned a few boxes last week to the rightful owners.  Fortunately, our food container arrived after a very leisurely trip around the Caribbean but things went very smoothly.   Only 4 missions shared the food (1,000,000 meals) of packaged soup and the food and the Haitians doing the pick-up were all safe.  

Church

Pastor Charles’ village church in Gonaives celebrated their 8^th anniversary in May with revivals, food, singing and many other activities.  

Pastor Gilbert started a new church near Saint Marc and was blessed with a donation that will pour the concrete floor and possibly put a roof on the church.  They are looking for chairs to be donated, either plastic stacking or folding chairs. If you have a lead, please let me know.

School and Sponsorships

The school celebrated Flag Day with children playing instruments and singing and having a small parade. This is a big day in Haiti.  The food arrived at the school and as you can see it was welcomed with great gusto.  We had one of the sponsored children’s 18 month old sister die and it sounds like it was from starvation.   The same week the child’s sponsor also passed away.  We are looking for people that want to sponsor ($25 a month, $300 per year)   Things are really hard in Haiti with no president, very little law and gangs ruling the country.  Kidnappings are rampant and stealing is out of control. People are starving to death as many of the missionaries have pulled out.  Schools will be out the middle of June but we are happy that the soup is there to provide meals for the children in summer.  If you sponsor, we collect money even in the summer which is then used to cover the cost of school uniforms, shoes, books, bags, and more.

Animal and Agriculture Projects

Pastor Charles has been sending pictures of new baby goats being placed with families.  Some of our older students are now taking responsibility for the animals.  Charles inherited a large piece of land when his father passed away.  He is wanting to take the children there and teach them agriculture. There were 700 packets of seeds on this container for the garden and the children to use to grow food for the school and their starving neighbors.  One of the things we have talked about is fruit trees.  For about one dollar you can buy a fruit tree. Within 8 months the banana trees are producing fruit.  The obstacle to this is most of the people rent their property.  Very few own the house or land they live on.  So, we would like to put their trees on Charles’ property.  We are still in need of a bus to transport the children to the garden and to soccer games and other outings.  Can you imagine living within several miles of the ocean and never having seen it or gone swimming? He also has a place to take church members for a retreat in the country side but we cannot do that without a bus.  

Fundraising

The 5^th annual golf scramble was held on May 28^th with lots of golfers, best prizes ever, great weather and donations that helped with the cost of shipping the food container.  Thank you Joe Mica and Ken Strickland for chairing this and all your great helpers!  We can’t say thank you enough.  

We Finally Have The Keys!!!

Greetings loved ones! The time has finally come for us to
celebrate a major victory! After months of back and forth with lawyers,
fine tuning of contracts, and negotiations, we’ve finally secured the space
in Galway City center that we’ve been dreaming of for many years! Last
month we shared the story about how God confirmed this was going to be
our space, using the phrase “to the right of the cross,” and then seeing the
random cross-like structure just outside the building.

The space is everything we’ve been dreaming of. We
envisioned something central, which this space certainly is. We envisioned
something that is on the major footpath, which this space certainly is as
well. Larena had a vision back in 2021, when we were driving to Dublin.
She was listening to The Greatest Showman soundtrack, and saw us
standing in the streets of Galway, in a specific part of the city where the
pedestrian walk opens up really wide. She saw me dressed up like Hugh
Jackman in the movie, singing and performing for the crowd. As she
looked around the crowd, everyone was black and white. But sparks of
light began coming from us as we performed for them, creating color.
Larena was going around handing people little pieces of paper that began
turning the crowd into color. It was an amazing vision that spoke to us
about the impact we will have on bringing people to the Lord. What’s
interesting, as we look back, is that the space she saw us in just so happens
to be directly in front of the place we now have! Praise God!

Something we also envisioned was that the space would be
within the original city walls. You see, years ago God gave me a vision of
the city walls surrounding Galway. Most of it is already gone, but in this
vision it was a representation of the historic and spiritual walls that
surrounded the city. As I stood there watching, He sent an enormous tidal
wave, which knocked the walls down. Then he spoke to my heart, this is
the time to take ground for Him. It was a powerful vision, which we kept
in our hearts for years. Now, as we step into this space, we realize the
fulfilment of that vision. We are taking ground for the Lord, in a place that
has historically been shut off to a powerful move of the Holy Spirit.

Recently I felt prompted to look up the exact location of this
space, in respect to the historic city walls. It turns out the space is right
inside the original front gates! There’s something very symbolic and
powerful about how God has positioned us here. I love how He’s put
together all of these amazing subtle details that pack so much meaning.
God is so good! Now begins an exciting journey of faith and trust, as we
seek to fundraise and furnish the space, transforming it into a beautiful
setting for large group meetings, Bible studies, and Alpha courses. We are
reaching out to people, asking for their help in our networking efforts. Our
goal is to reach several churches, who might be willing to partner with us
financially each year, so we can keep the momentum going. So far, we’ve
had a couple great leads, and we’re currently putting together a video and
a webpage to illlustrate our needs for this project more clearly. Do you
have any connections that you think might want to partner with us in our
Galway City efforts? If so, let us know. We would love to share our call
and vision.
We have another amazing praise report. Liam’s rash has finally
cleared up! This poor kid has been suffering for months now, breaking
out in an itchy rash that kept waxing and waning over and over. He was
scratching non stop, often breaking skin and causing bleeding. It was so
stressful. Everything we tried failed. Everything the doctors suggested
failed. Finally, Larena was having a conversation with her sister, who
suggested that maybe it was a certain kind of hives, triggered by allergy
and the immune system’s overload. It was exactly the piece of the puzzle
we needed to finally tackle the situation. We got some treatment
specifically for these hives, and after a few days he was completely clear!
It was a huge relief!

This month we had a visit with a girl named Abbie, who we’ve
known for many years. Abbie was one of our interns several years ago.
She helped us with our youth and young adults ministries. She helped me
build pallet benches for a 4th of July party. Little did we know, the trip
she took over here to help us really impacted her in a huge way. It was
here in Galway that she realized that she wanted to go into ministry. She
has worked with Chi Alpha at the University of Wisconsin, and now
pastors a church in Madison, WI. We enjoyed catching up with her,
hearing her journey, and spending some time together. The process she
went through to start the church in Madison was very similar to what God
is calling us to do in Galway, so it was very encouraging to hear how she
did it there.

We now begin a long process of preparing the space for
ministry. The first step was to knock out a wall to make room for a larger
kids ministry area. I was able to pick up a sledge hammer and demolish
it all in one day. Now, I need to organize the cleanup of all the drywall
and framing. Next step, we will be plastering up holes in the walls and
painting. In the meantime, we’ve found a used door that we were able to
save quite a bit of money on, that will go in as my office door. Please keep
us in your prayers as we tackle all of these projects little by little. We wish
we could fast forward and have everything ready right now, but we know
there’s an important process to this. We’ve reached out to a few people
we are currently ministering to, asking them if they’d be willing to give a
hand. Every one of them is excited about the space and is enthusiastic
about helping. Praise God for what He’s doing. We are so thankful for
His faithfulness, His promises, and we’re thankful for you! If not for your
support, this wouldn’t be possible!! We love you! ~The Johnstons

Prayer Requests
We would be honored
if you would pray with
us concerning:
Please pray for the process
of renovating, painting,
cleaning, furnishing the
space in town for ministry.
Please pray for the
fundraising process. We
are praying for churches
and individuals to feel led
by the Lord to help us.
Please pray for the hearts
in Galway. For the people
we are to minister to now
and in the near future.
Please pray we will be able
to share Jesus with the
people on the streets, the
homeless, college
students, buskers and
everyone in between. May
we see the Lord transform
their lives and give them
living hope!

Support
Information
If you would like to team
up & contribute to this
important mission, please
make checks out to:
Hope Ireland Missions
229 W. Exchange St.
Crete, IL 60417
(Chris & Larena Johnston
on the memo line)
Simply go to:
www.hopeirelandmissions.com
& click on “partner.”

Transition in life is inevitable! Our family is experiencing much transition
this summer…now we will have our sons David and Jonathan in Texas, while
Emily, Analynne and I will stay in Guatemala.

This time, after Jonathan left, our family has been very emotional.
The house is quiet, his room is so empty, and we have been adapting to the new family settings.

In the last couple of weeks, we have been giving away Jonathan’s old
clothes and selling some instruments and electronic equipment….as you can
imagine, this has been very emotional due to the fact that Jonathan has
been part of our family worship team for the last eight years.

A few weeks ago, after my car accident, I participated in a
leadership conference as one of the speakers. Due to the social
media platform, we were able to reach people in different
locations in Guatemala and in Mexico.

On Saturday mornings, I have been teaching an apologetics class for ASELSI in Chichicastenango, and in the afternoons I have been teaching the art of communication class online for students from Mexico, Venezuela, Guatemala and Texas. This has been a transitional way of teaching after the COVID restrictions.

Emily is experiencing a big transition not only with Jonathan leaving but as many of our closest missionary friends are returning to live in the U.S.; please pray for us to make new friends. As the elementary principal at Christian Academy of Guatemala, she is also praying for all of the teacher positions to be filled for August. If you know anyone who might like to be a missionary teacher, please let us know!

As we prepare our suitcases to go to Texas and visit our family, we know that God is faithful. He never leaves us or forsakes us, and we will continue to serve Him, teaching His Word and serving the beautiful people of Guatemala.

One of the families leaving to live in the U.S. is the chaplain’s family from the kids’ school. As we were saying goodbye, the chaplain
said to Analynne, “I think you could be the next student chaplain; I know that you have what it takes!” What a privilege to see our children growing in the Lord!

We will be in the DFW area for a month from June 15 to July 15. We are ready to see our family and visit our ministry supporters. Please pray for favor and opportunities to connect with more people and to continue to raise some funds to get a newer family ministry car. Thank you so much for your prayers and financial support.

In His hands,
Carlos and Emily Romero

Donations: H.F.N P.O. Box, 18161, Keller TX 76244