In 2009, missions volunteer Allen Stoudenmire looked around the small village of Conevisa, Guatemala, seeking a suitable building site for a church where the growing Baptist community in the town could gather.
What he found was a half-finished concrete building with a dirt foundation, just 200 feet from the local elementary school and adjacent to a small store frequented by area residents. The owner of the lot had evil intentions for the abandoned property.
“The building was to be a night club and a house of prostitution, but God had other plans,” Stoudenmire said.
The site is now the home of Shalom-Jireh Baptist Church, a church with a special relationship to Alabama Baptists thanks to Stoudenmire and his wife, Laurelle, and the International Mission Board’s (IMB) Guatemala Operation Gospel Outreach Project, or Guatemala GO.
The Stoudenmires served in Guatemala from 2006 to 2008 in the IMB’s Masters Program, a short-term service assignment for people age 50 and above who want to serve on the international missions field.
During those two years the Stoudenmires regularly hosted GO teams, whose primary objectives are distribution of gospel materials and door-to-door evangelism. The GO teams ministered throughout Guatemala, a Latin American country the size of Tennessee with a population of 14.7 million.
In 2007 the Stoudenmires led a team of students from Jacksonville State University to Conevisa, a small mountainside village in the eastern part of Guatemala near the city of Zacapa. They found a village mired in extreme poverty and spiritual darkness. Many of the residents were young female prostitutes and their children, Stoudenmire said.
Allen Stoudenmire was hesitant about taking the students into such a place at first, but the results confirmed a bigger plan for the village.
“God blessed in a mighty way,” he said. “Many people prayed to receive Jesus and they found hope where there was none.”
The Stoudenmires saw a need for a church in Conevisa. They shared their vision with Rolando Cruz, pastor of Shalom Baptist Mission, Zacapa, Guatemala. The Stoudenmires, Cruz and other church leaders from Zacapa began visiting homes in Conevisa and holding Bible studies for the villagers. Out of that effort, Shalom-Jireh Church got its start.
In February 2008, just one week before their service in Guatemala was to end, the Stoudenmires hosted a small missions team from First Baptist Church, Moody, and First Baptist Church, Ashville, both in St. Clair Baptist Association. The churches caught the Stoudenmires’ enthusiasm for Conevisa.
“These people became excited about what God was about to do,” Allen Stoudenmire said.
In February 2009 the Stoudenmires led a 14-member team from the two churches back to Conevisa. Another group of 25 went back in October 2009, this time with some members of the Stoudenmire’s home church, Thomasville Baptist Church, in Clarke Baptist Association, and an ongoing missions partnership began.
The GO teams have done everything from medical missions to Vacation Bible School (VBS), according to James Sampley, pastor of First, Ashville, who has traveled to Conevisa six times. In fact the trip has become a family tradition of sorts for the Sampley family. James’ wife, Judy; his daughter, Robyn Rooks; and his grandchildren, Breanna Rooks and Cameron Sampley, have all been to Guatemala. Robyn, Breanna and Cameron were part of the 42-member GO team that went to Guatemala for a week in July.
During the first part of the week 165 students participated in a two-day morning VBS at Conevisa Elementary School. In the afternoons the team divided into groups for prayer walking and door-to-door evangelism.
In the evening the team attended worship at San Juan Baptist Church, led by Pastor Rony Medina, whose family assisted the team with transportation and translators.
A second two-day VBS was held later in the week at ELIM Christian School, where another 225 students participated. The Stoudenmires and the missions team have a long-standing relationship with the ELIM Christian School, where 30 children from Conevisa attend thanks in part to sponsorships from the three churches.
Allen Stoudenmire reported that at least 20 prayed to receive Christ during the week.
“God used this team to share the gospel, disciple believers and bring joy, hope and encouragement to many,” he said.
Reggie Quimby, director of the office of global missions for the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM), praised the commitment of the GO teams and their work in Guatemala. He said that while the SBOM’s official missions partnerships in Guatemala will soon be phased out, he expects that “many Alabama Baptists will still have a great passion for ministry in Guatemala because of the need, as well as the wonderful relationships that have been established between our churches and the churches in Guatemala.”
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