Paradise Bound began its ministry in the country of Guatemala in 1997. The ministry started with bringing mission teams from the US into the country where they spend two days performing medical clinics and three days building homes in villages. As the years progressed, this became only the foundation to the full scope of ministry programs taking place within the most remote villages of Guatemala.
The strategy has been to employ the concept of meeting physical needs as a way of opening the door to present the Gospel and meet spiritual needs. The success of this strategy has made it necessary to continue our work within the villages in a discipleship capacity by forming home churches. Over time, the home churches continued to grow, and we identified naturally gifted spiritual leaders that were rising up, yet needed formal training to be able to lead and shepherd their people. Thus began our Timoteo seminary or pastor training program where these leaders complete eight weekend long training sessions over the course of about two and a half years, and graduate as a pastor. As of 2016, there are 65 nationals that have graduated our seminary program, and many more that are currently in training. The next logical step is to plant those graduated pastors back into their village to lead and shepherd a church, or to plant them in another village as a national missionary. This has led to exponential growth in our mission to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the lost and dying of Guatemala, as well as opened the doors for the Church Planting program. We have planted many churches and constructed church buildings, and will continue as the Lord leads. The exponential growth of Paradise Bound into this full circle of ministry from our foundation of mission teams to planting a church and pastor into a village, and all the many steps in between, is a beautiful gift and blessing from our Lord. The Lord continues to lead us into new programs to support our goal and support those programs that bring the ministry full circle. The supporting programs include Open Doors Orphanage where we have answered the James 1:27 calling, as well as the Aviation Program that will allow us to more effectively and efficiently minister to our planted churches and pastors as well as offer emergency medical evacuations, and to the Action Bible distribution program where we are being allowed to introduce bibles into the Guatemalan public schools. God continues to move in our midst and Paradise Bound Ministries will continue to listed to his leading, and "do whatever it takes".
