The Beginnings and Why We Still Do It

We are a typical Christian family who lived in a small Illinios town about 30 miles from St. Louis. We were serving God in our local church when we felt called to the mission field. We, as a family, went on 2 short term trips to Guatemala in the late 90's. When we felt the call to move to Guatemala in 1999, it was a decision that wemade as an entire family, and we all packed up the bus and truck that brought us down through Mexico and into Guatemala. A "road trip" that tested our faith and obedience to God's leading from the beginning, it was the start of a journey that has proven over and over the faithfulness of God as we have surrendered to His will in serving the people of Guatemala through various outlets of ministry. We intially started with a one year commitment which we served working in an orphanage in San Andres. While there we learned the culture and the language. We felt a strong calling to expand the ministry to include more medical outreach, we moved to Canilla and our ministry continues to grow. We live in the department of Quiche it was one of the department hardest hit during a 30 year civil war that ended in the past 10 years. The area still feels the effect of war today: poverty, corruption, lack of education and resources, lack of basic health care, and often a struggle to simply find food for families.

As AIM was birthed, so did the foundational verse Matthew 25:40 "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'" We also committed to serve the Guatemalan people by meeting not only their physical needs, but more importantly their spiritual needs by seeking to lead them to a relationship with Jesus Christ through intentionally building relationships with those that they come in daily contact with.

When asked why we do what we do, we point back to our Statement of Beliefs:

We believe both the Old and New Testament are verbally inspired by God: the revelation of God to man: the infallible, authoritative rule of faith and conduct. II Timothy 3:5-17

We believe in one God existing in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Matthew 28:18

We believe in the creation and the fall of mankind. We believe in man's spiritual depravity and inability to attain righteousness. Romans 5:12

We believe that Jesus Christ was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, fully God and fully man. We believe that He died on the cross, was buried and on the third day was resurrected. We believe that He personally appeared to the disciples and ascended into heaven to the right hand of the Father. John 1:18, Isaiah 7:14, I Corinthians 15:1-4, Romans 4:25

We believe in salvation by grace through repentance and faith in the perfect and sufficient work of the cross. Eph. 2:8-9, Heb. 9:12,22

We believe in the present supernatural ministry of the Holy Spirit, including the indwelling, inner workings and baptism of His person in the believer. We believe in the multiplicity of spiritual gifts and supernatural signs that follow those who believe. II Cor. 7:1, Acts 4:30, Rom. 12:1, Heb. 2:3-4, Acts 2:1-41

We believe in the resurrection of believers into everlasting life and blessing in Heaven, and the resurrection of unbelievers into everlasting punishment in Hell. John 3:16, John 5:24, Mark 9:43-48, II Thess. 1:9, Revelations 20:10-15

We believe in the personal, literal, and bodily return of Jesus Christ in power and glory as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. I Thess. 4:13-18, Zech. 14:5, Matt. 24:27, Rev. 1:7, Rev. 19:11-14

We are honored to have been called to serve the people of Guatemala and continue our efforts to build His kingdom. The people in this area are hungry for anything that brings hope to their lives, and we are confident that the gospel is the most precious gift we can give to them.
In the years that we have lived in Guatemala, God has given us numerous opportunities to minister to the people who live here. He has opened many doors allowing us to use our abilities and experiences to spread the gospel. We see our ministry growing in ways that we could never have imagined. We have come to love these people and our lives have become intertwined with theirs. We have been with them through births and deaths, hurricanes and droughts and through it all we have seen the love of God. We may not always understand what is going on but we know that we serve a God who is faithful and will never leave us. The verse that comes to mind is James 2:23-24 which says “And so the scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed in God and this was accounted to him as righteousness, and he was called God’s friend. You see that a man is justified through what he does and not alone through faith (through works of obedience as well as by what he believes)”

Please stand in prayer with us.
In His love and service,
Duane, Leslie, and family

Grace and Abi

Grace, born in February of 2005, and Abi, born in November of 2005, are our adopted children. Although from different families, they quickly and easily became a part of our family and we cannot imagine life without them!

Grace’s mother was extremely sick when we met the family in a village near us. They came because Grace’s 7 year old sister was caring for her and Grace had been dropped several times. Grace was very malnourished and had really bad pneumonia. We took her in to make her well, and it was only by God’s grace that she lived (hence her name). Although her mother got better, her family felt they could not take care of her any longer and she has been with us ever since, officially becoming a Ficker in 2008. She is shy, although quite talkative, always watching out for everyone, and always ready to snuggle up with you and a good book.

Abi came to us only 3 hours after she was born. Her mother died during childbirth and no one knew who her father was, so her grandfather brought her here. After much prayer, we knew very strongly that we were to adopt her, a legal process that we are still working on. Abi is completely full of life, joy and energy and enjoys keeping us on our toes! However, she is also quick to laugh and, if you can get her to sit still for more than 5 seconds, also enjoys sitting down to read a good book.

Rachel

Rachel is 13. She is thinking about being a elementary teacher possibly down here. She loves Guatemala and her family.

Joseph

Joseph is 18 years old, and he is planning on being a pilot. He helps out with keeping the planes maintained and anywhere else help is needed. He loves Louis L’amour books and riding his horse.

David

David is 20 years old and he is the fix-it-man. He oversees the agricultural work and maintenance of all the vehicles - of which there is much down here! He loves living in Guatemala.

Hannah

Hannah is the oldest daughter and now in school at Baylor University studying to be a Physician's Assistant. She likes to be here in Guatemala whenever she gets a chance and helps out in the clinics whenever she is down here. She also helps keep the ministry going Stateside.

Ryan, Katie and Jacob

Ryan and Katie got married September 2006 and they just had a baby! Ryan and Katie help the ministry from the US. Ryan is a manager at a local business in Marine, IL. Katie now stays home with little Jacob and takes care of him. Jacob was born on the 21st of December 2007 and he weighed 6 lbs and 3 ounces. He is so cute!

Aaron and Katie

Aaron and Katie were recently married on October 3 2007! They moved into a little house by our hanger at the runway here - only a mile away. Aaron is the oldest of the Ficker family children, and he is a licensed airplane mechanic and oversees all the maintenance on the aircrafts. He is also working towards his pilot’s license. Katie is a nurse who came down and stayed for one year before they got married in October. She works in the clinics and helps out with anything else that is needed. They both love working with this ministry and helping out their family.

Duane and Leslie

Duane was raised in rural Illinois, and throughout his life he has worked as a carpenter, corporate pilot, and flight instuctor - all three of which were valuable training for his work down here in Guatemala. He is currently the head of the aviation department, the chief pilot, and is using his instructor's license and experience to train Aaron and Joseph. He is also the head of the construction department, both overseeing and personally involving himself in the maintenance and repairs needed. His farming background also allows him to reach out to the farmers in the area through various agricultural projects. Leslie has had experience in a variety of settings within the nursing profession, although the majority of her experience was in the NICU. She is the head of the medical department out of which we currently run three established weekly clinics and monthly weekend medical-evangelistic outreaches to remote areas in Quiche. She also keeps the house running, including heading up the home-schooling of her children.