“For the next two years, Paul lived in Rome at his own expense. He welcomed all who visited him, boldly proclaiming the Kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ. And no one tried to stop him” (Acts 28:30-31).
The Book of Acts ends with an exclamation of triumph: the Gospel of Jesus Christ being preached boldly and no one tried to stop it. The end of Paul is not mentioned because it is not the aim of the book; the introduction to Acts talks about the things that continue after the Gospels and how the Gospel of the Kingdom was going to be preached in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria and to the ends of the Earth. Paul, Peter, Barnabas and the others were great characters, but it is not the purpose of the book to talk about them, but of the Acts of the Holy Spirit working through them.
The Book of Acts presents the Holy Spirit working in those Christians who, aided by Him , testified of Christ with courage and boldness, transforming the world. The Book of Acts is still in the writing today, is still happening and the Holy Spirit, like a mighty river, is making way through history.
From Jerusalem, the Gospel reached one day to Guatemala, in Central America. Although at the beginning of the Colony what the priests who had come from Spain taught was very little. Between 1651 and 1667, Pedro de San Jose Betancourt preached the Gospel with acts, founding hospitals and orphanages, helping the homeless, feeding them and healing their ailments. Every night he walked through the dark streets of the city of Santiago de los Caballeros (now Antigua Guatemala) calling to conversion saying: “Remember, brethren that we have only one soul, and if we lose it, we will not recover it!”
The first Protestant who turned Guatemala upside down with the Gospel was the English Frederick Crowe, who came from Belize selling Bibles in 1841. He distributed the Bible and founded a school; the society was disturbed and moved influences in order to force the government to deport him in 1846, but the Bible had come. The first Presbyterian missionary came in 1882 and the Church gradually began to spread through the Presbyterian, Methodist, Friends (Quakers) and other congregations.
“You take care of the earth and water it, making it rich and fertile. The river of God has plenty of water; it provides a bountiful harvest of grain, for you have ordered it so. You drench the plowed ground with rain, melting the clods and leveling the ridges.You soften the earth with showers and bless its abundant crops” (Psalm 65:9-10, NLT).
There are records of at least two outpourings of the Holy Spirit in Guatemala.The first is 1918, the second occurred in 1932 and gave way to a powerful Pentecostal movement that has led to the evangelization of hundreds of thousands of people and establishing successful ministries not only in Guatemala but to the ends of the earth. Now missionaries leave from Guatemala to bring the Gospel to the nations that once brought it but left their vocation behind.
You can find more in my book: Let the Holy Spirit Come on You! Follow the link to read a sample or buy it.