God's People Are So Good!

Recently, I mentioned that if anyone wanted to help send a teen to camp the cost was about $25.00. That seems very minimal to us, but for our people here it is like them coming up with $100.00! I really just mentioned it in passing and thought we might just have a couple of people respond. BUt we have received enough money to send 30 teens to camp! Now, we’re not sure exactly how many are going yet… but we DO know that it’s a lot more than would be going without your generosity. I hope to post pictures of the camp and the teens from our works as well as any decisions they might make. Please be in prayer for the camp meetings which will be held March 31 – April 3.

Camp can make a real difference in  a teenager's life!

~Photos from Family Camp 2007

On Friday, April 3, we also have an evangelistic medical team coming from North Carolina. They will be holding free clinics in some of the communities where we work or where we are trying to get a work started. This is a great “draw” to get people in that we might otherwise not be able to come in contact with. When they come to the clinic, they will not only receive help physically, but more importantly, they will receive the Gospel! We covet your prayers for this evangelistic endeavor as well.

We also ask for prayer for an opportunity that has risen in behalf of a new location for our Children’s Home. In joint cooperation with fellow missionaries Arlen and Jason Stevens, we have a supervised home where children from the mountains can come and live and continue their education. The Lenca children in the mountains have access to schooling only through the 6th grade. Their families do not have the means to leave their land and crops and come live in the city so their children can continue their education. Neither do they have the resources to pay for them to go back and forth from home to school each day. We try to supply a supervised, safe and secure place where children in our works can come and live while they go to school. Of course, they are also receiving Biblical training from us as well in hopes that upon graduation they will return to their families and communities as strong Christian leaders. The Home is currently located near our home and church, a little outside of town. Many of the students have night classes and must walk home in the dark (a little over a mile). This is a concern for us, of course. We now have been given the opportunity to buy a house in town that is just perfect!! Many years ago when it was built, it was set up as an orphanage, so it is well suited for our purposes. We are praying and seeking God’s guidance in this and we ask you to join us.

Once again, we just want you to know how much we appreciate the love, prayers, and support we receive from you all. Only when we get to Heaven will you know just how God has used you! God bless!

Sometimes God's Blessings Overwhelm Us!

This past week has been a very busy, but VERY blessed week! It started off with Mike baptizing three last Sunday. Then on Friday, Mike was invited to preach at a new work just up the mountain from us in Le Patarique. At the end of that service there were 5 adults that accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Savior! We are SO GLAD to be back in Honduras winning these dear people to the Christ!!!!

All day Saturday Mike, was with missionaries Phil Gagnon & Jason Tate at a meeting with pastors and Christian leaders in the capitol city of Tegucigalpa. (What is usually a 3 hour trip one way is now a 4 hour trip with all the new road construction going on.) But the meeting went very well and was profitable and Mike arrived back home, tired but happy.

He left the house Sunday morning around 7 am to go to our mountain works. So far, he had not had the chance to visit our furtherest mission in Naranjitos (about a 2 hour drive). The little mission there was excited to see Hermano Miguel (Bro. Mike). After the service he and the people discussed the plans for the church building to be built there in the near future. It was a sweet reunion.

Leaving Naranjitos and traveling down the mountain back toward our home in La Esperanza, he stopped in San Lorenzo and picked up the preaching team that he had dropped off to hold the services there while he held services in Naranjitos. Then they all continued on down the mountain to our work in Ojo de Agua. Once again, there was a wonderful group of people there (50-60) for the services. We praise the Lord for the man who accepted Christ at the end of the service!! God is so good!

Mike made it home about 2:15, ate, and lay down to rest a bit. Then we left for a 4:00 service in Santa Catarina where he was invited to preach. This little church has really grown under the leadership of interim pastor Daniel Pineda. It was a sweet service with about 60 in attendance.

Then at 6:00 pm we had our Sunday evening service at our main church in La Esperanza, near our home! We had a little over 60 in that service. We have a lot of visiting and encouragement to do in this area as the attendance has suffered some in our absence. But we serve such a great and mighty God and we have no doubt that he will continue to bless!




This morning around 7:30, although he was very tired, Mike left again for Ojo de Agua with group of young men and workers. We have a medical/evangelistic brigade that is coming at the end of the month. One of the places where they will be meeting to try to give physical (as well as spiritual) healing, is in our church in Ojo de Agua. It will be a great outreach of Christian love to the entire community. The people will come to receive help for their physical ailments, but they will also be given the opportunity to receive the bread of life and eternal healing for their sin sick souls. The believers there in Ojo de Agua realize what a great opportunity this will be to reach their neighbors, friends and family for Christ. They want to make a good impression and be a good testimony to the community AND to the American Christians that are coming to minister, so they are working hard to cover their dirt floor with tile. They also hope to get the front of their church painted. I will also be working on a church sign for them. Yesterday, they decided on a name for their church. They chose the name CALVARY BAPTIST CHURCH, not only for the obvious scriptural reasons, but also in honor of our home church who came the summer of 2008 and worked with them on the inside of the building. We are thrilled with their choice for a name!

So many times people, feel sorry for missionaries because they “leave so much behind” and they HAVE to live and work amoung “foreign” people. But, PLEASE!!! DON’T FEEL SORRY FOR US!!! WE are the blessed ones!!!! We GET to live here and we GET to work amoung these preciouse people!!! I’m sorry for all those Christians who “love the Lord”… but not enough to answer the call to GO! You have no idea of the blessings you have missed!

It's GREAT to be Home!!!

      Yesterday, Sunday, March 7, Mike was invited to go with La Iglesia Bautista El Redentor to some hot springs that are in the area. While there, he preached and baptized three believers. Coming home was a bit of a challenge, though, as the clutch went out in our bus on which he had carried the people to the springs. But, in spite of the problems, he made it home in time for services at our main church in La Esperanza.

      I did not go with him to the service at the hot springs. Our first Sunday here I was ill and so I had to stay home and didn’t get to see any of our sweet people. So yesterday, after leaving the house at 7am, I went instead with our workers to our mission works in the mountains. It was a sweet reunion! We had about 22 people in San Lorenzo. That is probably the most difficult community that we work in. The people are very much under the control of the Catholic church and if they show much interest in our work then they are threatened. At one time we were running nearly twice that number but, once again, we are struggling along with just a couple of families. We so appreciate Hermano Silverio (Bro. Silverio) and his family. They have been the one constant faithful family and we have met and had services in their home for the last 5 years. It’s not easy to stand alone in a Lenca community where you are sometimes persecuted for your beliefs. I admire this little family more than I can tell you. As long as we have believers there we will continue to go to San Lorenzo and teach them God’s Word.

      After our service in San Lorenzo, we then traveled to Ojo de Agua where we had a another service. What a joy it was to see the faithful believers there, as well as the new people that are coming. Hermana Enrique gave me her toothless, but beautiful smile and a BIG hug!  For years we met in this dear lady's home until the church was built in 2008.  Even though the new building still has just a dirt floor and we have some boards sitting across some rocks to sit on, that did not deter God’s people. We had 55 in attendance! The men in the church are working when they have time to get the building in shape. This area used to be as difficult as San Lorenzo, but by the grace of God, much prayer and perseverance, we now have a church there that continues to grow and is a lighthouse in that Lenca community!

      We arrived back in La Esperanza (our home) about 2pm. Hotir (who used to be one of my kiddos in Sunday School) left a while later to also hold the 3:30 service in Quebrada de Lajas. I had run out of “steam” and didn’t go.

      When Mike arrived home from his service and fellowship around 5pm, he could hardly walk. The rough roads had really done a number on his back. He wasn’t sure if he would be able to go to the evening service at our main church, La Iglesia Bautista Nueva Esperanza, let alone preach. He took some pain medication and laid down with some ice on his back. By 6pm, when our service started, he was able to slowly walk and so he went with me. Hotir was ready to preach and said that he wanted to preach, and so Mike let him. It was another wonderful service.

      For many years, the above was our normal, every Sunday schedule. But now, with Mike’s health problems, his doctors will not allow him to keep such a schedule. But God ALWAYS takes care of HIS work! In the last 2 years, God has raised up His workers to carry on His work. Hotir, who was a painfully shy little boy in my class on our front poarch 12 years ago, grew up to be a painfully shy young man. But this young man loves the Lord and has a burden for his people. When we are gone, he is in charge of everything and has access to everything we own. He is the one who drives to the mountain works and keeps things running. It is this same young man who has preached four times on Sunday! How we praise the Lord for him and his brother, Alex, who has faithfully taught my children’s classes in my absence. God is so good to raise up these young Christian workers. Please uphold these young men in prayer.

      Well, it’s GREAT to be home! We ask for your continued prayers. May our loving Father bless you all!