May - August Prayer Letter

Below is a copy of my husband's prayer letter for May - August:

May-August 2014

Dear Partners and Co-laborers  with God,

“TO EVERY THING THERE IS A SEASON, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-2)

Unless you are very young, we all tend to agree that time seems to pass so quickly for us.  Fall is already upon us; a favorite time of year for me, cooling weather, a time of harvest and thanksgiving. While we patiently wait for certain things to pass (like the heat, unless you live in Alaska) and new things to come, one thing is always in season and ready to harvest, that is, souls! 

 
Jesus admonished, “Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? Behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; For they are white already to harvest,” (Jn.4:35)  

Thank God that we don’t have to wait for Fall to go fishing or hunting for souls! Amen?  I recently talked to a young man named Nick on a Walmart parking lot in Texas and was able to lead him to Christ.  Several weeks later in train station in Sacramento, California I was privileged to lead a very needy man by the name of Jay to the Lord.  Souls are everywhere, waiting for a courageous witness to tell them of a Saviour who died for them!  We need to pray as the Apostle Paul requested, “that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel.”  (Eph. 6:19)

We came back in July for what I had hoped would be a brief visit of two months to visit some of our churches and get my annual exam in for prostate cancer.  Thank God the exam went well and is unchanged from last year.  Also, a heart stress test revealed no obvious problems, but for Debbie, my wife, this year has certainly held it's challenges.  As we reported before, in February she experienced erysipelas, a strep infection that completely covered her face with blisters, accompanied by intense pain that lasted about two months.  

When she shows pictures of herself, no one can believe that it is her. Thankfully, it is essentially all healed. However, in July, when we were in Tacoma, Washington, she became ill, passed out and broke her fibula close to the ankle when she fell.  A CAT scan revealed several suspicious swollen lymph nodes near her kidneys. The Doctor wants to see her again in three months, soooo….that means she waits here for her leg to heal and, the first of December, will get a follow up CAT scan. Meanwhile, I will be going back to Honduras the first of October.  Not what we had planned, but God is still in control!

Pray for Hotir as he ministers and
directs in our absence,
not only in our main church,
but in ALL the works.

The works and workers are still growing in Honduras. I recently encouraged a men’s fellowship among our churches in our department, Intibucáa, and currently have 6 involved. Seven were saved in one of our mountain works, Ojo de Agua. Remember Cecilio, their leader in prayer for continued spiritual growth. He and my associate, Hotir will be going to a conference and taking 10,000 New Testaments to be distributed.  Thank you for all you do to help make this ministry possible.

Loving serving Him,

The Lanes

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I ask for your prayers that I might return home ASAP and in good health.  I miss my Honduras "family" and "kiddos" and the work that God has given us to do.  

Also, coming up in December, we will be having our second annual Christian Youth Leadership Conference AND I NEED TO BE THERE!  I am in charge of registration and scheduling all competitions.  

Last year (which was our first year) we had around 150 young people.  Our prayer is that we see many more teens in attendance this year and that they may accept the call of Christ to serve Him full time.

A transformation: From Classroom to Castle for THE CHILDREN OF THE KING

I wanted to do something special for the precious children in my Sunday School class in Honduras... something to remind them that they were loved and very special.  Something that would say, "You have value because you were made special by God Almighty"!  So, with the help of one of our young men in the church, I transformed their classroom into a castle... a castle belonging to the King of Kings!  

I began by searching the internet and downloading all  the pictures and examples of castles and castle 'elements' that I thought my work for my idea.  My next step was to take photos of each of the walls in the area in which I would be working.  Then, I ran the photos off on plain paper.  Selecting my favorite elements from the internet examples, I sketched onto the photos what I wanted I wanted to do.  Next, I duplicated my sketches on to the wall... and began to paint.  

Please join me as we change a 'Classroom'  into a 'Castle':

I began the transformation with the entrance to the classroom.

The hallway did not afford much room for taking a photo, but this is outside the classroom looking in.  

#1  The first thing was to give our castle a heavy wooden door encased in a stone arch.

#2  Then I began to add the castle wall around the door.

#3  Since I was only doing the one room,  I did the wall only around the door to that room.

#4  Torch and tree details. ( The hardest thing was getting the shadows right.)

#5  The first thing they see as they approach their classroom is this 
"royal decree" from the King of Kings welcoming His children.  
It says, "Welcome - Children of the King"

Next was to begin the transformation on the inside of the classroom.

This is the inside of the classroom looking toward the entrance. As you can see, this area is still under construction. The area above the door is open to the hall.  Eventually, there will be a 

drop ceiling in the hall that will provide a small "attic" area.  That area will be used to 

store mattresses so that we may provide free accommodations for our mountain people to attend

conferences and institute classes. We will be able access that area from the classrooms.  Double doors will be added over the classroom door to close off the "attic" from view. 

#6  The door...

#7  ...and beginning the surrounding wall.

#8  Details are added.

#9  The finished wall after adding torches and towers...

After working for a week on the project,  Obdulio offered to help me.  Even though he had never done anything like this before, I gave the back wall sketch to him.  Obdulio is  our music director and one of our dedicated young preacher boys.  He also teaches Sunday School, plays keyboard, guitar and... he likes to draw.  So, looking at my sketch, he drew it out on the wall and, after some instruction on mixing the paints and some painting techniques, he completed the back wall on his own.  And, as you can see, he did a wonderful job!

The back wall with just a simple louvered window.

#10  Obdulio did a great job drawing and painting the back wall and window.

#11  The finished back wall and "deep set" window.

#12  A closeup of the banners.

"The Victorious King"

#13  Welcome to the King's Castle!

The result: A bunch of VERY happy kiddos!

January - April 2014

Here is a copy of Mike's latest prayer letter:

                                                    January-April 2014

Dear Co-Laborers,

Greetings in the Name of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Psalms 2 speaks of the sovereign God accomplishing His will in spite of man’s best attempt to resist Him. Verse 4 says He sits in the heavens and laughs at their puny attempts to thwart His purposes. I don’t know about you, but as I see the world mounting its opposition to God and Christians, it helps to remind myself that we’ve ALREADY WON! We give thanks NOW for the “victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (I Cor.15:57). I especially like verse 8, “Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.” I know that one day Christ will return and rule all the earth as King, but even now He has sent us to the far ends of the earth to proclaim the Good News of the saving Gospel and God is taking possession of hearts and lives and gaining an inheritance among the heathen(all the unsaved) through the co-labor of God, churches, and missionaries. Thank you so much for your love and faithfulness to God, to us, and to the unreached of the world. 

We thank God for at least 15 more that have accepted Christ and a number of others that have reconfirmed salvation or recommitted to Christ. I am pleased to see the growth among several of our leaders. Especially pray for my associate, Hotir, Obdulio, a talented young man who directs music, preaches, and teaches children in the mountain works, and Cecilio, the leader in the mountain work of Ojo de Agua, who I see as becoming key to the whole area there, called Opalaca. 

This year started with a bang, as we began a Youth Leadership Conference, the first week of the year. We offered preaching, creative teaching, song leading, music specials, instruments, Christian art, Bible quiz, Bible memorization and drama. The idea is to develop abilities that can be used in the ministry of the local church. It went very well with about 150 in attendance. The next one will be the last week of December.  

The theme of the conference was
'Champions for Christ!'.  A trophy
was awarded to the church that
best exhibited Christian character
throughout the conference and
competitions. 

There were about 150 teenagers in attendance the
first annual Youth Leadership Conference.

Last minute "cramming" for the
Bible Quiz Competition.

Bible Quiz playoffs

Choir Competition 

A couple of the happy winners.

Two of our own:
Victoria and Obdulio

Winners of the Christian character trophy.

EVERYTHING was centered
around the Word of God.

Our ONLY reason for this conference is to
encourage and train teenagers to use
WHATEVER abilities God has given them
for His honor and glory.

Our prayer is that these young people will be spiritual leaders in their churches... now AND in the future.  We pray these young people will become pastors, teachers, missionaries, leaders and faithful witnesses for Christ.

Also in January, we enjoyed a visit from two young men from Grace Baptist Church of Surrey, B.C., Canada (Pastor Steven White) in preparation for a visit next year of a group of their Bible Institute students."

This was Debbie at the
height of her illness.

After cooking and serving students and teachers for a week long intensive Bible Institute the last week of February, my wife, Debbie became sick with Erysepelas, a disease caused by strep that broke out on her face.  It was very painful and left her very weak. She couldn’t get out of the house except to go to the Doctor for over a month and a half. Thankfully, she is feeling better, there is little scarring, and most of her energy has returned, although she still can’t accompany us to the mountain works on Sundays. Keep her in your prayers. " 

Privileged to Be Serving the King,
Mike and Debbie Lane