Tuesday, August 28th
Pastor Francisco arrived Monday night, so he will be traveling and working with the team over the next couple of days!
On our way out of town, I was able to share the plan of salvation with two girls where we stopped to wait for Ron to catch up with us...He had to go pick up Lourdes. We drove down from Tegucigalpa to Alubaren…the first hour or so is on the paved road…the last 1.5-2 hours is on the dirt road—through rivers and around mountains…Alubaren is actually only about 12 miles from the paved road. That gives you a little idea of the condition of the road!! It was a good trip out though…lots of talking and singing in English and in Spanish!When we arrived, we talked with Pastor Jeremias to make a plan and then we got started. Several people blew up balloons and made little figures for the kids, and
Lynn did a few tricks to begin with. Then 
we walked down to the plaza with a parachute to play with the kids and gather up as many neighborhood children as possible. Then we 
handed out toy instruments and marched back to the church! Bible school time!! We sang with the kids…then Chris and Shelia helped me do a skit about Mary and Martha. 
We taught the kids a Bible verse. Then Lourdes shared the Gospel using an Evangecube. Several kids made decisions for the Lord!! 
The children's liturgical dance ensemble performed for us after we finished our portion of the program. 
Plus the adults wanted to sing and to play a song for us as well. How awesome!! As the kids were leaving, we gave them little gift bags with tracks for their parents and a little lesson and crayons for each child. There were over 100 kids there!!(I had been wanting to do VBS for quite some time…and God used Chris’s Uncle Mark and Aunt Carol to get us some materials. Their Sunday school class gathered up materials in Spanish that I could use in some churches and then leave with pastors in other churches who would put the lessons and supplies to good use! Since Ron and Susan were coming down, they gave the material to them…and now I have them to use! I had no idea that God was going to send 2 clowns and a few extra hands to help do Bible school as well!! Praise God…His plans are always way better than ours!!)
After the kids went home, a Peace Corp worker named
John came up to talk with us…he’s been in Alubaren almost a year…we just missed meeting him last summer when Chris and I visited the village with Ron and Susan. We were all heading to 
lunch at Pastor Jeremias and Lucia’s house, so Pastor Jeremias invited John to tag along. Chris and John ended up talking for quite a few hours. While they were chatting, 
Linda and Susan were talking with Lucia. She’s been sick with breast cancer for over a year now. We had heard that she wasn’t doing very well, but she seemed to be much better than when we saw her last summer. I think that she’s had a hard year, but that God is doing a healing work in her. During their conversation, Ron, Pastor Francisco, and I were talking to 
Samuel and Elena, a couple who has started a church “up in the mountains.” (I think that means that it’s not possible to get a car in to where they live!!) They have been working for about 6 months and already they have about 25 faithful members!! (One of their daughters is pictured with them here.) Both Pastor Jeremias and Pastor Samuel desire to begin building projects for their churches, but they don’t have the financial resources. We encouraged them to continue seeking the Lord because in His time, He will provide. Pastor Jeremias wants to add on a children’s room so that they can feed needy children in the community. Pastor Samuel wants to build a church…right now they meet under a palm leaf shelter. Please pray for these needs…that God will pour out resources on His people!Around 3 pm, we started our journey back out to the road and on to Choluteca (in the Southern most part of Honduras…only about 40 miles from the border with Nicaragua). We passed by the little store where Chris and I stopped to wait out the rain, so I asked Ron and Susan if we could stop in! We were able to see Yeni and Juan Manuel again and take them each a small gift to thank them for their kindness. Then we continued on to Choluteca. When we arrived at the hotel where we were staying, we were surprised to see another mission team was staying there. Chris and I were excited to learn about what they were doing…but it was late and we needed to go to bed…it would have to wait until Wednesday.
(
As a side note, I need to tell you that Juan Carlos is still driving for us…we had a few misunderstandings the first two days, but got all of that ironed out. We knew that we needed to give him a second chance…that’s what Jesus did for us, right?! Things have been going well now and
he and Chris are rooming together at the hotel. I changed roommates for just these two nights…Linda and Lourdes let me crash with them!)Wednesday, August 29th
The team went two separate ways again this morning…Ron, Susan, Lourdes, Chuck, Don, Sue, Deanie, Linda, and Margaret went to the Baptist Association building. Chuck made his presenting debut with ICH on Sunday, but Don,
Sue, 
Margaret, and 
Deanie made theirs today. We hear that they did a great job. Several pastors gave testimony of how this training would be helpful in their church and extended invitations for ICH to do a volunteer training session at their churches!!The rest of the crew…
Pastor Francisco “Panchito,” Presh-us, Sonshine, Chris and I all went to Visión Cristiana to work with Pastor Juan Carlos & Pastora Xiomara. (Chris and I met them at a teacher training last summer in Valle de Angeles, Honduras. God called them to Choluteca about 6 months ago, so they have been serving there with their son, Zabdi ever since.) 
There were a ton of kids!! We worked with them on a rotating basis…Panchito, then Presh-us & Sonshine, and then Chris and me. Chris and I taught them a Bible verse and did the Maria and Martha skit again this time with the help of one of the girls from the church since Shelia was in costume!! We were so thankful for the opportunity to teach the kids…to have materials to be able to work with them! (I’m still amazed at God’s timing because I could never carry materials with me because it weighs too much!!) Presh-us gave an invitation and again a lot of the kids prayed to receive Jesus as their Savior.At lunch Pastor Francisco shared about how
Juan Carlos and Xiomara (in the white shirt) were doing. (Xiomara is his sister.) The move has been really difficult for them…just before they left, Xiomara miscarried…she’s had health complications since then as well. Juan Carlos(in the black shirt) has been sick with Dengue a disease carried by mosquitoes, and their son has been sick. Plus moving and doing little projects around the church has been a financial drain. The enemy has been on the attack…we know that it means God has something good for them…they just have to hang on. As Pastor Francisco explained the situation, Linda immediately came to my mind. I asked if he thought she’d be willing to talk, and he said that he’d ask.That afternoon, they were doing an ICH volunteer training at Visión Cristiana. Linda was hoping to counsel Xiomara during that time since Xiomara had already had the training. The door just didn’t seem to be opening. Linda, Chris and I were all praying. The session started and the whole crew was able to do part of the training…this time we can testify that they did a great job!! About 30 minutes into the session, Pastor Francisco motioned for us to come out and talk with Xiomara…
Wow! I will say it again. God really had given Linda a lot of knowledge…having the privilege of translating for her really made me want to be a counselor as well!! Xiomara began sharing with more freedom than we expected! She talked to us about all of the things that were weighing heavy on her heart…Linda offered suggestions that Xiomara was excited about putting into practice. We prayed together, and I’m telling you, by the end of the session…we could tell that God had lifted a burden from her shoulders. She began explaining that on Sunday their family and the church family began fasting for a spiritual breakthrough for their family…that God would have the victory over the sicknesses that they had been battling. She shared that she was fasting not just for physical healing, but for emotional healing. Teary-eyed…Xiomara thanked Linda for allowing God to use her to bring emotional healing!! Praise God!!!
Back at the hotel, Chris and I were able to meet the other mission team that was there working. They were doing a building project, but they were doing something that neither of us has ever seen.
They were offering 
sewing classes. In one of the hotel rooms, they had about 9 machines, and they were giving lessons. The Honduran women who were interested in learning paid for the machine and the ladies taught them to make shirts, dresses, and bags!! They weren’t just sharing the Gospel…they were teaching these women how to better their lives financially as well! Now they can sew clothes for their children or even for neighbors and make a profit!Thursday, August 30th
One last appointment in Choluteca this morning…we were headed to a primary school near the Visión Cristiana church. Pastor Juan Carlos has been visiting this school and working with the kids from there. He took Ron, Susan, Chris, and me over to the school to find out where the clowns would be performing. While I was talking with the director, Susan took out her Evangecube. We decided that it would be best if the kids walked down the street to the church in order for there to enough space for everyone.
I walked back over to where Susan was and she handed the cube off to me. The kids gathered around to hear about Jesus being the only Way to Heaven! The majority of the group prayed to receive Jesus as their Savior. I don’t know when I’ve seen such receptiveness to the Gospel! It’s been incredible.We went back to the church and got things set up…before we knew it more than 100 kids were seated in rows waiting for the clowns to perform. (No permission slips…could you imagine the back lash if you did something like that in the US?! yikes!! ha, ha, ha!)
Presh-us, Sonshine, and Panchito performed again with a little help from Lourdes who translated. Chris and I sang a few songs with the kids too! They were wrapping up the program and inviting the kids to come to church, but no one had shared the Gospel with them. Presh-us asked if she could have a little more time, and they agreed. After she shared, again there was a large group who wanted to pray to accept Jesus as their Savior. We need to be praying for all the seeds that have been planted this week!! That God will send people to disciple these kids and that they will get involved with their local church!(Another aside to help you understand this next part…last summer when we left Alubaren, Chris and I had to catch a bus North to Tegucigalpa because Ron, Susan, and Pastor Francisco were headed South to Choluteca. We were a little nervous about taking the bus because we had no idea where we were supposed to get off. Well, as God would have it, I sat down beside a Christian lady who was on her way to Tegucigalpa to be seen by her cancer doctor. Her name is Rosario and she’s from Choluteca. I explained to her where we needed to go, and she was getting off at the stop that we needed to get off at! So we got off with her and she helped us get a taxi at a good rate. I never thought I’d hear from her again even though we exchanged e-mail addresses. Boy was I wrong…she’s been e-mailing me ever since! She’s been a wonderful encouragement on this whole journey!!)
Today
Rosario came to the hotel to go to lunch with us!! We were able to catch up a little bit about what has been going on in each other’s lives. She has been healed of cancer! Praise God! She continues to serve the Lord and to be an encourager! I wish that we could have spent more time together, but it was soooo good to see her again!It was time to head back to Tegucigalpa. The ladies on the team gathered together all of the ladies who work at the hotel who helped with breakfast or cleaning our rooms to give them a little gift.
We made the trek because we had to quickly make preparations to head out again on Friday morning. Lourdes even stayed the night so that we would all be together and ready to go bright and early on Friday. Well, that was the plan, we had only gotten about 15 minutes out of town when traffic backed up all of the sudden. We saw a police officer speaking to each car in the line. When they finally got to us, they told us that the temporary bridge up ahead was impassible! Their earliest prediction of when it would go down was sometime after midnight...10-12 hours of waiting. The river was several inches up above the bridge. We started praying that God would allow us to cross on dry ground like the Israelites...Linda started singing God will make a way where there seems to be no way. About an hour later, we noticed that the traffic started moving. The other van was ahead of us...they called to tell us that the water level was now below the bridge...people were crossing on dry ground!! Here's a picture of how high the water still was in the yards around where we crossed the bridge...
Hello, WE SERVE AN AWESOME GOD!! We were back in Tegucigalpa by 7 pm!! Praise God!Pastor Francisco wouldn’t be coming back from Valle de Angeles on Friday, so
Deanie had a presentation to make. She’s been on several mission trips, and she’s realized the constant need for materials to work with children in Central America. So she and her husband, Devon, bought a flannel graph set and went to work…they had to cut out over 600 individual pieces…it took them several months!! Then she brought this gift for a pastor in Honduras. Pastor Francisco pastors his church, and they have started 2 mission churches…there are always kids!! They’ve even had a decline in teachers for the children at his church because they don’t have any materials to use with them. The book that accompanied the flannel graph set had 182 lessons…enough for at least 3 lessons each week for a year or enough for 1 lesson each week for 3 years! Pastor Francisco was excited!! Praise God for answered prayers!Friday, August 31st
We drove up to Valle de Angeles for the day.
Our first stop was at an 
orphanage “La Finca.” (Chris and I also visited this orphanage last year and did a program with them as well as taught them some songs.) Today Pastor Francisco, 
Presh-us & Sonshine, and Chris & I did our rotation again to work with the kids. Chris and I were shocked and amazed because a lot of the kids remembered the songs that we taught them last year! It’s a big lesson as we live our lives…little eyes are always watching us…what are we teaching them?? At the end, we made salvation bracelets with the kids. Again…several of the kids accepted Christ!
This is a really sweet family that we met while we were at the orphanage. They are from England...several years ago Hamish and Rachel came to the orphanage and lived an worked for awhile. This year they have been traveling with their children (Darcy, Fauna, and Seth), so they wanted their kids to get to see the orpanage as well!!After lunch, we went to the wood shop of one of the brothers from the church. It’s always interesting to see such true artisans at work…check out these pictures.
Then the team split into 4 groups…Presh-us & Sonshine with Lourdes worked with the kids from the Visión Cristiana church who are a part of a Compassion program (remember we told you about this program in Veracruz, Mexico and in San Rafael, Guatemala).
Linda, Chris, and I met with the teachers to go over the grief process for children (Linda) and to go over classroom management/activities that they could implement in their classes (Chris and I). Ron and Susan met with Pastor Alberto to make plans to implement ICH training into their pastor/leader training for the entire denomination. The rest of the crew shopped for souvenirs.
We went back to Tegucigalpa to have a nice dinner…our last supper together for a while…at a place called El Patio. We had a good time and the food was super tasty!Saturday, September 1st
We met together one last time to talk about what we had seen God do over the last few days early Saturday morning, and then it was time to pack up and head out.
Juan Carlos arrived around 10:30 am…we had a gift for him…it ended up being a really good relationship between him and all of us! He had expressed during the week that he wanted to learn English and that he didn’t have a Bible but he wanted one. We also learned that he has a young son who lives with his mom, so Juan Carlos doesn’t get to see him very much. We gave him a children’s Bible to read with his son and explained that he could read it even when his son wasn’t there so that he would know what to read with his son when he came. We also gave him a New Testament in Spanish and English. There was a pause, and then I asked him what he thought about all that he had seen and heard this week. 
Was he interested in making Jesus his Savior? He quickly told us yes! I used the Evangecube to walk through the plan of salvation…I’ve never seen anyone so sincere as he asked questions and repeated back what I was sharing with him. Our hearts were touched so much as Juan Carlos prayed to give his life to Jesus! I’ve always heard that our lives might be the only Bible that someone reads…it really does matter how you live your daily life!!On our way to the airport, we drove up to
Picachu National Park to see the statue of Jesus that overlooks Tegucigalpa. Pretty amazing view, huh?
We were
pretty sad to say good-bye to 6 members of the team…Chuck, Don, Sue, Linda, Margaret, and Deanie were scheduled to go home. When we got to the airport, they learned that they were going to have an overnight layover in Miami. Yikes…well, God has a plan in everything. We said our good-byes…knowing that God is going to bring us together again one day!In the afternoon, Chris and I worked on a little bit of e-mail…we hadn’t had time to even check e-mail in over a week. Ron, Susan, Lynn, Shelia, Chris and I had ice cream together and just relaxed that evening. Shelia shared with us a little more about her life and how we could pray for her. She also shared about a mission trip that she took to Iran. She had the opportunity to share Jesus with a mother who lost her son…she gave her a beautiful salvation bracelet to help her remember Jesus’ promises to her. When Shelia got home, a lady from her church gave her another salvation bracelet just before she came on this trip…in case Shelia met someone she could share it with. She gave it to me…she told me that I could keep it or give it to someone who I met along the journey who excepted Christ…I’m praying for the woman whoever she is right now! I can’t wait to meet her so that I can share the story with Shelia and with y’all.
Later in the evening, we got a phone call from Chuck…their flight had been cancelled altogether and the airport had to put them up in Tegucigalpa. We are praying that all 8 of the team will get out safely tomorrow!! The 6 of us who were still at the apartment prayed together for the other half of our team who was being delayed from getting home, and then we headed off to bed.
Sunday, September 2nd
Another sad good-bye…this time Susan and I had to tell Lynn and Shelia good-bye at the apartment…there was no room in the car for all six of us and luggage!! We are just waiting on the Lord for the next time we will be able to work together! Ron and Chris took Lynn and Shelia to the airport…they even got to see the group who was supposed to leave yesterday!! This time they really are off to the US again!! Everyone was able to get a flight out…we’re still not sure if they were on the same flight, but they made it home safely!
Ron, Susan, Chris and I began our journey to the North coast of Honduras after the guys got back from the airport. We still have some work to do!!
On our way, Ron and Susan wanted us to stop off and visit 
some 
caves…pretty cool…although I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many bats in one place!!!We pulled into El Progreso with just enough time to get cleaned up for church and eat supper before we headed over to Gosen Pentecostal Church. The group of students we brought down last summer to Honduras worked at this church…doing some construction, remodeling, weeding, and painting. So Chris and I were excited to see
Pastors Wilmer and Lesly, their boys—Danielito and Benjamin, and the church members. When we got out of the car, I felt compelled to move quickly towards the church…and by the time we got to the door of the church I could feel God’s presence so strongly that I nearly cried. As soon as the kids saw Chris and me, they came running! They hugged us and asked about the team we had with us last year!! Then we walked in and wow! God knew what we needed…I was feeling a little homesick after seeing the group head back to the states…but God sent human arms to hug us tight and tell us that they loved us and missed us! The family of God is sooo big!! 
We shared testimony with the church, 
Ron and Susan gave tesimony, and then 
Wilmer and Lesly shared on behalf of the church that God had been working in them too! The property that God told them to start praying about would be theirs it 2 months…completely paid for!! Then the service…oh my, well, a couple came forward because they wanted to dedicate their baby to the Lord. After Wilmer prayed over the baby, he asked the parents if they wanted to commit their own lives to the Lord. They both agreed…we all prayed over them and the wife was moved to tears! Praise God!!!After the service, Wilmer showed us around the church so that we could see what they had finished up and how well they had taken care of what we helped build last summer. Then I was able to leave some VBS materials with
Tatiana and Dago, the children’s pastors! They were sooooo excited! Praise God! Praise God! Praise God!We can’t wait to see what else God is going to do during this time with Ron and Susan! Keep praying…we continue to pray for you! God bless you! We love you! Keep
walking for Jesus!
Scenes from around Gosen Church...some we helped with last year and some improvements that the church has made over this past year.
Here we are eating again...The food is Honduras is wonderful though!! AND no one of the team got sick from anything they ate! Praise God!!
a) Pastor Juan Carlos was excited to show Linda that he already had a caterpillar and butterfly to use with the kids in his church!! b) They also have a feeding program at their church for the children who are in need in the community! Leche y Miel...it made us remember our cake baking days in Chauhites, Mexico too!
a) Shelia collected tons of resources to leave with the children's teacher in Alubaren...they are so far from any towns that it's difficult to provide interesting and creative lessons for the kids. b) What a surprise! Chris (& Juan Carlos) found another monkey to play with!! ha, ha, ha...he still wants one for a pet!!
a) Isn't this a beautiful sight? One of many sights to see as we came down from Tegucigalpa on our way to Alubaren and Choluteca. b) Sonshine came in greeting the kids...
a) I translated for Presh-us and Sonshine's skit about the magic carpet. b) "Panchito" got us All moving with a new train song.
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