Yesterday we had a youth seminar with about 60 young people from 4 different churches in the area. Many seemed to be interested in what we are hoping to build here in the Talanga area. It was an encouraging day. We went to a church last night where we had never visited, although the pastor has been to some of our seminars here. It was an outdoor building, with only a metal roof. When it rains here, it really rains! Needless to say it was a rather wet and muddy evening, but the girls testified with all their heart. Eunice even translated for Sarah, and she did an amazing job! Tonight is our last service here. We will be with Bro. Misael and his church. Tomorrow we leave the hotel early to make the trip to the city. PLEASE PRAY for us to have favor as we take Bro. Rigo through immigration in Atlanta. They have all authority at this point as to how long he can stay this trip. We are praying that he will get permission to stay a whole year. Will you join us in asking God to intervene for us? He is a fine young man, and his time in the US will not be in vain. We know that God has great things in store for Bro. Rigo's future. Thank you all so much for your prayer and concern during this trip!
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The Lord has been doing a work in the past few days. We have had day meetings with pastors for 3 days, with 4 hours of Bible study on the major doctrines. This week they have been studying on Resurrections. Many of the same pastors continue to come and listen each trip that we are here. They have many questions, but it seems that they are really listening and considering. Each night we have had service in a different church, and the girls have been very spirit led as they testified each night. The pastors are seeing that this message is producing life in the hearts of young people. They are seeing that young women can dress modestly, have a right spirit, and have the love of God shine through them.
Today we have nothing scheduled until night service, so the girls are going with Bro. Geinrre and Bro. Rigo to Tegucigalpa to pick up Bro. Rigo's Visa. Every day we see him, he tells me he is ready to go! The trip is winding down, but we still have several services left. God is certainly working here. It is a slow process, but we most certainly see progress. We do not know what the future holds, but we believe the message of the Body of Christ is being sown in the hearts of those who choose to listen. May they have an open heart, and a mind to understand. Things are going well here in Honduras! Yesterday we had a youth service at Bro. Raul's church, and many of the youth from Bro. Misael's church also came. The girls were able to testify, as did Bro. Rigo, Sis. Dulce, and Sis. Sayda. We had service that night in the same church, and enjoyed the presence of the Lord and the good Word of God. Today Bro. Geinrre and family will join us for an early dinner at the hotel as we celebrate Abby's birthday. Then we will meet Sarah and Bro. Cristian to have service at Bro. Misael's church. God is doing a work in his church, and we are excited to see growth there.
It is always a blessing to have our young people here with us. I listen as the girls sit behind me in the van and teach songs to Dulce in English. As they sing, they explain to her what it means that we are "building a wall" or other parts of the songs. It brings me such joy to hear them instruct their peers as they show them the path that we are walking. Bro. Rigo is so excited about his upcoming trip to be with us. You are all going to love him! He has such an open and teachable spirit, and he soaks in the things of God as he hears them. Tomorrow starts 3 days of pastors' classes, with services each night. Thank you for praying for Bro. Finnicum. He still has a cough, but his voice is stronger and he is able to minister at full steam!! Love to all. We are so thankful to report that we got a Visa for Bro. Rigo!!!!! It is only for 90 days, but we are hoping to get it changed once we get to the U.S. We went right to the airport and got his ticket, and he will be traveling back with us on August 13th. We had our first day of the marriage seminar today, and we are preparing for service tonight with Bro. Joshua. He is one of the pastors who hopes to come to campground in September. God is meeting us here, keeping us safe, and answering prayer! Sorry for the short post. The internet was not working before, and we have to leave for church soon. Keep praying; God is hearing you!
This morning we are packed and ready to travel to Talanga. We spent yesterday here at the hotel while Bro. Geinrre was having the van repaired. Last night we returned to have service with Sis. Clara. It began to rain as we drove up the mountain, and and when we arrived, the electricity was out. This made the congregation smaller, but the girls were able to experience having church service by candlelight! These people listen so well, and you can tell that their pastor taught them well. We felt so bad that we missed service on Sunday night due to the accident, especially after we heard that the church had been full waiting for us. Today we will travel to Tegucigalpa, and then on to Talanga and our hotel. Tomorrow morning is the Visa appointment for Bro. Rigo. Please pray that the Lord.will give us favor as we go. We really desire for him to come to Roanoke for training. Thank you all for your prayers.
We arrived safely in San Pedro Sula yesterday and we were on our way after as smooth immigration and customs stop. After checking into the hotel and having lunch, we went to have service with Sis. Clara. During an hour break between services, we drove to the nearest gas station for some drinks. And then the fun began! Coming back to the church, we were sideswiped by a motorcycle who took the curve in our lane. Thankfully he was not seriously injured, but he did at least break his ankle. Sis. Karla's nurses training paid off as she was able to tend to him until help came. Here it is not as simple as calling the police and leaving after the paperwork.is.completed. it was an adventure, to.say the least, and it looks we will have to pay for the van to be repaired. Unfortunately we had to miss the evening service, but we will be going there tonight after.the van is repaired. Note to Bro. Finnicum : don't teach about the baptism.of.fire again tonight! Thankful that we are all safe, and praying for God's will to be done in all things.
Arrived safely in Atlanta! Next stop: San Pedro Sula, Honduras
Today we are preparing to leave for our 12th trip to the country of Honduras. We go with a thankful and hopeful heart; for what God has already done, and for what He is about to do. We go with invitation letters for 3 more people to be able to come to the U.S. to experience the Body of Christ. We go with special hopefulness for Bro. Rigo, that his embassy visit on August 1st will be successful, and that he will be able to travel home with us this trip. Every trip fills us with great expectation, and we covet your prayers as we fly out on Sunday morning. Abigail and Beth Hummel will travel with us, and Sarah Hummel will join us for the 2nd week. What a blessing it is to be able to take godly young people with us who represent our Lord, our church, and our message in such a great way. Oh be glad and rejoice, for the Lord will do great things!
We are so thankful for what God is doing here in Honduras. Today I am at the hotel with Sis. Karla and the children while Bro. Finnicum, Bro. Geinrre, and Bro. Rigo go into Tegucigalpa. They are going to see if they can speed up the paperwork for Bro. Rigo so that we might get him a Visa to come to the U.S. He has made a lot of progress in his English, and we want him to come so that we might work with him in music and in the teachings of the Word of God. He has such a hungry heart. We are going to help sponsor him financially so that he might spend a lot of time with Bro. Geinrre, learning English to be prepared to come to be with us. He works all day, every day, and makes only $50 per month! We are so spoiled!!! They are also going to the United States embassy for an appoinmtent for Bro. Geinrre's Visa. His last one got lost, and they do not believe him when he tells them he left the U.S. when he was supposed to. It is so important for him to have a Visa so that he might come to meetings, as well as come to interpret when the other pastors come. Please pray! Also, please pray for Bro. Finnicum's throat and voice. He has gotten a cold, and the continual daily preaching has caused him to almost lose his voice. We are hoping that this day of resting his voice will help him.
Sunday night we had our first service here in Talanga at Bro. Misaels's church. The sign in front said "Beinvenido a casa" (welocme home!) I feel like that spoke volumes, as they have really welcomed us into their hearts. There is a big difference in "welcome" and "welcome home"!! As Bro. Finnicum peached, some of the men began to ask questions, and it is obvious that they have really pondered the things that they have heard. On Monday and Tuesday, we had a pastors' seminar at Bro. Misael's church. This is a time of teaching from 10 am to 2 pm. They also ask questions whenever they wish. On Monday, he taught the lesson "Why we speak in tongues." It is so amazing that the churches here call themselves Pentecostal, yet few of them are baptized in the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in tongues. At this meeting, there was a man present who has been attending Bro. Misael's church, but had not yet been saved. He came to Bro. Misael that night, and told him that he had really been touched by the messages, and he wanted to be saved. God is good! We had no service scheduled for Monday night, so we drove to Tegucigalpa where we had to change the car for a van rental. We had been renting a car from Sis. Karla's brother, but needed to change it so we had more room to transport people. This was a real experience, as Bro. Finnicum had to drive the van to the brother's house while Bro. Geinrre drove the car. Those of you who have experienced riding in Tegucigalpa traffic understand why I say this was such an experience!!! (Of course, Bro. Finnicum loved it!) We met Bro. Cristian, Sis. Carolina, and the children at the Pizza Hut, and had a few minutes of fellowship with them. They hope to come be with us here in service on Sunday. Thankfully, Bro. Cristian now has a job selling memberships to Price Smart, which is similar to our Sams club. It is cute to see Moises interpreting for little Ethan. The Tuesday pastors' seminar also went well. Bro. Finnicum told the story of the drainage pipes we put under our new building, but had to tear out with great difficulty when we found they were wrong. The pastors seemed to understand this analogy, and after he taught the Bible study, one said, "We have laid the drainage pipes very deep, so it may take us a while to understand all of this!" At least they are listening, and time will tell how open they want to be, and how hard they want to work to tear out those wrong foundations. Tuesday night's service was with Bro. Betanco. This was the church where we were either in someone's home, or a very small building, but the Lord always met us there is a special way. The Lord has smiled on that little church, and given him a beautiful place to worship. He met a couple who had been fasting and praying for a pastor to come that could use their property for a church. It is in the middle of downtown Talanga, and a wonderful facility for the Lord to use. These people have remodeled it at their expense, and are charging him nothing- not even for electricity. The lady was born in Portugal, but is a Honduran legal resident, and an American citizen. She speaks some English after being there for 35 years. Our time is already half over, yet it seems like we have hardly begun. God is surely doing a work here, and there is no questions that the doors continue to open to this message. The lady pastor that we had service with in the San Pedro Sula area is so hungry to hear more and for us to help her church. She asked Bro. Geinrre if we would still help her if the other pastors in the area were not interested. She was so excited about what she heard, and she felt like she was hearing right from God. I don't know what the future holds here in Honduras, but I do know Who holds the future, and we want to work with Him and for Him in whatever way we can! Thank you all for your prayers. We have spent a lot of time on the road the past few days. We had services at different churches each of the 3 nights that we were in the San Pedro Sula area. We feel like there will be room for us to work there in the future, as several expressed interest in our returning. Unfortunately, it is several hours to drive from that area to our usual area, but if the people are hungry, God will make a way. On Friday, we had nothing scheduled during the day, so we took the opportunity to drive to the Mayan ruins in Copan. It was quite interesting, and it is a very important part of the history of Honduras.
Today we made the long drive back to Tegucugalpa and on to Talanga. While we were in the city, we met with Bro. Jim Phillips for a short time. Bro. Geinrre often works with and interprets for his mission teams when they come here. He is in charge of Love, Truth, Care ministries, and has a great heart for the Honduran people. As we were talking with him about our work here, he made an interesting observation. He said that his experience, as well as others in similar ministries, shows that the real effect of this type of work begins to bring fruit in the 7th year. This past January marks 6 years that we have been coming here to Honduras, so perhaps this will be the year that we will begin to see real fruit for the Lord here. As we came through Talanga on the way to the hotel tonight, we stopped briefly at Bro. Misael's church to say hello to a few that were there working. This is the church that we are helping financially to put on a new roof. Before he could do that, the bathroom had to be moved (it was on the roof.) We were excited to see that the bathroom project is nearly finished, and it was beyond our expectations! Those of you who have been here with us will be amazed when we show you pictures! We are settled into the hotel now (after killing a baby scorpion in the room). We look forward to these next 10 days as we anticipate seeing changes and growth in the people that have been receivng the Word of God in their hearts and applying it to their lives. Thank you for your prayers. We miss you all. |
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