Author: cbond

Preparation and Prayers

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Preparing for this morning, we’ve got VBS and a youth ethics service all within 3 hours. Susie and I are heading up the vbs and I’m doing Two Ways to Live for the youth service. I’m a little nervous just that everything goes smoothly and must importantly that God’s message comes across clearly so any prayers this morning will be greatly appreciated.

By the way, I’m also enjoying some freshly roasted coffee from our translator Hector’s family plantation. It has been such a blessing to work with him this week and the delicious coffee is just like a cherry on top! 🙂

La Rotaria

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We spent the day in La Rotaria going door to door sharing the gospel and then had a fiesta and after that a church service. It was a full day.

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This little guy melted my heart. His name is David and he is 7 years old and super smart but he can’t go to school because he’s blind and they don’t have program for him. He showed me where his shoe was broke because he fell on a rock. He told me he falls a lot but it’s not his fault he said with a smile.

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Susie and I played with the kiddos in the between time of the fiesta and the service. We had a great time and even after church the kids kept coming with their thumbs up ready to play 🙂

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This little guy’s name is Anderson, just like my brother.

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CHU CHU WAH 🙂

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The church service through the leaves.

David and Goliath and other formidable foes

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This was one of the highlights of my day today. In our moments of flexibility we took the kids that we were “prepared” to take outside to do a children’s church kind of thing (we weren’t really prepared but Pamela said we were to the congregation as we took all the kiddos outside before the preaching because they were being kinda loud). We did a few games we could think of and the kids had a good time. Then Hector our translator volunteered to tell a Bible story so he starts by asking the kids which Bible stories they know. Joseph? David? Let’s do David and Goliath. So he did. And he was so great with the kids, even a little boy who was crying he just picked him up which instantly calmed the boy and he used him as a prop for the story. It was so precious. Tears came to my eyes as he told the familiar story and let the kids chime in and say back parts. ( reminded me of Mrs Linda Catheroll at Mt Zion Baptist) it was just a sweet moment and his heart for God and for the kids was so evident, it blessed my heart.

And come to find out there were giants in this community, unbeknownst to us at the time, and God protected us and fought our battles. If God is for us who can be against us!

First day

This year coming to Honduras is a lot different than in 2012. For one, I knew more than a week ahead of time that I was going, which is nice – so I could prepare and pray more ahead of time. I also had been studying Spanish and practicing everyday at work which is a huge help in communicating. I realized in 2012 that Open Eyes ministry is great at connecting folks we share the gospel with to local churches so they get a chance to be discipled, not just to be a number or a stat. This is super important. And it’s great because this year we’re basically focusing on one community each day so we go door to door witnessing in the morning then after lunch we’re doing activities with kids, meeting some kind of physical needs (food and clothing ministries) and then a church service. it was great to see the folks we had witnessed to and prayed with back for the afternoon services.

We were talking today how so many folks back home are doing pintrest projects with pallets: decor, furnitures, art. We saw several houses today that were made up entirely of pallets, not solid walls just old wooden slats. But what got me is how content these sweet people are. I know we don’t have the opportunity in just a half hour or less to really get to know them, but they seem to be happy with what they have. And one Christian family we met especially were just shining with His love, they had a concrete house with a dirt floor and it looked like 2 rooms for their whole family and they had a lot of kiddos (which were adorable by the way) and their faces just showed the joy of Jesus. Todo bien gracias a Dios. All is good thanks to God. I long for that kind of contentment in my own heart

this week is coming to a close

It’s been an amazing week here in Honduras. God has really worked in the hearts of the people here and of us Kentuckians who came down. We had a good afternoon yesterday doing some touristy things. This is all of us in front of Comayagua Cathedral, it’s tower has the oldest clock in the Americas.  And of course I got a few souvenirs! : ) Today has been busy with 2 services and a VBS so far and yet one last service tonight. Collin and I will share our testimonies and Mr. Matt will preach. Today has been a great end to a great week. So blessed to be a part of God working in Central America.

painting sheep

Everyone is chilling now,we just got back fom church and ate supper. Had two proud dads for the service tonight. Isaiah gave his testimony and C-anna sang In Christ Alone. This moment is the calm before the storm – we’re gonna go big before we go home. With three services, vbs, and Rich becoming the tele-evangelist it will be a full day. But we’ll end the trip strong. Today was fun, we fed over 100 kids after sharing the good news that Jesus is our good shepherd. This was the poorest area we’ve been in, one girl Teresa had no shoes, matted up hair, and looked like she was sick with a cold but didnt have tissues. But she had the biggest smile when she won the jumprope contest. And we gave out hygene items to everyone there. They pushed back and tried to get more and it was hard to keep order for a few minutes. We weren’t giving out ipods or the hottest christmas toy, but travel sized toothpaste and toothbrushes. It’s eye opening. I loved facepainting. Its always my favorite part of interacting with kiddos, using what little spanish I knew I was able to ask what they wanted and in what color. I loved seeing their smiles seeing their colorful faces in the mirror. First time Id ever painted sheep, but they went with the Bible story. Baa.

chicken patty thursday

Yesterday was chicken patty thursday! I was too tired to write yesterday after supper but I know some of you guys would appreciate the fact that we had chicken patties for supper last night. It was a long day, lots of time spent on the road driving to our locations ( which with Susie, Isaiah, and Jason with me in the back was quite entertaining! Lol.) The second run of doortodoor evangelism was different than this morning, but still with a purpose. We were able to encourage two catholic believers in their faith and answer some of their questions about scripture. It was neat to be a small part of discipleship on their spiritual journey. Later we had a great turnout for the womensconference. Props to everyone who helped coral the crowd of kiddos. This team is great – everyone just keeps chipping in wherever theres a need.

Ps, congrats to the Hedbergs. Aubrey Ann is beautiful! 🙂

Pps, to the Grom family – Susie found a friend. Dont worry, Ive got video of the monkey with the little monkey. Lol.

Ppss, Anderson, theres a car parts place here that makes me think of you – yonkers. Lol

So it continues…

God has taught me a lot this week so far. I came here with several foreign mission trips under my belt, but with that came expectations that some things would be the same as I was used to. God’s reminded me that different ministries work in different ways and I need to humble myself and serve Him with my whole heart, even if things aren’t what I thought they would be. He’s shown me about myself as well, my heart is discipleship and building relationships, but He has used me in doing other ways of evangelism as well. One lady stood next to her fridge and allowed me to walk her through the Gospel message and decided to accept Christ as Lord and Savior. Through nothing we are doing, just being obedient, we have been blessed to see people come to know the Lord and that’s what life as a Christian is all about. And to know that the people will be followed up with and discipled gives me a peace to just be a part of the harvest.

The younger team members and I had a great time at the bilingual school as well. I am so proud of our youth and encouraged my their strong faith at young ages. Collin, Isaiah, and Christiana are key members of our team. At the school we shared to all the older students about the differences in schools in the US and Collin shared the Gospel with them. When we asked for questions the first boy asked  what we ate for lunch, but the second and subsequent questions were deep spiritual ones. What is Jesus’ love? How do I get forgiven? What is spiritual growth? We were blown away by these middle/highschool kids’ hunger for the truths of God. And when we broke off and talked to the kids less formally one kid would ask us a question and then before we could finish answering 10 kids would be huddled around us listening to us quote scripture and answer their questions. It was awesome.

Now we’re leaving in a few minutes to do our second run door-to-door so I’ve gotta wrap this up. Pray for us as we go to the homes and then later tonight we’ll have the women’s/men’s conference in the same area. I’m sharing the Gospel presentation for the ladies that come, and it feels different than preparing to share with kiddos. We appreciate all your prayers! You’re a part of this mission team in Honduras!

Be the moon – reflect the SON

Last night at the church in Comayagua the big garage door stayed open, which was nice for ventilation, and it allowed us to see the moon hanging in the night sky between two palm trees. Reminded of Jason’s devo from the morning I prayed that God would use me this week like he uses the moon. Just a big chunk of rock in space it can do nothing on its own, but when in the right place it shines super bright – reflecting the sun. And we too, when our hearts are in the right place shine brightly into this dark world for Christ. So let’s all, whether at home or on the foreign mission field, be the moon and reflect the Son.

– CB