This week has been an experience I will never forget.  Yesterday was a very long day for all of us.  However, God gives us all strength to be able to get through the day.  On Tuesday we had a VBS and the kids there were beautiful.  As I read them the story from Matthew  about God walking on water I could see on their faces how closesly they were paying attention to me and others acting it out.  It was fun b/c we didn’t have a huge setup with props everywhere.  We had four tubs for our boat, two blue sheets for the water and bats as paddles!!  It’s sad to know that in North America we make our VBS as elegant as we can in part b/c our children are spoiled.  One look at what the children down here have and you think to yourself “I feel so sorry for them.”  But they are content and don’t know anything more then what they own.  I think at churches in U.S. we take away what is truely important and that is Christ.  The VBS was also fun b/c we taught the children how to play poto, poto, gonzo (duck, duck, goose)  They had no idea what the game was. 

This week has been so much fun and the worship services here are awesome!  They aren’t afraid to sing out to the Lord and to say AMEN!  The church the other night was small but so loud!  They go to church here every night and if they can sing loud, raise their hands, and praise God all through the service, why can’t we do that on the one day we give God?  The services here last an 1 1/2 hours or more.  I’m sad that this week is drawing to an end.  But I know that I can take back what these people have helped me understand even more.  And that is how to truely worship God with all your heart and all your strength. 

Love,

ADAM

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Today was the day that I had prepared for the most. It was our leadership day and my plan was to preach on the book of 1 John. This is why we had used these passages on Wednesday Nights back home. But God has a sense of humor. He has been expressing it all week this week. Everyday I have spent a number of hours studying and writing sermons because God has changed them altogether. Today was no different.

We did not have a leadership night tonight. I was told at the beginning of the week that the zone pastors met and they decided that this year was going to be an evangelism year and that all of the teams that came this year they want them to push evangelism so my message changed. The only issue was that I had no access to my computer because we were about 2 hours away from Comayagua (only 1 hour coming home, all down-hill). But God knows what he is doing and all went well.

We met with a little resistance today in both people and health. During evangelism time this morning there were many who were just completely resistant to the gospel and to us even being there. A few of us had said that if this was the first time out we would be discouraged, but with 98 professions of faith, We are all still ready for more.

Our resistance in health was not from me surprisingly, I made it all day with only aleve this morning, but it was from Eric. Do not fear, he is fine and joking with the best of us now. We were afraid that his blood pressure was high because he was getting a “weird” feeling that he could not explain and was half dizzy. He told us that his blood pressure medicine did not come in before we left so he had not taken it since we arrived. Thankfully, pharmacies in Honduras don’t require you to have a prescription for much of anything so we were able to get his medicine. Before we gave it to him, we also had his blood-pressure checked and he was fine. It was not high at all.

After all of this, what we found was that he was going through withdrawls from cafeine. Since he did not have his medicine he did not want to drink his normal coke per day since we left and he was feeling the effects. I am not sure if it was the medicine or the coca-cola that did the trick, but he was fired up and ready to roll in a few hours. So back tot he coke a day Eric!

It is late so I will end here. The service tonight was amazing, and I am so proud of the team and the energy they have out into the trip. I have figured out though, that if we come back, we need to bring more candy and stuffed toys, we have almost run out already.

I think next time I want to go to Costa Rica though, but we will have to wait and see.

Hasta Manyana

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Today we went into Siguatepeque; a northern city. We did evangelism this a.m. and p.m. and 36 people accepted Christ today. Today my team was Beth and Wes. One man who accepted Christ stated, “I never let anyone get close to me before to tell me about the Lord.” He was working outside and he easily conversed with us. Another story is that some children saw us and ran to their Mom saying, “The Americanos are coming!” She locked the door and didn’t want to talk to us because she thought we were Jehovah Witnesses. Once she found out who we were, she talked to us. She accepted Christ as she wept.

Mid-day we hosted a fiesta. Three children accepted Christ. I was part of a drama team that performed The Sin Box. I totally enjoyed it!

I gave my testimony again tonight in service. Forty one years ago, a person came to my childhood home and invited us to church. I was thinking about that as I was going door to door doing the same thing. The person never knew what happened to me spiritually speaking. Likewise, we will never know what seeds will produce fruit here in Honduras.  Only in Heaven will we truly know.

I am having a great time learning about the Hondurans and their culture. Seeing so many come to Christ is awesome! I am so glad I’m here.

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Really tired. Need bed. Just wanted to say that we’ve got 98 salvations so far this week.

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Yesterday was such an amazing day!! First we went evangelizing and I got to talk to so many kids and people, the people hear just love talking to you about Jesus. Sometimes when we are talking to other people others will be interested and start to listen or stand there and wait for us to talk to them its really cool how they want to see what we are talking about and are so receptive. Ida and I got to  talk to so many, once the day was over we realized we had 27 confessions of faith. We had one young man that didn’t want to receive Christ so we just tried to encourage him and we gave him a bible, tract and Christian book. So please be praying for his heart.

Later in the day we had a 2 hour VBS for kids. We had so many that came and they seemed so excited to be there !! While the bible story was going on I got to hold this little girl and she ended up falling asleep on my shoulder it was so sweet. Some of you know how much I love babies so this was so precious to me. Then outside, Wes and I got to lead games, we did some relay races where they sent frisbees down the line to see who was fastest. Then we did duck, duck, goose they loved it and some of them had never played it. I ended up sitting by a little girl I had witnessed to that morning she ended up giving me a hug and kiss on the cheek when we left. It was so cool!!

Last night we went to a worship service. The spirit was so moving and they turned the lights out while we sang songs and just lights were on the stage, the worship service was so awesome and humbling. Then Ida, Beth and I sang “You are God Alone”, I told the people to worship with us in Spanish even though we were singing in English. Eric gave his testimony it was really moving. Rich’s sermon was also very awesome afterwards we had an invitation and a few people came up. One was a woman we had talked to that morning and she had been hurting in the back and neck, Ida and I just laid hands on her and prayed for her in English even though she couldn’t understand us she still prayed to the heavens and worshipped God. You could truly feel the Holy Spirit moving in that place. Afterwards our interpreter who name is Gerson (Harrison it makes me think of you because he says it that way!!) said that the woman said that the woman said she was healed, that made me so happy.

Well now we are getting ready to drive an hour up into the mountains where it is a little cooler than where we are now. We are going to evangelize, do a skit (fiesta) and a church service we are taking lunch with us and won’t be back until dinner. So pray for us today as we go out!! Love you all and thanks for all the wonderful comments!!

In Christ,

Stephanie

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Wow! God has done so many amazing things so far. And I cannot believe we’re already 4 days in. It is all passing by too fast! There is so much that I have already experienced God do in the lives of the people in Honduras and in mine. Way too much to share! We have already experienced 66 salvations in only 5 hours of door-to-door evangelism!!!! I’ve been in the most humbling worship services. I’ve seen 8 people baptized in one service. Been a part of a church’s Communion. And attempted to speak some Spanish!

I could go on and on, but one simple thing that has stuck out to me is how beautiful God’s creation is here. The mountains here are simply breathtaking. And in actuality, the creation and scenery in our own hometowns are just as beautiful. But how often do we actually take the time to enjoy God’s creation and worship Him through it? I took this picture from a bell tower we were able to climb. In these moments I feel so small in God’s presence. His power amazes me.

God is moving so much. I don’t want the trip to pass by too fast, but I cannot wait to see what God is going to do tomorrow!

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Today was another great day. I ‘m sad that it is already half way over. There is so much to talk about that I do not know where to start. We went out door to door this morning. This has never been something that I was comfortable with doing even though I was willing. This week has opened my eyes and I have a new found courage to share God’s word. The more you do it the easier it is.  This week has tought me that even though doing cards and making phone calls at GROW is great,door to door is truely an awesome expirence in it’s self. It is going to be much easier and I will no longer be so relunctant to go.

We did a VBS with the children today and it was greater than I could have imagined. Adam lead the bible story as the rest of the group acted out the story. we sang songs with the children and played games we had about 130-140 kids. at one point we played a game and we had enough children that when they lined up they filled the room from wall to wall it was truely amazing. Tonight we had one of the best worship services yet. Rich had a wonderful service and it is so amazing to know and see that our God is their God even when we can’t speak the same language. Attiendance was not high tonight due to the wheather,there was probably only 20-30 people excluding us but that place was alive. When we worshiped through singing the noise was louder than our church packed to capacity, at one point we were singing “Here I am to worship” in spanish and without even realizing it Amy and I were singing along with them in spanish. the work that God has done here is unbelieveable and this has been a trip that has truely touched my heat and changed my heart forever. God is truely amazing.

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Worship was awesome tonight! This church had less people attending than the others but they were very passionate, loud, and demonstrative in their praise to the Lord. We did have electricity and we did sing You Are God Alone. The neat thing was a lady who we had prayed for during evangelism time attended the service. We prayed that God would heal her back/neck pain earlier in the day. The lady went forward and prayed at the end of the service. Stephanie and I went to pray with her. We found out that she had no more pain after we had left! Praise be to God for His healing hand!

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This morning we went out evangelizingng. I went out with Wes and Eric and our interpretor, Jasmine. I got to share the message of Jesus with 5 kids at one time and all of them accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Eric and Wes were talking to their father who was a Jehovah’s Witness.

We had a VBS session this afternoon and we were only expecting 30-40 kids and 130-140 kids showed up.

One of the things that we did was we taught the children to play duck, duck, goose (pato, pato, gonzo) and they had never heard of that game before. They liked the game, but I have never seen a game of duck, duck, goose turn to violence. Two young boys got into a scuffle when one tripped the other while he was trying to catch the goose. The other, even though he was smaller, decided to hit the other kid. We had to seperate them, but this is what happens when you have someone who is not a Christian playing a game and wanting to win.

We still have to go to church tonight sI have to get ready.

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This morning we loaded our backpacks with Bibles, Christian books, stuffed animals, and candy. We started out going from house to house. Eventually there was so many people in the street that we just witnessed to people in the road. Stephanie and I were a team. Whew! What a spiritual workout. We took turns witnessing and between the two of us 27 people accepted Jesus. It seems so surreal to see so many people accept Christ. I pray they are all planted on good soil. After lunch, we held a 2 hour VBS. We did a drama with the Bible story that Adam presented. I was one of the disciples in the boat when Jesus was walking on water. Totally fun! Then I was in charge later of the preschoolers who colored. They are so sweet. They talked to me but I couldn’t understand them. My interpreter had already left me. So I smiled, clapped my hands, and gave them the thumbs up when they would show me their work.

Now I am waiting for church to start. Beth, Stephanie and I were supposed to sing a song tonight but we hear they have no electricity, so we will do it tomorrow night. I’ll have to take my flashlight to church.  🙂

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