God is Good, God is Great…

When we hear this, most of us think of the prayer we learned as a child for meal time, but let me tell you  there is a totally different meaning to these words.  I have yet to post since we arrived, so bear with me this will be long…

Since we have been here, we have been blessed with so many different things.  The first service we led on Sunday had a Baptism (in a portable  pool in their building).  There was also a family from Switzerland that is living in Comayagua for his work and his parents and grandmother had been visiting.  So Pastor Mario had them speak to the church.  We heard them speak in German, the son translated it to Spanish and then Jasmine interpreted it into English.  The son was one of those that were baptized.  Then Sunday evening we went to the CCI church and they had Communion.  We were able to participate, and what a joy that was.  Both the Baptism and Communion are not done every service.  Isn’t it amazing how great God is, to have these events for the services we were at.  Monday took us to the streets in the morning.  We divided into 3 groups for evangelism with Pastor Mao’s church.  We saw a total of 21 salvations professed, every team had at least one.  Monday afternoon we went to the Hospital.  We took stuffed animals for the children, Purse filled with goodies for the women and hats for the men, and of course candy for all.  It was definitely a step up from the Hospital Rich and I visited in Choluteca in 2008, but the others on the trip still felt the impact of their misfortune and our appreciation for the Hospitals in the USA.  Then we had our “free time”.  This was a little strange for Rich and I as last time we did not have “free time” until the last day.  They took us to two Souvenir shops and two parks and to the oldest Clock Tower in all the America’s.  This is attached to a Church and we were allowed to go into the church and take pics, and they let us go up to t he top of the Bell Tower and look out.  The stairs were interesting, as they were not evenly spaced, but it was amazing view of God’s glorious creation in the sky and on Earth.  We then headed to the local mall, just like ours only smaller.  Oh, and there were armed guards in the parking lot.  Back to the house after the mall for supper and share time and prepped for VBS on Tuesday.  

Today we went out in the morning for evangelism with Pastor Orlando’s church.  Our team experienced a total of 45 salvation’s professed.  We also invited everyone to the church service for tonight and the children to the VBS we were putting on at 2pm today.  We then headed back to the house for lunch and regrouped.   We then headed back to Pastor Orlando’ s church for VBS.  There were at least 140 kids plus the adults and our team.  Adam did a great job leading the Bible Story.  He chose when Jesus walks on water in Matthew.  He had others act out the story as he read it from the Bible and then he reemphasized the importance of the story.  Erin asked questions and Beth and Eric gave out the prizes.  I had the kids come up (5 boys and 5 girls) and tell their favorite bible verse.  If they got it right, they got a prize.  We then led them in a few songs and a game of Hot Potato.  The kids lined the walls to play this game.  We then had real game time where the guys took the boys and the ladies took the girls to play games, while Ida, Beth and Erin took the younger ones to color and jump rope.  Then at the end we gave them all candy.  That 2 hours went by so quick.  (Those of you who know Beth will have to ask her about her pants.  She sat on the stage during VBS and ripped her pants on a nail, clear down her leg.  Thank goodness someone had a jacket she could wrap around her waist.)

We are all now relaxing and waiting until we have to get ready for church at 7pm. 

Of course the food is so amazing.  It has been tempting to “cheat” and drink something while I eat, but I am being good so far and having to chose wisely.  Fanny is a terrific cook, and a great housekeeper.

Isaiah is doing unbelievable, although I do not think I should expect any different.  Yesterday he presented the gospel once and today three times.  Today he had presented it to a group of five boys and they all excepted and this is while his other teammates were speaking to someone else.   It is a blessing to see God work not only in your own live, but even more when God works in your Child’s life. 

Well, I think I need to wrap up for now, I will try blog everyday, so it is not so long.

God Bless,

Amy

PS

Adam, Austin and Amber – We love you so much and miss you all.

Mom and Dad – Thanks for the comments and the prayers.

Valerie – Thank you for the encouragement and the prayers, I miss you so much and wish you could have come with us, you would love to be serving God with us.

Work – I do no t regret coming, and although I miss you all, I do not miss the work and the interference with God’s service.  I hope you all enjoy our blogs and can appreciate the work we are doing here.

God is amazing!!

100_5359Today has already proven that God is with us!! Today I was with Ida and we got to witness to several kids and adults. We has 27 confessions of faith!! God is truly amazing. Just to see the excitment on the kids faces when we first tell them about the Lord is truly awesome. This afternoon we are going to have a VBS for the kids!! Continue to pray for us as we do God’s work!! Today total we had 45 confessions of faith, total this week is 66!!! Praise God!!

Stephanie

Today

Today we are going out door to door again.  This is a wonderful opportunity to share what Jesus is doing and has done for us.  This morning as we did our daily devotion we talked about how our salvation is not about us.  It’s about what Christ has done for us.  It’s not about what we have done or what we did in our own lives.  Its all about God and his mercy he has showed us.  Today, as we go out in just a few minutes, and as we share our testimonies and as we share how great and wonderful God is we have to focus on Christ alone.  If we take our eyes off him even for a second we will lose focus of what Christ is about.  This afternoon will be extremely exciting for me as we do a VBS.  I have such a passion to see young children come to know Jesus Christ.   We’re talking about how Jesus walked on water.  Bus is leaving I have to go!!!!

ADAM

First to Rise Yet Again

Leaving 13 degrees behindIt is such a blessing to have hot water this time. I was not looking forward to having cold showers this week, so I am glad that we didn’t have to. Today we are heading out to do some more door-to-door and then later we are going to be doing a VBS in a day. It has been a blessing seeing people step up to volunteer to help plan and organize these events even though they may not know what to expect.

For th most part everyone is working well together and Arlene told me that this group is doing great, so the team gets an “A” for day one and I am proud of their efforts and look forward to what they can do today through Christ!

We all know that Jesus is the strength, power, and purpose of all that we do, and as we are studying this week in our morning devotions, “It’s Not About Me!” My prayer for today is that we all remember that simple message of wisdom from Max Lucado. I know that the easiest way to wreck a trip is to take our focus off of Christ and to turn it ontoKY Basketball in Hondurasourselves. That is when the complaining begins because we are more concerned with our own feelings or wants. I thought it fitting that the Bible story that the team chose for VBS was Jesus walking on the water because in that story Peter took his eyes off of Jesus and began to sink. If we want to walk with Jesus we need to remember to focus on him and him alone and leave our fellings and our selfishness behind.

Rich

The Lords work

100_5178The last few days have been very awesome here!  This country is very beautiful and the people here are so open to talking to us.  The church services here are amazing!  Its fun to watch and listen to the people who love the Lord.  I may not be able to speak their language but I can tell how much love they have for Christ. 

Today as we went out into the towns and talked to the people about Christ, we encountered a few kids who were sitting on the sidewalk.  When I talked to these kids I asked them where they thought they would go if they died today.  All of them said that they either didn’t know or hell.  As I talked to them about the love of Jesus Christ and how he died for our sins, I could see in their faces that they were truely interested.  It was such a blessing to see these children to come to know Jesus today as all of them asked Him into their heart.    It’s so awesome to know that today 21 people accepted the Lord as their Savior.    I ask that you will continue to pray for us while we are on our trip and that you will pray for the people in Honduras.  This country is very open to listening to what we have to say.  One guy even said thank you to us for sharing the gospel.  

I want to say thank you to all of my friends and family who have supported me along the way!  Stay tuned for more posts!!!!!!DSC01496

 

Love you all,

ADAM

My new hermanos, Nelson

Today has been so amazing. The entire trip has been more than I  ever could have imagined, but today was especially100_5206 great. This morning we began our door to door  evangelism in a very poor area of  Comayagua with children and adults being all around. They were all very receptive and welcoming, but very few knew about Jesus, which was exactly why we are here. We saw a total of 21 people pray to recieve Christ today. Praise the Lord. But  1 special little boy really sticks out in my mind. As Stephanie was going through the gospel with a little girl on her door step a little boy came up and sat down on a rock and was listening. I then had the great opportunity to sit down beside him and tell him about God ( of which he had never heard of), and that we are sinners, and how we can have forgiveness because of Jesus’ death on the cross and his resurrection. Then Nelson prayed the sinners prayer and recieved Jesus as his Lord and Savior. We gave him a track, some candy, a frisbee, and a Spanish New Testament Bible. It was great to see his excitement for us and more importantly his new Savior Jesus Christ. Little Nelson then proceeded to follow us all the way back to the church and waved goodbye as our van drove away. It was such a blessing to be the tool that God used to spread His message. God is working in these peoples lives.  So I have learned that when you greet a brother in Christ you call him hermano, which means brother. So from now on when I see little Nelson, I will call him hermanos,Witnessing to Nelson Nelson!

Eye Opener

DSC01506Today was a real eye opener for me. Seeing how little the people here have, but still they are content with what they have it shows me how selfish we really are. I know that I consider myself content with what I have, but it showed me today how mich I really have even though I think I have very little. God has shown me today that it is not what we have that brings contentment, but who we have living in us.

Just a reminder to Christina, make sure when you bring my truck Saturday night that it has a full tank of gas! One more thing, play some “Bride” for Logan. I miss you guys and will see you soon.

Hola Mt. Washington Middle School

Inglesias de DiosI would just like to say “Hola” (hi) to all of my friends back home at MWMS. Every time I think of all of you, I think of how spoiled we are with all the toys and and even having heaters and air conditioners. Just some food for thought; ho many items do you own that you haven’t touched in 1, 2, 3, 4, or even 5 years.

Let me explain why I am saying all of this. Today, as I and my parents, were out sharing the gospel of Jesus, I saw kids that had nothing but were still content. Our friend Eric saw one young boy who was playing with the end of an extension cords as if it were a toy car.

I was able to play soccer today with one of our translators named Gerson (Hair-Sone). He plays soccer for his school. He is 16 and he is fluent in english and spanish of course and he is really good at soccer.View from the Bell Tower

The food here is delicious and I can’t wait to see what Fanny cooks for tomorrow.

We visited a church today. It was a Catholic church that is extremely old. It is so old that it has the oldest clock in North, Central, or South America. We were able to climb up into the bell tower and look out over the city.

We went shopping in an open air market and I bought some neat stuff including a wooden snake, a sling shot, a hand-made wooden box, a hat, and a pair of leather sandals.

That’s enough for today, I will put more on the blog tomorrow, and now I am off to bed.

Hasta Pronto (See you Soon)

ShoppingIsaiah

The Good News

This morning we went door to door evangelizing. My team consisted of the interpreter, Beth, and Eric. The Hondurans were very gracious and welcomed us. We went to 6 homes and was able to share the gospel 3x. Two ladies at one house accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior! Praise the Lord! I felt so calm and at peace. Bro. Keith asked people to pray 2 Sundays ago about is there more that we should be doing in the church. I volunteered to pray about what more I need to be doing. I have my answer of what I am to do. I took the GROW training but have not gone yet door to door. It was so easy sharing the gospel here. I plan to make a concentrated effort to make different arrangements at least for one Tuesday night of the month so I can attend GROW.

This afternoon we went to the local hospital. The hospital is very old. The hospital is nothing like home. You wouldn’t want to be admitted here. I don’t know what the fix is with our healthcare system back home but I am telling you, we are blessed with what we have. We prayed with the patients and families and passed out Bibles, stuffed animals, jewelry, purses, and candy. They were very appreciative.

We went sight seeing for a few hours. There was this very old and gorgeous church. The stone pavement in front of the church was etched like it was a shadow of the church. What came to my mind was how God protects us in His shadow. Also I think of how God protects us like a hen sheltering her chicks. 

How precious is your steadfast love, O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings.” (Psalm 36:7, ESV)

Shopping, Churches, Parks and Hospital

The ParkThis has been a busy afternoon. We went to the hospital and were able to pray for everyone. We gave toys to the children, hats to the men, and purses to the women. I will say that I worried about the conditions of the hospital and most will probably think they were terrible, and by our standards they are, but compared to Choluteca this hospital was wonderful.

We then walked a couple of miles through downtown through the open air market. Of course then we went to the soveigneer shops. We then went to an extremely old church that the translator, Jasmine, said it had the oldest clock in South America in it.Market

We ended up at a mall of all places where we found a Dunkin Donuts. Too bad we spent all our money on souveineers.

There were a number of nice parks that we were able to go to and in one there were even a number of kids breakdancing. Took me back to the eighties.

Dunkin DonutsI am looking forward to tomorrow but I am also hoping that my pain will subside. It has been a long hard day, but so far I am keeping up.

Looking forward to the rest of the week, but already missing home.

RichOld Church