Gathering Hearts for Honduras

_Yesterday we made it through the high waters and handed out 300 gifts in El Sauce. Once we got there, all went pretty well.  As usual, the crowd was more orderly than in Seis. Last time I saw water that high back there was about 10 years ago.  Jennifer and I were headed for sewing class; she was wearing fireman’s boots and riding on the back of a horse...  In the afternoon Joel and I went to Seis to inspect the water filters. We want to be up-to-date when the OSU engineering students arrive January 3 to continue the project.  Oscar was by yesterday. His church is targeting parents that send their kids but don't attend.  The kids will receive a Christmas gift if they bring their parents to church. Great idea. We’ll be helping him with gifts.                         _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Sunday a friend at church said with sadness that when her son went away to college he pretty much stopped going to church.  Unfortunately, that's happening a lot. The Barna group recently reported, “... about 3 out of 10 people who grow up with a Christian background stay faithful to the church and to faith throughout their transition from the teen years through their 20s”. LifeWay Research found the same thing—30% stay, 70% leave. The first time I came across those figures I was shocked. It's tempting to blame peer pressure or professors teaching about evolution. But the young people say that’s not the case; they put the problem inside the church. So what are they seeing in us that makes them want to leave?   I'm sure there are no easy answers, but it's something we need think about.

Our freight arrived in Puerto Cortes yesterday, so now we have seven days to process it. The customs broker will let Nicholas start the process as soon as I send a signed release and certain other documents. Some of that information is back in Tulsa so I won't be able to do that until Monday. I will be returning to Honduras on Wednesday… Being back in the States and watching the “news” with all its trivial content, I am reminded once again of our incredible capacity for communicating, with so incredibly little to say.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY:  If our lives are to illustrate the unmistakable presence of God, many of us will have to initiate a radical change. What do we change?  Years ago I sat in an evangelistic meeting and heard the preacher say, "Unless you make a major change in your prayer life today, in five years your spiritual life will be no further along than it is right now." The reverse of that is also true.  If we make a major change in our prayer life today, in five years our spiritual life will be much further along than it is right now.  In fact, I think we would be astonished if we could see how much further along.

I got a note from Nicolas today and he is ready to start handing out tickets for the Christmas gifts-- 300 in El Sauce and 500 in Seis.  It’s quite possible that the container will arrive next week….I sent an email to Mauricio Mayer,  manager of the Landau factory in Cortes and told him I’d be back middle of the month.  Here is his response, “Awsome.  We will be waiting for you. We already have your machines set up and our team is ready to set this up.” 

THOUGHT FOR TODAY:  God told Ezekiel that if he failed to warn the people of the consequences of their sinful ways, their blood would be on his hands (Ezekiel 33).  As they say, any passage has one interpretation, but many applications.  One application might be that if our lives fail to present a clear picture of Christ to those who don’t know Him, we share in the guilt if they go to hell.  We need to begin doing whatever it takes to sharpen the image of Christ we are presenting.

We got good news from Tom Hagen yesterday.  The freight for our container, 13,650 pounds of it, (including 800 Christmas gifts for our kids) left Tulsa yesterday and should have arrived in Gulfport today.  We were not expecting it to ship to Honduras for a couple of weeks yet, but it will likely leave on Monday.  That's great news but changes my schedule somewhat, and I'll have to return to Honduras a little sooner than I expected.  We have an event in Tulsa the night of the 13th; and a day or two later I’ll leave . Actually, it will probably work out for the best as there are two other things coming up in November. First, we are expecting a vehicle to come into a dealership in San Pedro, and when it arrives we have only 10 days to process the paperwork. Also, the general manager of the Landau factory wants to bring his team out at least twice before the end of the year in order to get the sewing production project all set up. Therefore I really do need to be there, though it looks like I may not be at home for Thanksgiving this year... Nicholas has decided to stay in his apartment in Campana instead of moving into the rent house, so he and the others have cleared out all our stuff. It's the best thing to do, but it's also a little sad. That little house has been a bit like home for the last 10 years.  

THOUGHT FOR TODAY:  You can be sure people are indeed looking on.   A missionary to China wrote, "The church has been and always will be persecuted. Everyone watches us. If we die in faith, hope, and love, it can change the history of nations. If we fail to stand in love and hope for our faith, nations often can reject Christ."   Taken from "Extreme Devotion" published by The Voice of the Martyrs.

Each year, Beacon Hill Baptist Church, our sending church in Owasso, Oklahoma,sends Christmas boxes to the needy children in the impoverished villages near Seis de Mayo, Honduras. Many of these children have never received a Christmas gift and it is the event of the year for them. Each box not only has gifts, but personal hygiene items, school supplies and a child's coloring book presenting the Gospel. This has proved to be a successful evangelistic tool as well as enabling the Kuneys to win the trust of the people. The day the gifts are distributed long lines form and often there is a need for crowd control. Nevertheless, this has been a rewarding experience and it has helped to reach people of not only Seis de Mayo, near the mission center, but in what we call the "jungle area" as well where there is severe poverty. We are indebted to Candy Matheny who heads up the gifts and to Tom Hagen who heads up getting the cargo boxed and shipped.

You, your Sunday school class or organization can donate items or financially help to purchase items. Each box contains hygiene items (soap, tooth paste, tooth brush, wash cloth), packaged snack, crayons, notebook, Gospel coloring book, two toys (ball, doll, car, jump rope, etc.)  If you would like to participate in this incredible ministry opportunity, contact gatheringhearts@gmail.com  .  The following are extensive lists of the various items needed for the different age groups of children.