Pablo Diaz came from San Pedro to preach today; attendance was down from the massive 25 or so we had last week. Afterward the Paz family and I asked him for his thoughts about being our pastor. He's not as near a decision as I thought; needs more dialogue with his pastor and leaders of his denomination....The new roof is on but they didn't use enough screws. Luis is pursuing that. George will begin resurfacing the floor in a couple of weeks.
THOUGHT FOR TODAY: Dissonance theory would predict one of two responses when there is a difference between our expressed belief about prayer and our prayer life -- change one or the other. I think we Believers have come up with a third option: just try not to think about it.This may seem safer, but really it's not. A serious problem should be faced head-on; you're not likely to solve it looking out of the corner of your eye.
This was the second Sunday that we had services in the new church. Victor Arteaga from Peru, by way of Tulsa, preached in the morning and afternoon. Before morning service we walked through the streets of Seis…. Pottersville still. Counting both services we had about 35 people; Melissa Paz and family came and Erika led singing…. This noon Nicholas and I went looking for Dr. Castellanos, the physician that the mayor promised us. When no one in either Seis de Mayo or Gran Via seemed to know him I stopped at a pulperia and asked the 2 men sitting there if they had ever heard of him. One said, “I’m Dr. Castellanos.” Turns out he lives just on the other side of the wall from the Center. He’s going to meet with us on Wednesday; speaks English and his daughter is a dentist.
THOUGHT FOR TODAY: To "do something different" may not be as easy as it sounds. On December 23, 1983 God made it clear, "you're not waiting for me – I'm waiting for you." It was another 16 years before I really took the step of faith.
What a blessing it was to hold our first service in the new church here in Las Portales. Seis de Mayo and Las Portales (our new colonial) do not have a church, so it was a special day to see some of the village people attend.
We were privileged to have Eleazar Bermudez, pastor and pastor’s trainer in Venezuela, fly in for a pastor’s conference and to be our special speaker for our first service in the new church.
Gary greeting the congregation and introducing Eleazar
First new convert of the church
One of the villagers, Antonio, came forward to accept Christ.
Pray with us that we could find the right pastor who would disciple new converts, do visitation in the villages and continue services. There is much potential for church growth among our students and villagers
Mr and Mrs Paz giving the benediction
The Pas family attended. This church is an answer to prayer for not only the Kuney family, but for Luis’s family as well. We did not have musicians or music other than a CD, but at the end of the service, the Paz’s daughter Erika, who has a beautiful voice led us in singing acapella. It was a perfect ending to a monumental day.
Red alert due to 100% humidity and 104°. Electricity was off all day. Teachers are still on strike; this was day 17 with no classes. Luis Paz and family visited today. He gave us freedom to use the new church building as much as we like next week when Eleazar Bermudez is here. Luis has been keeping up with our blogs and is excited about the manufacturing project. He gave us quotes on new roofing, named George to do the work, and offered us additional space. Actually, it was an excellent meeting. This week we had heavy expenses, but thank God we were able to cover them all … except the last one for $7811.96 lempiras. This afternoon Nelson handed me money he had collected for tuition -- 7800 lempiras. We had to come up with 63 cents. Got a call from the first of the “23 young men” today—Ferrio Ramirez re 4/9 meeting with Eliazar. Please pray.
THOUGHT FOR TODAY: Last night I reported how that a number of things fell quickly and somewhat unexpectedly into place leading to a successful surgery for Oscar. That was the answer to one of your prayers on March 1 and I never even mentioned it. That reveals something about my prayer life that needs attention.
I got an e-mail from Tyler yesterday that he has received from Nicholas the computer reports that he requested. I really didn't think he'd know how to do it; I guess I better get some lessons when I get back. First United Methodist Church had their first meeting Sunday to prepare for their March trip to visit us. They will have 12 team members. Because of heavy spring break traffic they're going to have to stick with the 10 PM arrival in San Pedro. We have discussed the safety and security risks involved in a late flight but there appeared to be no other reasonable options. We got a note from Denny Boersema today saying that Luis Paz finally received the donation from the church in Kalamazoo and will now continue on with the windows and pews in the new church. Today I contacted the Costa Azul hotel to make preliminary arrangements for the two groups arriving in Honduras in March. Tonight Michael and I met with the Carpenters Sunday School class from First Methodist. We gave a report of some of the highlights from last year and our hopes and aspirations for the coming year. This is always such an encouraging time.
Denny Boersema, Gary & Casper Geisterfer, CRWM
Today we had Luis Paz and family along with Denny Boersema for lunch to discuss the church and the appointment of the pastor. Even though we come from varying points of view, I think we are in agreement about the type of person we need to pastor the church.
We also talked about Gathering Hearts and some of our plans for the future, including our plan to begin manufacturing goods for sale in the US. At that, Luis said, almost incidentally, that he had a vision of us using his house here and the rice processing plant as a place to begin manufacturing goods.
The meeting was held in the new church.
You could have knocked us over with a feather. In fact, I asked him to repeat it just to be sure we understood it correctly. We had thought that we would need to purchase that building to use it and wondered just how we were going to get those funds.
Other aspects of this manufacturing projects seem to be coming together as well. Yesterday Flor told me that Alfredo is planning to come back Honduras from North Carolina soon; it sounded like quite soon. From the very start, he is the one we had in mind to be in charge of the woodworking operations. Today we had a message from Margaret Brewer saying that she and Linda Bullock are planning a trip here shortly after the first of the year. They are coming in order to train the sewing ladies to begin making articles for sale.
Helens Snipes left at about noon on Friday. Afterward Cheryl and I ran errands and then met Mike and Sherrill Gasinski for dinner. We have gone to church together for the last several years but never really got to know them very well. We had a great time of fellowship together. Cheryl and I then went to Frank and Phoebe Harrison's to spend the night as it was well after dark. We also had a great time with them. Frank had been studying the book of First Peter and shared some very encouraging thoughts. On Saturday we ran the rest of our errands and then went back to the mission center for the evening. On Sunday Cheryl was the worship leader at church and I had the communion meditation. Afterward we went to the airport to pick up Denny Boersma who had come from Michigan to help with the process of selecting a new pastor for our church here. During the afternoon we met with the Honduran representatives for the Reformed Church, and then attended church service and meeting afterward with the pastors who have an interest in helping us fill the pulpit. Denny has been working on the water filtration system today, and also additional computer connections to the satellite dish. But we have also had a couple of prayer, talk sessions about how to best choose the pastor; and about preparing for the first phase of construction of the dormitories. These were extremely productive times and we are very much encouraged with regard to both initiatives.
Today was church in San Pedro Sula. Our plan as of a couple of days ago was that we would begin training Beto to drive in San Pedro so that he could take us to church a couple times a month and Nicholas the other two. That way they would each have two Sundays off during the month. However, that idea was pretty much scrapped Friday when Beto had another couple of near misses in San Pedro traffic. We will have to come up with another plan to give Nicholas a couple Sundays off per month. After lunch today we had the biannual church meeting. The big item on the agenda was to appoint two elders. Nominations were made and will be presented to the congregation in two weeks. When those names are announced I'm sure that many of you will recognize both of them. When we got home tonight I went to print some documents on the computer, and discovered that the printer has disappeared again. Not quite sure what the problem is; we will have to look into it further tomorrow. About that same time, Cheryl called from the utility room where she discovered that the freezer was not working. I'm not sure how long the problem and been going on, but much of the stuff that was in there was thawed. Will have to look into that tomorrow, too, along with an air conditioner that's not been working properly.
Tonight we had dinner with Larry and Ruth Ann Wells of First Baptist Church Broken Arrow and with the Brister's from Parkview Baptist Church in Tulsa. Over the years they have been very successful in church planting and church growth in Venezuela. It was they who sponsored Eliezer and Karina Bermudez's visit to our mission center in the springtime to hold pastor training and education sessions. Last night they described to us a plan that Eliezer and his group have developed to evangelize the entire nation of Venezuela. It is incredible. That really typifies something we have had in the back of our minds as we have said on occasion that the pastors are the hope for the future in Honduras. I hope that we can gain from their experience and understanding to begin developing such a plan for Honduras.
Denny Boersema mentioned to me yesterday that he and Pastor Dan have made contact with another pastor who worked in Honduras for many years. He was saying that maybe they will contact this man; he could give them valuable information that perhaps we could apply to our pastor training program.
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