Yesterday was a busy day; we had three major events all going on at the same time: we were in the midst of negotiations between a former employee and the Honduras Department of Labor; our new pastor and his wife were ready and waiting for their first assignment; and we had eight of the 10 private school scholarship recipients on the front porch waiting to have their picture taken. Though not picture perfect, by the end of the day everything had been taken care of…We’re gearing up for the new school year. Tomorrow we will be taking four children to Puerto Cortes to buy books, uniforms, and other supplies. Nelson needs more supplies and equipment too; he has about 45 new computer/English students…. I spent the morning today going house to house in Seis de Mayo introducing the new pastor and his wife. In several cases we were invited inside the house where Pastor Batista had opportunity to share the Gospel. What a blessing that was. We invited them to attend church on Sunday.
Nelson and Juliza Batista arrived in San Pedro Sula at 8:30 Saturday evening, 26th of January. Even though we had never seen them, we had no problem recognizing each other; there was an immediate feeling of kinship. We are so very grateful to the Southern Reform Church in Kalamazoo and to First Fruits Ministry in Tulsa with their pastor, Eleazar Bermudez in Venezuela to help make this possible.
We spent that first night at the Paz Family hotel in San Pedro and then Sunday morning we took them out to our house in Los Portales for a time of discussion and prayer. In talking to Nelson it is very clear that he has had experience in developing a church and leading its people into discipleship. An hour before the service at our village church, one of the members brought a meal for all of us, including the Paz family. Again it was a good time of fellowship and a further opportunity to get to know the pastor and his wife before the service began at 3 PM. Nelson did not preach this first Sunday; actually this was Selvin’s (Luis’s son-in-law) last Sunday to preach for a while. Nelson and Juliza did introduce themselves, gave information about their background and their plans while they are here. Since the parsonage is not yet finished the Batista’s are staying at the Paz Hotel in San Pedro Sula. Gathering Hearts donated a significant amount to get the parsonage finished. We had a very positive meeting with the directors of the private school on Wednesday. They have the names of the 10 little ones who have been chosen to receive scholarships starting in February. One of them is Oscar’s son. They also showed us Laurdes’s children’s grades. Perla is at the very top of her class and Esmeralda’s grades are almost that high. Perhaps the biggest victory is that Carlitos is near 90%. … Also on Wednesday we learned that Eliazar is bringing a team of 6 in April for door to door evangelism. That was good news. The bad news—since the production facility is not in our name we need Luis’s permission to connect electricity. He’s not planning to give it…. Madonna was sick Friday but sent her nurse and two helpers to hold clinic anyway. They saw 17 patients….
It seems that on most days our singular purpose is to get the job done. However, God often has a higher purpose, like teaching us to pray, to trust, to see the bigger picture. We did not get our legal documents to the capital, but we made progress on it. We are trying to get the equivalent of 501 C3 here in Honduras that would give the ministry tax exempt status and also expedite our containers coming in. After all we did to get it rushed through Stuart Rains (our lawyer) office; we needed GH board member signatures, so we or I will need to come to the states for a board meeting and to get this to the state department.. It then goes through the Embassy.
The land owner, Luis Paz is providing housing for the pastor and his wife. He is refurbishing part of a house here that he owns. As of now, it is not finished. Please pray that housing would be provided for them. We found out yesterday that the electric company will not permit us to connect the production center because the property is not in our name. Our land owner has it. The land owner would prefer that we find another way to get connected. We are near starting production; the team from the Landau company in Cortes are ready to come out and help us train the employees. We got word last night of another delay on the pastor coming in. We were prepared for him to come tomorrow and now he won’t be here until Saturday. That will at least give Luis’s crew a few more days to work on the apartment as it is not yet finished. Luis has offered to let them stay at his hotel until they can move into the renovated apartment—hopefully soon, but probably not for a month…. We went to the electric company yesterday to arrange for the electricity to be hooked up to the production center. Not surprisingly they said the request must come from the owner. So, we are working with Luis on that too…It certainly is good to have Keila back.
Gary and I arrived back in Honduras Saturday afternoon. We made all of our connections going stand-by. So good to see Nicolas who was there waiting for us. We were surprised at how “cold” it was here….in the 60’s. Our Honduran friends say they are “freezing” !
It was great to be reunited with our fellow missionaries and friends at the International Christian Fellowship this morning in San Pedro. We all go out after church and get caught up. We were also reunited with our Honduras church this afternoon here in Las Portales. Tomorrow we will be with our workers and get updated. The pastor from Venezuela and his wife will arrive Wednesday. Please pray that their apartment which is under construction will be finished in time. Our guard dog, Rusty, will have to be put to sleep tomorrow. He has been a faithful worker and dear companion to Nicolas. Gary and Nicolas will be going to the electric company tomorrow to “plead our case” to get the production center connected. Mauricio, factory manager in Puerto Cortes is ready to get his crew out here to finish setting it up We certainly enjoyed the Christmas season this year as all of the kids were home for the holidays. We enjoyed greatly our time with each one of them; but equally enjoyable was seeing how much they enjoy each other.
It hasn’t been all play and no work, however. We are as busy working for Gathering Hearts here in the States as we are when we’re in Honduras. We have had to work on banking problems, Honduras tax exempt status, and we have met with several groups who have a continuing interest in the ministry. We also stay in constant contact with our workers down there. |