Sunday was our second baptismal service at Templo Evangelico Emanuel where six people were baptized. These baptisms are giving strength to the village church. Yesterday, Wednesday, Cheryl had her procedure done on her kidney; it is too soon to tell if it is going to work. Also yesterday Nicolas took Jose, the man in our church with cancer, to El Salvador to see his doctor who uses naturopathy. Nicolas said it went well. I got a call today from Nicolas saying that pastor Batista’s wife, Juliza, is in the hospital with symptoms that appear serious.
Michael and Savannah’s wedding was last Saturday at her family’s missionary retreat center. As you might imagine it was a very special affair as we didn’t lose a son but gained a daughter. A special blessing was that all of our children, many of our family members and several missionaries and friends from Honduras were there. We are spending some time visiting churches and then will return to Honduras on June 17 in time for a team to arrive from Venezuela on June 20. Another team arriving June 29 will be doing construction and hopes to work on the dorms. We got our building permit! However we do need prayer for another matter. We need special permission from two landowners adjacent to the dormitory lot to build right up to our property line. One property owner lives in New York and another is a sailor.
Evangelist Temple (our church) and the Gathering Hearts for Honduras computer/English school combined to have soccer day. There were approximately 100 players and another 100 spectators in attendance. The day began with a message by Pastor Batista. Afterward the 12 teams, including both teenage boys and girls, began playing at 9 AM, and two by two played straight through until 5 PM. Play was in the form of a tournament with trophies for both guys and girls. Lunch was provided by Evangelistic Temple; there were two tables with different kinds of food. The proceeds from one table went back to the church; proceeds from the other table were used to buy food for the poor. As with all such events, the purpose of the day was to introduce people the new church and invite them to attend.
Last week we had a bit of a scare. It looked as if Nelson and Juliza Batista were going to have to return permanently to Venezuela on March 26. In the meantime we have gotten a lawyer involved. It appears that conditions might be met by the Batistas going over the Guatemalan border every 90 days while they are here. However, the regulations change frequently and we have no guarantees. Please continue to pray. Yesterday morning we went to church at the International Christian Fellowship in San Pedro. We met a gentleman there who owns a business that sells sewing machine parts. He suggested a solution to our three-phase electrical problem; we're in the process of investigating to see if this might be a better option. In the afternoon we went to our church here in the village. Attendance was better than usual.
Last night, well after dark, the man whose organization supplies pastors showed up with someone he thinks would be a good interim pastor. Showing up at night unannounced doesn't make the best impression, but we will certainly pray about it. Today we took Oscar to see the surgeon and get his blood work done. The surgery is scheduled for Thursday morning at 9:30. He says he's eager to get the problem fixed so that he can preach with greater force. Gary, Nicolas and I went out again to the impoverished area and presented the Gospel with the "Storying" method. We prayed with one young man to receive Christ. Second house in homeless housing project finished. What a great fulfillment to help these poor people get houses. There are seven children that live in this house with their parents. One of them is the little boy, Jose Manuel who is crippled. We will soon select the next recipient. Please pray that we could find a lot to build Lourdes her house.
Yesterday Lourdes took us to see that the lot she was interested in. Much like the last one, it was in a very low area and would have required a great deal of fill dirt. Nevertheless, we looked it over carefully and tried to imagine how it might work out for her and for us as we try to help her build a house. She had understood that the lot was going to cost $2000. However, when we talked to the owner, we learned it was $6000. That was out of the question for all of us and put us back to square one
We also had a meeting yesterday with the directors of Happy Days private school to discuss scholarships that are being funded by a group from Tulsa. The directors, Rosa and José began by saying they are going to match those 10 scholarships with another 10. Thus, 20 very needy students will have an opportunity to begin receiving a very good education. (We will need to help them to purchase more desks). They also reported that Laurdes’s his three children, Carlos, Perla, and Esmeralda are doing very well. They invited one of the teachers into the meeting who said that in his class, which includes older students, Perla is at the top of the class. This morning we had a meeting with those in charge of the biosand filter project in Seis de Mayo. The OSU engineering students handed the project over to this group and they have done a good job. They have built and sold 19 filter units and have a list of 30 more people who want to buy one. They are using the money from the sale of the units to invest back into materials and labor; and they have a little left over as profit. Oscar stopped by this morning and I was able to tell him that we have the money for his surgery and that we have an appointment with the surgeon on Monday. This afternoon we had a meeting with a man who is connected to an organization that supplies pastors. We had a good visit about our situation here and how it might relate to his organization. He seems to feel confident that they could supply the pastor that we are looking for to fulfill our various roles. It was our first meeting and we will stay in touch. Gary and I will be leaving for Honduras early tomorrow morning, June 25th. Tuesday, June 26th we will be on our way to the capital (Tegucigalpa) to continue to process the request for our residency. Please pray for us. Getting our residency would enable us to stay in the country longer than two months, and provide the basis for us to apply for the equivalent of a 501C3, which would decrease or eliminate the taxes on the mission center. It would also enable us to transact business easier.
Gary is doing significantly better and will be getting more and more involved with the work. We believe that God truly intervened. Thank you for your prayers. 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.
I wrote last week that I talked to Alfredo Orillana in North Carolina and asked if he plans to return to Honduras soon. He is the one who is an excellent woodworker, but moved to the states five or six years ago to find work enough to support his family. When we ended our conversation last week he said "I'll call you next Tuesday." I was curious to know if he really would, but knowing Alfredo, I really expected a call. Well, tonight as we were in the middle of our sharing session he called and we had another conversation about his and our future plans. We have not arrived at any agreement yet, but we will be talking again within the next couple weeks. Our hope is that he would come back now and assume leadership of our woodworking classes.
Another of the patients today was a young man who seemed very cold and hard. Every chance I got I spoke with him and eventually asked him if he had a church. He said he goes to church in Campana and his pastor's name is Samuel. Well, that is the church where the 21 young men came forward in 2006 when the Baptist Chapel youth group was here. As some of you know, we have had a hard time following up on those guys because, being gang related, they are hard to find. I called him into my office where I have a large picture of them on my bulletin board. I asked him, "Do you know any of these guys?" He broke out in a broad smile and said "I know every one of them." I think he will be our contact to follow up on these guys.
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