We had the privilege of taking a group of our teenagers to a home for troubled teens where we had a service and shared the gospel. We first came in contact with this home through a boy who had been coming to our church. Secretly he had been getting involved in a gang and when his mother found out, she brought him to this home and they moved from the house where they were living because of threats from the gang. He has been here for several months. There are about 40 boys and teens that live here, many of them are trying to escape the gangs, or get off of drugs.

Our teens introduced themselves to the group and a few shared testimonies then we sang choruses together before the message.

God's presence was definitely felt in the service. I shared from Ecclesiastes on the verse, "remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth". God was speaking throughout the message to their hearts.

At the end of the message I gave an invitation to anyone who wanted to give their hearts to Jesus. About ten boys came forward to pray to be saved. What a joy to pray the sinners prayer with them! Please remember them in your prayers, the spiritual needs here are so great. These boys come from broken homes, abusive parents, drugs and gangs, it's a miracle that many of them are still alive, only because of the grace of God. Pray that here they will find new life and a new beginning the road ahead is long and hard.

Our teens with the boys from the home.

Last weekend was a busy weekend of church activities. The church people have been working hard to raise funds for the church as well as money to send our young people to a youth retreat at the end of November. One of the fundraisers was selling tamales. We made and sold over 300!

Filling up the bucket of corn dough to make the tamales.

The kids had fun playing while the adults were busy working.

Hannah's very first hand-wrapped tamale. Way to go!

Wrapping up the tamale that is filled with pork and potatoes. Afterwards they are steamed for about an hour.

The same weekend we made tamales we also had a garage sale. The funds went towards the youth retreat.

The day of the garage sale the boys had a lemonade stand. They were so excited to have their first lemonade business. Even when Daniel woke up that morning one of the first things he said was, "money...bank...lemonade....cup" Daniel was the banker and Joseph was the seller.

Here just about everything is sold in bags, so that is how we sold our lemonade. We got a bag of fresh lemons from Las Delicias and ol'e boy was it ever good!

Joseph and his friend Diane.

On our last post we told you about Joseph's new school but we didn't update you on Daniel. So we want to tell you what he has been up to. He is still going to a place called Teleton. It is a class that helps to prep children with special needs for kindergarten. They do physical activities to help them with their motor skills as well as work with words and crafts. He has learned to enjoy it. At first he felt embarrassed not knowing the people but now he feels at home. Here he is front of Teleton.

This is his workbook. Sometimes he has to paint or post pictures of objects they are learning the names for in this book.

This is his classroom. There are about five students in his class.

Here they are doing an activity with clothespins. They had to squeeze the clothespin and hang different objects like circle, squares, or triangles. This was to help with his motor skills. The other little girl is called Milley, they both get along really well.

 Doing what Daniel does best.

At home we are also using an online speech therapy program called Gemiini. It uses videos to teach words and pronunciation. We are seeing his vocabulary improve. Keep him in your prayers that God will continue to help his development, we know that God has something very special for this little boy.

For the last few years Joseph has attended a secular school. The school had a good curriculum but there were a lot of things that we did not like. We really wanted  Joseph to be able to attend a Christian school. We found a nice A.C.E. bilingual school a lot closer to our house than his previous school. We decided to make the switch and we are so glad that we did. Joseph has been doing so much better and the best part of all is that he is memorizing Bible verses and receiving a Bible-based education. He has adapted well and made new friends. The director of the school noted that he got along so well with the other students you would think he would have known them for years.

He wanted to show us his desk. The merit system has motivated him to reach his daily goals. We have seen his grades improve from last year as well as his reading and writing. He is already in the hundred's club.

His school celebrated Independence Day with a special patriotic presentation for parents. The students dressed in typical outfits and explained the different patriotic symbols and their meanings as well as explained different traditions. Here is Joseph's class singing a song about all the different ethnic groups in Honduras.

After the presentation we walked around the booths where students explained about the different regions of Honduras and the products those regions produced. It was a fun day.

I would like to introduce our readers to Gonzalo. He is a retired linguistics professor from the National University. For years he has been a Catholic by tradition as well as a student of world religions. He was on a quest for truth, visiting the Mormons, studying the history of the Catholic church, practicing Yoga and involved in a fraternity. One day he was drawn to our church sign on the front of our house. He read the name "Iglesia Evangelica de Santidad" which is Evangelical Holiness Church. The name holiness intrigued him, so he decided to visit our church. He said that from the first visit he could sense the presence of the Holy Spirit. That visit was in May of 2014, he has been coming ever since. He was converted, discipled and baptized. On the day of his baptism he told me "pastor, I want to live in holiness". I was thrilled to tell him that he can. He has been seeking the second work of grace. Pray that God will sanctify him wholly.

Gonzalo is passionate about helping the church grow and seeing others get saved. He and another man in our church have taken it upon themselves to go out into the community to visit and evangelize two days a week. What a change God has made in his life! I wish you could hear his testimonies about how thankful he is that he found our church. It is been a thrill to watch him grow in leaps and bounds.