We just finished our annual youth retreat! What a wonderful time together. There were 35 of us including our children. It was a time of sharing, team activities, Bible teaching and memory making! We are so thrilled to see how God has been working in our teen's lives.

 Thursday night was a time of orientation and dividing up the teams.

Pablo has been doing a super job leading our young people.

Our theme for the camp was "Conquerors" . So we designed these shirts that said conquerors on the front and on the back it says "I will overcome in the name of Jesus Christ" and then a list of negative things surround that statement that we will overcome as Christians.

The back of the shirts. I will overcome in the name of Jesus: temptations, loneliness, depression, difficulties, confusion, bitterness, obstacles, sadness, trials, envy.

6 am was rising bell and 7 am everyone was to meet in this building for morning devotions.

Throughout the day the three teams competed in different activities. 

On the campground were several different monuments that commemorated an event from the life of Christ. We decided to take advantage of these scenes to teach how Christ overcame obstacles during His life. This service was about the storms of life and we can overcome the difficult times.

It's always a joy to see our young people digging in to God's Word.

Gaby talking to the young people about storms in life.

The camp was a beautiful place.

Friday evening we spent a special moment together around the campfire. They sang and worshiped and shared testimonies.

Daniel couldn't wait to roast marshmallows. 

Starting a new day with songs and prayer.

It has been amazing to step back and see God transform Rosa's life. This was her first youth retreat and she loved it!!

Misael is another testimony to the power of God's grace! He has been delivered from a life of darkness and sin!

The teams took turns helping Hannah and Mariah in the kitchen by serving the meals and helping to wash the dishes.

So much potential! Pray for our young people.

Enjoying some delicious baleadas.

The teams on a scavenger hunt. Bible verses were clues that led them to the next spot where they could find the next clue.

Looking for clues in the empty tomb!

This kid enjoyed every minute in the great outdoors!

We had a really special service at the scene of the last supper. You could sense God's presence.

Katy gave a wonderful talk on how we are to overcome pride using the example of Jesus washing the disciples' feet.

Raquel and Joseph gave a demonstration of the humility of foot washing.

Upset the fruit basket!

A good game of Headbanz, where each person has to guess the object on the card on their headband.

The winning team!!

Second place!

Third place!

All good things must come to an end. Now for the long trip home.

Everybody was exhausted!! But what an awesome time we had!

Thanks to everyone who prayed for this retreat. We praise God for the five young people who prayed to be saved!! It was hard work but it sure was worth it!

It is exciting to see some advancement on our pig farm project. This field will soon be purchased and transformed into a farm to help support our churches and pastors.

I took a team of surveyors to Las Delicias today to make up maps for our church property and for the farm property.

Brother Jose is a great guy. A man of agriculture and wisdom!

Looking forward to this project coming together.

Saturday was a very busy day. Our young people had a garage sale and a hamburger sale to raise funds for our upcoming youth retreat. They did an excellent job!

Our boys dug out some of their toys to sell. They love doing business!

Joseph is quite a salesman. He made around $12 just selling toys.

So thankful for a wonderful group of talented young people. Here they were working on some signs to announce the garage sale.

I also made a trip on Saturday to Las Delicias so a surveyor and engineer could take a look at the property we want to purchase for our pig farm. It's exciting to see this project taking shape.

 Wow, where did 2016 go? We spent about 8 months home on deputation. In many ways it was our best deputation ever! We made incredible memories touring the West and visiting a whole new list of churches. Thank the Lord for His mercy upon us as we traveled the many miles.

It was so refreshing to be able to reconnect with our families and spend some special moments together before heading back to Honduras. We arrived back on the field at the end of September, anxious to find out how our churches had survived and excited to get back in the saddle.

The churches had gone through some tough times while we were gone but we were pleasantly surprised to see that they had grown. There were new converts, more children attending Sunday school and brand new visitors in the services! Eduardo pictured above was one of those new converts in Las Uvas. He and several other young people are seeking God and are in a discipleship class getting ready for baptism. They have tremendous potential and we are excited to see how God is going to lead their lives. It's people like this that make all of our efforts worthwhile.

Here is a guy who gave us a real shock when we got back to Honduras. We have known Adam since the beginning of our ministry and for years he was the community drunk. Night after night, in a drunken stupor he would keep us awake shouting absurdities and talking nonsense. We tried to help him but he refused our help. Years went by and this past summer as we were home traveling Adam nearly died. One night while he was drunk he was climbing a flight of stairs when he lost his balance and fell hitting his head on concrete. He was rushed to the hospital unconscious. The medics had little hope of his survival. Miraculously God spared his life and he recovered spending several weeks in the hospital. During that process God began to speak to his heart and he began to recognize God's mercy. After his release from the hospital he came to church and got saved. His life has not been the same! He just spent his first Christmas and New Years in 25 years sober!! Praise God for the amazing change in his life. Pray that he will continue to grow in grace and keep fighting the good fight.

Raul is another trophy of God's grace. He had been an alcoholic for years. His wife Rita prayed for over 30 years for his salvation. He started attending our services regularly about a year ago and also started helping us by driving the church van. About two weeks after our return to Honduras Raul came to the altar one Sunday morning after hearing a message on the prodigal son. He too had been a prodigal son who had been lost and backslidden for years, but he came back home!! God has helped him to keep sober, he is in the discipleship class and he loves serving the Lord. It never ceases to amaze me how God can change a broken life!! God is at work and I am anxious to see what other stories of forgiveness and transformation we will be writing about in 2017!! Happy New Year everyone!