After spending a week with my family, Hannah's family came to spend the last week with us. We had a lot of fun with them too. We spent two days at Sea World. Here are a few highlights from that week.

 

Joseph and Ethan are big buddies. They had a lot of fun hanging out together.

Here is my cool brother-in-law Nathaniel getting ready to ride a roller coaster called the Manta. It was a wild ride.

Up close and personal with the dolphins.

The boys fought for grammie's attention. They wanted to be with her everywhere she went.

Keeping cool on the water ride.

My 'wheelie' wonderful wife and sister-in-law.

The whole gang.

Feeding the Florida gators some hot dogs.

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My wonderful parents

Here is where we are staying for the week. It is really nice.

Enjoying a good game of mini golf.

You never know what you might see in Florida.

Mom and Dad

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I wanted to share a little information about one of our new converts who was saved this week. Caridad is 91 years old. During the week of Easter she fell and broke her hip. She was rushed to the hospital where the had to operate and put a metal plate in her leg to hold her hip bones together. She nearly died after the surgery. Some of you may remember us talking about Sandra, this is Sandra's grandmother. Well, we went to visit Caridad on Monday. Before all this happened she was a pretty bitter woman. She always gave Sandra a hard time for coming to our church and never had anything good to say about church. When we came to visit we brought a big bouquet of flowers and a card that talked about how God cares for us. That really cheered her up. Before we left I knelt down next her bed and asked if she would like to accept Jesus as her Savior, without hardly any hesitation she said 'yes'. She then prayed the sinner's prayer and invited Christ into her heart. That was a real special moment for us and especially for Sandra who had never seen her grandmother pray. The tears were flowing that day. It was great to see that no matter what your age Jesus forgives all who call on His name!

Caridad has an amazing story. Nearly twenty years ago during a Honduran holiday somebody shot into the air as part of their celebration. That stray bullet landed in Caridad's abdomen. The doctor never removed it because it was lodged so close to her spinal cord. All these years she has carried that bullet and amazingly has no pain! I couldn't believe it when I heard that, here is her x-ray to prove it. She also has a plastic intestine. So here is a 91 year old lady with a bullet in her abdomen, plastic intestine and a metal plate in her hip and is still going strong. I asked her what she eats every day and she said she always has a cup of coffee. So there you go folks make sure you get that cup of coffee everyday and maybe you'll make it to be 91.

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Hondurans have some very interesting Easter traditions. One that is practiced in Tegucigalpa is the sawdust carpets. The main catholic church closes down about ten blocks around the church to use for processionals throughout holy week. On Thursday night artists gather along these streets to design a sawdust carpet for the processions to march upon on Good Friday. All night long they work. They bring bags and bags of colored sawdust. They use stencils to design each carpet. They look absolutely beautiful. Then on Good Friday the processions walk across these sawdust carpets and they are destroyed.

Hundreds of people follow the processions. On Good Friday they re-enact the crucifixion. Different Catholic churches will the be the scene for different events of Good Friday. 

Some of the stencils that will be used to design the sawdust carpets.

 Laying out the base for one of the carpets.

 Men come along and spray the carpets with water so the sawdust doesn't blow away.

Some of the beautiful carpets. They stretch on for several blocks.

Some are quite detailed.

 The next they will be destroyed during the processions.

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Enjoying a cool afternoon nap.

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Having communion at the Las Uvas church. God has done some real miracles in the lives of these people standing here.

I believe this was Joseph's first communion. He said to Hannah that Jesus was in his heart so he went ahead and participated.

Preaching on the Triumphal Entry of Christ. It was another good Sunday. We had two brand new visitors in this church today. God is good!

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This past Friday was Father's Day in Honduras. This is my Father's Day card that Joseph made me. Notice the two big A's on the left. He has been studying the letter A at school so he likes to write them and always points them out when he sees them on a sign.

Joseph's school had a special Father's Day performance for the parents. Joseph memorized and quoted a little poem in Spanish. He did a great job. Everyone clapped for him.

Our church bought a small gift for all the father's.

Hannah made a "tie" cake for after the morning service. It was very good. 

Getting ready to dig in to the cake.

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We really enjoyed a visit from H.I.M. vice president John Dykes. He spent the weekend with us visiting our churches, getting to know our people and just spending time together talking.

We also spent a few days in Nicaragua with Julio Villareyna and his people. We had a really good time. 

Bro. Dykes giving greetings to the Nicaragua church. Rigoberto Vasquez also accompanied us, he is the director of the H.I.M. spanish churches. He spoke that evening in the service.

I had to take a picture of this family. They walked three hours to be with us for the evening service and then walked two hours back home. I took them part way back in the car but it was still a long walk home. They make the walk every Sunday to be at church. Their dedication is amazing!

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I wanted to share some insights concerning dependency to fellow missionaries who may be facing this struggle in your particular ministry. I just finished reading a book entitled "When Charity Destroys Dignity" written by Glenn Schwartz. I highly recommend it to any missionary who wants to seriously deal with this issue. You can go to his web site www.wmausa.org and click on 'learn more' to read some of his articles.

In our church planting efforts we have consciously been making an effort to avoid financial dependency between our churches and the mission in the states. We want to teach them to use the resources they have instead of always expecting help from foreign sources. God has been helping us in a wonderful way, I can't say it is perfect, there are still certain areas of dependency but looking at the big scope of things, they are doing very well. For instance our second church at the moment is nothing more than wooden pools and a tin roof. It desperately needs closed in with wood. We could quickly raise the money to do so from the states, but we have opted to try to get our church people to raise their own money for their own church. Several ladies from the church have been cooking and selling food to workers who are picking rock at a nearby quarry. Today I went with them and they sold yucca with salad. They cleared roughly $20 which isn't much but it will help buy at least two more sheets of plywood for the church. It has helped them have a greater love for their church as they become more and more involved. I would like to encourage other missionaries to think of ways your churches and people can find local resources to support their ministry rather than depend upon American funds. It is well worth the effort.

I wanted to share an excerpt from Glenn's book that impacted me. Glenn worked as a missionary in Africa for many years. He gives an illustration of an African pastor who went to the states looking for funds to build his church, here is what he says.

Several years ago I did a seminar in Capetown, and a pastor shared his story. Several years before, he had been in North America preaching in various churches. On one occasion he phoned home to find out how his family was doing. His wife was not there, but his sister-in-law answered the phone. Her first words were, "Oh pastor, I'm glad you called. I have a message for you. By the way, your family is fine, everything's fine here; but I have a message for you. I had a dream the other night, and God told me to give you this message. 'While you are in America, don't chase buffaloes'.


This was a rather strange message, so the pastor hung up the telephone and said, "Thank you Lord for the message; but I have no idea what it means" He went on preaching. One Sunday evening he preached in a church in which he was given the collection as his honorarium. They simply gave him the money that came in rather than writing out a check. He took his money back to the place where he was staying and began to count it. In the process, he came to a five-cent piece in which in America is called a "buffalo nickel". He looked at the buffalo and said,"That is the meaning of the message. I am not here to get money".


So he said, "Thank you Lord. I got the message." Little did he know the importance of that message, because the very next morning he was taken to breakfast by a wealthy businessman. The pastor said, "I don't know how wealthy that man was, but he owned four airplanes".


As they were having breakfast, the businessman said, "Pastor, I liked the things I heard you saying in church last night. I have a lot of money, and I would like to give you some. How much do you want? Just name the amount and I will write the check for any amount you say."


At this point the pastor was being tested; he knew he was not supposed to "chase buffaloes". So he turned to the businessman and said, "Thank you very much, but God in his providence cares for me and my people in His own way." The pastor then said "I didn't get any money from that man".


He finished preaching in North America and went to England where he boarded a flight to Johannesburg. On the plane he found himself sitting beside a white South African businessman. The businessman asked the pastor what he did and he said, "I'm a pastor of a small congregation in Capetown". At this point the businessman replied, "I am a member of a church which supports apartheid. I do not agree with the policy of my church or my government, so I won't give my money to my church. I would rather give it to you. How much do you want? Just name the amount, and I will write the check".


Again the pastor said, "Thank you very much; but God takes care of my and my people in His own way". The pastor said he didn't get any money from that man either. Instead, he went back to Capetown, and the small congregation he was pastoring decided to build a new sanctuary. They gave all the money necessary to build their new building. Then he said as he smiled, "And we found out that we didn't need any 'buffaloes' from America to do it". One can only imagine what would have happened to that congregation if he had presented them with two checks representing hundreds of thousands of dollars from those well-meaning businessmen. All too often such "goodness of the heart" has destroyed local giving initiative in many parts of the world.

We need to teach our people not to chase buffaloes but rather seek the anointing and help of the Holy Spirit. They may be poor and it may be a struggle to get the things they need, but they have God and that is all they need! read more

 

We came through an amazing revival!! God's presence was felt in every service. It was just what we needed. People were praising God, praying at the altar and drawing nearer to the Lord. God also witnessed to us that He is going to heal Sandra from cancer and this week we are starting to see the miracle come true. There is not time or space to tell about it all but it truly is amazing. We were honored to have Luis Miranda and his family as our evangelist and singers. They did a phenomenal job. He is president of the I.C.H.A. churches here in Honduras. His wife and two daughters have a music ministry and have recorded several albums. It was a joy to have them here.

 

God's presence came in a powerful way during the special song. The Lord really touched our hearts. 

 Brother Miranda has a Saturday radio broadcast in San Pedro Sula. The radio station is also heard online. He broadcasted live from our church. He asked us to share in the program so Hannah gave a little bit of our testimony and then spoke in Arabic for any Arab listeners. I then got to preach for the first time on the radio. I was pretty excited. In this picture they are receiving calls for requests and greetings to be shared on the air.

Preaching my first sermon on the air. God helped me, one man called and said that God had touched his heart through the message. My mother-in-law and my parents were listening on-line. Technology is amazing!

 Saturday we had a baptismal service. We baptized three new converts. God has been working wonders in their lives. It is so exciting to see them change and now take part in leading the services.

 Baptizing Edwin. He has a real interest in becoming a pastor. I'm hoping that some day he will be pastoring one of our churches. Pray for him and his wife Sherlee.

 Edwin's wife Sherlee getting baptized. They are a wonderful young couple that God is going to use.

 Lourdes (She is from our second church), Sherlee and Edwin

 Sunday we had a big lunch for all of our people. Our church is celebrating two years!! Yolanda is preparing the rice that we ate with our chicken and salad. It was very good!

 One of the little boys enjoying every bite. Notice the rice on his chin. haha!

 Before the Mirandas went home we took them site seeing. Here are some pics of Joseph at some of the places where we stopped.

 We went to a children's museum where kids get dress up and do a lot of fun things, Joseph decided to be a tiger.

 It's a bird, it's a plane it's....super Eric

 Is anybody missing an intestine?

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We are gearing up for our weekend revival. Please pray for Luis Miranda and his family as they will be ministering. We are praying for a mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Our people need a real boost. Saturday will be 3 baptisms. I am very excited about these new converts. God has really been helping them, pray that Saturday will be a good day as well. Pray for a revival of holiness. I feel that some of our people are sensing the need for santification. I am hoping this revival will be a real breakthrough!! read more