AIM

A Trip Over to Nicaragua

Posted by Eric

About a week ago we had a visit from Sid Grant. During his visit we drove to Nicaragua to see Julio and his churches. The day we arrived Julio had just returned from Managua with the paper work from the government recognizing HIM as a legal church in Nicaragua. This was a big milestone. They had worked for years on this process and now it is finished!

This is Julio's newest church located in Achuapas. Back in the spring of this year Mission Helps sent down a team to put the roof on this church. Now it's ready to be painted.

The inside of the Achuapas church. The pulpit was made by some of the young men who came down on a TLC trip.

Julio and Nemecio making some beautiful music. The guitar that Nemecio is holding is one of the guitars that Paul Hinkley donated from Ohio. They love that little guitar!

Bro. Grant preached some very good messages that encouraged the people.

Mission Accomplished!!

Posted by Eric

An answer to prayer!! For quite some time we have been praying that God would supply a church van for us. Our car was packed to the gills and was very uncomfortable hauling people from place to place. While we were on deputation we started raising funds for this project and thanks to God's help and the generosity of many churches and friends all the finances were raised. After getting back to Honduras God led us to this Nissan, Diesel, 2006, 15 passenger van with a little over 50,000 miles in great condition for a great price!! A big thanks to everyone who participated in this project!! It has already been put to good use and is proving to be a huge blessing!

It gets awesome gas mileage with it being a diesel and stick shift.

Sunday was the "unveiling". Everybody was thrilled.

Praying over the van that God would use it for His glory, and give it a long and healthy life!!

Update and Announcement!

Posted by Eric

The finished product!!! After months of hard work mixing mud and making adobes we have finally finished the Las Delicias church. The men painted it while we were home in the states. The only thing we are missing is our church sign that will go above the door. I am so happy how this project turned out!! Thank you to everyone who prayed, gave and came and helped. We deeply appreciate it.

Here is what the inside looks like. They painted the walls white. We also plan to put the church logo or a scripture verse on the platform wall.

The people are very happy with their new church!! We are also thrilled to announce that this coming Saturday we will be having the dedication of the church, as well as installing Roberto and Jenny as the official pastor. They have felt God calling them to ministry and are planning to move to Las Delicias within the next few weeks to begin pastoring. This is a huge answer to prayer and will help to lift our load. Pray that the transition will go smoothly.

Simple Worship

Posted by Eric

I'm so thankful that God doesn't bless churches according to their physical beauty but rather according to their spiritual hunger and sincerity. Our little church in Las Uvas is rustic and doesn't even have electricity. But we sure can feel God's help and presence. I've been in a lot of glorious looking churches that had very little of the real glory. Oh what a blessing to have God on the scene!

Good-bye, Adios, Ciao, Shalom, Parahi, Ma'as Salaama

Posted by Eric

Just now catching up with last week's activities. My parent's threw a go-away party and invited a bunch of our friends. They had a big jump house for all the kids. It was just a great time, one big hoop tarah before we left.

Firing off endorphins with succulent food.

maxin' and relaxin'

Games and prizes with Clara the clown.

X-treme sports.

The cheer leading section.

Then is was the breaking of the piñata.

Oooooh lots of presents and money!

The launch of a paper hot air balloon was the cherry on top of a great party!

Hoch Family Reunion

Posted by Eric

We always look forward to the Hoch family reunion. It's a time to reconnect, relax and eat some amazing food!

The reunion is always held at uncle Tim and aunt Connie's beautiful house.

Everybody brings something to sell at the auction. The money that is raised goes towards next years expenses. Over $1200 was raised this year.

Lots of good fellowship.

Dan Dan loved playing in the sand box.

Some of the families stay in campers.

A few other families sleep in tents.

We even sing together.

There are lots of games like Monopoly Deal and Farkle. The competition is fierce!

Big air on the trampoline.

Lots of fun!

The golf cart is always a big hit with kids and adults alike.

The food is absolutely heavenly.

So many choices and every one of them is a good one.

The party goes late into the night.

There was some intense Risk games. But, I eventually conquered the world!

My view from the hammock.

The last night of the reunion several people were singing. Daniel grabbed the air compressor hose and sang along at the top of his lungs!! Hilarious!

Music for Missions

Posted by Eric

Meet Paul Hinkley. He lives in Eastern Ohio and has a very unique ministry. He receives broken and damaged guitars, restores them and then donates them to missions. Back in February he heard me speak at Sea Breeze Camp via internet and called to let me know that if I wanted any guitars he was willing to donate some to our ministry. Just a few days ago I stopped by his house to pick up six like-new guitars with brand new cases and picks to take with us back to Honduras. What a blessing!

The only thing Paul asks the missionaries is that they send him a photo of the person who receives a guitar. Not a bad deal. If you are a missionary and interested in knowing more about his ministry contact Music for Missions, 330-343-4176.

Zoo Won't Believe What We Saw

Posted by Eric

Time is quickly ticking and in just a few weeks we will be heading back to Honduras to start our next term. Before we leave we wanted to get away and so something special with Hannah's family. So we decided to spend a few days in Columbus, Ohio. We heard the zoo there has been rated #1 in the country for the last two years. It is definitely one of the nicest zoos we have ever seen. A great place!