Honduras 08- Part 1

Hello from Honduras. It is a beautiful Monday morning and the team is about to head out to the church to do VBS for the kids and construction for the church. We are going to be completing a shower and bathrooms for the church. This afternoon I will be teaching about 18 local pastors; I will be introducing them to the discipleship process which Christ commanded us to follow (Matt. 28:19). I can't wait to see what God is going to acomplish through these teaching times this week. I covet your prayers.

I will give you a "play by play" of the days so far, and I will try to keep you up-to-date on what happens each day.

We left the church at 3:30am Friday morning, and flew out of Jacksonville at 6:10am. We flew to Houston, TX and then to San Pedro Sula. We were originally scheduled to fly into Tegucigalpa, but dew to a plane crash last month, the President of Honduras had closed the airport. By the time we flew down, the airport was open again, but they wouldn't transfer our flight back to Tegucigalpa. So we had a 5 hour van ride from SPS to Teguc. No problem, but it was a very exciting ride. We stayed with some missionaries working with North Carolina Baptists, Steve and Elaine Stevens. They work in Honduras coordinating mission trips for NC Baptists. We will be staying with them Thursday night also.

Saturday we got up and left for Juticalpa. It is about a 4 hour van ride from Teguc to Juticalpa. We arrived safely, checked into the hotel, ate lunch and went to the church in the community of Solidadidad. We conducted our first session of VBS for the kids, and about 50 kids came that first afternoon. We came back to the hotel, ate supper, had a team meeting which was interesting to say the least, and then it was off to dream land.

We got up yesterday morning, did the usual and the necessary, and then went to church for the AM activities. The ladies taught SS for the kids and youth, while the men began working on the construction project. It looks like we have enough resources to complete the project, do food ministry to about 40 families, and do some minor repairs to the electrical project from last year. After SS we went to Chester's and had some good fried chicken (don't think that you will come on a trip like this and go hungry. I bet you won't even lose any weight.) We met the Pastor Jesus Torres and some from the church about 2pm for a baptismal service in the river. He asked me to help and I had the privilege of baptizing 2 young Christians: David and Noel. It was my first experience baptizing in a river, outside, in moving water, but it was a wonderful experience. We have some good video and pictures of it. I can't wait to show them during our share service Sunday morning. After that it was back to the hotel for a quick change of clothes, and then back to the churh for the evening service. Joy Loner did an excellent job of sharing a testimony, and I was given the opportunity to preach. I love preaching. I preached the final message from our study of the Gospel of Mark, Mark 16:12-20, "What are we suppose to do now?" A delicious meal was prepared for us at the church, we ate, and came back to the hotel for our nightly team meeting. Then it was off to dream land again.

Serving Him,
Pastor Mike