Reflections

Well the trip is nearing completion. Yesterday I got the chance to go to the city dump and minister to street kids.

There are probably 2000 people that live in the city dump. All day long they fight with the birds and others to pick over the trash as dump truck unload their loads. It is a scene that tears at the hearts. We handed out water, and led a couple people to the Lord while we were there. When I get back I will upload pictures. To expereince it for a few minutes is tough, and to think that this is life for so many. I am greatful for the Micah Project who has launch a ministry to these folks, and built a school so that the children could at least get an education and some day get out of the dump.

Then that afternoon we went to minister to the street kids, which for me as even harder than being at the dumb. There are probably about 1500 street kids in Teguc, most of which are addicted to yellow Glue. The effects of the glue make cocanine and heroine look like very minor drugs. They have coke bottles or baby jars with the glue in it that they breath all day long to stay perpetually high.

So Brian Wiggs led us into the heart of the city where the street kids hang out, and we started our own little Bridgetown ministry. We brought food, clothes, and washed their feet. While down their you experience almost every emotion possible . . . love, anger, fear, compassion, patience, hurt, mercy . . . and all the while just the ambient fumes from their bottles makes the head light. It is incredibly raw, primal, and you wonder if there is any hope.

Then you remember Marvin . . . the young boy that only the night before celebrated his one year anniversary in the Micah house. Just a year earlier he was one of these homeless kids on yellow glue . . . now he is a well behaved, wonderful, loving, growing boy who was rescued off the streets by Michael Miller (Micah Project) and now he has a hope and a future.

One thing I noticed was that we were noticed. We walked with our things right those the market place, and people noticed the way the Americans with the Micah boys came down to wash the feet off the people that the society casts aside. We got many smiles, and waves, and police officers who paid attentions.

As a team we as still processing all that we have experienced, and we are listening to what God has for us as a result.

One a side note I must mention it has been cool to have so many people gifted in evangelism on our trip, it was fun to watch. At one point a piece of luggage fell out of a truck, while I jumped out of the following van to pick up the luggage Mary Hunter jump out of the Van to share Christ with a girl on the side of the road. While I was filling the truck with gas Mary was leading another child to Christ.

I have no idea how many people came to Christ, but our team has truly made the most of every oppurtuntiy. This was a remarkable trip.

Tonight we go one last night to the Micah Project to share testimonies, then tomorrow we bus back to San Pedro so we can fly out the next day.

Thank you so much for all your prayers. We truly felt them every step of the way. And God did excedingly beyond my expectations every step of the way.

Micah

Most of the team is feeling better, and words can not describe all that we are experiencing.

The Micah Project is way better than I imagined, and Brian Wiggs is so right for this place!

I am about to leave for breakfast, so I must go, but I at least wanted to put something up.

Update

Well, things have been moving fast so I have not had any time to post in the last couple of days. Here are a few updates.

1. The pastors conference was wonderful in everyway. I was so proud of the team. We had about 120 come to the conference. The conference was a combination of our team leading sessions as well as key Honduras Pastors presenting. So the conference had a good Honduran feel to it. This was the first time a conference like this was put on for the whole family, so consequently not only pastors and their wifes were encouraged, but their children were ministered to as well. For example this was the first time the youth had never gotten to talk about the pressures of being pastors kids with their peers, and we had two people on our team working with the youth who were pastors kids so they could relate to them. In the shortness of this post I cant discribe all that God did, but we had a testimony time at the end of the conference where the pastors talked about what the conference meant to them. Some of them that shared were in tears discribing how this is the first time in 9 years that they had been married that they were able to go anywhere as a whole family. The conference was good beyond our expectations. God did all the heavy lifting we just showed up with servants hearts. I feel the churches will be strengthen as a result of this.

2. We are safely inTeguc tonight, and we begin ministry with the Micah Project tomorrow. We had a nice dinner with all the micah boys in their home tonight, and are excited to start the ministry with them tomorrow.

3. You can pray for the health of our team. There are about 4 or 5 of us that are struggling with our health (stomachs), including myself. So your prayers are greatly appreciated. Other than that things are going great. There is a good unity on the team, and we are in good spirits.

The Lord is sustaining us, and I believe using us for his purposes. We are blessed.

Outreach

Tonight was a night of outreach. We split the team up into two groups, and headed off to two different locations. One team to a young church plant, and the other a ministry sight for a YWAM missionary couple. We put on a dinner for the community at both sights.

I was at the YWAM location. It was an awesome night. After dinner the our guys played basketball with the Honduran guys. We took a half time and Brad Butcher shared the gospel, and several guys prayed to receive Christ. We connected the guys with the local missionaries for follow up but need to be praying for them, and they would continue to connect with the missionaries.

While that was going on, in the house the gospel was being shared by the missionary and a couple of Honduran mother´s gave their hearts to Jesus and were prayed for. This was exciting as the missionaries have been working with the ladies, and we got to see some of the fruit of their labors.

Amy Neilson also got to have a great talk with a young lady for quite a while one on one, and she gave her heart to the Lord in tears tonight as well. It was an amazing night.

I have yet to hear about the other teams location.

Tomorrow we begin the pastor´s conference. Please stand with us in prayer for that. Pray that this would be a huge weekend for the pastor´s and their families. We get the sense that there are a lot of things that God wants to do in their lives and hearts, and we want to be used by Him to accomplish God´s purpose.

The team remains healthy and in good spirits. We are anxious to start the conference tomorrow.

Thank you for the continued prayers.

The Kingdom

We got a good sleep last night, and the whole team is healthy.

Today really had a great day. The first part of the day we spent time organizing everything to receive about 140 people for the pastor's conference that starts on Friday. Our plans are really coming along and we are excited.


The second half of the day, we exposed the team to 3 different orphanage ministries, ran by 3 different missionaries. Each one was unique, and wonderful. They all showed the creativity of God, how God uses different types of people in different ways, to accomplish his purposes. In the case of these three ministries, taking care of orphans.

The three places we visited were www.providenceworldministries.org, www.destinodelreino.org, www.jesuslovesthelittlechildren.org.

Today had a large impact on the team. As we debriefed the day tonight the was much conversation about how God wants to use each of us for his Kingdom. Everyone of us has a unique call on our lives (Eph 2:10) . . . God waits for us to say yes to whatever it is, and the plans God has are beyond what we could hope or even dream of.

There is much more to write, but it is about 11:00, and I need to get some rest. We feel prayed for!

We're Here!

God has blessed our Honduras Team with safe travel. All our flights were on time, and it was pretty uneventful which is great when traveling. The team is tired . . . I got about 2 hours of sleep last night on our flight to Houston.

We had a team meeting tonight and talked about Mary and Martha. How Martha was consumed by task, and Mary soaked up the relationship with Jesus. Our prayer is that we would be like Mary. That we would not be only consumed by the task before us, but that we would look for relationship with others, and relationship with God. A relationship that is constantly seeking God in prayer.

We can't tell you how much all of your prayers mean to us, and we are dependent upon God each step of the way.

Please pray we get a good night sleep tonight so we can hit the ground running tomorrow.

Honduras

I am about to leave on a mission trip to Honduras with 21 other people. While in Honduras the first week we will be putting on a Pastor's conference for pastor's and their families in Siguatepeque. The maximum number of people we can accommodate has signed up for the conference, so we are excited about the turnout.

The second half of the trip will will be ministering at the Micah Project where we will be working with families who live in the city dump, and plan to build a home for a poor family.

Whenever I have access to the internet I will be posting updates here about our experiences. I will also be taking my camera and hoping to get some great photographs.

Canvas

Yesterday was an exciting day for me, as I finally printed one of my images on Canvas. I was amazed with how well it turned out.

I printed my sunset toast picture in a 16X20 format. I am pricing it at $225 if anyone is interested.

Here are a couple pictures of the finished product.

The Wedding Weekend

This weekend was the wedding weekend. I went to two weddings this weekend. The first one I officiated: LeAnne Ramirez vowing her life to Brennan John Hidde. It was beautiful and wonderful. As I was the pastor at that wedding I was not able to take any pictures.

The second wedding I went to was Michelle Sandilands marrying Kevin. This was also a beautiful wedding. As I was not the photographer at the wedding my ability to take pictures was limited. All but 2 off these pictures were taken from my seat as I was trying to dodge peoples heads to get the shot. But I got some that turned out pretty good. Check them out.

Both Couples are so great and I wish them a lifetime of happiness together.