Honduras 4 God Ministry

      This post is to illustrate how people can work for the Lord in ways other than preach.  Of course, where ever you are and whoever you’re with, you can talk or witness, not preach.  But many people say, “what can I do?”.  There is a very precious lady in Alabama, who sews welders caps to wear under their helmets, and sells them to welders.  She gives all this money, and it’s sizeable amounts, to missions.  It has supported us, met the needs of the ministry,(like buying a welder), it is also, going to build a church and things we aren’t even aware of.  We’re not going to mention her name because sometimes people don’t want their names mentioned and sorry to say we don’t have a picture of her and her work.  

Tote bag received by each participant of the Pastor's Conference

But their is a lady that I’m going to mention and do have a picture of her work that is a dear friend of ours… Fran Norris.  She has used her talent of sewing, also, making dolls to fund her way to Honduras to bring medical teams and buy boots for the children, and on and on.  She recently made 100 cloth tote bags with the Church of God logo on them for the Pastor’s Conference which we talk about in the article below.  Whenever asked to sew something for missions or other, she does it with an excitement.  Thank you Fran.   God gave all of us talents….we need to use them.

This year we had the privilege of hosting a Pastor’s Conference.  Pastor Robert Hinson and his wife, Carol Hinson were the speakers at the conference.  One of the subjects that Pastor Hinson taught on was ” Reaching Outside of the Walls of the Church”.  The Spring Valley Church of God of Reading, PA supplied the money to give 100 pastors, their wives, and leaders in the churches a 2 day retreat….a place to sleep and 3 meals a day for a time of refreshing.   Carol Hinson taught a class to the women on “How Important Women are in the Church” and “The Various Methods to Teach Children”.

Pastor Hinson and his interpreter, Gunther

Carol Hinson with her interpreter, Ana, teaching the women

The response was great and was shown by the Question and Answer sessions.  Each participant received a cloth tote bag with the Church of God logo and it was filled with a notebook, pens, and candy.   We blessed them with door prizes and the last door prize was a guitar.  Guitars are sometimes the only instrument in these village churches.  The young man that won the guitar said that he was praying for a long time for a guitar.   WOW!  I can’t say WOW enough. God is amazing.

Children were praying for the Pastor and his wife.

Preaching in the house church in Chiligatoro

While here, Pastor Hinson preached in the village church of Chiligatoro.  After he prayed for some of the people, the children laid hands on Pastor and Carol Hinson and prayed for them.   It sent Holy Ghost goosebumps down our arms.

    This year, we started a project of making beds for the children, so they wouldn’t have to share a bed with 6 or more other siblings or have to sleep on the cold, damp, dirt floors.  We had one team to come to help us earlier in the year.  We would love to have other teams come to build beds with us. They cost, approximately, $70 a bed including the mattress.   Terry Norris, a friend from PA, came for a week in August to make beds with my husband, Don.  

Terry and Edduin making beds

Bed delivered to one happy family

They made and delivered six beds but there are so many other children that need beds.  The people know that God cares for them, when,  their littlest need is met by sending someone as far away as the USA to make a bed for their children.  How awesome is our God.  And He will do the same for you.

         You may ask why we’re putting pictures of our 5 year old granddaughter, Angelina, in our newsletter and we say…just because.  We’re the editors of this newsletter and we want to.  What an attitude!  No, seriously, we miss our family back home and we were able to have Angelina stay with us in Honduras for 5 weeks…what a blessing for us!  She had many learning experiences in God’s work.  Why not start our children out early in life to help others and learn about missions.  She gave candy to the children, worked with the groups for several weeks without complaining about the long days.  She only would ask, “what can I do to help?”  She made balloons for the children with her Poppy, helped at the parasite station with the medical group, screened sand to make cement for the church, cleaned off the foundation with a brush for the blocks to be laid (I couldn’t think of anything else for her to do), and carried empty buckets up a hill to be filled with water for the mixing of cement.  Children can work and be very helpful.  What was funny,  is that she did much of this work with a purse dangling from her arm.  

Making and handing out balloons to the children with a medical team

Screening the sand to make cement

Cleaning the foundation in preparation to lay block

Carrying buckets up the hill to be filled with water

We need to get our children involved and they  will, if we parents and grandparents                                               are their examples.       So here are some photos of Angelina…just because!

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There are many different opinions here among the missionaries when it comes to building church buildings for the poor people here in Honduras.  We’re not saying there is a right or a wrong.  Sometimes, they build the cheapest  way in order to be able to build more churches. If we can get a team from the states to build a church here, we try to build them out of the best materials that money can buy.  We remember in God’s Word, that the temples and even the tabernacle were built with the finest materials because it was God’s house.  In fact, when there was a king that loved the Lord in the Bible, he would always repair or rebuild God’s house. It wasn’t a shabby building. It was always a grand building.

GA COG construction team

A team from GA, comprised of several COG’s, came to build the church in Monquecagua.  They were an energetic bunch. The walls were put into place in 3 days….Amazing.  Pastor Terry Addis, who lead the group, brought along his father who is 80+ years old and he laid block as fast as his son.  His father has built 9 churches on the mission field and said that he wants to build 10 churches before he goes home to meet the Lord.  Who says that we should retire from God’s work when we retire from our earthly job?  He was a great inspiration to all of us.  Thank you all for your hard work.

"Papa"-Pastor Terry Addis' 80+ year old father

Hard labor of mixing cement by hand

                                                                                                                                                                                                                              They, also, held a Bible school for the local children, had two services, and gave study Bibles to the village pastors and leaders of the churches.   Bibles were, also, given to all the members of the Monquecagua church.  .

Received Bibles

                                              Biggest blessing of all…giving God’s Word.                            

Well by now, those of you who have been following our newsletters for the past 6 years, are aquainted with the group, “VIMM”, lead by General Joe Lax. This man is well into his 70′s and is going strong…I think he, usually, leads at least 2 teams a year to a third world country.  

In this picture is a dentist, Larry, who has pulled hundreds of teeth in the mountains of Honduras, and other team members who are assisting him, including our granddaughter, Angelina.

Shooting the children with syringes full of water

This team attended to well over a thousand people.  They were able to bring an ultrasound machine, again this year, which is a blessing. They were able to tell the expecting mothers what sex their child was and confirm diagnoses on others.

Note in the picture to the right…The fearless leader is terrorizing the children. (they loved every minute of it)

THANK YOU, AGAIN, JOE AND EVERYONE ON THE VIMM TEAM FOR YOUR HELP FOR THE PEOPLE AND THE KINGDOM.

 
In May we had an amazing conference for the women of the mountains, with six villages participating.  They arrived in different colored head scarves. The Lenca women are depressed, oppressed, with no hope at all. They are receiving hope in the Lord Jesus. The theme for the conference was on spiritual as well as physical cleanliness.  They were taught how to take care of their bodies as well as their spiritual bodies. We had a doctor to teach them about their physical bodies and we gave each one a package filled with personal hygiene items.

Then, we had a birthday party for all of them with pinatas and gifts. This was done because most of them never had a birthday party, let alone, a gift in their entire lives. There was shrieks and laughter coming from all over the church as they broke open their pinatas and received their gifts.  This was followed by a meal and praise and worship.  God does care about the least of these.                  

This story is late to be posted, but the more we thought about it, we felt we should share it. There is a young couple, Maria and Domingo, who were the first converts in Rio Colorado. They are very dedicated to serving the Lord. We hold clinics in there little wood slat house.

Maria and Domingo

Last October, when we were having an over abundance of rain, therefore, having mud slides.  There was an enormous mud slide that part of the mountain fell…mud, trees, and boulders, that no one could pass to enter any villages on that side of the mountain. We couldn’t hold clinics.  One morning, someone was rattling our gate.  When we went to see who it was, to our surprise, it was Maria and Domingo.  When asked how they arrived, they said that they got up at 3 a.m. to walk 10 miles to a place that they could catch a truck for the rest of the way.  I asked, “why did you come”?  Their reply was, today is the day that we attend the Bible classes here in town.

Another instance that occurred with this couple is that there was a group of men in the village that were planning on burning Maria and Domingo’s house down because they are evangelical Christians.  We prayed and trusted in Lord for His protection and He did protect them.

Would we walk that far?…. not just flat paved roads, but mountains.  How much can we endure for hearing the Word?….no air conditioning, unpadded pews, loud music, etc….We’re not condemning anyone but just call for reevalution of ourselves and our relationship with our God.

Tags: endurance, God, Jesus, walking

Once again, the medical team from SVCOG, returned to hold medical clinics in the schools in the mountain villages in la Esperanza.  This team has been coming to Honduras for 16 years. Fran and Terry Norris, the team leaders, have decided that this is their last medical team but will continue to come and serve in other capacities. We want to thank them for all the hard work they have done.

Medical Team

Other than the doctors attending each person, this team evangelizes and gives parasite medicine, toys, shoes, toiletries, and balloons.

Pharmacy Girls

Don and Terry giving balloons, toys and shoes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Something that all teams enjoy the most, is to play with the children.

Catching Bubbles

Families receiving their newly made beds

The question is, do we have a Serta or Sleep Number bed?  We need to be sure that we have the best to be able to have a restful night.

A team from Alabama came and made 16 beds for the children.  Many homes don’t have beds for their children.  Sleeping on the cold, damp, ground floor doesn’t even come close to a Serta. Sleeping on the cold, damp, ground floor isn’t conducive for good health, let alone, the insect bites. The adults will have a rope bed.  You say, “that’s nice.  I would like to have an antique rope bed”.  But these people can’t afford to put a mattress on top of the ropes.  They place a blanket on top and that is their mattress.

Alabama-"Christianaires" Bed making Team

This team constructed a solid bed with a foam mattress.  They gave sheets and blankets with each bed.

These beds will be shared with all the children in the family. Sometimes there are 4 to 6 children per bed.

We desire to have other teams partner with us to make more beds for the children.

So every night that you lie down in your bed remember where others in the world sleep. Ask God what you can do.