Today has been so amazing. The entire trip has been more than I ever could have imagined, but today was especially
great. This morning we began our door to door evangelism in a very poor area of Comayagua with children and adults being all around. They were all very receptive and welcoming, but very few knew about Jesus, which was exactly why we are here. We saw a total of 21 people pray to recieve Christ today. Praise the Lord. But 1 special little boy really sticks out in my mind. As Stephanie was going through the gospel with a little girl on her door step a little boy came up and sat down on a rock and was listening. I then had the great opportunity to sit down beside him and tell him about God ( of which he had never heard of), and that we are sinners, and how we can have forgiveness because of Jesus’ death on the cross and his resurrection. Then Nelson prayed the sinners prayer and recieved Jesus as his Lord and Savior. We gave him a track, some candy, a frisbee, and a Spanish New Testament Bible. It was great to see his excitement for us and more importantly his new Savior Jesus Christ. Little Nelson then proceeded to follow us all the way back to the church and waved goodbye as our van drove away. It was such a blessing to be the tool that God used to spread His message. God is working in these peoples lives. So I have learned that when you greet a brother in Christ you call him hermano, which means brother. So from now on when I see little Nelson, I will call him hermanos,
Nelson!
Day: January 11, 2010
Eye Opener
Today was a real eye opener for me. Seeing how little the people here have, but still they are content with what they have it shows me how selfish we really are. I know that I consider myself content with what I have, but it showed me today how mich I really have even though I think I have very little. God has shown me today that it is not what we have that brings contentment, but who we have living in us.
Just a reminder to Christina, make sure when you bring my truck Saturday night that it has a full tank of gas! One more thing, play some “Bride” for Logan. I miss you guys and will see you soon.
Hola Mt. Washington Middle School
I would just like to say “Hola” (hi) to all of my friends back home at MWMS. Every time I think of all of you, I think of how spoiled we are with all the toys and and even having heaters and air conditioners. Just some food for thought; ho many items do you own that you haven’t touched in 1, 2, 3, 4, or even 5 years.
Let me explain why I am saying all of this. Today, as I and my parents, were out sharing the gospel of Jesus, I saw kids that had nothing but were still content. Our friend Eric saw one young boy who was playing with the end of an extension cords as if it were a toy car.
I was able to play soccer today with one of our translators named Gerson (Hair-Sone). He plays soccer for his school. He is 16 and he is fluent in english and spanish of course and he is really good at soccer.
The food here is delicious and I can’t wait to see what Fanny cooks for tomorrow.
We visited a church today. It was a Catholic church that is extremely old. It is so old that it has the oldest clock in North, Central, or South America. We were able to climb up into the bell tower and look out over the city.
We went shopping in an open air market and I bought some neat stuff including a wooden snake, a sling shot, a hand-made wooden box, a hat, and a pair of leather sandals.
That’s enough for today, I will put more on the blog tomorrow, and now I am off to bed.
Hasta Pronto (See you Soon)
Isaiah
The Good News
This morning we went door to door evangelizing. My team consisted of the interpreter, Beth, and Eric. The Hondurans were very gracious and welcomed us. We went to 6 homes and was able to share the gospel 3x. Two ladies at one house accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior! Praise the Lord! I felt so calm and at peace. Bro. Keith asked people to pray 2 Sundays ago about is there more that we should be doing in the church. I volunteered to pray about what more I need to be doing. I have my answer of what I am to do. I took the GROW training but have not gone yet door to door. It was so easy sharing the gospel here. I plan to make a concentrated effort to make different arrangements at least for one Tuesday night of the month so I can attend GROW.
This afternoon we went to the local hospital. The hospital is very old. The hospital is nothing like home. You wouldn’t want to be admitted here. I don’t know what the fix is with our healthcare system back home but I am telling you, we are blessed with what we have. We prayed with the patients and families and passed out Bibles, stuffed animals, jewelry, purses, and candy. They were very appreciative.
We went sight seeing for a few hours. There was this very old and gorgeous church. The stone pavement in front of the church was etched like it was a shadow of the church. What came to my mind was how God protects us in His shadow. Also I think of how God protects us like a hen sheltering her chicks.
“How precious is your steadfast love, O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings.” (Psalm 36:7, ESV)
Shopping, Churches, Parks and Hospital
This has been a busy afternoon. We went to the hospital and were able to pray for everyone. We gave toys to the children, hats to the men, and purses to the women. I will say that I worried about the conditions of the hospital and most will probably think they were terrible, and by our standards they are, but compared to Choluteca this hospital was wonderful.
We then walked a couple of miles through downtown through the open air market. Of course then we went to the soveigneer shops. We then went to an extremely old church that the translator, Jasmine, said it had the oldest clock in South America in it.
We ended up at a mall of all places where we found a Dunkin Donuts. Too bad we spent all our money on souveineers.
There were a number of nice parks that we were able to go to and in one there were even a number of kids breakdancing. Took me back to the eighties.
I am looking forward to tomorrow but I am also hoping that my pain will subside. It has been a long hard day, but so far I am keeping up.
Looking forward to the rest of the week, but already missing home.
Rich
First Day of Door to Door Evangelism
The team witnessed 21 professions of faith and was able to pray and encourage a few others. Praise God the trip has already been worth the effort put into it because even one person has come to know Christ! Today was amazing to see my 12 year old son Isaiah brave up and share the gospel with a family. Totally Cool!
Stephanie, Beth, and Ida are practicing the Yu are God Alone to sing at service tomorrow night and we are leaving in about 30 minutes to visit the hospital and the shopping. Since there are 5 guys and 5 girls, I think there are mixed feelings about the shooping, but it should be pretty cool to visit an open-air market, plus I have some soveineers to pick up for Tom and Joey so it is a must for all.
We will blog more when we have the time. Keep praying for us because it is working and people are being saved. My prayer is the momentum that has been started here will spread to everyone when we return.
What no internet?
We have been blogging in word, patiently awaiting the return of our internet connection. I have a feeling with the power outage it has taken out the host end of the connection because I have checked everything in the house, so we are blogging in Word so we can upload them later. Hopefully no one is worried. The team, I believe based on our share time last night, is beginning to have their eyes opened to perhaps one of the purest form of worship that they have ever experienced and it is good to see them interacting.
Today is our break day. We will be doing door-door evangelism in the morning and then visiting a hospital this afternoon and then they are going to take us to town to the open air market to do some shopping. I’m thinking I may come back to the hacienda (house) and rest instead of shop, but then that would mean I would have to let loose of the money to Amy and I am not sure I want to do that.
It is 6:15am here (7:15am there) and the sun is just now coming up of the mountain (or those from Tennessee would call it a hill), the roosters graced us by waiting until 4:30am before they began their hour long tribute to the sun.
We all thought about Joey last night when the band stepped on stage, they even had a five string bass that the man played like a regular electric as fast as he was pickin’ it at times. Tony would have been impressed. Oh and Tony, you would have envied the drum set, I counted 7 toms and 5 cymbals, the only thing missing was a second bass drum.
The team is beginning to wake up for breakfast so I will end this session, but it is always nice to hear laughter this early in the morning. Too often in our busy half of the hemisphere we wake to hustle, bustle and rush that we neglect our joy. As Paul in Philippians 2 said, we are to complete his Joy and be Glad and Rejoice in the work that we have been given because everything that we do should be done for God’s glory.
Rich – 1/11/10 – 6:21am