Honduras 2013

For the fourth year in a row I had the opportunity to serve alongside Sam and Peggy Feazel of Ignite Missions. They are missionaries in Honduras and have become like family over the years. Their passion for the Lord is contagious and every time I come and go from there, I feel like I leave a piece of my heart.

I met up with a team from Judson (my home church in Nashville).  This week, the team flew into Tegucigalpa and then drove about four hours to La Esperanza, to the villages of Llanos Largo and Yashe.  While we were there we did children’s and women’s ministry. Some of the women walked as far as three hours to attend.  Definitely made us all reflect on the Sundays we don’t want to drive to church because the weather isn’t very good. How desperate are we for the Lord? The children are so humble and grateful and just excited to have people love on them. After the first day, they are always lined up by the road waiting for us to arrive, excited to help us carry supplies and of course play soccer as soon as we get off the bus. 

As we did last year, one afternoon we got to hike down to the Yashe village, which takes us gringos about 45 minutes to an hour. There are no passable roads to the village, or electricity or running water. God provides all the people need to survive straight off of the land. Justino, who is taking over as the Pastor at Llanos Largo and Yashe lives in the village and was so excited to show us his house. We walked across two swinging bridges and to the other side of the village to get there. His house is one room with dirt floors that has two beds, a crib for his baby and a fire stove they cook on. He is as content and joyful as can be and the experience definitely renewed the perspective for all of us of wants versus needs.

Throughout the week we had 48 children and 17 women accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior, and follow up discipleship will happen through the Ignite Missions staff since we have departed. At the end of our time there we fed the Yashe village and had a church service. The following morning we dedicated the land where ground has been broken and a church will be completed, Lord willing, this summer in Llanos Largo. We prayed over the land and Sam sang “Great is Thy Faithfulness.”  When we left the village in 2012 we had prayed God would provide this land and the funds to build a church - and He answered that prayer by the time we had driven through the next town! Amen! Sam also spoke about the fact that long after any of us are around that it will be a place where people come to worship the Lord. Some of the people in the village have been persecuted for their faith in Christ, with their water turned off and various other things happening, so please be in prayer for the people there.

We also had a chance to go back and visit the two villages near Tegucigalpa that we worked at in 2010 and 2011.  There were three members on the team in addition to myself this year that were on the first team into the villages in 2010 and what a blessing it is each year to go back and visit and see all that the Lord has done. We had a church service on Friday night in Coralitos that was packed out and so many were joyfully worshipping the Lord. Made me think about how many would show up in the states if we announced we were having a church service on a Friday evening. One of my favorite things is hearing people worship in another language. I cannot wait for the day where we will all stand before the throne of God and worship in our native tongues.  Here is a link to the Coralitos service where we sang Anciano de Dias (Ancient of Days):  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Hy6qWT6n_E ... The lyrics are so appropriate:

"Blessing and honor
Glory and power
Bow before the ancient of days
From every nation
All of creation
Bow before the ancient of days

Every tongue in heaven and earth
Shall declare your glory
Every knee shall bow at your throne
In worship
You will be exalted oh God
And your kingdom shall not pass away
Oh ancient of days

Your kingdom shall reign over all the earth
Sing to the ancient of days
None can compare to your matchless worth
Sing to the ancient of days"

At Coralitos I also got to see Leo and his brother Jeffrey, boys who I have gotten to know over the past four years. When I asked Leo what he wanted to do when he was finished with school, he said he wanted to be a missionary. Our God is amazing! Please be in prayer for Leo that God would work in his heart and continue to grow him in the time ahead. His mother also shared with me that he has been having some health problems so we prayed together over him – please be in pray that the doctors would have wisdom and that his health would be restored soon.

Yashe village

Llanos Largo village

Love this little dude!

Llanos Largo village

Women's Ministry

With missionaries Sam and Peggy Feazel

Showing off their crafts

Llanos Largo village

Yashe village

Ignite Missions bus outside the Yashe village

Yashe Church

Kids praying to receive Christ

Yashe Church Service

Yashe Church Service

Pastor Justino and family

Dedication of land where church is being built in
Llanos Largo. In 2012 we prayed God would provide this
land and the funds for a church to be built - God has provided.
As Sam sang, "Great is Thy Faithfulness!"

Dedication of land where church is being built in
Llanos Largo

Sharing the Gospel

"I want You Jesus"

Llanos Largo village

2013 Team

2013 Team

Coralitos village - with Jeffrey and Leo

2013 Team at Coralitos Church

Friday Night Coralitos Service

Friday night Coralitos Service

We ended with a day visiting the Christ statue that overlooks Tegucigalpa and a trip to the Valley of Angels. That evening we had a bonfire and reflected on our favorite moments of the trip and praising God for all He had done throughout the week.

As Sam spoke, he talked about the times in our life where it is like the Lord is drawing a line in the sand before us. We have the choice to stay where it is comfortable or we can lay down our lives to Him and step across the obedience line to what He is calling us to and to where all of the blessings lie. That doesn't mean life is easy on that side, but it does mean that it is oh so very worth it because we serve a God who provides for our needs and whose plan is far greater than our own.  God's will for each of us is to make disciples who make disciples who make disciples... until He returns. And we are all either obedient or disobedient to that call; there is no middle ground.  A man I heard speak a couple months ago said that instead of praying whether it is God's will for us to go, we should pray whether He is giving us permission to stay home.  And as Pastor Francis Chan says, "Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter."

What has God asked you to do? GO DO IT. NOW.

Please pray for:
-Sam and Peggy Feazel and all that God is doing through Ignite Missions in Honduras - they have many teams coming this summer so please pray for them and their team of pastors and translators to have strength and endurance and for God to be glorified through each of them!
-For God to continue to direct my path and that I would walk in obedience to Him at one step at a time.
-For everything going on in Bozeman, Montana as we prepare for a busy summer here.