This week will see teams from 3 churches, Mt. Zion in Beavercreek OH, Christ Community from Florida and Crossroads Community church from Lexington, KY all in Canchias.  We also have the students and leaders from Quest there as well.  So it will be crowded!!!!!!!!!!.  Mt. Zion will be working in Los Globos.  They will be expanding the pastors house, doing V.B.S., medical clinics and praying.  This church experienced the loss of one of their asssoicate pastors and another church member in a truck accident 2 weeks ago.  The Christ Community Church youth group and Quest students will be working in Santa Rita.  We recently purchased a house there for the church to meet in.  They will be painting, cleaning and working on the property.  They will also be serving dinner to the surrounding neighborhood.  Allison Kast will be leading this group.  Carol Lynn Usher will be leading the group from Crossroads Community Church.  They will be working with their sister church in Horconcito.  This will be their first visit since they took them as a sister church.  They will be interacting with the community, finishing the well project and showing a video and serving supper.  Pray for these groups as things will be busy and crowded there.

This week we have a team in Costa Rica.  The team from Goshen Indiana is led by John Sieg and they will be working on the new chuch at Los Guidos.  This team will be putting in the footers and foundation.  This church building has involved several churches and groups.  The sister church to Los Guidos is Farmington, MI.  That church raised the money to buy the land.  Then we sold a house in Canchias and will be using that money to finish the building.  The church from Farmington will be going down next week.  The one team leaves on the 4th of July and the other arrives there.  Charlie and Ever will be there both weeks leading the teams.  Pray for this venture and adventure.

This week we have three different teams traveling to Honduras.  There will be over 60 people on these teams and it is going to be a busy week.

The Tonya Redd team is going to Campo Barranco to begin working on the new house/church building for the congregation there.  Pastor Luciano and his wife have been renting a house and holding services there since January.  A lady in the church has donated some property and we are excited about geting a new building up.  This will save the rent money each month and allow us to have more room for church activities.  Pray for this group as they build a house for the pastor and for God.

The Upper Arlington Lutheran Church is taking a large group down.  They will be building three homes for widows and families in the Santa Cruz area.  These families all attend the church at la Colonial.  It is always exciting when a team can accomplish so much in such a short time.  At the end of the week there will be 3 families with new homes of their own.

The Vero Beach Church of God is sending 31 people to Honduras this week.  19 will be traveling to Tegucigalpa to visit their sister church there and to work on the new church facility.  They will be doing the hard work of building a retaining wall.  The others in the group will be going out to Lake Yure to work at the new youth camp.  Most of these will be youth group kids who have raised their own money to travel to Hondruas.  Pray for all of these teams this week and continue to pray for the ministry.

Steve

This week the medical team from Liberty Presbyterian church is in Puerto Cortez.  They are conducting medical clinics in the surrounding communites.  Their sister church in Las Laureles located just at the edge of town.  This churh has started a minstry to the Garafuna peoples group.  this is an exciting development in the ministry.  The team is also conducting V.B.S. classes with the kids.  Cindy our Medical Team coordinator is leading this team.

I just returned from Honduras.  While there this week I led two groups looking for a congregation with whom that they  could start a Sister Church relationship.  The Sister Church program pairs North American congregations with those from our Brazos Arbieta fellowship of churches in Central America.  The purpose is to develop an ongoing relationship of mutual support, both physically and spiritually.  It is a great way to really learn about others as you get to know specific people over time.

The first team was there from Monday till Thursday.  This team was from the Sloan’s Lake Community church in Denver, CO.  The team was led by Pastor Ed Nelson and included Allen, Floyd and Linda.  This team was especilly touched by the church at Armenta.  They are praying about how they can best become involved in the ministry there.  The team was an excellent example of togetherness.  Linda has an artificial leg.  While this caused her to stumble and fall several times on the uneavenground, she was a determined trooper.  We all worked to keep up with her.  As you can see in the picture, she did not shy away from climbing, going or doing anything anyone else did.   While we had some cold, wet days and some windy rides in the truck, they had a good time.  Pastor Ed was always trying to learn more spanish.  He has quite the gift of language.  I was surprised that Floyd grew up near Gordon, NE which is near where I grew up, small world.  Allen is the music minister at the church.  While he does not fish, he has an excellent fishing wardrobe that caused some envy among us fishermen.  I had a great time with the team and look forward to their participation in Heart to Honduras.

 The second team was from the Church in the Gardens in Palm Beach Gardens, FL.  The team was led by Bob Triana and included Ben, David, David, Renee and her daughter Kayla.  This team loved seeing all the kids in the various churches.  David and Bob are fluent in Spanish and this was a great help on the trip.  They traveled alotof miles and saw a large part of the ministry.  They seemed to connect with the Los Conches church and are praying about developing that relationship.

 It was a tiring week with lots of travel.  But I had a great time with the two teams and look forward to seeing them in the future.

 

This week we have a team working in the mountain village of Yamaranguila.  The Honduras staff always laughs when I try to pronounce this village.  The church there is a sister church to Eastland Church of God from Lexington, KY.  Steve Birch their pastor is one of the members of Heart to Honduras’ Board of Directors.  He is leading this team. 

The village is way out and takes a good part of the day to get there.  The team will be painting the church and building a class room on the side of the building.  They will also be doing a VBS project and working with some local missionaries, Bob and Kathy Owen with World Gospel Mission.

The team is joined by the church from Bradington, FL.  Ancil Abney is their pastor. It is always exciting when people come down for the first time.  President Gordon Garrett will be meeting them and spending time with them this week.

We are praying that they will all have a safe and blessed time.   God is always working in their lives as much as he is using them in Honduras. 

Here are the pictures from the Santa Elena Church that was completed by the team from Maiden Lane Church of God of Springfield, OH.  Jack Crew and this team worked very hard to complete the church.  We had first erected a roof for the church to meet under.  We then had the local hondurans pour the footers and lay the block walls on 2 sides.  Jack’s team then built the wooden walls, and the ends of the church.  They also helped pour the concrete floor.  This was a wonderful example of a North American church working along side a Hondruan Congregation.  Together they were able to acomplish what they could not have done on their own.  God is glorified when the memers of the Kingdom of God work together to Praise him.

This week sees three different teams traveling to Honduras.  It will be a busy week down there.  Pray for the work to be done, the lives that can be changed and the safety of the team.

The first team is from Salem Church of God in Clayton, OH.  They will be traveling to their sister church in Robledales.  This small village is half way between Coppan and San Pedro Sula.  They will be conducting medical clinics in Robledales and the nearby town of San Francisco.  They will also be completing the music ministers house.  Some of the team will then enjoy the beach at Tela and the nature preserve at Punta Sal.  This team is being led by Allison Kast.

The second team is a vision team consiting of Larry Maddox and his grandson.  They will be touring the ministry.  They will also be traveling to the remote village of Caliche. 

The third team consists of Anderson University nursing students.  This team will be in country for several weeks.  They will be doing a variety of medical ministries.  They will work in our clinic at Canchias, visit the orphanage in Pina Blanca and all of our churches that feed children through Compassion International.  This team is led by our Medical Director Cindy Penhorwood.

These pictures were taken at the Pan American Health Services orphanage near Pina Blanca, Honduras.  My family and I visited the orphanage on our trip last week.  You can learn more about this ministry at http://panamhealth.org/homepage.htm (more)

This week there will be two Ministry Teams traveling to Honduras.  Southwood Lutheran of Lincoln, NE will be working in La Cebita.  This is there sister church.  Erick Roberts will be leading the group for Southwood and Amy McIlwain will be the Stateside Staff leader.  The team will be building two widows homes for ladies in La Cebita.  The money for the these two homes were donated to Heart to Honduras by Dr. Darby.  A number of ladies will be helping with the Sewing program there.  The team will also be providing a VBS program for the children of the village.  The team will be attending church in La Cebita on Tuesday night, On Wednesday night they will be showing a film for the village and on Friday they will host a community dinner.  The team will be worshiping with the School of Discipleship students on Thursday night.  They will travel back to San Pedro Sula Saturday and fly back to Lincoln on Sunday.

The second team of the week is from Maiden Lane Church of God in Springfield, OH.  They are led by Jack Crew.  This team will be finishing the walls on the new church at Santa Elena.  The Maiden Lane Church has recently become the sister church to the Santa Elena Congregation.  Their whole week will be spent completing this new worship facility. They will be joined by Gordon Garrett, the President of Heart to Honduras.

This week will also see myself and my family traveling down to Honduras.  We will be letting my family get to see the various parts of the minstry.  We will also take some time to explore other parts of the country.  We are in the process of developing a new program, Vacation with a Purpose.  This family oriented trip will be designed to help families serve the Kingdom of God through ministry while on a vacation.  The program will combine work projects, sight seeing, educational experiences and family bonding activities.  We hope to have this program in place for 2009.

Pray for the team this week.  We are all excited about what God is going to do.

a fellow servant  Steve DeLisle