Standing on the Rock!

The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;

    my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge,

    my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

Psalm 18:2

Can you imagine the difference that having your dirt floor changed to cement?  Especially if you live in a country with rain more than six months of the year!!

The church in El Coquito worked this passed Sunday to help out a member of the community, who is also a recent member of the church, by putting in a cement floor.

We labored together to put in a cement floor and then exhorted the family to let the rock-like surface of the cement be a reminder to them that Jesus is their ROCK!

They told us that they would start at 7:00 am, and we where there just after seven, but the men had already been working for a half hour!

The man with the big number four on his shirt is the owner.  He has six children ranging from four years old up to two older married daughters.

Francisco built this adobe house himself.  It has no indoor plumbing, no bathroom, and the kitchen is outside, but he is quite proud of his home and it is very well made.

Here is one of his daughters inspecting the work!!  Such a sweetheart!!

Here is Francisco's wife, Marcela, cooking out front.

The sand is piled high, the dry cement is loaded on top, and then everything is pulled back to mix and make a place to hold water.

After the water is added, the dry is moved into the middle mixing everything.

It sort of becomes an unruly mess that we have to chase around with shovels.

The pastor, Gustavo - in the ball cap, has lots of experience working with cement so he is leading the project.

Around 9:00 am a breakfast was brought to the house by Ellen and the pastor's wife.

After a little bit more work they brought lunch!  Well, it was after several hours but it seemed like a short time.  See, just like church programs in the states, food is an important part of the day!!

While the pastor was leading the cement floor project, he also had to break away to start the children's Sunday school program!!

These are two of Felipa's daughters.  Felipa received the first cement floor from the church!  

Gustavo built up these lines of cement to fill in between to make the rest of the floor.

What a beautiful floor!!

Just before putting the final touches on the finished floor, Pastor Gustavo shared Scripture and gave a blessing for the family!

Everyone there at the end was given an opportunity to share and it was so beautiful to hear how these men who had worked all day gave all the glory to the Lord for His goodness!!  Francisco shared powerfully, filled with gratitude to the Lord, and exhortation for the church!

What is so exciting to us is seeing the church members step up and purpose in being a blessing.  The reality is that this is a poor community, they probably all need cement floors, but they are working through deciding who has the greatest need and blessing them!

The community is also taking note because they have never seen a church working in this way... which reflects the Scripture in Mt 5:

“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.  

Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. 

Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.  

In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds 

and glorify your Father in heaven."

Matthew 5:14-16

Preaching Confirmation

Preaching in the Spirit
As all of my preaching opportunities are as a visiting preacher, one concern that I have is am I preaching what the Lord desires for the church.  I have just finished preaching in three different churches, in as many months, and have experienced an amazing confirmation that the message was exactly what the Lord wanted for that church and at that time.

I preached basically the same message in all three churches.  It was a discussion of forgiveness from Mt 18:23-35, the parable of the wicked servant or, as I prefer to title it, the parable of the merciful king.

The Message
The message is simple, we are like the first servant with a mountain of debt owed to the king.  In fact, it’s 200,000 work years worth of debt.  We are also like the first servant in that we live trying to dig ourselves out of our own problems and in reality only dig ourselves in deeper.  Our final similarity is that the first servant received undeserved and unrequested grace and mercy from the king in the cancellation of his debt, and we have received the same if we have trusted in Jesus for our salvation.

The servant failed to appreciate what was done for him and went out attacking another servant for a meager amount owed him – it was like 4 or 5 months of pay, which is nothing compared to 200,000 years he owed the king.  When the king learned of what the servant had done he had the servant dragged back in before him and, because the servant should have forgiven his fellow servant as he had been forgiven, the king sent him to jail to be tortured until all the debt was paid off.

Jesus closes the parable with a strong warning, ““This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.” Mt 18:35

The Confirmation
The first church I preached this message at was at the church we attend in Comayagua.  The pastor had invited me to preach on that date about a six weeks prior.  The message was well received and the pastor would like me to preach it to a group of youth leaders in Tegucigalpa.  That’s nice but I would not necessarily look at that as confirmation from the Lord.  The week after I preached, there was a group in from the states visiting the church and the guest preacher also preached on the very same passage with most of the same points.

I had also been invited to preach at a church in El Coquito where we have been working.  We changed the date twice and so ended up preaching about a month after the Comayagua church.  The message went fine and afterwards the pastor told me that on Friday they had an event in the church where a man from the congregation had come forward during the service saying that the Lord had told him two women in the church needed to forgive each other.  This man is new to the community and so does not know the history of the people in the church.  He named the two women and it turned out that they both had previously dealt in witchcraft and that they indeed needed forgiveness but were unwilling.  They had a guest preaching on Saturday and he preached on… forgiveness.  I came in on Sunday and preached on forgiveness.  The pastor was very happy and very thankful for the message.

Finally, we joined a team from the US that came down to serve at an orphanage we have been going to since 2007.  I was invited to preach and gave my message on forgiveness.  Another man who had come with the team had been invited to share a message for the Wednesday service and his message that he prepared before coming to Honduras… forgiveness from Mt 18!

The Movement of the Spirit
For me these three separate events that ended up with similar results is very encouraging for our life in the Spirit.  I had not asked for confirmation that what I was preaching was the desire of the Lord for the church, but it was the concern on my heart.  I absolutely marvel at how God was working, coordinating events across time and space, to bring the messages together.  The pastors at the two churches and the staff at the orphanage all clearly saw how this was of the Lord!  

God is working in ways we can not imagine.  We are too limited to even ask for what God already has in store for us.

For those of us who have been cleansed by the blood of Christ, God has become our heavenly Father, and His love and hope for us is that of a father for his child.  He has gone before us to lay down our path with opportunities crafted for us and to glorify Him.  He waits and He hopes that we will put aside our own desires to discover the treasures He has placed in our path!!

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.  For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.  Eph 2:8-10

For those of you who haven't trusted Christ for salvation, you simply need to pray putting all your hope in God alone, through Christ alone, by grace through faith alone for your salvation.  It's not us, it's all Christ.  You can get more help from a local evangelical church or you can email me. :)

While I praise the Lord the confirmation of the messages, I will not be looking for amazing confirmations in the future as it is enough to trust in the Lord and that His Word will accomplish His will.

So is my word that goes out from my mouth:

    It will not return to me empty,

but will accomplish what I desire

    and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. 

Isaiah 55:11

Fun at Orphanage Emmanuel

It's that time of year again when the Maryland team comes to Honduras for 10 days at Orphanage Emmanuel.

This year's team included folks from Maryland, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Arkansas.  There were 36 team members!!

One of the big treats for Ellen and me is getting to catch up with our sponsor child who is now 14 years old!!

The day after arriving, we jumped right into two days of field events for three of the children's houses.

The groups ranged from about 38 to 60 kids... it was a really good thing we had a big team!

We made several stations with different fun activities for the kids to rotate through.

They only had about 10 minutes at each station so they knew they had to move fast, obey the leaders and have fun!

She wanted to be a kitten!

Even the team members were able to get in on some of the fun!!

Ellen even put on some speed while playing a type of tag with the kids!

Each group ended their time with a meal of hotdogs!  This is a really big treat for them and the loved it!

Sunday morning I preached in Spanish and Ellen translated into English.

I was so blessed to have some of the boys say they liked the message and comment on specific points.  After church we had lunch and then off to another afternoon of field events!

Monday morning we started sharing with the kids during their morning 'circle' time.  They usually stand outside in a circle for a morning devotion, prayers and songs, but this particular morning it was raining so we were in their dining hall.

There was a soccer tournament with some other schools in the area.  The girl's team won 7 to 1 and the boy's team lost 0 to 1.

Some brother-sister yak time during the soccer game.  An extra special blessing is that Ellen's brother, Matt Jones, also comes for the orphanage trips!!

Ellen sharing with the little boys one morning.  We were inside because it was raining... again!

Sandra is the little girl in red.  She was quite pleased with herself for stealing my hat!

Sandra with Ellen at big circle time which is each Friday morning at 6:00 am when all the kids from the whole orphanage come together for discipleship, prayer and singing praise!

In our "free time" we would often head to the special needs yard.  These kids are here during the school hours as they don't attend school.  It's a joy to play with them!

One of the big projects that we have been doing each year for the orphanage is measuring all - as in over 500 kids - for their weight, height, shirt size, pants size and shoe size.  This is used for the Christmas list that folks can access to send clothes, and is also part of the reporting to the government.

Another big projects the guys took on was a cement floor for a new greenhouse.

We had two cement mixers going.  Matt Jones has extensive experience with making cement slabs so he was heading up as well as mixing the concrete!

The finish slab was gorgeous!  Lots of hard work and sweat!!

The little girl on Ellen's left is always soooo excited to see Ellen because they both have the same name, "Elena".  That's the name Ellen goes by in Honduras so they both have the same name here!

This is big circle at 6:00 am Friday.  The little boy's house are in the middle reciting the chapter of the Bible they memorized!

This is the middle girls singing at morning circle time at 6:00 am!!  Sooo precious!!

It is always a blessing to go, to get to be with a team from the states, to share in English, and to serve!

This post really only touches on such a little of all the work, fun and loving that went on during the orphanage visit.  We had teams in the school, teams cutting hair, teams doing crafts, teams fixing all sorts of stuff, and still there was more.  We worked hard, from early in the morning into the dark, and we praise God for the opportunity He made to serve Him!!  May He bless the children!!

But Jesus called them unto him, and said, let the little children to come unto me,

 and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Luke 18:16