This summer has been such a blessing for the ministry. God provided the teams and they have shared their gifts with the people in Honduras. The large teams started coming the middle of May and we have had one after another since then.
I would like to share some of the high lights of each of the teams, it would take too long to list all the activities of each team. Meadow Grove Baptist in Brandon was the first of the summer teams. The members of the team shared with the Ladies Ministry and installed a water purification system.
Vicksburg Mission Team was next, their team taught several classes for the people in Honduras. The classes were wood working, art, sewing, beading and electricity. Some of the young men that attended are continuing to make crosses, the women in the art class will paint them for sell.
St. Marks and Madison Methodist showed the movie Courageous to the men in Las Lomitas and then have a ceremony for the men that made the committment to be a Godly father and husband. They also had an abstinence class for young girls in the village.
Covenant Presbyterian and New Hope Baptist build four houses, conducted VBS for the children and had doctors and a dentist see patients. God provided a speech pathologist for a young girl that cannot speak. Molly, the speech pathologist also was able to use a hearing machine to screen children in our education program. A four year old girl was found that cannot hear or speak. We are in the process of searching for ways to help this young girl, Angie, and her family.
This week, North Minster from Jackson and a team from Clemson will be in Honduras. God will provide for the people through these teams as He has with the other teams that come to share the gifts God has given them.
Ministerio Sal y Luz now has four tutoring programs in place. The programs are in La Virtud, El Jaral, El Tigre and Pena Blanca at Ramon Rosa School. We are teaching math and Spanish. One of our goals is to instill Christian values and morals in the children at an early age. We also want to teach them the importance of staying in school and getting an education.
Out of the tutoring program, a youth mentoring program is beginning. We have taken several young boys from several communities that have little or no support from their families. Three of the boys have no parents and one has a mother and four sisters to help support. They come every day after school and work in the garden that has been started. They are paid a small wage and are given vegetables to sell in town. The most important part is a Bible study and mentoring by Godly men while they are working at the clinic. The next step in the mentoring program is to begin a group for young girls that need help with support and guidance from Godly women.
The summer has been busy but God is in control and everythng is going well. The staff is working hard to support the teams in their efforts to help the people.
Please continue to pray for the ministry.
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
First Love Rev. 2: 1-7
Starting last fall, I started having moods that I had not had before in Honduras. I would get frustrated, angry, depressed and just not very pleasant. I know it was hard on the staff here and especially Henry and also to some of my Christian friends at home. At first, I thought I was just tired and didn't understand what was going on most of the time. The longer I stay here, the more I want to be able to communicate with the people on a more personal level but I just have not been able to learn Spanish. I always say that it is my age or God just wants the staff to learn Engllish but I think now it is more than that...I think God is trying very hard to make me know how dependent I am on Him. I know, like most people, that we think we are in control and we are not. God can wipe that control right out of our hands any time He wants to.
I have a book written by Bill Bright called First Love. I have had the book for a long time, I have never opened it or paid much attention to it but it ended up in my suitcase this time when I returned to Honduras. I have been reading it and it is all aboout me. When I first came to Honduras, I knew that God had called me here to work at the ministry and I felt so blessed to be used by Him. As time went on, I quit focusing on God and His will for me and I started focusing on the work being done. I left my lifeline. I am like the church at Ephesus that God talks about in Revelations, I left my first love. Now I know why this book was in my suitcase, God wanted me to come back to my first love. I have to keep my focus on God and not the work being done and to give God the glory for all of it.
This is the last paragraph in the book.
"If this love I have now--this first love is only partial, I can only say that I long foor the final edition. If the abundance of this life in only a foretaste, I long for the full meal. And if my comprehension of God now if just a glance through a hazy mirror, I long for a complete and unimpaired view. Praise God, what a day that will be!! I can hardly wait.
But for now, we have something wonderful. It cannot compare to the glories of heaven, but it is still the most wonderful thing in this world. I refer to the indescribable love of God. Cling to it. Cherish it and nurture it every day. Make your first love be your lasting, permanent love, and God will grant you wonderful blessings beyond any imagining. And be sure to share your renewed first love with others."
Now for the things that are going on in Honduras. I asked Henry last night to please not add any more new programs, I can't keep up with where I am suppose to be. He is doing a great job and loves the Lord so much that he wants others to love the Lord as much as he does. The staff works so hard to accomplish the vision that Henry has.
It is such a blessing to be in a place where God is the center of everything that we do. Not that we don't get upset and lose our focus as I said above but we refocused and keep on going.
Our first big team arrives and there will be one team right after another until sometime in August. We will really have to concentrate on making time to adjust our focus for He is our strength.
The tutoring programs are going well. We have a pilot program in El Jaral that has been operating since March. We will start four more programs in different villages this month. Because of limited resoureces and staff, we are having to be selective in the villages we put the programs. Allan, a young man that was born in Honduras but raised by Baptist missionaries is helping us and doing an excellant job. I told Henry that a teacher is born and I don't think a person that has a true heart for teaching can learn that in school.
The men's and women's ministries are doing well. They have lots of projects to help the people learn to make their own living and not wait for someone to give them what they need. The Pastor's Bible Study is growing and more and more people are being affected by it.
I have enjoyed the squash and okra in the garden that the men planted. We are going to add to our small plot and plant corn and beans on a larger plot next to it. The men can then sell the vegetables to the soup kitchens and make some money to feed their families.
The container arrived and we have been distributing lots of clothes and other items that you so generously sent to Honduras. We still have a lot of things to give away but hopefully we will provide them to the people that truly need them.
Please pray for the staff here at Sal y Luz and the teams that are preparing to come and not only get a blessing but also receive a blessing.
We love you all.
I have a book written by Bill Bright called First Love. I have had the book for a long time, I have never opened it or paid much attention to it but it ended up in my suitcase this time when I returned to Honduras. I have been reading it and it is all aboout me. When I first came to Honduras, I knew that God had called me here to work at the ministry and I felt so blessed to be used by Him. As time went on, I quit focusing on God and His will for me and I started focusing on the work being done. I left my lifeline. I am like the church at Ephesus that God talks about in Revelations, I left my first love. Now I know why this book was in my suitcase, God wanted me to come back to my first love. I have to keep my focus on God and not the work being done and to give God the glory for all of it.
This is the last paragraph in the book.
"If this love I have now--this first love is only partial, I can only say that I long foor the final edition. If the abundance of this life in only a foretaste, I long for the full meal. And if my comprehension of God now if just a glance through a hazy mirror, I long for a complete and unimpaired view. Praise God, what a day that will be!! I can hardly wait.
But for now, we have something wonderful. It cannot compare to the glories of heaven, but it is still the most wonderful thing in this world. I refer to the indescribable love of God. Cling to it. Cherish it and nurture it every day. Make your first love be your lasting, permanent love, and God will grant you wonderful blessings beyond any imagining. And be sure to share your renewed first love with others."
Now for the things that are going on in Honduras. I asked Henry last night to please not add any more new programs, I can't keep up with where I am suppose to be. He is doing a great job and loves the Lord so much that he wants others to love the Lord as much as he does. The staff works so hard to accomplish the vision that Henry has.
It is such a blessing to be in a place where God is the center of everything that we do. Not that we don't get upset and lose our focus as I said above but we refocused and keep on going.
Our first big team arrives and there will be one team right after another until sometime in August. We will really have to concentrate on making time to adjust our focus for He is our strength.
The tutoring programs are going well. We have a pilot program in El Jaral that has been operating since March. We will start four more programs in different villages this month. Because of limited resoureces and staff, we are having to be selective in the villages we put the programs. Allan, a young man that was born in Honduras but raised by Baptist missionaries is helping us and doing an excellant job. I told Henry that a teacher is born and I don't think a person that has a true heart for teaching can learn that in school.
The men's and women's ministries are doing well. They have lots of projects to help the people learn to make their own living and not wait for someone to give them what they need. The Pastor's Bible Study is growing and more and more people are being affected by it.
I have enjoyed the squash and okra in the garden that the men planted. We are going to add to our small plot and plant corn and beans on a larger plot next to it. The men can then sell the vegetables to the soup kitchens and make some money to feed their families.
The container arrived and we have been distributing lots of clothes and other items that you so generously sent to Honduras. We still have a lot of things to give away but hopefully we will provide them to the people that truly need them.
Please pray for the staff here at Sal y Luz and the teams that are preparing to come and not only get a blessing but also receive a blessing.
We love you all.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Update on projects at Ministerio Sal y Luz in Honduras
"This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it." Psalm 118:42
I pray that whatever words are in this blog are from the Lord and that my only contribution is the typing of what the Lord puts on my heart. Our only purpose here on earth is to do His will in everything and to give Him the glory.
I have been home for over two weeks and have not updated the blog about the activities at Ministerio Sal y Luz, I think I am getting lazy in my old age.
When I left to come home on March 27th, the garden, planted by the Men's Ministry was growing well. Henry told me last week that they had harvested the radishes already. The purpose of the garden is to give the men that are interested a way to do productive work. They will raise the vegetables and sell them to the soup kitchens that the ministry supports. This way they will have income to feed their families and the ministry will have vegetables to cook for the children. In Honduras, the weather is suitable to grow crops all year long. Some of the crops will vary because of the cool weather in the first part of the year and the lack of rain in April and May but with planning, there should always be something growing to sell.
Henry has tried to pull in men from the different areas of the ministry. He has men from the families that are fed in the soup kitchens, the families that have children supported in the education program and some of the local ministers are helping also. The staff provided training for the men involved using people that have worked in the agriculture profession for a long time that know about the soil and the seasons in Honduras. The soil in our area is volcanic soil and very rich but it is also very porous and requires certain nutritients more often than some other soil types. It also requires a lot of water to help the plants grow when we are not getting a lot of rain in March, April and May. This year there was more rain during those months than usual so that was a blessing.
The tutoring program was started in El Jaral in March. We have all the children that live in El Jaral that are sponsored by people in the United States and we also included children that the teachers recommended for extra help. We meet on Tuesday and Thursday at 3:00 for one hour. Part of the hour is spent on math and part spent on Spanish. There are two teachers at El Jaral, one teaches first through third grade and the other teaches fourth through sixth grade. There are approximately 40 children in each room. The teachers and some of the staff at Sal y Luz are helping the children each week. We are fortunate to have a young man that is a teacher to help us. His organization skills and disciplined approach are working well for the children. Sal y Luz hopes to start a tutoring program in each village that has students that are in the education program.
Our goal is to train the local teachers and others in the village to help with the tutoring program and then go to another village and start a new program in that village until we are able to have a program in each village. It will take time to initiate a program for all the children.
I am tutoring a math class for older students on Tuesday nights and on Thursday afternoon I have some university students that need to work on their homework. We are very busy with our new programs in education. Some days, I don't know if I am coming or going.
Please pray for us at Ministerio Sal y Luz. Henry and the staff are working so hard to implement these programs to help the people. There are many things to do but with God's help and direction, we will be able to make a difference in their lives.
I will be returning to Honduras on the 23th of April. Thank you for your support of the ministry in Honduras.
I pray that whatever words are in this blog are from the Lord and that my only contribution is the typing of what the Lord puts on my heart. Our only purpose here on earth is to do His will in everything and to give Him the glory.
I have been home for over two weeks and have not updated the blog about the activities at Ministerio Sal y Luz, I think I am getting lazy in my old age.
When I left to come home on March 27th, the garden, planted by the Men's Ministry was growing well. Henry told me last week that they had harvested the radishes already. The purpose of the garden is to give the men that are interested a way to do productive work. They will raise the vegetables and sell them to the soup kitchens that the ministry supports. This way they will have income to feed their families and the ministry will have vegetables to cook for the children. In Honduras, the weather is suitable to grow crops all year long. Some of the crops will vary because of the cool weather in the first part of the year and the lack of rain in April and May but with planning, there should always be something growing to sell.
Henry has tried to pull in men from the different areas of the ministry. He has men from the families that are fed in the soup kitchens, the families that have children supported in the education program and some of the local ministers are helping also. The staff provided training for the men involved using people that have worked in the agriculture profession for a long time that know about the soil and the seasons in Honduras. The soil in our area is volcanic soil and very rich but it is also very porous and requires certain nutritients more often than some other soil types. It also requires a lot of water to help the plants grow when we are not getting a lot of rain in March, April and May. This year there was more rain during those months than usual so that was a blessing.
The tutoring program was started in El Jaral in March. We have all the children that live in El Jaral that are sponsored by people in the United States and we also included children that the teachers recommended for extra help. We meet on Tuesday and Thursday at 3:00 for one hour. Part of the hour is spent on math and part spent on Spanish. There are two teachers at El Jaral, one teaches first through third grade and the other teaches fourth through sixth grade. There are approximately 40 children in each room. The teachers and some of the staff at Sal y Luz are helping the children each week. We are fortunate to have a young man that is a teacher to help us. His organization skills and disciplined approach are working well for the children. Sal y Luz hopes to start a tutoring program in each village that has students that are in the education program.
Our goal is to train the local teachers and others in the village to help with the tutoring program and then go to another village and start a new program in that village until we are able to have a program in each village. It will take time to initiate a program for all the children.
I am tutoring a math class for older students on Tuesday nights and on Thursday afternoon I have some university students that need to work on their homework. We are very busy with our new programs in education. Some days, I don't know if I am coming or going.
Please pray for us at Ministerio Sal y Luz. Henry and the staff are working so hard to implement these programs to help the people. There are many things to do but with God's help and direction, we will be able to make a difference in their lives.
I will be returning to Honduras on the 23th of April. Thank you for your support of the ministry in Honduras.
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Thank you for letting God use me.
This morning I was thinking how grateful I am to God first for using me in Honduras but also to all my family and friends that God uses too. If it weren't for family, friends, my church, members of the teams that come to Honduras and to the members of the Salt and Light Ministry Foundation, I would not be able to let God use me. I am dependent on all of you for the resources that God puts on your hearts to share with me. I am not just talking about money but your prayers for me. I want to be open to God's will for my life every moment but I get off track. The people here can tell you I get off track and don't seek God's direction and guidance as often as I should. I don't seek His wisdom as often as I need to. I use my own wisdom and that doesn't work. I forget who is in control of everything and I get anxious when there is no need. I waste a lot of time being anxious when God knows and takes care of everything. He wants me to wait and depend on Him for everything.
This is my fourth year in Honduras and it seems like the first. Time has gone by so quickly. I never know if God will use me here again but I have to remember, if He doesn't use me in Honduras, He has a better plan for me. It makes me sad when I think that I might not be able to come back and see all the friends I have made but I know God's will is best no matter how I feel about it. I think about Jeremiah 29:11 a lot and I know it is true. God knew I would be here typing before I was born and what a great plan He had for me and has more to come. He has a plan to use all of us, we just have to be willing to be His hands and feet so He can use us.
I have added soime pictures of the Men's Ministry garden next to the clinic. Henry has tried so hard to find something for the men to do to help support their families. The men are clearing and planting seeds that will produce vegetables to sell to the soup kitchens that the ministry supports. This is the "dry" season in Honduras and they were concerned about the seed coming up. The owner of the property would not let us water the garden bu God has provided a shower every night since they planted the garden. It is growing beautifully and they even planted yellow squash, my favorite vegetable.
I will go home in less than two weeks and I am looking forward to seeing my family and friends. They have helped me so much by loving me and letting me be where God wants me.
Thank you all for everything especially the prayers.
This is my fourth year in Honduras and it seems like the first. Time has gone by so quickly. I never know if God will use me here again but I have to remember, if He doesn't use me in Honduras, He has a better plan for me. It makes me sad when I think that I might not be able to come back and see all the friends I have made but I know God's will is best no matter how I feel about it. I think about Jeremiah 29:11 a lot and I know it is true. God knew I would be here typing before I was born and what a great plan He had for me and has more to come. He has a plan to use all of us, we just have to be willing to be His hands and feet so He can use us.
I have added soime pictures of the Men's Ministry garden next to the clinic. Henry has tried so hard to find something for the men to do to help support their families. The men are clearing and planting seeds that will produce vegetables to sell to the soup kitchens that the ministry supports. This is the "dry" season in Honduras and they were concerned about the seed coming up. The owner of the property would not let us water the garden bu God has provided a shower every night since they planted the garden. It is growing beautifully and they even planted yellow squash, my favorite vegetable.
I will go home in less than two weeks and I am looking forward to seeing my family and friends. They have helped me so much by loving me and letting me be where God wants me.
Thank you all for everything especially the prayers.
Saturday, March 10, 2012
We need lots of pray concerning our new Tutoring Centers in the villages
Yesterday, Henry, Alex and I had a meeting with the teachers in a village called El Jaral. Henry wants to set up places in each of the villages that Sal y Luz has students sponsored in. Alex is the Education Coordinator for Sal y Luz and responsible for all areas of the education program.
We are starting with a village near the clinic called El Jaral. This will be our pilot program and we will not start any others until we are sure that our first one is working correctly. El Jaral has a feeding center to feed the children one meal a day, the children also receive medical and dental checkups. One of our churches in the Jackson area provides the funds for Feeding Center in this village. The village does not have a water purification system but we plan to install one this summer. The children in this village have the highest incident rate for parasites. One child was tested recently and they found over 40 different parasites in the child. Regular worming and floride treatments are provided also.
I will get back to education and the turtoring program. Most of the children in the public schools do not receive the basic skills, they drop out after 6th grade because they have to go to a high school in another town to be able to continue in school. Most families do not promote their children attending school so the child can help provide for the family. Another factor is lack of knowledge, most of the village schools do not supply the necessary skills to attend grades above 6th.
In El Jaral, there are two teachers, six grades and 80 children for those two teachers who I think really would like to help the children. Some schools have one teacher and 6 grades and lots of students. Salt and Light feels that they need to have more direct contact with the children, especially the ones sponsored through our education program.
This is a work in progress. Next week we will have a meeting with the families of the children in the school. The next step will be to give a thorough medican exam, including eye tests and dental exams for all the children. We will have someone talk to the families and children about using clean water and how important it is to their families and their health. This to help prepare them for the water purification system to be installed this summer. The next step will be to give an evaluation test to determine what level each child is in on Mathematicas and Spanish.
We hope to find local people in the community, including older students, that will donate their time two days a week for one hour to work with these student that we determine needs the extra help.
We hope that this effort, started in the early grades, will keep some of the students in school that would have dropped out. After we see what adjustments need to be made, what works and what doesn't, then we can start the same program in the other villages where we have children sponsored.
The children have already started a garden at their school and were planting bell peppers yesterday. This is part of them giving back to the community instead of just waiting for someone to give them something. As an American who has been here on several mission trips, we do not help anyone by just giving. We want the people here to be able to provide for themselves and not expect a handout. It makes us feel good to give and sometimes it is appropriate, but not all the time. We have to be very careful to make sure that what we are giving is beneficial and will not cause dissatisfaction in their lives.
Please be in pray for this effort, we need God's guidance and direction as we start this new program. After I left the meeting yesterday that we had with the teachers, I was completely over whelmed by the effort it will take to make a different in these children's lives. We cannot make a difference in their lives without God's help. They need Him as their savior and we need Him to guide us in everything we do. We need strength, courage, determination and lots of patience because what we want to accomplish will not happen in a day or even in a year. There are so many negative factors to compete with but God can take care of all those things if we are faithful to do His will.
Thank you for your support and prayers and love.
We are starting with a village near the clinic called El Jaral. This will be our pilot program and we will not start any others until we are sure that our first one is working correctly. El Jaral has a feeding center to feed the children one meal a day, the children also receive medical and dental checkups. One of our churches in the Jackson area provides the funds for Feeding Center in this village. The village does not have a water purification system but we plan to install one this summer. The children in this village have the highest incident rate for parasites. One child was tested recently and they found over 40 different parasites in the child. Regular worming and floride treatments are provided also.
I will get back to education and the turtoring program. Most of the children in the public schools do not receive the basic skills, they drop out after 6th grade because they have to go to a high school in another town to be able to continue in school. Most families do not promote their children attending school so the child can help provide for the family. Another factor is lack of knowledge, most of the village schools do not supply the necessary skills to attend grades above 6th.
In El Jaral, there are two teachers, six grades and 80 children for those two teachers who I think really would like to help the children. Some schools have one teacher and 6 grades and lots of students. Salt and Light feels that they need to have more direct contact with the children, especially the ones sponsored through our education program.
This is a work in progress. Next week we will have a meeting with the families of the children in the school. The next step will be to give a thorough medican exam, including eye tests and dental exams for all the children. We will have someone talk to the families and children about using clean water and how important it is to their families and their health. This to help prepare them for the water purification system to be installed this summer. The next step will be to give an evaluation test to determine what level each child is in on Mathematicas and Spanish.
We hope to find local people in the community, including older students, that will donate their time two days a week for one hour to work with these student that we determine needs the extra help.
We hope that this effort, started in the early grades, will keep some of the students in school that would have dropped out. After we see what adjustments need to be made, what works and what doesn't, then we can start the same program in the other villages where we have children sponsored.
The children have already started a garden at their school and were planting bell peppers yesterday. This is part of them giving back to the community instead of just waiting for someone to give them something. As an American who has been here on several mission trips, we do not help anyone by just giving. We want the people here to be able to provide for themselves and not expect a handout. It makes us feel good to give and sometimes it is appropriate, but not all the time. We have to be very careful to make sure that what we are giving is beneficial and will not cause dissatisfaction in their lives.
Please be in pray for this effort, we need God's guidance and direction as we start this new program. After I left the meeting yesterday that we had with the teachers, I was completely over whelmed by the effort it will take to make a different in these children's lives. We cannot make a difference in their lives without God's help. They need Him as their savior and we need Him to guide us in everything we do. We need strength, courage, determination and lots of patience because what we want to accomplish will not happen in a day or even in a year. There are so many negative factors to compete with but God can take care of all those things if we are faithful to do His will.
Thank you for your support and prayers and love.
Monday, March 5, 2012
Ministries at Ministerio Sal y Luz
God is working in Honduras through Sal y Luz and Henry Alvarenga, the director and the staff. It very fails to amaze me that the staff here will work late or on the weekends as if it is natural to spend all their time with the ministry.
Henry has started his men's ministry, ten to fifteen men meet at the clinic every other week for Bible studies and to talk about how God can give them guidance so they can provide for their families. A large garden has been planted by some of the men next door to the clinic. All the work is done by hand with shovles and hoes. A young, 14 year old boy is helping them every day, he has no parents and he is learning to work with men. I think he does more work than the men. He carried all the corn and fertilizer back to the place where they store everything when they finish. I had to help him put the sacks on his back because it was so heavy. The product will be sold to the ministry for our feeding centers and the men will receive their portion of the profit. We already have frioles up and are waiting for corn, carrots, squash, beets and many other vegetables to come up.
The men need something to do that will give them money to feed their families, they will have to wait on the product from the gardens. Henry is trying to find ways for the men that want to work to provide what their families need.
Once a month, the families from the Feeding Centers that are supported the Salt and Light Ministry, come to the clinic for Bible Studies and health education. Yesterday was the day. The staff takes the children to a place separate from the parents and teachs them a Bible story and then they color and play organized games. The parents meet together for topics that hopefully will improve their spiritual and physical lives. They are picked up at 7:30 and meet for two hours.
Last night it rained so hard, I was afraid the garden would wash away. Hopefully it is still there. Today we have a meeting in another town with some backers of a private school for the poor only. It is not a business but a ministry. From what I heard, the test scores are very high in the six grades. They are taught English and only pay what the families can afford if anything. Many of the public schools here are not very good and most children quit before they reach high school. The teachers were on strike last year and the children only attended school for 90 days of the year. I am tutoring a math class for some of the high school students that are part of our scholarship program and they don't have basic math skills. I am talking about multiplication and division, not to mention fractions or decimals.
Thank you for all your support and prayers and thank you to the ones that made it possible for me to work with Henry and the staff at Ministerio Sal y Luz in Honduras.
God bless each of you.
Henry has started his men's ministry, ten to fifteen men meet at the clinic every other week for Bible studies and to talk about how God can give them guidance so they can provide for their families. A large garden has been planted by some of the men next door to the clinic. All the work is done by hand with shovles and hoes. A young, 14 year old boy is helping them every day, he has no parents and he is learning to work with men. I think he does more work than the men. He carried all the corn and fertilizer back to the place where they store everything when they finish. I had to help him put the sacks on his back because it was so heavy. The product will be sold to the ministry for our feeding centers and the men will receive their portion of the profit. We already have frioles up and are waiting for corn, carrots, squash, beets and many other vegetables to come up.
The men need something to do that will give them money to feed their families, they will have to wait on the product from the gardens. Henry is trying to find ways for the men that want to work to provide what their families need.
Once a month, the families from the Feeding Centers that are supported the Salt and Light Ministry, come to the clinic for Bible Studies and health education. Yesterday was the day. The staff takes the children to a place separate from the parents and teachs them a Bible story and then they color and play organized games. The parents meet together for topics that hopefully will improve their spiritual and physical lives. They are picked up at 7:30 and meet for two hours.
Last night it rained so hard, I was afraid the garden would wash away. Hopefully it is still there. Today we have a meeting in another town with some backers of a private school for the poor only. It is not a business but a ministry. From what I heard, the test scores are very high in the six grades. They are taught English and only pay what the families can afford if anything. Many of the public schools here are not very good and most children quit before they reach high school. The teachers were on strike last year and the children only attended school for 90 days of the year. I am tutoring a math class for some of the high school students that are part of our scholarship program and they don't have basic math skills. I am talking about multiplication and division, not to mention fractions or decimals.
Thank you for all your support and prayers and thank you to the ones that made it possible for me to work with Henry and the staff at Ministerio Sal y Luz in Honduras.
God bless each of you.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Serving the Lord by meeting the physical and spiritual needs of the people in central Honduras
The Lord has really blessed us at Ministerio Saly y Luz this year by using the teams He sends to us to share with the people here in Honduras. God always provided exactly what is needed at the time it is needed. I have a lot of weaknesses but I think the one that bothers me most is waiting on God and thinking I can do anything without Him. I can do nothing without Him, all I do is spin my wheels and all my energy is wasted. God wants to use my hands and feet but He does not need my help.
We have been blessed with many small teams and groups this year. All of them were sent here with a purpose that God had ordained and knew before we were born. They have blessed each one of us and we are very grateful for all the blessings that are heaped on our heads.
We have many prayer concerns that would like to share with each of you.
1. There is a young 14 year old boy, named Manuel, that has leukemia and needs a bone marrow transplant. A nurse from the Memphis area that visited us is trying to get him an appointment at St. Jude but we are having problems connecting the doctors here and in Memphis.
2. Ministerio Sal y Luz will start a pilot tutoring program for the students that we have sponsors for in the US. The education system here is not good and the children have a difficult time when they go to a larger school in 7th grade. A lot of them drop out and go to work. Most parents don't see a need for school and need the money the children can make to help feed them. We want to make a difference in their education and pray that they stay in school. We are trying to change the mentality of the people but that takes time and patience. Pray for guidance and direction that we will make a difference in the life of these children.
3. Pray for Henry and the staff as they work with the evangelism and other programs for God's glory.
4. Pray for me to learn and retain Spanish so I can communicate with the people. I now have two math classes and soon will have two knitting classes for the ladies ministry. One of my knitting classes is in a small village called 3rd of October. The people are very poor but I have six ladies that are learning to knit so they can help support their families. The math classes are remedial for some of the high school students and I also have some pastors that are going to the university and they need help with their math. One of them asked me last week how many more students I could take. I told him I didn't know but we would try and see how many is too many. I have a translator to help me but I have to pay him for his help which I am very grateful for.
5. My last request is about Rubenia's family. Rubenia's had two sisters and a two year old baby brother still in the mountains living with her parents. The father died in September and I hate to say it but it was a blessing. The mother let me find a home for Johanna the 14 year old. Nancy the five year old is with a cousin but I don't know where, I just pray that she is alright. The baby is taking care of himself ( hard for us to imagine) every day while the mother picks coffee to get food. I want to get the baby but so far the mother will not let him go. I also need a family to take him. Johanna is having problems adjusting to the routine at her new home. None of the children in the family have ever had any rules or discipline, just beatings. Johanna has a big scar in her scalp where the father hit her with the hoe. The family that Johanna is living with wants her to stay but they called me and asked me to pray for all of them. Pray for all the children here, most of them have a very difficult time.
God bless all of you.
We have been blessed with many small teams and groups this year. All of them were sent here with a purpose that God had ordained and knew before we were born. They have blessed each one of us and we are very grateful for all the blessings that are heaped on our heads.
We have many prayer concerns that would like to share with each of you.
1. There is a young 14 year old boy, named Manuel, that has leukemia and needs a bone marrow transplant. A nurse from the Memphis area that visited us is trying to get him an appointment at St. Jude but we are having problems connecting the doctors here and in Memphis.
2. Ministerio Sal y Luz will start a pilot tutoring program for the students that we have sponsors for in the US. The education system here is not good and the children have a difficult time when they go to a larger school in 7th grade. A lot of them drop out and go to work. Most parents don't see a need for school and need the money the children can make to help feed them. We want to make a difference in their education and pray that they stay in school. We are trying to change the mentality of the people but that takes time and patience. Pray for guidance and direction that we will make a difference in the life of these children.
3. Pray for Henry and the staff as they work with the evangelism and other programs for God's glory.
4. Pray for me to learn and retain Spanish so I can communicate with the people. I now have two math classes and soon will have two knitting classes for the ladies ministry. One of my knitting classes is in a small village called 3rd of October. The people are very poor but I have six ladies that are learning to knit so they can help support their families. The math classes are remedial for some of the high school students and I also have some pastors that are going to the university and they need help with their math. One of them asked me last week how many more students I could take. I told him I didn't know but we would try and see how many is too many. I have a translator to help me but I have to pay him for his help which I am very grateful for.
5. My last request is about Rubenia's family. Rubenia's had two sisters and a two year old baby brother still in the mountains living with her parents. The father died in September and I hate to say it but it was a blessing. The mother let me find a home for Johanna the 14 year old. Nancy the five year old is with a cousin but I don't know where, I just pray that she is alright. The baby is taking care of himself ( hard for us to imagine) every day while the mother picks coffee to get food. I want to get the baby but so far the mother will not let him go. I also need a family to take him. Johanna is having problems adjusting to the routine at her new home. None of the children in the family have ever had any rules or discipline, just beatings. Johanna has a big scar in her scalp where the father hit her with the hoe. The family that Johanna is living with wants her to stay but they called me and asked me to pray for all of them. Pray for all the children here, most of them have a very difficult time.
God bless all of you.
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