Thursday, March 31, 2011
March 2011 Update
At the church plant
Our own Pastor Manuel was the recipient of the care of a medical brigade this past month. Robert took him out to a town over an hour away from here where they operated on a hernia. Thank God for medical brigades! While Pastor Manuel recuperated Robert preached two Sunday sermons at our church plant, dedicated a baby, and officiated at a funeral. Pray with us for his complete recovery.
At the library
Many of these children have never put a puzzle together before. Most have never played a table game. The excitement on the children’s faces is a reward in itself. It’s so encouraging when we see them jump up and down and shout “I did it!” upon completing a puzzle. They say, “Oh, how beautiful!” when they see the pictures in the lovely books that people have donated. The teachers have commented how thankful they are for the library as they can see an improvement in the children’s abilities to read and do their numbers, and we’ve only just begun! The photos we’ve taken can never do this justice. How we wish you could be here to experience it! We are so grateful for your prayers to make this a reality. The children are being blessed. A community will be changed because of your support and prayers. We are thankful to the Lord for Oscar Noé and Mary, whom we are training to run the library. Pray that we will be able to find and train volunteers that can come along side them to help.
At the school
A few days of observing at the Pablo Menzel bilingual Christian school and we knew exactly what they needed to do to improve the quality of their educational institution. English classes for their teachers! Robert will be giving pronunciation classes to the teachers there over the next several weeks. This is one of several recommendations we have given to the school board after they requested that we evaluate their Christian Reformed school’s performance. The teachers are also asking for training on working with children with learning disabilities.
At home
On March 28 David turned 13! It’s hard to believe we now have a teenager in our family! We are very proud of his musical gifts, which he is putting to use to serve the Lord. The last two Sundays of March we led worship at the English speaking church and David joined us on the drums one of those days. He is also an incredible artist, amazing us with his drawings for his schoolwork. Both he and Julianna help us with the children in the library three times a week, taking them to the bathroom, playing with them, helping them with homework, or helping them to check out books. We are very blessed to be able to serve God together as a family.
On the streets
The violence continues...This month another pastor’s son in Choloma was kidnapped and murdered. The brother of the cleaning lady at our library was murdered. Two policemen were killed trying to save a friend’s niece from being captured and murdered. Please pray for the families who are grieving. Pray for peace for the Hondurans and safety for His people. We are encouraged to announce that at long last the pastors are responding to the invitation to get together for prayer against the violence and to be united as a body of believers. Roberto Marroquin (our pastor friend murdered last month), who had once been the chairman of the pastors association, saw only a handful of men of God at those meetings. Now that he has been taken from them, they are about 200 strong!
This month there has also been days of protesting in the streets by the teachers. Pray that the issues can be dealt with in a peaceful manner.
Your prayers are key to our ministry here in Honduras. Thank you for your support and friendship. May the Lord bless you a hundred-fold!
On the front lines,
Robert, Roxanne, David, and Julianna
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Thursday, March 3, 2011
February 2011 Update
Service
We had the blessing of participating with a team of doctors as their interpreters and assistants in a little town south of the capital city this month. Robert spent a couple of days at the beginning and, at the end, Roxanne joined him, but David remained with the medical brigade the entire nine days. He had a terrific experience interviewing patients, pulling and cleaning teeth, holding newborn babies, taking blood pressure, and all the while using his God-given ability to flip back and forth between Spanish and English! The team commented how much they enjoyed his company as he kept them entertained constantly with his wit and humor. We are very grateful to God for such an incredible opportunity for service and experiential learning for our son. He commented that this opened up for him the desire to possibly pursue the career of dentistry.
Part way through the week of the medical brigade, Robert returned to the north of Honduras (7 hour drive) to translate in a three-day missions conference where he was greatly blessed besides being a blessing!
We are gearing up for the opening of our new children’s library / after-school activity center. The official dedication will be on March 12, although the doors will open to the children for enrollment and orientation beforehand. Be watching out for pictures in our next update!
Sacrifice
Please remember to pray for protection for all of us who serve the Lord in this crime ridden city. Oscar Noé and Mari, the couple who will become the directors of the library, were held up at gun point recently. Thankfully, they only hit him on the back of his head with the gun and spared his life. We know God has great plans for this couple to be a light among the children and their families in their community.
They may kill the body, but no one can take His children from His hands! Yet another pastor was taken home unexpectedly last week in the usual violent form of this city. The country is reeling from the constant murders and is crying out that something be done about it. There is an average of 16 murders a day which, the newspaper says, is equivalent to a country at war. Finally, yesterday the government sent the army out to the streets to help curb the violence. We are at war with the enemy of our souls! Please pray for the family of Pastor Roberto Marroquin, that they will find their comfort and strength in Him. May the churches be more diligent in praying in unity and in sharing the Word of God, that this country might be turned upside down for God and that His peace would reign.
The 28-year-old daughter of one of the couples that faithfully attend our church plant was also killed this month, but out of vengeance against her brother. Pray for Irma’s family as they mourn her loss.
Celebration
The day of Roxanne’s birthday, Robert attended the funeral of Pastor Marroquin. It put a damper on things but we are grateful for another year of life for Roxanne. Our 20th anniversary is upon us, too, on March 9, and David will become a teenager on March 28!
Thank you for your prayers. They sustain us as we seek to do His will here in Honduras. May the Lord sustain you, too, with His unending love and peace.
Shalom,
Robert, Roxanne, David, and Julianna
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