Hi All! Guess what??? We will be leaving for Honduras in only 65 days!! WOW ~ time sure does fly by! The trip will be here before we know it. It’s somewhat a bummer to think that next week we’ll be into August and summer will be winding down and school will be starting up again … whoa! Someone put the brakes on, please!
This past Sunday at church was called “WGO Honduras Sunday” and the entire service was devoted to the members of the mission team who are attending from our church. All of us who were in attendance had a part of the service to speak and/or share music relative to his/her participation in this great endeavor.
Pastor Matt gave a mini-message on why short-term missions is important. He referenced Luke 10 - He (Jesus) told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. 3 Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Jesus called us to "go" and so that is what we are doing.
Susan was first to speak. Early this year, she had been planning to go on a trip with a friend, somewhere out of the country (I can’t remember where) and then her friend’s physician said that she couldn't go due to some medical issues. Susan had just ordered her passport and it seemed as though that was now a futile move. Right after that, Pastor Matt’s parents came and spoke about World Gospel Outreach and the mission trip to Honduras. Susan felt it was as if God was saying, “This is why you ordered your passport.” And she knew she was supposed to go. Susan is a retired nurse and she will be a great asset to the mission team!
Nancy is a Licensed Practical Nurse and she has been intrigued by one of her co-workers who happens to be a physician who has been on multiple medical mission trips. She has thought to herself, “This would be a great opportunity and a good thing to do.” And wouldn’t you know it? That was right before Pastor Matt’s parents came and spoke at church.
Paul, Nancy’s husband, too was moved by Pastor Matt's Dad and he was especially moved when hearing about his experience with washing the hair of the children. So many of the children have lice and several members of the team will have the opportunity to wash hair with lice-killing shampoo and then do the hair of the little girls. The children feel so special and loved and even the most burly, manly- man melts when they see the love and gratefulness in the eyes of one of these children. Paul said he is also interested in laying concrete floors and we’ve been told that we will be able to do four floors. Paul referenced several verses from Romans 10 – they are really good … 13 for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”[f] 14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15 And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”[g] We are the ones being sent and we are so honored by the opportunity to serve our Heavenly Father in such a way.
Jane and Dennis are husband and wife also (I'm sorry - I do not have a photo of them ... YET). It’s pretty neat how there’s quite a few “families” serving on this mission trip together! Jane spoke about when she was younger and how some of her family members were uncomfortable with her sharing her faith in Jesus. She told a very interesting story of how she was asked by a close relative in regards to spending time with other relatives, “You aren’t going to bring up your faith with them, are you?” Jane’s reply was, “No --- I’m not going to bring it up … unless I’m asked.” You know what? She WAS asked and she did share and that same close relative stated, “Wow! That went really well!” Jane replied that it was because she let God do the talking!
Sharing our faith … that’s really what it is all about … letting God do the talking!
When we accept Jesus as our Savior from all the YUCK we bring into our own lives, the Holy Spirit (the Spirit of God) is placed within us and we can either make the Spirit a passenger or a pilot.
We really do get a choice, however, the preferred and proven-optimal role of the Holy Spirit within us is definitely “Pilot”.
I mean, really … given reliance on myself, I will mess it up every time but how often has God messed up???
When we are in Honduras, our goal is that the Hondurans will not see US, will not hear US, will not believe US … but that they will see, hear and believe GOD who wants each of them to come to a knowledge of the Truth that is in Him.
And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe ~ 1 Thessalonians 2:13
Dennis sang a song for the congregation that went along with the Scripture from Pastor Matt’s message based on the harvest being plentiful and the workers being few … there’s so much work to be done and He’s always looking for more team members!! GO TEAM!
Trent (the one in the photo holding the jack-o-lantern) is one of our youngest team members and he is super excited to have the opportunity to go on this mission trip. He is anxious to see a place other than what he's always seen and he realizes that “this place” is going to be far different than what he’s used to. He mentioned that he knows that something so simple to him as playing his video games whenever he wants is something that the Honduran people probably don’t EVER have the opportunity to do.
Sarah and Claudia are sisters and they are excited to be sharing this opportunity together! Sarah is currently attending "beauty school" and she is really excited about the prospect of doing the hairs of the children and she really hopes that this is one of the areas that she is stationed. Sarah is nervous about “flying” because she has not done so before so she would really appreciate prayers for her to be at ease with the flights we will be taking. Claudia, another of our youngest team members, decided to go on this mission trip after Hannah, who is on the mission team and was the youngest team member to go to Honduras last year came to visit our youth’s Sunday School class earlier this year. She visited so she could speak to the class and encourage them not to be held back because of their age. God can equip anyone and even the teenagers are tools for the LORD. Hannah really inspired and motivated Claudia to take the step of committing to serving the LORD on this mission trip.
Stacy, who is Trent’s oldest sister, happens to be virtually fluent in Spanish! That alone will make her super useful on our mission trip – just kidding, Stacy, that’s not all you’re good for! Stacy shared that she has had several ups and downs in her life and she is finally surrendering to the LORD; she says that she is going on this mission trip because she is doing what God wants her to do, instead of just what she wants to do.
Jenny, Pastor Matt’s wife, confessed that a while back she was really frustrated in her faith. We all have those struggles – it’s not always easy to “walk the walk” that everyone thinks we’re supposed to as Christians and being a Pastor’s wife probably carries a little more pressure with it ~ oh, but we just love you to pieces, Jenny! During her struggles, she really felt that God had something for her to do. At the time, she didn’t know what but she would wait for God to reveal it to her. More and more, it became evident that God was going to send her somewhere … out of the country even … and the thought of Jenny leaving her four children behind really disturbed her! Sometimes God asks us to do things that we aren’t all-together comfortable with. She finally came to point where she would hand over her discomfort and her anxiety knowing that God cares for all her needs and that He has everything about her in His best interest. Jenny sang a beautiful song, You Can Have Me by Sidewalk Prophets, that wonderfully expresses her feelings of how she came to “give it all to God”.
Ben shared next about how he felt when he viewed the video Pastor Matt’s parent brought when they talked about the mission trips to Honduras. Ben realized that there is a such a great need in Honduras and that one of the things that really put it into perspective for him was when he googled the currency exchange rate from US dollars to Honduran Limpura. The conversion rate is 1:19 being that for one of our US dollars, we would get 19 of their Honduran Limpura. WOW!!! Afterwards, Ben shared with me that he thought of something else that he wished he’d mentioned during the service – so I’ll share it here – he said that this mission is all about trust. There’s a lot of people who probably don’t understand missions, don’t understand the purpose and that there’s even people, including himself, who worry about how we’ll serve, where all the money will come from, if we’ll make a mistake. He said, “It’s about trusting in God, … the way Noah had to trust in God when he was given the task of building an ark. It didn’t make any sense! How could there be a flood? No one in those days had ever even seen rain (how many of you knew THAT?) and Noah was the laughing stock of the whole town!! Noah didn’t understand all of it or even comprehend how all of it would happen but he trusted GOD and did what he was told.
Brian shared about how he spent two months in Honduras when he served in the military. He remembers so vividly the despair in the country as Hondurans would literally fight over the MRE's (Meal-Ready-to Eat) that he and other military personnel rejected because they didn’t like it. They would drive through communities along their routes and throw the MRE packets off the trucks and people would run alongside and knock others out of the way to be able to catch these dehydrated scraps of food. I cannot even imagine! Brian has seen the NEED in Honduras and he wants to be a part of bringing HOPE to the Honduran people. He referenced the parable of the fig tree (found in Luke 13) Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. 7 So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’ 8 “‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. 9 If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’” Brian feels this time as a time of fertilization and he is anxious to see the fruit that grows!
I've always had a heart for missions - I LOVE missions - just the word ... well, it just sounds IMPORTANT! Eight years ago, Brian and I had the opportunity to go on our first ever mission trip to England and it was such an awesome experience!! I can remember when the opportunity came about and I heard the Scripture verse in my head, "Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? Who will go for me?" and I was like Isaiah, the prophet in his response, "Here am I. Send me." Well, except that I was more like jumping out of my seat, hands waving through the air, shouting, "ME! Pick me! Here am I! Pick me ~ Pick me!!!" Yes, I love "missions" and serving the Lord but I can honestly tell you that when this mission trip to Honduras was presented, I did not react in that way. I was touched, moved even ... somewhat interested ... but I was not jumping out of my seat. Because I did not react in the way I did when the England mission was presented, I, at first, thought that meant that I was not supposed to go. Still, I committed to attending the informational meeting(s) to find out more about it and to be able to think more about going. Even after the informational meeting(s) and I committed to going on this mission, I still felt a bit uneasy; I had fears that were blocking my view and interrupting my focus and I wavered in my confidence in participating in this.
One Sunday morning as I was searching God's Word for verses to pray for my husband, I was "multi-tasking" in thought while I pondered the mission trip. In my mind, I blurted out to God, "Okay, once and for all, would you please just make it clear to me whether or not I am really supposed to go on this mission trip?!" It was at that moment that I turned to and spotted 1 Corinthians 15:58, which reads
"...stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain." I am NOT making this up! Time and time again, this is how God has spoken to me! And yet I am still in AWE!
So what did I do? I memorized that verse, of course ... and then I did exactly what it says! I have given myself fully to this mission trip and to its preparations. As I've shared before, God has revealed that the mission (work of the Lord) happens even before we go on the mission trip to Honduras. Our mission was in the letter we sent out to the numerous family and friends, co-workers and acquaintances. Our mission has been in this blog as we share with you what God is doing and how He works in and through us and how He blesses us. Our mission has been in the fundraisers we have held ... in the little neighbor boy and his friend as they chose a Redbox movie over the theater with popcorn and soda and then used the difference to buy several of the needed supplies and medicines to take to Honduras ... in the Jewish woman who came to our Rummage/Bake sale (5 times in one day) to interact and talk more with us ... in the teenage boy at the Pizza Ranch who rang up all the customers at the register who asked us to explain the purpose of our fundraiser and was really interested and impressed. This mission team started out as a possibility of maybe four people from our church, but quickly, God showed us this mission is bigger than that. HE's bigger than that! Sixteen people from our church committed to going. But God is still bigger than that! ... in all the people who are praying for us, supporting us financially, attending a fundraiser, donating supplies, ... the team just grows and there are now literally hundreds of people who are a part of this great-Big-GOD-Team for Honduras!!! Every person counts; it all matters and makes a difference for God.
We (as a team) are still looking for more financial supporters to help us meet the final monetary portions due in a little less than a month; we are in need of as many prayer warriors as we can get and we are still gathering contributions for the many supplies and medicines that we will be taking with us to Honduras. Every little bit counts! Each offering is a blessing! All contributors become team members with us and we LOVE a great-Big-GOD-Team!! If you've been considering it, but have yet to do it, we'd love to give you a great big spiritual hug as you provide our team with whatever support you feel led to.
A mission team is made up of more than the people who GO on a mission trip and just as the foot needs the leg it is attached to in order to do its work, we, the "GO-ers" of this mission trip, REALLY NEED the rest of the body in order to be efficiently equipped and fully functional!
And, by the way, if you're still reading this, here's an extra cyber-hug just for you (for putting up with me for the entire length of this post)! You are to be commended! :-) God bless you!
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