These past few days have been full of wonderful ministry in Honduras. However, they have been so full it’s been hard to have time to update this blog.

I’ve had a variety of tasks over these past three days. I’ve been able to install a sound system in the new orphanage at Lemon. I’ve played soccer with the kids. I’ve preached two sermons. I also had the privilege of praying with every family at the clinic today while handing them each a Bible (for some it is the first Bible in their home).Since I last wrote we’ve been to two additional towns leading worship services and doing medical clinics. In the past two days the medical team has seen well over 250 people. Malaria cases are frequent and many babies are sick. It is awesome to watch these three men of God using their gifts in medicine to bring healing to all these people. The entire medical team is fun to watch. They work very long hours in imperfect conditions with the added problem of the language barrier – yet they work as one without a moment of arguing or grief.

This afternoon I got the opportunity to put my marriage counseling training into practice. The church in Lemon asked me to host an, “ask the pastor” time at the end of their full day women’s conference. So it was me trying to answer the 

questions of over 70 women for over an hour. The beautiful thing is that they all had the same sorts of questions and struggles. Questions about their walk with Christ, their husbands and their children. These women share some of the same worries and concerns of women in Florence, SC. They want to know Christ better, they want to be loved by their husbands and they want their children to love the Lord.

Continue praying for us. We have a few more clinics to go before we end our work on this trip to Honduras. I hope you’ll pray about joining us on one of the next trips. This has been one of the best organized and safest international mission trips I’ve ever seen. Our team has never felt afraid about safety or worried about illness. We’re all healthy, safe and in awe of the Lord’s work in this beautiful county.

Today was our first medical clinic day.  The majority of the team worked in the clinic seeing over 150 people while about six of us spent the day painting the exterior of a home for girls.

My day started off pretty rough.  The first thing I did when I got to the clinic was pull out one of my frisbees to play with the children.  After a few minutes of throwing it back and forth I flung it to a boy who apparently  wasn’t looking and then…boom…a bloody nose.  At least we had doctors on site.  After the epic fail of busting a kid’s nose I decided to go help set up the clinic.  I walked into a room to set it up and noticed the ceiling fan wasn’t working.  So, I went to try to fix it.  As I went to stand in the plastic chair to reach the fan the chair collapsed underneath me and broke.  At this point I’ve bloodied a nose and broken a chair and it’s not even 9am.  You would  think it couldn’t get worse.  But things typically come in threes.  My number three was electric!  I’m on the painting crew and was the first to climb the ladder with a bucket of paint and a brush.  There were some wires attached to the corner of the house and they didn’t look very dangerous.  Seconds later one of them brushed by my neck and there I was…shaking uncontrollably.  I can laugh about it now, but in that moment it wasn’t funny.  In the end it really wasn’t that bad and I was back up and working a few minutes later.  At least my morning mishaps brought a little comedy to a hard day of ministry.

After ten hours of seeing patients we ended the day by helping lead a women’s Bible study.  There were over 70 women and children at the church.  A few of our ladies taught the Bible study and then I had the opportunity to preach.  The coolest part of the evening for me was getting to lead worship in Spanish.  I’ve never spoken in Spanish – let alone sung in Spanish.  However, after a day of being coached in Spanish I led the congregation in “No Sweeter Name” in Spanish.  The church band and I played and I sang.  It was truly an early church/pentecost kind of moment.  Two countries, two languages, worshiping the ONE true God.

Pray for us as we travel to our next town tomorrow.  We will be on the road all day on Saturday.

These first few days have been great.  Yesterday was all about travel and today has been all about preparing and orienting us for ministry in Honduras.

Yesterday we spent most of the day either on a plane or on a bus.  We actually spent longer on the buses here in Honduras getting to our hotel than in the airplane that brought us from the States.  We’ve been blessed by our drivers who are also local pastors.  Their passion for the Lord is infectious.

Today we began our morning as a team singing to the Lord and reading His word.  I even began learning to sing in Spanish.  Which, if you know me, is a big deal.  The morning was spent shopping for the groceries we will need to feed the team.  The afternoon was spent touring the area around La Ceiba.  The most powerful moment today was walking through an area of town called the dump.  It’s a neighborhood that is built over the city trash dumping ground.  It’s one of the poorest areas of town where many people used to find their food in the trash, but now there is a church on site providing help.  The church at the dump does bi-weekly food ministry to help feed the people.  These pictures are from the dump…these little children bring beauty to an otherwise harsh place.

At dinner tonight I had a phenomenal conversation with one of the three local pastors about the work of the Holy Spirit in Honduras.  He said that the Lord is moving mightily in his country.  The current president of Honduras recently declared that the evangelical churches could have a country-wide revival one day a year.  This year was the first of its kind.  They set up worship services in nineteen areas of Honduras and had over 350,000 people attend.  In addition to the yearly revival day the president has opened up the schools in Honduras to allow churches to come and minister to students.  The pastor also shared that the National Honduran Soccer team that just made it into the World Cup finals has also been seen in the media praying together and having worship services.  Pastor Shane is encouraged that the Holy Spirit is at work in ways like never before.  As I listened to Shane share all that the Lord is doing I asked him to pray for us.  Though we are on a mission trip to his country – our country needs this kind of revival.  Can you imagine our government or president declaring a national day for revival?  We sure need more time in prayer and worship and less time in political fights.

Tomorrow we begin our first medical clinic.  Pray for us.  We will have the majority of our team treating patients while a small group does painting and a third team leads women’s Bible studies.