September 2020 - My God Did Not Stop Working

I’m writing this report to you from my home office – a reminder of the things that have swept our nation. I have to admit, as an extrovert, it’s a lot harder for me to get going when the morning commute is a room away. But I was just encouraged thinking that – yes, our country social distanced and shut down work places, but God did not stop working (John 5:17).

By God’s grace and the generosity of His people we were able to share food with hundreds of families in five countries during the hardest months of the crisis, and by His grace I’ve been a part of some ministries to some of the poor here in our own community. God truly has not forgotten us during this time.

I was in a meeting the other day with some young adults, and one of them blessed me by praying and asking God to show our group how to reach out to those around us – to do His work. It is encouraging to see that God is still working in the hearts of His people, so let’s take a brief tour, and consider how God may use you in this time to be an agent of reconciliation.

Guatemala

Thank the Lord, our churches in Central America are allowed to meet again this Sunday! In Guatemala, they’ll be limited to 10-20 people per service due to the distancing rule and the small space they have. So, they will be meeting for three hour long services tomorrow (that’s a lot of work).

Throughout the crisis Vlademir and his family have been able to deliver bags of aid to hurting families, and the local police even helped with the deliveries! The people have given their thanks again and again that the church around the world has remembered them. When one part of the body suffers, we all do.

Young Bladito is still teaching music classes three times weekly to a small group of students – along with one who has yet to meet the Lord but is attending services. Pray for two of the students who had to drop out of classes to help support their family, because the economic situation in Guatemala is still very severe.

A new ministry

The Lord has some amazing ways of opening up new ministries. One of the women who came to faith took the gospel back to her parents back in her hometown, and by God’s grace, the parents have come to faith and are being discipled in the Lord now. Their community is two hours of hard driving away, and there is no gospel-preaching church in the entire community.

El Salvador – First church service in months

In El Salvador, they are having their first church service in months tomorrow, and they are hoping it will be a huge encouragement to those who have been isolated all this time. They’re also hoping to begin visiting and encouraging the family of God now that things are opening back up.

We are hoping by God’s grace to visit them soon to encourage them. Pray that the Lord gives the perfect timing for that.

Honduras – What man intends for evil…

In Honduras, our central church is located in a community whose leaders despise the gospel and want to see the church gone. Because of their threats and pressure, very few people from the town have been coming.

Seeing their opportunity during the early days of the pandemic, they got local authorities to shut down services even before a single case had appeared in the region. Perhaps they thought they had succeeded, but the Lord had other ideas. For the believer who is in Christ, resurrection always comes after suffering, because He rose from the tomb where they'd placed Him. 

Now, instead of meeting in one big service, each of our six elders carried the gospel back to their community and began small Bible studies and discipleship classes there. The Bible studies have each grown, and now they’ve even opened up a ministry in Corralito, a new community that had no church. The ministry there is still growing, so please pray for them!

Meanwhile in the original community that shut down the church services, curious people have been attending the bible studies – some out of boredom and some because they have been led by the Lord. Recently, a man came to faith who is a former murderer but has been redeemed. If Jesus can save such a hard man in such a hard community, imagine what He can do here!

He truly is able to do more than we could ever ask or think! Praise be to our God!

Prayer Requests:

• Pray for our nation – these are difficult, turbulent times. Pray that we will be a light and an encouragement because, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.”
• Pray for Alex – he has a ton on his shoulders as a supervisor of medical issues in his community, leading his church, and leading his family. Pray that God gives him the strength to press on.
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  Pray that God keeps our brothers and sisters strong in the faith
• Pray for protection from the virus and the violence in the area
• Pray for the new community in Guatemala and for Vlademir and his family to press on
• Pray for the elders in Honduras that they press on in the ministry in their communities without growing weary
• Pray for unity in the church in Honduras – many who came to faith bring a lot of baggage with them, and some of them were formerly enemies and are now worshipping in the same church. While this is awesome, it can be difficult at times.

Thank you all for your prayers and support! Keep pressing on!

- Paul

God is Faithful

These are unprecedented times.

The night before I was to leave for our latest El Salvador trip, I got a message from Alex (our Latin American Director) saying that the president of El Salvador was about to make an announcement. Within an hour, Alex sent me a somber voicemail informing us that the President of El Salvador had closed the borders. There was no March trip.

I was shocked; we’ve never had an entire nation shut its doors to all travel before. Reluctantly, we called everyone and told them the news. It was discouraging for us and for our friends in Central America, but it is good to remember that we serve the Living God who always provides for His people.

The God who Provides

We had the smallest team we’d had in over 10 years this past December, and in fact the numbers were even smaller before the Lord provided some last-minute people (even as we got on the plane to leave).

Our small team leaving for Honduras

Each person who comes means we can give out more gifts, because each person brings a bag full of supplies. I remember trying to figure out how on earth we would visit all the villages we normally do, but God provided as always.

Several people decided to “adopt a village” and provide the funds for all the gifts for an entire community by donating. My church provided all the gifts for the annual Christmas Party in El Salvador, and God multiplied everything.

We saw last year how God miraculously supplied the gifts in one village, but this year we saw Him do that in three villages where the lines of people were impossibly long for the gifts we had left. We’d brought an extra 20 gifts beyond the biggest crowd we’d ever seen, still there were more people than gifts! Every time we ran low, we prayed that God would provide, and every time we handed out the last gift to the last person in line – the exact amount. We never ran out early.

Blessing a village after we'd left

Overall we ended up with enough extra gifts for our Salvadorian brothers to give to two churches and two extra villages after we left. God not only supplied for our immediate needs, He provided an abundance. Tell me that God in heaven doesn’t know our needs and provide when we seek Him first.

I also wanted to say that I am very thankful for Sherry Carlson, her church, and her family. God has used them to give a huge supply of Christmas gifts every year since I started coming in 2005. Having completed the work well, they will be retiring. Thanks ya’ll for all the years! You’ve blessed us a lot and I pray God blesses you in all your new adventures!

The God who Gathers

In Guatemala, we celebrated our first Christmas program ever at the new mission. We were expecting 50-60 to show up. God sent 180 people (no social distancing there!). The looks on the kids faces, receiving their first ever SOS Christmas gift, were precious. They excitedly showed off the contents of their bags to anyone who would look.

Most importantly, it shows the hunger and need in this region. We are looking to build a worship center in hopes of using it for after school programs – with a soccer field and space to train and raise up future Guatemalan missionaries. Pray with me that God will provide the funds for this project to lift off the ground, and let me know if there’s any way you want to help.

The God Who Plans Small Teams

Because our teams have been so small, it’s given us more opportunities to invite our Salvadorian brothers to come with us and have them share more of the work, and it’s been awesome to see them taking ownership and quite honestly – doing a far better job at the Christmas Programs than I ever could.

Our Salvadorian brothers in Honduras

They really engage the kids – knowing the native language and the culture, and we were blessed to see one of the young men step up into leadership. He went from being shy to leading hundreds of kids in song and teaching them the word of God.

This is the second time in two trips that God raised up one of our Salvadorian youth to grow in his faith and to do the work of the ministry, and we already have some from Honduras who are wanting to step up into ministry as well.

Is this not what it means to make disciples? We are called not only to make converts, but to raise them up to follow Jesus wherever He goes, and that means ministering the gospel to these precious little ones. Despite the language and cultural differences, God has been making our multi-national teams one, just as Jesus prayed in John 17.

The God Who Overcomes Death

I know these times are hard, but there are two things in this life we can count on.

1. Death is certain unless Jesus comes back first
2. Jesus is coming back to reverse death

We know that these days we are living in the shadow of death, but we also know that Jesus walks with us, and those of us who have put our faith in Him will never see death, just as He promised (John 8:51).

But knowing that our time on this earth is short, how will we spend it? No matter what happens to us, we are walking in history here – people will write about this great and terrible event. Will we look back on this time knowing we followed our Lord and ministered to the needy (with all wisdom of course!) or will we look back and realize we wasted it sitting at home or hoarding what we thought was ours (Psalm 100:3).

Let us purse Him and ask how we can minister to others. Let us not embrace fear (Isaiah 8:12) but let us realize that the love of God never lets us down (1 John 4:18). If we are in Christ, death has no sting, no victory, because not even the power of death can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:38-39).

Press on my brothers and sisters,
- Paul

P.S. The Covid-19 social distancing measures and oil crisis are hitting our countries very hard. Many from Africa are telling me that people are getting desperate and that food is hard to find, but for a dollar a day, you can provide food for someone who may otherwise go hungry. You may even save their life. If you are interested in donating to our Covid-19 relief funds, please let me know.