Our SOS Christmas Trip was quite the thriller. A few months before, I was wondering if we would even have a missions trip at all, and then suddenly we went from maybe going to El Salvador to the doors opening for all three countries. Between the coronavirus and hurricanes destroying the bridge on the road to Honduras, it seemed like every door was shutting.
“But God.”
It’s an amazing little phrase. In Ephesians 2, we were children of wrath who were lost and dead in our sins, and then suddenly in verse 4, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us…”
We went from doomed to saved with those two words.
God does the same to this day in so many other ways, like how He opened every door for our team to experience the joy of serving Him and being with our family in Central America.
Every day leading to the trip was a new challenge – finding COVID tests, getting the results by the day of travel, making sure the tests were done at the right times, and the saga of two of our team members who were 5 minutes from missing their flight.
“But God.”
It was awesome having the team together that first night, realizing that none of us should have been there and yet the Lord opened the door for all of us there to come. And thus began our tour of joy…
A small event
Our first stop on the tour was in Guatemala, where from the first night’s church service, two people stepped forward in repentance toward Christ, and that set the tone for us. The next day we celebrated by baptizing eight into the Name, and the next, we were to have the second annual Christmas party. The last time we’d had about 180 people show up, so we figured we might have a few more this time.
The Christmas party began with a smaller crowd that kept growing… and growing. We eventually left the estimate at somewhere over 600 people based on the gifts we’d given out (and as always the Lord guarded the numbers so we had what we needed to reach them all). The people we met were hungry for something, including a man who told me that he knew the Lord had brought them there that day so he could hear about the Lord.
Not only did we experience the joy of seeing so many people come to hear the gospel and receive a Christmas gift, we also got to participate in the baptism of eight new members of the church – one of whom had come to church through the ministry and has brought the gospel back to her own village two hours away – a village with no witness for the gospel that now has a lamp shining there. Please be praying for the Lord to open doors of ministry there.
A church of joy
If the Lord had not been on our side, there is no way we would have been able to make the crossing into Honduras. All on the same day, we received our COVID test results, arrived at the border to a chaotic new process, and barely made it only because the bus driver drove to speak to the border personnel five minutes before it closed. Yet somehow we were standing on the porch of the church there that night, hearing all of the amazing things the Lord has done there.
Since the pandemic started, people have persecuted and mocked our leaders in Honduras for refusing to close the church. Most of the other churches closed in fear, but the church remained open. Local village leaders who have hated us from the beginning called the authorities to shut down the church.
But God always makes the enemy’s plans backfire.
Instead of closing the doors, the brothers decided to divide up the church into the various communities it represents and meet in small groups. Instead of shrinking and suffering from COVID, the church more than doubled in size. They baptized fifty people in just in the past few months, and over 150 people now attend the various home groups, including 25-35 from a new community. As of December, not a single member of the church had contracted COVID.
As a side note, the church responded to their enemies by helping them with a construction project to build a road to their houses. That’s what it means to walk with the Lord – loving your enemies as He commanded us (Matthew 5:38-48).
In the United States, we have backup plans and the ability to meet online (although I would say we have missed out on the face to face). In Honduras they didn’t have the option, but they wanted to remain obedient to the Lord by meeting together no matter what the cost, and He has blessed them incredibly in spite of the trials. I witnessed the joy on their faces for myself – join with them in faith, tasting and seeing that the Lord is good.
What it means to be a shepherd
After the hurricanes hit, the bridge to one of our local communities washed out completely, leaving a writhing, brown river between the church members and their leader, Pedro. He was so burdened for his people that he and his son now brave the river (up to chest high water) multiple times a week so that they will hear a message of encouragement and be fed the word of God.
I have felt weary in the work before and not wanted to drive 15 minutes to meet with people. There is no hour walk, no rivers to be forded, and I have not wanted to obey. Pedro on the other hand does so for the joy of the Lord’s work.
The church in Honduras is known for their prayer, and as Pedro reminded us, their protection is found on their knees. Truly as the scriptures say, “In Your presence there is fullness of joy.” (Ps. 16:11)
The joy famine
As someone who had his joy robbed many times by the chaos of 2020, I believe that the lack of joy in the church here comes down to two main things.
1. We do not spend time with the Lord
2. We do not accompany Him in His work
The church in Honduras is marked as a church of prayer by almost everyone who visits from the states. They are certainly not perfect, but they trust in the Lord. They have found what we did not, perhaps because we looked for joy in our comfort and security here. I know personally I spent too much time reading the news rather than His good news.
Really, our joy is God Himself, and I have been seeing that clearly as I’ve spent the last two weeks under quarantine. Those weeks began with a great loneliness but ended in great joy, as I have spent more and more time with Him. I’ll leave you with this passage:
Send out your light and your truth; let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling! Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy, and I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God.
Psalm 43:3-4
Joy is found in no one else, because no one else loved us enough to redeem us from our sins as He did. Press on to Know Him above all else.
Grace and peace, the last (and slowest) of His people to learn,
- Paul
Prayer Requests:
- For the churches in Central America to grow and flourish and for the leadership to remain faithful and full of joy.
- For the construction project in Guatemala for a community center, building for church services, and place for training and after school programs. More on this later.
- For the Lord to give me personal wisdom in how to live my life for Him.
- For the Lord to provide funds for a bridge to the village in Honduras
- For a structure for our church in Guatemala (more on that soon!)
Upcoming Events:
- April 17th – Rainbow village ministry
- July 10th to August 8th – Summer Missions trip to Central America. Dates subject to change
