1-06-11 – 1:08 p.m. We were up at 3:25 a.m. getting ready to catch our bus from Copan Ruinas to San Pedro. The bus ride lasted three hours and I slept every bit of two and half hours of it.
Once we arrived in San Pedro we changed buses to go to the airport. Steve was hoping to fly back to North Carolina on stand by but the flight was overbooked and he had to stay behind an additional night. He is an amazing guy. He spent thirty-years traveling as a salesman before retiring. He has stayed in Honduras in the past for up to three months at one time serving the Chorit people. His plans are now to come back next month and stay for at least sixty days. He is becoming the lead person for the work here in the absence of full time missionaries. I’ve known few lay people who have laid their lives on the altar of service to God like Steve and his wife. They are both an inspiration to me to keep serving God full steam ahead into my senior adult years. Steve is around seventy years old. I must serve God faithfully while I still have my youth.
Lord, thank you for allowing me to meet the people in Honduras. I am most burdened for this hospital. Most of the doctor’s offices I have visited are bigger than the two clinics I visited yesterday. I come asking you to help me see this project through to completion. $140,000 is a large sum of money for me, but it is not a big deal for you.
The magnitude of the work needing to be done is overwhelming. Each village has a different set of needs. Most of them are difficult to get to in the best of weather and inaccessible except by walking during the rainy season. The heat is oppressive in the summer and the physical exertion just from walking can be draining.
Why bother? It is expensive to travel here. It expensive to add up transportation once you get in the country, lodging, and food. Why do it? I heard reports that within the next two years the Southern Baptist Convention will offer early retirement to many missionaries. There will only be one IMB missionary left in the whole country of Honduras. That one person will work six hours away from Copan Ruinas. The Chorti people will fall through the cracks if individuals do not volunteer and churches do not step up to continue the work. Volunteers must catch the vision for the work here. This is why I am making this journal available in hopes God will use it to call others to come.
The Chorti people are not reached for most of them are illiterate and cannot read a Bible or a gospel tract. The gospel is shared to them through “storying.” Bible stories are told in short story form much like the scriptures were passed down through generations verbally before they were written. Stories of significant Bible events are shared leading up to the message of Jesus and salvation.
There is also a huge need to train pastors how to teach, preach, and lead more effectively. Some pastors, like Elias, cannot even read the Bible for themselves. They keep laboring and preaching. They do not have offices are plush salaries. They have a love for the Lord and a love for the people in their villages. They follow the call God has put on their lives. They do back breaking labor during the day and then feed their flocks on Sundays.
On top of this, is the need for the saints to be discipled. There are not many Christians but those who are have not had opportunities for intensive Bible studies like we are familiar with back home. There is a need for the Christians to learn more of these Bible stories so they can witness and evangelize their families and neighbors.
Part of the ongoing work with the Chorti includes teaching the farmers how to farm better. A ministry called the “Ag Project” is teaching the farmers better techniques on how to get better harvests. They are learning how to plant their crops in a horizontal pattern on the mountains so the heavy rains do not wash their crops away. This project is pretty extensive and has great potential.
Finally there is the call on my life to see a hospital built in Copan Ruinas. There is tremendous need for medical help and expansion of the medical services available in this area. There is no way I can communicate adequately enough how deplorable the medical facilities are here. No matter how difficult the task I am going to trust God do this. My prayer is God will raise all the money by December 31, 2011. It is a big task but I trust an even bigger God every step of the way. I have devoted myself to this task. There is no turning back in unbelief.
Lord, I lay all of this before you. The needs are great but you have called us to meet them. I beg of you to call your people to join in this effort. We need people who give more money so other people can keep going on future trips who may not be able to afford them. We need money for the hospital and to continue the ongoing work already established. We need more people who are called to go and to do medical work. We need teams who will go on trips to prayer walk the villages. We need more people to learn how to evangelize through “storying.” We also need pastors who will go and help train other pastors. All of this has to be done through volunteers. So I ask you to put your call on the masses to keep making these trips. The task is mammoth but through you Lord Jesus we shall all be strengthened to get the work done. This is not for the faint of heart.
I recall years ago asking you to send me to the hard places of the world. Working with the Chorti is not the hardest work in the world but it is still difficult. Lord, only you can call stout-hearted people to get involved in this work. I am glad to be one of the called. The work needed to be done here will not be finished in a trip or two. It will take years of consistent prayer and labor to see the work finished. I surrender my life to be one of those who take those many trips.
I ask you again to move the $140,000 mountain that stands in the way of that hospital coming into being. I ask you to bless No Compromise Ministries with the finances to meet this need. I ask you to call people from all over the world and eventually to give to this project. I trust you to do it. In the process, I pray for your wisdom to know how to go about this. This is the biggest faith assignment you have ever called me to. I trust you to do this for the glory of your name. I trust you for a huge miracle. May you hear our prayers and give birth to this miracle.
As we get closer to Houston my thoughts turn back to Seminole. I miss my family and do not enjoy leaving them. I only do it to fulfill God’s call on my life to keep the Great Commission. [Matt 28:19-20] [Mark 16:15] I missed teaching through the book of 1 Corinthians last night. I missed watching both Tanner and Taylor play basketball. These are small sacrifices I am glad to make for the cause of Christ. I get to play a small role in fulfilling God’s global purpose. Few things are more fulfilling than that. I am ready to get back to shepherd the flock at Seminole and to feed them the scriptures. What a great delight to be involved in God’s purposes. I pray others reading this journal will be inspired to do the same.
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