Catching Up! (La version en Français suit ceci)

Catching up!

These last couple of months have been rather busy, and I’m afraid I haven’t kept up with giving news!

Evangelism in Guatemala

I wrote about an upcoming evangelistic event in Guatemala with Tony Anthony and the Avanti team. This was from March 14^th to 24^th.  Every day, often morning, afternoon and evening, we were speaking to groups in schools, rehabilitation centres, churches, and parks. Tony Anthony (see his book: “Taming the Tiger”) was the main speaker, but was also accompanied by John Lawson, who heads up Avanti’s prison ministry, and Ryan Mays, a young man interning with them. My job was to translate, whenever a local interpreter was not available, which was most of the time.

The gospel was clearly preached to thousands of people through these groups, and was very much appreciated, In at least a couple of the schools, where all of the students were gathered, the directors appeared at first to be a little concerned about what the students would be hearing. However at the end they were extremely enthusiastic, and were hoping for a repeat in another year. And yet, the way of salvation had been as clearly presented as could be.

One event that nearly didn’t happen was Tony speaking on the Guatemalan television station. A letter from a critic in England had been sent to the Evangelical Alliance of Guatemala casting doubt on Tony’s ministry, and as a result, the plans for the television presentation had been put on hold. However, after the Evangelical Alliance of the United Kingdom wrote a letter of support, he was given full freedom for an hour on a television channel that was expected to have an active listening audience of half a million (potential of several millions).  Once again, the Gospel was presented very clearly.

One might wonder how useful such evangelism would be in Central America with such a high percentage of “evangelicals”. The truth is, evangelicalism in Central America is not always all that evangelical. With the immense popularity of the “prosperity gospel”, a large proportion of “evangelicals” here have no idea of what salvation is all about. The only advantage, which is great, is the open door for preaching the gospel.

While only eternity will tell us the results, a fairly large number responded to the Gospel invitation in each place we went. It was the same with school children, teenagers, adults, recovering drug addicts. The same message brought the same response.

The whole event of these two weeks was organized through a Canadian team from Église Baptiste L’Eau Vive, in Sherbrook, Quebec, along with pastor Luis Cruz, of Primera Iglesia Bautista in Guatemala City.

I returned home to Honduras and Lise on the 25^th, quite exhausted.

Several schools gathered in one arena

The team together 

Siguatepeque

On April 7^th, I had the privilege of preaching in Iglesia Bautista Nuevo Pacto, on 2 Timothy 2:1-2. At the same time I talked to the church about the BILD First Principles course, which the pastor intends to start with his members.

In our own church, Iglesia Bautista Hermon, pastor Hector Villatoro has begun the First Principles course with a dozen members. We are now getting into the second book of the series, called “A Family of Families”. All are very enthusiastic about the series, and I believe this will result in other groups starting in the church.

El Salvador

April 15^th to 19^th, I was in El Salvador with a pastor from San Pedro, to meet with a group of pastors going through the second series of First Principles courses. They have also been doing Leadership courses.  We had a good time with the pastors, discussing the practical implications of the content of these courses.

A group of pastors from our province of Comayagua continues to go through the Leadership courses, now studying Essentials of Doctrine.  They find this particular course to be much drier and more difficult than the others, but are persevering.

Family:

• Lise is wearing a brace for her back, in an attempt to partially correct a problem she has had for many, many years. She finds it particularly uncomfortable at night.
• She helps teach a Sunday School class and has been involved with AWANA for the past year.
• Melodie continues to work with the Children’s Home – “Vida y Libertad”, just outside of Siguatepeque. Some of the older children have left, two are attending university in Tegucigalpa, the capital, which is a first for the home. Several new children have joined the “family”.
• Annie, in Sherbrook, Quebec, will graduate from university on June 1^st with her teacher’s degree as well as a BA. She continues to work with Child Evangelism Fellowship.
• Samuel works with “La Maison du Père” in Montreal. It is a humanitarian work among itinerants.
• Richard continues with his job as one of the directors of SODEMA.  He trains those who train those people whom you call when you need help with your bank account, or with your telephone service, or with your computer. It involves a fair bit of travelling; he will be in Texas this month.
• Daniel continues to work in construction in Quebec City; he has been able to work mostly indoors this winter, which is a blessing. Claudia, Daniel’s wife, is a nurse. (I’ve heard it’s common for construction workers to marry nurses – would there be a connexion?)
• Elena, their daughter, had her second birthday in April. She’ll be three by the time we see her in person again. Praise the Lord for Skype!
• John and Lise: - our 40^th wedding anniversary on May 26^th! How patient Lise has been! We had made plans for a 3-day trip to Antigua, in Guatemala, but are now putting it off until Lise can be a bit more comfortable.
• We continue to have children from the Home visit us on weekends.
• Oh yes, I must not forget Muki. He is in good health. Muki is our Siberian Husky, a little over five months old. He's cute, affectionate, and very stubborn.

Prayer requests:

1. Thelma, a member of our church who is battling cancer. After her operation she was given about three months to live. That was at least three months ago, and her oncologists are now sounding quite optimistic. Thelma is a nurse who has been working for years with our church’s clinic.
2. Oswaldo, who left us to lead a small church on the islands of Roatan. In the short time he has been there, he has baptized several people, and has a group of 14 following First Principles. This is his first pastorate.
3. That funds and personnel will be available to bring BILD courses to other countries such as Nicaragua, and Mexico, where interest has been shown.

Many thanks for your interest, prayers and support. I’ll try to be more forthcoming with news.