Corrections, La Ceiba, and Health concerns (la version en français suivra ceci)

News from Spring, 2013

Correction

Before starting this update, I need to correct some faulty information. It has come to my attention that I have apparently been leading the training of several hundred pastors and leaders in Honduras! The information was published quite innocently, in good faith, but was totally mistaken. The truth is, a few years ago, Hannibal Muhtar started to lead a group of leaders through the BILD process, and this caught fire. The Baptist Convention of Honduras decided to adopt this as their pastoral and leadership training system, beginning with First Principles and carrying on with Leadership courses. As a result, it is true that the number of people who have benefited could be counted in the hundreds. Only this happened mainly before my time! My purpose here has been to help, serve, encourage, motivate churches and leaders and churches that are using these courses, and to encourage new ones to get on board, as well as old ones to get back on board. And to mentor where possible. This program is not only in Honduras, but also in Guatemala and in El Salvador. If funds were available, there is also a local association of churches in Nicaragua that would like help in this. The leadership of this program, both for Honduras and for Central America, is Honduran, and not foreign.

Now that we have that behind us, a bit of news:

La Ceiba

The April trip to Guatemala was cancelled. However in May I joined Felix Zaldivar in La Ceiba, where there is a large group of leaders and pastors taking First Principles courses. These leaders are "First Generation". Several of them are already leading groups in their own churches, or in associations of churches, in the region around. It is really thrilling to see the growth of this movement among the Garrifunos (Hondurans of African descent, who have their own language), residents of La Mosquicia (indigenous Honduran people) and Hondurans of European descent. Translation of the material is being worked on.

Felix, showing the extensions in progress, from the group of students in La Ceiba:

The class (you can see me, third from the right in the back row)

40 Years!

Lise and I "celebrated" our 40th wedding anniversary on May 26th. She has been so patient with me all those years! We were not able to go out to celebrate, as Lise was under the weather.

Graduation!

We were very happy and proud to be able to watch our daughter Annie's graduation ceremony on line, as she received her BA in teaching, at Bishops University, as well as prizes in Modern Languages and in French.  Congratulations Annie! We wish we could have been there in person.

Health Concerns

Lise has been struggling with extreme tiredness among other more unpleasant stuff. She was hospitalized for a few days last summer, and seemed to be doing well since then, but has been having difficulty again these last few weeks. She is being followed by a good Christian doctor here at the Hospital Evangélico.

For my part, I went for a biopsy of a lump in my thyroid this afternoon. Truth be told, I was more afraid of the needle in my throat for the biopsy than of any possible results of it! I will have news on that one in a week or so. However as the lump is small, in the worst case it will have been caught very early. What is most likely is that it is a ball of fat or a benign cist.

The Evangelical Hospital

In any case we are not getting any younger, and our resistance is not what it used to be.