October and November Activities

These last two months we have been busy in Siguatepeque, Honduras, and in Chimaltenango, Guatemala. This period has also been marked by a much contested election, for the national government as well as municipal governments.

With the Children’s Home

For a little more than two months now, we have had Roberto in our home. He is 17, and the Vida y Libertad team are looking for another option for him.  We have had some good conversations with Roberto about his spiritual state, as we have a family worship with him. At each Bible reading we each share what we found that touches our lives, and we each choose a verse to memorize before the next family worship. Roberto has been getting into the spirit of it.

Lise has been to the Home a few times to have Bible studies with the personnel. Saturday morning, November 30^th, she accompanied ten children from the Home to a day camp, and ended up staying for the day as she was needed to help with the program. (Central Americans are great at relationships, but organization is often not the strong point).

With the church

Lise continues to teach a Sunday School class, along with another lady (they take turns), and participates in the AWANA program teaching the “ositos” (bear cubs). Both John and Lise participate with the Men’s and Women’s groups on Friday nights. John occasionally preaches in the men’s group, and Lise was to preach in the women’s group Friday night, but that evening was turned into a wake as a lady in the church died that day.

Thelma

Thelma was operated for a cancer last January, and was given about three months to live. She fought her battle against cancer all year, at one point there seemed to be hope, but then had to go through a second series of chemotherapy. She left us to be with the Lord Friday morning November 29^th. A wake was held that night, and the church was packed – standing room only. The pastor, Hector, preached an excellent, compassionate sermon, in which he presented the gospel clearly. Saturday morning, November 30^th, was the funeral service and burial. Once again, many friends and relatives were exposed to the gospel both in the funeral service and in the graveyard.  Pray for her husband, Francisco, who has handled it well, but who will certainly have a difficult time of it. They have two children, Daniel and Yvette, who are in their early teens. This must be a terrible ordeal for them to lose their mother at that age.

First Principles in Siguatepeque

We are continuing with the First Principles courses in the Hermon Baptist church, having completed the first series of courses. A graduation is planned for December 22^nd. It is really encouraging to see the enthusiasm of the students. Fabricio is really excited about this, applying the material to his life, and looking forward to leading others through the course. Pastor Hector has decided to use this series as the official discipleship program, planning to take older believers as well as all new believers through it. So this first group will be the spearhead, with some of them leading others through the courses.

The “Mission Point” at Brisas del Bosque

Our church has a mission point in an area called Brisas del Bosque. The brother who is leading it is an evangelist, but has no pastoral or teaching ability. In fact, he only has a third grade education. This work has been going on for several years, but really has not progressed. A couple of members of the mother church, along with our pastor Hector, are studying ways of establishing that work better.

Homiletics at Iglesia Bautista Nuevo Pacto

The pastor of Iglesia Bautista Nuevo Pacto, Francisco García, had talked to me last year about the possibility of teaching a Homiletics course (the art of preaching) to a group in his church. This has finally materialized, and two weeks ago I began with a group of ten students. They are quite varied in their ability and level of education, so this will be a bit of a challenge. My idea is to train those who are most prepared, without discouraging the others.

BILD courses for regional pastors.

Six pastors continue to follow BILD courses ever Saturday morning, with Pastor Hector facilitating. They have gone through the Acts curse, Pauline Epistles, Doctrine, and Leadership. We will be taking a pause in December and begin again in January. They are diligent in working on their projects, and in spite of a lack of education for some, I have found that they produce good work, showing understanding of what they are studying.

Graduation in Chimaltenango, Guatemala

During the last week of November, I was in Chimaltenango, with Celso and Felix (coordinator for Central America). The initial group had gone through the first series of the First Principles course. We led them through the material they had done, and each student wrote a short summary of each lf the twenty lessons. They did good work. Three of these students have already started other groups of “second generation” students. So we held a graduation ceremony for these first generation students. It was a very special moment for them, and we are hopeful that others will want to join. We are also hoping that some of these students will be able to lead groups in other parts of the country.

Peaceful elections

There had been some promises of violence on the part of one of the parties, if they did not win the election, but that has not happened, happily. An answer to prayer! The National party (Conservative) won the presidency, The leader of the LIBRE party (a radical breakoff from the Liberal party) has claimed victory, and seemingly tried to provoke her followers into action, but that has not materialized. The Liberal party (fairly conservative but not as much as the Nationalists) was considerable weakened, and is now a third party, and the PAC (Anticorruption Party), a brand new party, came in fourth place with a respectable showing. (They were mostly untried politicians, which appealed to some).  So there is no absolute majority for any party in Congress, which, at this point, seems to be a healthy development. Evangelical Christians here, as in Canada, voted for different parties, which caused no hostility among them that I could discern. So in all, it was a peaceful election. even though not everyone is happy with the results.

A new Spanish blog with sermons and meditations

In November I began a new blog in Spanish, publishing sermons and meditations of mine, usually in point form so that preachers here can adapt and use them when needed. If any of you readers are Spanish speaking, and are interested, it can be found at http://sermonesymeditaciones.blogspot.com/ .

Prayer Requests:

1. Thelma’s husband, Francisco, and their two children, Daniel and Yvette, as they deal with Thelma’s death.
2. Roberto, as his rather uncertain future is worked out.
3. First Principles students in Honduras and Guatemala, that the graduates will soon be leading more groups through these excellent discipleship courses.
4. Establishment of the mission point at Brisas del Bosque.
5. Continued peace (politically) in the country, and wisdom for the new government in dealing with the nation’s many problems.