Raising Daughters Of The King

MissionsNovember 2015

Honduras 2015

Dear Prayer Warriors,

A team of eight from FBC Garland went to Honduras again this year to dig a water–well and share lessons of hygiene and Salvation. As you know: when God does good works, the enemy gets stirred up and tries to mess things up. Due to family complications, I was not sure I would be able to go on this trip until a few short weeks before we were to leave. But, I am so glad that God worked that out for me to go again. After we got through those complications, we had travel issues. We had been in flight for about an hour and a half (over halfway to Honduras), when the pilot informed us that we were having mechanical difficulties and needed to return. It was a little urgent feeling yet our team remained calm and full of faith. We changed planes and arrived without incident a few hours late — but in time for dinner. Our return trip was also a little complicated due to a late departing plane that caused us to miss our connecting flight to Dallas. We ended up renting a suburban and made a five hour drive to Dallas. Again, our team, though tired, were laughing and singing much of the trip home. God’s presence helped in all these little glitches. Thank you for praying!

While in Honduras, our team was sent to a very remote area to an elementary school. The children there do not have access to any clean water. This little school is a one–room cinder–block classroom with no doors or windows and only one teacher for the 24 students, age 4 to 6th grade. Our meetings with the ladies of the community revealed that many of the locals in that area are believers. The good will of the men as they worked with our drilling team, also indicated that traits of Christians were demonstrated at the work site as they worked together with kind attitudes and cooperation. They are also a community that has gone through some difficulties but still have remained positive and content. The seventeen children present all responded to the Gospel message, but most of the adults seemed to already have a good understanding and commitment to Jesus.

One message given to this community was that Jesus had showed His love and concern for them, His children, by reaching out to them to bring them clean water. It is humbling to be a small demonstration of Christ’s love for His people — humbling and honoring. This trip is a hot, uncomfortable trip — but with the difficulties come blessings that are beyond description. To give little children and their community water, hygiene, and words of Life and Hope, is a privilege and life–changing event in itself. On top of that, we also were able to see God work in the lives of all of us on this trip. Most of us found some special level of blessing as we each were asked to “obey” in some area. God in His faithfulness allowed each of us to share words of life to this community.

Due to the generosity of church members and our youth department, we were able to take school and hygiene supplies to 100 people in that area. We also were able to distribute 90 Spanish New Testaments to adults and children age 10 and over (in honor of my mother’s 90th birthday.)

Since one of the important goals of our short term mission trips is to bless and support the long term missionaries, we also took devotionals and supplies to the thirteen Honduran missionaries who work daily in these well-digging projects. The tears of gratitude and prayers of blessings shared back for us was again very humbling. Such small blessings that we could share, were multiplied ten–fold for these hard working brothers and sisters of ours

I’ll never forget the sweet family that let us use their home while were working there. We were allowed to pray for this young couple as they ask God for their first child. I feel like I have a new daughter in that small remote community. I also will never forget the believers that God has bonded our hearts to as we worked together with them in the community and worshipped with them at their church and other opportunities — a sister, a son… brothers and sisters in Christ. Family that changes your life.

As if all that was not enough, our team was given the unusual opportunity to go back to our well from 2014 so that we could pray for that site and that community again. As we came up to the location, we saw two precious little children using the well and as we gathered around the well to pray, more families came up to greet us and thank us again for this gift that had changed their community forever. One more time, we found this trip to bring the huge gift of clean water in the name of the One who gives Living Water, the locals, missionaries, and the team were all blessed beyond what we had hoped, and we are grateful for the opportunity to go in the Name of Jesus.

Thanks again for the many prayers – Janice