Showing posts with label GCLA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label GCLA. Show all posts

Thursday, August 28, 2014

5 ways to pray for Honduras


1.) Violence - there are many news reports that depict Honduras as one of the most dangerous countries in the world due to the violence. This comes from the amount of poverty, lack of police force, and corruption within the government. Unfortunately, a lot of times the police force are criminals too.  Even many of our friends don't trust the police.

Pray specifically for this violence to end, for the protection of the innocent people who are involved in this.
Pray that the Gospel transforms the lives of the criminals and the people within the Honduran government and they start to lead as Biblical leaders.
Pray for the safety of people in Honduras especially in areas where it is unsafe to even be outside.

2.) Good Works - Do to the large Catholic background here in Latin America, many people believe it takes "good works" in order for them to spend eternity in heaven.  We've come across many people here who have told us they don't think they will go to heaven that day because they haven't done "enough good things" to be forgiven.  It's very hard because there are many people who don't know why they believe this, only because it has been bred into them by parents, grandparents, even great-grandparents.

Pray that God will open up their hearts to the message of the Gospel, that they will understand that it is by grace that you are saved and that Jesus is the only way to heaven.
Pray not only that they will understand this so that they can spend eternity in heaven, but also so they can have a personal relationship with Jesus while they are still on this earth and feel purpose in their lives.

3.) Food Shortage - Due to the large drought in Central America during this rainy season, we are expected to experience the worst food shortage in 2015 since Hurricane Mitch that devastated the country in 1998.  We've already seen prices rises in supermarkets of staple items like beans and rice due to failed harvests especially in Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua.

Pray for all of the families that will be affected by this and that God will provide for them.  $0.30 a pound increase in beans may not seem like a lot, but to the people here, it is a huge amount of increase as 60% of the population live on less than $2 a day.
Pray specifically for the children at our Children's Development Center and their families as they will be greatly affected by this.
Pray for God to provide our center the resources to help these families and be the hands and feet of Jesus if needed.  

4.) Lack of Sanitation - A lot of work has been accomplished in the last decade for clean water and sanitation in Central America, but it is still greatly lacking.  In Honduras alone, 954,000 people still lack access to safe drinking water and 1.6 million people lacked access to improved sanitation.  When we say "improved sanitation" that doesn't necessarily mean they have a toilet, it could only mean they have a latrine that has treatment.  Only 74% of rural Honduras have access to these "improved" sanitation sources.

Pray against the diseases that are caused by lack of sanitation and for the people who are sick because of it.  A child dies every 20 seconds because of a diarrheal illness that could be prevented with adequate sanitation.
Pray for ministries around the world who are trying to combat this humanitarian injustice and are sharing the Living Water through this.
Pray for us, Great Commission Latin America, as an organization who are in the process developing a water and sanitation project here in Danli. Though it takes a lot of effort, funds, communication, and education to start efforts like these, we know that this is not how God desires His children to be living and we want to help solve this problem. Pray for us as we raise awareness, raise funds, meet with government agencies, and as we share the love of Jesus. Pray that God will use us for His will.

5.) Education - 60% of the population in Honduras live under the international poverty line and a large part of this is due to lack of education. The public school systems here are stretched very thin with very little funding. Most kids only go to school at most 4 hours a day, if they choose to go every day.  There is no requirement for children to go to school in Honduras.  If they can afford it, most parents send their children to private schools, but because the income gap is so large here the families in poverty will never be able to do that. A lot of children have to drop out of school at age 14 or 15 to help their families with the bills and never complete high school, thus furthering the cycle of poverty.  Most families in poverty live for today, and can't think about the future.  The goal of the Children's Development Center is to help and encourage our kids to complete high school and provide them with the resources to do that.

Pray for children to stay in school, finish high school and to have the desire to do this.  Pray they understand the importance of education and how they can use it to change their family.
Pray for the Children's Development Center's efforts in helping bring up Christian men and women and encourging/helping them complete high school.  Pray that God gives us wisdom in this ministry.



Friday, April 25, 2014

highlight // exponencial - easter conference 2014



With this being our first Easter, or here "Semana Santa", in Honduras, we got the distinct pleasure of attending our first of the annual GCLA Easter conferences called "Exponencial." For those of you who don't know, we are employed by Great Commission Ministries, but on the ground we work for and partner with Great Commission Latin America. GCLA is an awesome movement of 33 local churches in Latin America in 9 different countries, including Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, Panama, Mexico, Costa Rica, Venezula, and the United States.

We love working with GCLA for many reasons, but especially because it believes in a holistic approach to ministry. GCLA believes that Scripture wholeheartedly desires to compliment our faith in Christ and manifest our faith through our compassion projects and evangelism throughout Latin America.

We were so excited to go to Exponencial to hear more about all of the churches involved in GCLA and hear from the leaders of these other churches while we explored through the book of Ephesians during the duration of the conference. It was such a wonderful experience to bring as many of us as possible all together, and of course we loved having practically everyone we know in Latin America under one roof. We wanted to share a few pictures, though it seems that we were always talking too much to actually take pictures with other people! Imagine that. :) 

Daytime session 

And nighttime session. 
Also, below is the promotional video for Exponencial 2014. If you can read Spanish, great! If not, still give it a look. It's so pretty!



Since this was our first trip to both the conference, San Pedro Sula (a very large city in the northern part of Honduras) and to the Iglesia Gran Comision church there, we decided to travel with a group from our IGC Danli church in the church's bus. It was an interesting trip for sure to travel across Honduras in a school bus, because the road quality significantly improves as you get closer to San Pedro Sula, but on the way home, it just gets rougher and rougher. 

One thing we do love about travelling with Hondurans, is though it may add more time to the trip, they definitely love to stop for snacks. And anyone who knows Jamey knows that he is one of the thirstiest men alive. He always needs something to drink... and snacks don't hurt either! We even picked up some knowledge on where to find the best kinds of Honduran snack foods. 

For most families in the church, Semana Santa is their one week off of work during the entire year, and the fact that they chose to use it to attend this conference is incredible. So, since we were near water (which rarely happens to a person from Danli), our group made a trip to the beach during a conference break AND a stop at the one and only lake in Honduras on the way home for a Latin American "fish & chips" (tilapia & plantain fries). This was Lesley's first time having fish that still had a head on it! Our friends thought that fact was hilarious. :)




To the right is our friend Kike (who works for GCLA at the church in Danli) & his daughter Dayana, and we are to the left.
Note that both Kike and Lesley were already wearing their "Exponencial 2014" t-shirts! 


We can't wait until next year!