PRAYER REQUESTS

• Please pray that we will be able to finish all of the details for our three teams arriving in January and our one team arriving early in February. These teams are the reasons we planned to return in mid December to have enough time to make the final arrangements. However, the Lord has been faithful to help us accomplish what needs to be accomplished in a much shorter time.
• Please pray for successful medical clinics January 16,17, & 18, that not only will we be able to help people here with medical needs but that they will become followers of Christ as a result of the ministry that takes place at these clinics.
• Please pray for our second team who is coming to visit family coffee producers in the Cruz Alta area, and maybe other areas. Please pray that this is an encouraging time for the team and for the families they visit.
• Please continue to pray for three un-reached communities named Mezcalillo, Arcamón, and Mataras de Caiquin (different from the Mataras de La Campa where there is already a thriving church). God is opening doors in all three of these communities but there still remains much work to do.
• Please pray extra hard for Arcamón. The work there is very difficult and the resistance to our efforts is increasing. We are not surprised by this but it is a matter of more intense prayer.
• Please pray for two more communities we’ve recently learned of with no evangelical church or outreach taking place, Nuevo Cedros (we visited briefly last year), and Poso Verde.
• Please continue to pray for San Cristobal; the work has been restarted and we are beginning to see some fruit. Please pray for the church to grow, that the Holy Spirit will move mightily, and that more people will choose to follow Jesus.
• Please pray for wisdom as we share, and for people to be receptive to the message of love, forgiveness, and salvation available through Jesus Christ.
• Please pray against a spirit of fear that controls a lot of people we meet. Many people hear the truth and know they need to make a change but they are afraid for lots of different reasons. The reasons aren’t that important, just that they find courage and strength to not be scared or intimidated by others.
• Because of the delays in our return to La Campa and two extra visits that we weren’t planning for in January and February we will not be able to work with the Spanish language tutor in January. Please pray that we will have time in February to get this started because it will take practice and formal study to get us to the next level(s). In the meantime please pray for the “OJT” to keep us moving forward as it has done thus far.
• Please pray for an enjoyable and refreshing time at a conference for missionaries in Siguatepeque in February. This will be right after our first wave of teams so the timing is perfect.
• Please pray for safety and protection for all of La Campa during the annual festival that is held here during the last week or so of February. It is very crowded here, with thousands of people from other parts of Honduras and Central America. Unfortunately there is also a lot of noise, partying, drinking, fighting, etc. It is not an enjoyable time to be here, and not as safe as it is the rest of the year.
• Please pray for the continued encouragement from our friends and family in the states. It is amazing what a blessing it is to receive even a short note from loved ones.
• Please continue to pray for us to have wisdom and discernment to know what projects and ministries the Lord wants us to participate in and which ones we should leave alone. There are so many opportunities that it can be overwhelming trying to know how to choose. This is still an important request since we have more projects than we have resources for at the moment.
• Please pray specifically for two projects we are very interested in starting in La Campa. They involve medical and education-more details coming soon.
• Please pray as the Spirit leads for the following pastors, their families, and the churches represented: Pastor Wilmer (San Pedro Sula), Pastor Emilio (La Campa), Pastor Jose Maria (Santa Teresa), Pastor Arturo (Gracias), Pastor Samuel (Mataras), Pastor Roberto (Gracias), Pastor Modesto (Gracias), Pastor Marco Tulio (Cruz Alta), Pastor Amilcar (Monqueta), Pastor Rosita (Gilguarapez), Pastor Jorge (Caiquin) and Pastor Marco Antonio (Olominas), Pastor Walterio Cruz (Tegucigalpa), and Pastor Arnoldo (Coalaca).
• Finances (see praise below). Please pray for our financial support to continue coming in strongly and consistently.
• Please pray for our personal prayer lives to grow stronger and stronger. We can run around and do a lot of things, but without prayer we will not bear lasting spiritual fruit.
• Please pray that we don’t neglect to maintain our relationships in the midst of doing ministry, the most important one being with our Lord, then with each other, then with our friends and family, while we continue to establish ourselves and our ministry in Honduras.
• Please pray for our faith to stay strong, and grow even stronger, for continued protection from spiritual attack, and for strength when the attacks do come.
• Please pray for us to be bold and courageous, to not miss any opportunities to glorify God, and to draw people closer to Jesus.

PRAISES

We have lots of praises this month to share with you!

• Praise God for a very successful trip to the U.S. at the end of 2016! We had many, many meetings with pastors and missions leaders, the plans for ministry in 2017 are very exciting. We are praising God for a surprise opportunity to install 2 water purification projects as a result of one of those meetings.
• Praise God for the surprise collections of goods that He blessed us with while we were in the U.S. One group got busy collecting coats, sweaters, and jackets that will be given to the children in one school in Coalaca. Another group collecting a whole bunch of personal care items that we can use at some general wellness clinics we want to host later this year.
• Praise God for the time we got to spend with friends and family while in the U.S.
• Praise God for the unexpected extra days in the U.S. because of travel challenges. While we really wanted to get back to Honduras at our originally scheduled day (Dec 15^th) the Lord knew we needed some down time and a little extra time with family, especially with Jean’s sister and brother in law, at Christmas this year.
• Praise God for all of the teams that have committed to coming to serve in Honduras this year, more details to follow.
• Praise God for the ability to affordably ship some of our remaining things in the U.S. to Honduras. We were able to organize and transport the things that we can ship to a warehouse in MS using this program while in the states. As a result we were able to move the remaining things into a storage unit a little less than half the size of the one we had saving us quite a bit of money per month. Little by little we are getting close to our goal of having no possessions in the U.S. except for important records.
• Praise God for our friends in La Campa who worked very hard maintaining our home and property for us while we were gone. It is such a blessing to know that we have friends whom we can trust completely in these things. Because of them we do not have to be concerned at all with our things in La Campa while we are gone.
• Praise God for enabling us to finish all of the business of Jean’s mom’s estate. The sale of the house closed on November 4^th with no delays or surprises and the estate sale was a huge success. More importantly, we are praising God for His presence during this work. It was difficult, but it was also a time of good memories as well as we worked together with Jean’s sister and brother in law.
• Praise God for the ministry in Jonesboro, GA that provided us with very affordable cars to use during our visit to the U.S. The folks at Macedonian Call Foundation were so helpful and flexible we can’t praise and thank them enough.
• Praise God for our most generous friends who allowed us to stay in their homes and took such good care of us while we were in the U.S. While a nearly three month trip is expensive it was much less expensive because of our friends who allowed us the use of their homes.
• Praise God for the increase in our language skills in the short time we’ve been back. And praise Him because we were both very pleasantly surprised that we had not lost much, if any really, of the language we had learned after being away from Spanish speakers\speaking for so long.
• We continue to receive encouragement from so many of our friends, praise God for the encouragement from our brothers and sisters in Christ.
• Praise God for His continued faithfulness to provide for our needs through our friends and partner churches that faithfully and generously support our ministry.
• Praise God for the great friends He has brought into our lives in La Campa, San Pedro Sula, and El Progreso. We are especially thankful for Pastor Emilio and his family, the Perez family, Pastor Jorge and his family, Pastor Wilmer and his family, and Tony, Juanita, and Rommel-our Hotel Plaza Victoria family in El Progreso.
• Praise God for all of our prayer supporters because we can’t do what we do effectively without the prayer support of all of you.
• Praise God for all of the little things we learn almost daily about life in La Campa and Honduras. It is so much easier to be effective when you know the rules.