Please join us in these prayers and praises to God for all that He has done.
“In the morning, O Lord, You will hear my voice;
In the morning I will order my prayer to You and eagerly watch.”-Psalm 5:3
PRAYER REQUESTS
- Please pray for the spiritual health of all of the churches we are serving with here in Honduras. Please pray for the spiritual health of the pastors, their families, and the congregations. There have been some things happen recently reminding us that we need to be on the alert because the enemy is always looking to divide and destroy. Update: God has been at work in some of these situations, particularly so in one church that went through some difficulties earlier this year but things have turned around dramatically recently.
- Along the line of the first prayer request please pray for wisdom for us as we review what we have been doing, assess the success, and determine if there are changes that need to be made to improve. We believe the Lord is leading us to narrow our focus to a few communities so that we can spend more time in those communities and churches to help bring about real transformation. We’ve gotten spread pretty thin and it seems that we only get to spend very short amounts of time in lots of places and we’re not sure that is what is needed going forward. It seems that perhaps fewer healthier churches are better than a whole bunch of churches just barely hanging on, and there are a couple of churches here that are hanging on more than thriving right now. Update: We have received clarity as to how to move forward and concentrate our efforts a little better. There are still some decisions to be made but we think that we have more clear direction now.
- Please continue to pray for a young man named Ruben whom we met in Mezcalillo last year. Ruben is paralyzed from the neck down. We’ve not been able to see him in quite some time now so we don’t know how he is doing but we assume he is still struggling with several physical issues related to his spinal cord injury. Update: we have visited Ruben a few more times and he is doing better but we still haven’t found an affordable way to get him the regular physical therapy that he needs. Please pray for the resources and place for him to stay to become available. We believe that with 6-9 months of intense therapy he can be much more self reliant but it will take a lot to get him to that point.
- Please pray for the ministry of the new church in Mezcalillo, and pray that the new believers there will live out their responsibility to share the gospel with their neighbors.
- Please pray for us as we continue making plans for our teams coming in July-September. Teams are already booking dates in 2019 too!
- Please continue to pray for the family of Gloria Marina. She and her family live in Mezcalillo and they were the first family of Christ followers we found there in January 2016. They continue to face some very difficult personal situations right now. Update: Please pray specifically for a full recovery for Gloria Marina-she fell and broke her arm right at the wrist. She too will need physical therapy once the cast is removed to regain full use of her arm and hand.
- 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 continue to pray for Pastor Claudio, his family, and his church. In partnership with a church in the Atlanta area we helped them with the construction of a church in their community called La Jagua. We are also doing evangelism with them in four communities and many people have been receptive to the message of hope and salvation available through Jesus Christ. Update: Our relationship with this pastor and church continues to grow. We are spending more time in these communities and there is much fruit. It looks like we’ll be working in this area for quite some time.
- Please pray for Pastor Emilio, his family, and the congregation of Torre Fuerte here in La Campa. Please pray for peace, protection, wisdom, and continued spiritual growth and impact in the community.
- Please pray for us as we begin to finish the guest house on our property that was started some time ago. We have begun the work and we trust that God, as He has always done, will provide what we need to complete the house so that it can be used for ministry. Our goal is to have this house ready by the end of 2018. Update-we have our plans and God has His plans, and His plans are always better even though sometimes He surprises us. Because of a new situation we find ourselves needing to finish the house within the next couple of weeks. It has been a strain from the financial side and having to manage another project right now but the Lord is providing the resources and we are close to the finish line. Update #2: We did not finish the house in a couple of weeks but it was finished enough for a family to move into when needed. There are still some little things remaining to be done but the main projects are completed.
- Please pray for us to receive our residency cards. Our papers for the next two years were approved but it is taking longer than usual to get our actual cards that make doing many things much easier.
- 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.
- 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 the reliability of our truck. Update: We have had another breakdown and major repair, and all of the other little things keep adding up as the truck ages. It is 8 years old with only 116,000 miles but the miles are much harder here. We really need a newer, higher quality truck. Please pray for God to provide this need for us. It is becoming increasingly difficult to rely on this truck to transport us, but more importantly, our teams.
- To aid in minimizing the wear and tear on our truck, and a new truck whenever the Lord provides one, we need to make an investment in our road. We put in a nice concrete slab\bridge earlier this year to keep it from washing out at the bottom where the water drains from above. That has helped that part but we’ve been “patching” up the rest of the road periodically but it is a losing battle. Paving the entire road is not possible. However, we can strategically excavate and put down concrete\rock pathways for the truck. We also need to improve the runoff to prevent future damage. Please pray for the resources for this project.
- Please pray for us, Dr. Maria, and the entire board of directors for the Family Health and Development Foundation Honduras. We will have much to share with all of you when we return to the states later this year. Please pray specifically about helping us to find medical equipment, office equipment, supplies, computers, etc. We are very new to this so any connections you can help us make are greatly needed and appreciated.
- 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 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 (Tegucigalpa), Pastor Claudio (La Jagua) and Pastor Arnaldo (Coalaca), Pastor Franklin (Tela), and Pastor Fredy (La Paz).
- 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.
PRAISE:
- Praise God for the approval by the government of our papers legally establishing The Family Health and Development Foundation Honduras. Not only that but we will be meeting this month with our engineer to review the land use plan, blueprints, and budgets. We are so excited to see how far God has brought us in a relatively short time.
- It has been an amazing year of ministry with the short term mission teams who have already been here this year. We can’t thank all of you who have come and given of yourselves in obedience to God’s calling to find out where He is working and join Him because He is clearly at work in the western mountains of Honduras.
- In June we celebrated our second new church building dedication service in Jagua. What an honor it was to participate in this service, and to see another church building that is being used to honor God and change lives!
- Chebito gave us another scare in May with another very high fever as a result of a respiratory infection. Praise God that he is doing very well now. He has a bunch of teeth so he is eating and growing rapidly.
- Praise God for the new believers in La Campa and Jagua as a result of the efforts of our short term mission teams this year. We also heard a report that ministry that was done in schools in La Paz in June is already bearing fruit.
- Praise God for the recent reliability of the electricity and water systems! Praise God that this has continued through today!! We’ve not experienced significant outages in La Campa for quite some time now.
- Praise God for the continuing increase in our language skills. We both still have much to learn but the language continues to be less and less of a barrier for us.
- Praise God for the donations we have received for several different construction projects. We are not a construction ministry per se but construction does have its place. Update-the Sunday school classroom\kitchen in Cruz Alta now has walls, roof and a floor. This project will serve both the church and the future medical center. The children’s Sunday school classroom and kitchen project is underway in Mataras. The walls are finished and the floor and roof are being worked on now.
- 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, Lennar & Maria, Pastor Jorge and his family, Pastor Wilmer and his family, Pastor Walterio and his family in Tegucigalpa, Pastor Fredy and his family in Comayagua, 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.
In Hines Sight... 
Please continue to remember our grandson Jack and his Flight as they are learning the machinations of arm to arm combat and using heavy ammo and armored vehicles now, and will soon be learning nuclear defense. If all goes well, his Flight (46 men) should graduate sometime in August, after which they will be deployed. All of America’s military seems to be gearing up rapidly now. Lackland AFB in San Antonio,where all Air Force trainees go, produces 35,000 Airmen per year and that is just one branch of the military. I was surprised at how stringent and highly pressurized their training is. They get up at 4:00 a.m. and do physical training for an hour before breakfast and literally fall into bed at 9 p.m. They definitely become the Property of the U.S. Air Force…..and Jack loves it ! “Onward Christian Soldiers, marching as to war, with the cross of Jesus going on before.” Thank you.
Rest assured we remember you in your ministry, too. There has never been a time when the precious name of Jesus needs to be shared more fervently than now, and you are doing a great job ! So many of our churches here at home are entertaining rather than preaching and it is breaking my heart. In all of history, there has never before been a necessity for pink and purple lights and fog machines in the sanctuary to draw the people in. Jesus said, “If I be lifted up, I will draw all people unto Me.”
Even human life from the Creator is being blasphemed. To date, America has killed 63 MILLION babies, courtesy of their mothers. I wonder that God has not already erased us from history. It is only be His patience, mercy and grace that we continue to exist as a country. God forgive us.
Our pulpits have been disgraced by sexual impropriety and approval of homosexuality and same sex marriage. We are worse than “in the days of Noah” if you ask me !
Thanks for listening to my lamentations, dear friends. I wish we had the resources to buy you a new truck !!!!!
Love you, and SO excited over what is occurring in Honduras under your watchcare. May God bless you richly in spirit and in truth.