A look back at January (through Lorenda's eyes)...
Hello Everyone!!! It has been an amazing month serving the Lord here in Roatan, Honduras. Really every month is a great month of service to the Lord.
I want to start by saying it is a blessing and an honor to serve God internationally and reach people here for the gospel of Jesus Christ!!! Life on mission for God is the BEST!!!!
Second I want to mention that those of you who pray and give financially are a huge piece of what is going on here. Because of your fervant prayers and generous giving, we are able to serve the Lord here...so we say THANK YOU for being a part of the team!
So many great things have happened in January it is hard to know where to start.
I guess I will begin the with this, "What the enemy meant for evil, God turned it for good!" In order to understand what I mean by this, I have to give you a back story. I went back to the states by myself for 3 weeks in November/December to go see my younger brother who was dealing with cancer before he had surgery to remove his kidney (praise God he made it thorough surgery in late December and is cancer free!!! praying that his next check-up shows that he remains cancer free). While I was gone, the devil was on the prowl seeking someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8). Sadly, Tyler fell back into an old problem, pornography, while I was gone. Graciously God reveled the problem to me a few days after I returned home. The good thing is that what the enemy meant for evil (tricking Tyler into looking at pornography), God turned it for good (a stronger marriage through God's forgiveness and restoration). The reason I share this is to share how good can come out of struggles if we press into God. Not only did we press into God (reading the Bible, praying, I fasted), but we took other steps to help Tyler find victory in his pornography problem he has had since he was 10 years old (talked with our Pastor on the island, talked with our Ministry leader at the rehab we are serving at, talked with a Celebrate Recovery leader in the states, talked with accountability partners here on the island, completed an intense study of "At the Altar of Sexual Idolatry", set up hedges around internet use to prevent falling back into pornography in the future). To God be the glory for our marriage and all the struggles we have overcome in the past 14 years together!!!
Me and my man...
Ministry continues on...I continued to teach at the rehab and help with Celebrating Recovery at the rehab on Monday nights. Let me tell you, they know how to CELEBRATE!!! The people that come into the rehab "Jesus is the Solution" (where we serve at all week), come basically with nothing and they are at the point in their life where you would say they hit "rock bottom". Our part in their recovery process involves sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ and leading them in morning Bible studies (usually based on the step of the day, but sometimes on a specific topic). The reason the rehab is named "Jesus is the Solution", is because Jesus is the only way to be fully free from any hurt, hang-up or habit in your life (John 8:36). It is such a blessing to be able to serve at the rehab and see Jesus transform peoples lives, for those that choose to find freedom in HIM.
Me teaching at the rehab...
The rehab Celebrating Recovery...
Since I can't share every rehab success story, I will highlight 2 for this blog.....
MONICA and HECTOR
**this one was more in Oct-Dec, but too good to not share
Monica and Hector were a couple that came into the rehab to find recovery together. What is really neat is that the reason they were so interested in coming into the rehab is because of the life that Kristal, a graduate of the rehab, lived. She LOVES JESUS and is a light in her community, which is what they were drawn to. They wanted what she had, which is why they decided to go to the rehab for help. They came broken and hurting from the bad choices they made in life. Drugs ruled their lives, but they desired a different life. Hector wanted to go back to mainland Honduras to be with his family, but he said that his mom would not allow him to go back there on drugs. They decided to get off of drugs before going to his mom's house and decided to stay at the rehab for the 3 month program. They had no money to pay the monthly fee for recovery and had no money for hygiene/snacks/etc, so God laid it on our hearts to sponsor their 3 months in the rehab...what a blessing to give out of what God has provided for ministry here. If you are a prayer and/or financial partner in the ministry, you played a part in reaching them for Jesus and helping them find freedom from drugs/alcohol...THANK YOU! Little did they know that they would not only find freedom from drugs, but would also find JESUS. Both of them got saved while in the rehab, both got baptized, and left the rehab clean from drugs and alcohol. *****PRAY that they keep their eyes on Jesus (Hebrews 12:2) and fight the world's temptations the way Jesus did, with scripture (Matthew 4:1-11).
Hector when he came to the rehab...
Monica when she came to the rehab...
Hector getting baptized...
Monica getting baptized...
Hector and Monica during morning Bible class...
Hector and Monica at church testifying of the power of Jesus...
Graduation day for Hector and Monica....
Hector and Monica leaving on the ferry to be reunited with his family on mainland Honduras...
NATASHA
Natasha came to the rehab broken, hooked on drugs, dressing like a man and in the bondage of homosexuality. I can still remember some of the first days in morning Bible study when we broke off into small groups where I was teaching the women and we had difficult conversations about God creating her as a lady and His desire for her to be a lady. GREAT NEWS....Natasha accepted Jesus Christ as her personal Savior, got baptized, looks beautiful in her new feminine clothes (but more importantly inside feels like a beautiful woman of God), has become a leader at the rehab and graduates in 4 days. Her life has been radically changed by JESUS CHRIST! *****PRAY as she returns to her family on one of the other islands of Honduras, Utila, and is hoping to start another "Jesus is the Solution" Rehab on that island (Jeremiah 29:11).
Natasha when she first came to the rehab....
Me and Natasha when she first came....
Natasha getting baptized....
Natasha sharing her testimony proclaiming freedom through Jesus...
*graduation picture coming in February’s blog
Whew, God is so good!!!! I just love living life on mission for God!!
That was just a small portion of all that happens in a month with regards to ministry, but I hope that you can feel and see that God is on the move here in Roatan, Honduras!
Pouring out and serving is great, but one thing our family knows is that if you pour from an empty spiritual cup you're no good to anyone. So we do things to fill up our spiritual cup. One of the major things we do is our morning bible reading devotion and prayer that we each individually have with God (I have been trying to have quiet time with God every night too...as David in the Bible said "I meditate on your word day and night" I hope to do that as well. We also meet with fellow believers every Sunday at R Church and cherish that time together. But the side blessings of God, include being able to participate in a weekly life group (a house Bible study with a group from the church) and being able to participate in a weekly women's Bible study. This has been crucial in being able to serve the Lord internationally. My spiritual cup, thanks to God, never runs dry because of the balance between filling up my spiritual cup and pouring it out on others in need of the hope of Jesus Christ.
Life group...
Women’s Bible study group....
So you're probably wondering if living a life on mission is all serving/serving/serving and studying the Bible/praying/studying the Bible/praying. That is a lot of what we do, but our family loves to enjoy time together. God put our family together and we truly love being with one another. Some things we like to do together is watch movies, play games, swim in the ocean, and many more things. A new thing we had the opportunity to do as a family is scuba dive. Our neighbors business has been slow due to COVID slowing the world down, so we were able to bless her with some business and it was a Christmas gift for our family to have this opportunity. We have completed all of the book work and tests for the open water scuba certification, as well as a confined water dive and an open water dive. The things we still have left to complete are 4 confined water dives and 3 open water dives. We all LOVE diving!! It was a blessing from God to have this opportunity.
Our family diving....
Phew...I know this blog is long, but this is only a snippet into all that God is doing here in Roatan, Honduras.
COMING SOON.....
We are starting a Celebrate Recovery through the church we attend here, R Church. It starts February 15th and will be taking place every Monday night from 6-8pm. *****PRAY that many will find freedom from their hurts, hang-ups and habits through Jesus Christ!!
If you can PRAY for me in these specific areas...
*That we will get scholarships/grants to cover Messiah's school, we are almost there (college is just in a few months).
*That I will have energy to do all that the Lord has called me to do here.
*That Messiah and I finish his last high school class in February/March
*That many would come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
All for HIM...because eternity matters! Love y'all! Is just being goofy on my 38th birthday...
