Back on the Mission Field!
It's been a while since we blogged because we were in the states for half of July and most of August to attend the annual Celebrate Recovery Summit, catch up with churches/family/friends, and to take our oldest son Messiah to college. Taking Messiah to college (Dallas Baptist University in Dallas, TX) was a sad, but happy time. We are so proud of him and know that God is going to do great things through him as he pursues a degree in Music Business and Spanish to aid him in his calling by God: to be a worship pastor.
Here is a picture of us in front of his dorm before we left him there....
After 6 1/2 weeks in the states we are back home in Roatan!!!! Now that we're back you can expect to hear from each of us again at the end of each month with a blog about the past month on the mission field. We are so excited to be back serving and doing what God has called us to do here in Honduras, Matthew 28:19-20 go and make disciples of all nations!
When we returned home to Honduras Tyler was able to jump back into serving at the rehab where we teach the Bible, but shortly after our return the rehab was hit with COVID. They caught it quick, quarantined those students at the rehab and just had to shut down to outside teaching for a few weeks until all tests came back negative. Praise God that they got thorough that difficulty quickly and everyone is ok. We are back teaching there and it is an honor and a blessing to serve there.
Here is a picture from us recently teaching at the rehab (this was during worship time)...
Our hearts are not only for the students while they are in the rehab, but also for when they get out "aftercare." Discipleship is what we are called to do...helping them meet Jesus through the Bible, accept his free gift of salvation, be transformed by the Holy Spirit and serve God with their gifts and talents. One of the recent rehab graduates, Bani, has become family to us. We are blessed to come alongside him and his family outside of the rehab. It was a blessing to be able to celebrate his 54th birthday with him. We brought over pizza, cheesecake and Gatorade...it was a great time. But during this celebration, we are also aware that Bani's heart is very heavy as his mother just passed away in the states and they are bringing the body back here to have the wake/funeral. He mentioned he hadn't slept is a while because of being so sad, so I gave him 2 birthday gifts to help with that...lavender oil (given to me by a sweet friend in the states) and a Celebrate Recovery study Bible. The Word of God is where we find our rest and peace, but also God gave us plants for various things as well. I was glad to hear that he had a great night sleep that night! The wake and funeral is going to be coming up, so please be in prayer for him and his family during this difficult time. We will be going to the wake and funeral to love on him and his family during this difficult time.
This is a picture of us celebrating Bani's 54th birthday with him...
This is a picture of Bani's mom who passed away (please pray for the family)...
As for discipleship, y'all know our heart is to have a fully functioning Celebrate Recovery here so that people have support to work through their hurts, hang-ups, and habits. We started this Celebrate Recovery in February and it was running great, that was until we left for the states. We didn't have a leadership team to keep it going while we were gone so we had to put it on pause those 6 1/2 weeks. When we got back we started it back up, but only a few people were showing up....but those people are regularly coming and want to find freedom. So after prayer and seeking wise counsel, we are looking into taking a step back and running the step study program to build up a leadership team and then look into a more centralized location to run Celebrate Recovery as we found out many are having troubles getting rides to come to the meeting. We know the Lord will raise up leaders and will provide a more centralized location...we look forward to seeing Him work it all out.
God is on the move and we got to be a huge part of it this month. The pastor of El Shaddai (this is a Spanish only church we go to and the pastor is a good friend of ours) called us to see if he could host a service and baptism at our house on the beach. With the permission of the family we rent from, we were able to host them here and it was an amazing time. It was a great time of worship, teaching on the meaning of baptism and then witnessing so many get publicly baptized. Praise God!!!!
These are some pictures from the baptism celebration...
Serving the Lord is a blessing and an honor and we have been convicted about getting our bodies healthy (in a healthy weight range) so that we can better serve the Lord. Being healthy in our mind, body, spirit and soul is super important to God and therefore it's super important to us. One way we are able to try and be more active is by playing Pickleball. We used to play this sport at our home/sending church in Alabama when we lived there, so when we saw a Facebook post about a group wanting to start a pickleball club here in Roatan we decided to join in to help. We were looking for a way to workout without working out, if you know what I mean and this was the perfect solution. It allows us to meet a lot more people here while having fun "exercising". It has been super good for not only our physical body, but for our mental health as well. If you have never heard of pickleball, check it out online. And if you want to check out what's going on with pickleball here in Roatan, check it out on Facebook "Roatan Pickleball Club". It's super fun!
Here's a picture of our club playing Pickleball...
Last, but not least...I chopped off my hair! The total amount I cut off was 16 1/2 inches. First of all, it's too hot here in Roatan, Honduras to have long hair. Second, God revealed to me that the world likes to say "having long hair is a standard of beauty" and for those who know me...when God says that something I am doing might be tied to the world, I get rid of it quick. So off it went and it feels great!
Here's me with my hair chopped off...
Well that's a quick wrap up of what's been going on here. Thanks for coming along this journey with us...all for God's glory!
Praises
*back here in Roatan serving the Lord
*Rehab is clear of COVID
Prayer Requests
*COVID has infected a lot of our friends on the other side of the island and they are really sick and in desperate need of prayer
*prayer for Bani and his family on the loss of his mother
*prayer for the Celebrate Recovery step studies that we will be launching soon and for leaders to rise up
*prayer for a centralized location for Celebrate Recovery
All for Him...King Jesus!