Lots to catch up on....
Wow, it has been a couple weeks since I blogged and there is a lot to share! God is doing so many great things here in Honduras, lets get started...
1. We had our 1st Meeting with some ladies from our church in Comayagua about starting a Celebrate Recovery there. Then a 2nd Meeting with Pastor Peter and his wife Kathy. We will be starting the leadership training in January!!! (This was not in our plan....but it is in God's.)
~ Here was the before moving to Honduras plan........Before moving here, we thought that we would solely focus on language school for the 1st year living here and then start a Celebrate Recovery after language school. The reason why we thought this is because we thought we needed to speak Spanish in order to train others in the program. This is because our only experience living in Honduras was in San Marcos de Colon for 3 months (Nov. 2018-Feb. 2019) where only 1 or 2 people around spoke English.
~Here's the revised by God plan that we now have after living here for 4 months.....While living in Siguatepeque while taking language school full time, we were invited to go to church with some other students, Scott and Susan, from the language school. It is in a town 45 minutes from our house in Comayagua. This church is bilingual...what this means is that the entire service is in English and Spanish. Pastor Peter and his wife Kathy are bilingual, as well as a few others in the church, so there is always someone there interpreting the message. (I'll try and post a video of the church this Sunday so you can see...it's amazing!!) Well after talking to Kathy, the pastor's wife, casually about why we are here, she mentioned that someone about a year ago gave her a Spanish leaders kit for Celebrate Recovery but she wasn't really sure how to use it or what to do. GOD MOMENT......nothing is by accident. It's not by accident that our friends Scott and Susan brought us to this church, it's not by accident that Kathy already had a leaders kit "thank you God" (remember we weren't planning on planting any Celebrate Recoveries this year so we don't have any materials to start a plant here), it's not by accident that Kathy speaks English because she lived in Miami for a while when she was a little girl so a family member could receive medical treatment, it's not by accident that Pastor Peter was adopted by a missionary from the states and speaks English...I could go on and on...IT'S A GOD THING!!! So the REVISED by GOD PLAN is....In January we will be starting a leadership training and step study with the leadership team at the church. Then we hope to launch the first night of Celebrate Recovery after we complete book 1 of the step study (possibly mid February). YAY GOD!!!!! This is so exciting.
2. We attended the first Celebrate Recovery that was planted here in Honduras in San Pedro Sula by other missionary friends. These are the same missionary friends that HIGHLY suggested we take language school our first year, and we are so thankful (thanks Penny and Brad). The Celebrate Recovery program they planted in San Pedro Sula is all in Spanish and the people there only knew a little English, so our Spanish skills came in handy!! It was a small group of 9 people (not including us), but they followed the DNA of Celebrate Recovery, appreciated having the program in their church for the past 3-4 years and LOVE the Lord! It was a great experience and we hope to bring the leaders from the group we helped train in Roatan, as well as our leaders from the new group in Comayagua that we will be training in January, to visit this Celebrate Recovery in San Pedro Sula sometime soon. We are so excited!!!
3. We met up with some Celebrate Recovery friends who were on a mission trip here in Honduras that we met in Illinois 2 weeks before moving here. Small world, right! Long story short, my family was not able to let us stay with them in Illinois (my hometown) the 2 weeks prior to moving to Honduras. Although I was sad about this, I had two options...sit and sulk or wait to see what the Lord had for us. Well the Lord showed up big time!! We stayed with a sweet godly lady in Algonquin Illinois, who I found on a missionary site for housing around Illinois the night before we had to be in Illinois. The bed and breakfast was 1 1/2 hour drive away from where we lived in Illinois so it was a drive to go to support raising meetings, church and just to meet up with friends....BUT GOD knew what he was doing....Sherry was like a grandma to our boys and she took us to a Celebrate Recovery at her church because she knew that was what we were doing in Honduras. That is where we met Dave and Josette, two Celebrate Recovery leaders at their church. After talking to them when we first met them, we found out that they have been coming to Honduras for the past 6-7 years on short term missions...I can't forget to mention that the director of the organization that they help, we met....not by accident, it's a God thing...our first time at the Bilingual church in Comayagua that we attended with friends where will be planting Celebrate Recovery at in January. God makes this big 'ole world seem so small at times. We had a great time catching up with them in Honduras and hearing about the ministry they come each year to serve alongside. We can't wait to see them again here in Honduras, Lord willing!
4. I passed my book #2 exam with a 98%. There are 6 total books and I hope to complete them all during this year that we are intensively studying here at the language school. I am working hard and excited to speak Spanish, as well as understand it fully....especially when people share their testimonies in Celebrate Recovery in Spanish. I am taking it day by day, but am so grateful for the growth I've had in the language. So grateful God has opened my mind to learning it! The Spanish Language Institute of Honduras is AMAZING!!! They also do online classes for those that can't be here in Honduras for anyone interested. Now I am on book 3 where I get to start speaking in past tense in Spanish. The main reason I am so excited about this is because I hope to share my testimony in Spanish for Christmas, it's my birthday gift to Jesus for Christmas/his birthday celebration.
More good things coming...stay tuned for the next big thing that is happening on Tuesday December 3rd. I'll be blogging about it on Wednesday December 4th!!