2010 December Honduras

Honduras Newsletter Update
December 2010
Chris and Maria Rivera

This past Sunday must have been one of the most eventful, fruitful, and uplifting Sundays that we have experienced this year. With most of the staff on vacation to the US and the weather threatening the attendance, I as pastor felt that we were on board a small sinking vessel. It was on my mind to lock the church up and go back home. We then heard a car and it was Emely and son Angel David with a pinata and cake for church body. We decided that the church office was the best place to meet and pray, keeping us out of the draft and cold moisture. Feeling a little deflated we expressed to one another our sense of loss due to the lack of attendance that morning. During prayer time we thanked the Lord for all He has done and will do and asked Him to bless us and all the people who would eventually fill the empty chairs in our church and for blessings upon the next generation of youth, the ones that will take our place in the church.
Emely and my wife Maria, always with presence of mind, prepared cookies, cake, and a pinata, hopeful and faithful that some children might at least make a show. It was a windy, cold and wet mist that was on the attack this very morning, hastening us on. It was just about this time (10:30) that my cell phone began to vibrate (on silent), and on the other end was the voice of Oskar saying “Pastor we are on the way, we are a little late, but we will be there”. Then out of the palm leaves and forest mist I observed that Mrs Vasquez, baby in arms and most of her children in tow, were pacing their way up the main road to the church. They are a humble and simple people all seemingly born with gentle smiles. Oskar drives up with his mother, sister and children. Next thing I know I am up behind the pulpit opening with prayer and focusing our study for the service on Luke 2, the story of Christmas with Oskar translating beside me. No sooner had we begun when Henry from Salt and Light Ministry drives up with his little brother, Daniel, his father and his guitar. I finish the teaching and Henry begins playing Praise Songs, everything fell into place, not the way I nor Maria thought it would but just how God wanted it to be for this Sunday, December 26. We shared communion and afterward I encouraged members to stand and tell what they were thankful for and a few of the stronger members had words a plenty. I noticed Pastor Martin in the back row, (humble builder and founder of several churches throughout Honduras). Martin is Henry's father and I asked him to share a word from the Bible with us which he did, also from the book of Luke. We concluded with an invitation to those who have not ask Jesus into their lives as we have done. Four young ladies came forward and received Jesus Christ. What a wonderful ending to the start of a bland day. As we concluded we placed the pinata in the back of the church to be sheltered from the cold. Tradition has it here that the smallest child has first go at the pinata. In a matter of dashing moments candy was strewn about the floor, and adults were momentarily turned into children.
Isaiah 55:6-11 says: Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. “For My thoughts, are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”
God is always faithful. He loves us all so much we can't even fathom it. Nothing we could have done nor have planned would have been as precious as this Sunday. Seeing empty chairs filled, but most important, witnessing the miracle of lost, empty souls being filled with eternal life and hope. The Lord's hand was gracious to us this Christmas in Pena Blanca, Honduras. Thank you all for your support and most of all for your prayers. We pray for God's continued grace, joy and peace upon all of you in this New Year. What an awesome God we serve! We love you - Feliz Ano Nuevo!