Our First Ministry Team: The Aftermath

The last two weeks have been a blur! It was full of spiritual highs and lows, and was physically draining. But despite the drain physically, many people gave their lives to the Lord Jesus as their personal Savior! Click here to see photos.

On July 1st Reid Saunders Association arrived with a team of 24 to minister in and around the city of Siguatepeque, Honduras. The eight days they were here were filled with medical clinics, outreaches, team meetings and fellowship, and culminated with a two-day festival in the middle of the downtown area with Reid sharing the Gospel along with the rest of the outreach team (Jessie Beebe and crew with KidStand and Vic Murphy and John Andrus with DirtBros BMX). From our perspective the most encouraging thing was to see the many decisions for Christ and to see churches of different denominations working side-by-side. Unfortunately, churches haven't been known to work together very well here, but in this case much more was accomplished and more people made decisions for Christ because of the unity.

Personally, we were encouraged by having a team to work alongside in ministry. We have been studying Spanish and have been focusing most of our time and efforts here on this in order to minister the best we can, so having the RSA team here has revitalized our passion in evangelism and reminded us yet again of why we are here. Also we were able to translate for many team members during outreach events and medical clinics. Praying with people was a highlight for us as well. We know the power of prayer and we know that it moves the hand of God. We have seen mighty things happen when God's people are moved to pray for the lost and the hurting so it was a joy for us to be involved.

From a "locals" perspective, we know that there is great need for discipleship in Honduras. There are a lot of churches here and the Word is being preached. But many times, difficult and challenging scriptures are not taught to the people. Many church goers believe that going to church and "works" is what saves them. Learning to pray a certain way or participating in a sequence of rituals and/or traditions is preferred over allowing others into people's lives or allowing the Gospel to really change their heart. Folklore and old wives tales are believed as much as the miracles of Jesus ministry in the Gospels causing a "dilution" of the truths of God's Word. The greatest work begins now as the pastors and leaders of the churches who were involved in the outreach and festival, follow up with new believers and begin discipleship with them.

We want to express how important it is for us for you to pray. We need people praying for the new "babies" in Christ here in Siguatepeque. There are so many distractions here that it is so easy for new believers to fall back into their former lifestyle. Pray for power and strength for them to withstand temptation to sin and for wisdom and discernment of the Spirit's leading into truth. Pray they would be in God's Word and discern truth for themselves.

Please also pray for us and the team that just returned to the States. Every time we have experienced a spiritual "high", ALWAYS following is a spiritual low. Our battle is not against flesh and blood (i.e. people, culture, language, etc. although sometimes it feels that way!), but against the principalities of darkness. Satan HATES the fact that there are new souls in the Kingdom! He will do all he can to pull them back down to his level and will attack those who were a part of it. But 'greater is He who is in you [and in the new believers] than he who is in the world' (1 John 4:4), namely Satan himself. We have God on our sides and Satan is already under His feet! However, we hit a spiritual low as we were bombarded with physical ailments and mental doubts (many based on the physical) this past week. But through prayer, counsel of our dear friends and spiritual mentors, and prayer of our wonderful brothers and sisters in Christ, we have overcome! We are so thankful God answers prayers and doesn't give us more than we can handle.

We still have a long road ahead as we look to our future ministry with the Garifuna. We are confident God has something in store and will be doing a great thing in the lives we will be involved with in Trujillo, our future new home (see post: Old Town with a New Future). We know the Devil is seeking to steal, kill and destroy and we are in his way. But we know God wins and we will prevail!

We are here because of your obedience to the Lord. Thank you for standing in the gap for us, praying for us and supporting us financially. We can't do this without you!

In Christ we stand,
Corey, Kirsten, Gavin & Garret