Santa Rosa Church Prepares for Elders
This past month, in the local Santa Rosa church of Christ, we began a 10-week Tuesday night class to do an in-depth study of the Biblical doctrine of the eldership. One little anecdote that lets you know how desperately the need is for this teaching is the following:
When we began talking about the need to name elders and deacons, in order to follow the Biblical example of the first century church, one of the men, who is probably the second most spiritually mature man in the congregation, said, "what is a deacon?".
We pray that this deficiency of not having recognized, Biblically qualified leaders in our local congregation will be corrected by the end of this year when we name a plurality of qualified men to shepherd our local congregation.
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Children's Outreach
 This month we also had a very exciting children's event that was used to kick-off a 12 week, Sunday school effort to reach new children and families in the community. Much to the surprise of all the children that participated each one received a shoebox of gifts prepared by donors in the US and shipped to us here in Santa Rosa. The growth in our local congregation here in Santa Rosa has been greatly enhanced by the excellent Sunday School ministry that we have. Donna leads this ministry and has a great team of dedicated ladies from within the church that are passionate about children's ministry. Two weeks ago from this writing we had 216 in attendance in our Sunday worship with 80 of those being children. 
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Help Us
New Kindergarten
As we face the challenge of running a kindergarten, we are excited about the opportunities this brings our way. This community is located in the middle of the focus of our next church planting effort. We just completed a major medical outreach as well as added the primary school to our DESEO program. This opportunity not only opens doors to impact the community by preparing their children for a better education, but it also opens the door for the most important task of sharing the Good News. We have estimated that we can run this school, including teacher's salary for $12,000 for the year. Would you give today to this opportunity? You can do so right now through Paypay or mail your check to us earmarked "Kindergarten."
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Southside Church of Christ Group
MUR was blessed by some Christians at the Southside Church of Christ, Ft. Worth, TX organizing a dental and eyeglasses brigade for one of the villages in our area. El Porvenir is a location where we planted a new church last year.
This humanitarian aid not only helped people who are in great physical need but it also, once again, helped link spiritually needy people within the community with the local church.
 We are very proud of our daughter Laura and her desire to help others. Here she is translating in the eyeglasses clinic. |
Surgical Supplies Donated!
 Thanks to a group of MUR supporters in the Ft. Worth, TX area we received a shipment of valuable surgical supplies that we could put into the hands of the hospital in Gracias, Lempira. They were very excited to receive them since it is difficult for them to obtain certain items. |
Ambulance Donation
 Out of the "blue" MUR received the gift of an ambulance in order to more effectively minister to those who are in great need for medical attention. In future newsletters we will be sharing with you other pending developments that will leverage this donation to the maximum in terms of medical outreach. |
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Note From Donna and Other Mission News
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Note From Donna
Our short-term mission groups started early this year! It was great working with the Southside Church of Christ group this past month. As I type, we are in the midst of another brigade that includes general medicine, dentistry, and vision care with the Pine Tree Church of Christ group from Longview, TX. We will report on it more in detail next month! Sometimes during these brigades we encounter folks who are very sick and close to death. It urges us to take every opportunity to share the Good News with them so that they can enjoy eternity with God. Recently God brought to our attention the need to open a safe house for young women. This was motivated by the large numbers of young women I have been counseling with who deserve an opportunity to a productive future. Many of them come from families and situations that make it challenging to continue their education and in some cases their home situation is dangerous. We hope to report to you in more detail and photos next month. We have once again stepped out on faith, trusting God to provide the necessary funding for this new ministry. Your prayers are appreciated as we move forward and see God work! |
Doing The Right Thing
In previous newsletters we have shared with you how our culture here in western Honduras has as a norm; "uniones libres" or common law marriages. The difficulty with this common law practice is that it is devastating for the families and the society. In Honduras, according to credible sources, the average child grows up in a home from the age of birth to 18 with four different men as "fathers". We take seriously God's law for men and women to marry and to stay married for life; so little by little, one couple and one family at a time, we are helping couples do what is right in the eyes of the Law of Honduras and before God by getting married legally. Here is a picture of the latest couple to make the decision to marry legally after having lived together for 35 years. |
New Missionary Family
 This past month, we were able to recruit and relocate a replacement family for the Honduran missionary that left us "hanging" in our new church plant in Florida, Copán. Eric Huiza, is a graduate from the Baxter Institute, and along with his beautiful family is now fully engaged in the work. |
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