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Greetings!
As you can see from the articles below, it has been a busy Spring for us. We have had more groups this Spring than normal, which has been such a blessing. As we approach our summer short term mission group season, we would appreciate your prayers that all our efforts remain focused on bringing people into a life-changing, transformational relationship with Jesus Christ. No amount of medicine or aid can do what salvation can do in the life of a person. While many of you responded generously to our recent appeal, we still have not met our goal. Please take a moment to read our appeal at the bottom of this newsletter and prayerfully consider giving! Blessings, Phil and Donna Waldron Mission UpReach www.missionupreach.com |
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Pine Tree Youth Group Works With Children
The Pine Tree church of Christ from Longview, TX was back again recently with a group of their teens.While here they worked with our DESEO program in addition to painting one school. They also interacted with the teens from the local church in Santa Rosa.
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Another Boot Camp
Since our last report we have realized another week of intensive training. However, we still have 4 more weeks of this program spread out across the coming months.
Please keep this program in your hearts and prayers. The impact that this one ministry is having is phenomenal in our experience. Men who have never been confident enough to speak or preach in their local church are now boldly teaching and preaching the Good News with only one or two weeks of intensive study under their belts.
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Regional Fellowship
The day before Easter Sunday several of the congregations of churches of Christ from across the region came together for a day of fun and fellowship. Holy week as it is called across almost all of Latin America is a time of vacation and family much like Thanksgiving is in the US, except it is almost the whole week instead of a long weekend.
As is the custom here there was a time of preaching and reflection on the scriptures which resulted in 8 people being baptized into Christ from the La Jigua congregation.
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Ways You Can Help!
Often we are asked for a list of items that can be collected and donated to help those we are reaching out to here in western Honduras. A lot of churches like to challenge the children in their church or the youth to sacrifice and give something to someone who has a need. Below are a couple of ideas that would meet some real needs right now in the mission:
**28.5" basketballs (we have approximately 1500 children who will be participating in our newly formed Upward Basketball league and would like for each of those children to have a basketball) **Used children's basketball sneakers (Many of the children in our Basketball league wear hard sole shoes, rubber boots, or sandals because that is all they have. We would like to ask that you collect only shoes that are clean and in good condition.) Once you have collected these items, we can direct you to a group that will be visiting soon and you can ship those items to them for them to bring with them when they come. |
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West-Ark Church Makes A Difference
West-Ark church of Christ brought 65 people for a week long brigade of construction, school and mural painting and class room activities in our public school DESEO program. 
The poor were helped and Jesus was preached among them to the glory of the Father. All of these activities are focused on not only helping people help themselves but we also have the purpose of linking everything we do to a local church of Christ so that people will have the opportunity to be fed spiritually as well.
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SRC Youth Retreat
Mission UpReach, led by Jon and Stacy Stacy held another youth retreat for the church in Santa Rosa de Copán. The theme was "Te Anhelo Intensamente" which equates to "I Desire You Intensely" in English. The emphasis was on developing a "thirst for God" as a "deer pants for water". 
We are grateful to God for 7 young people who gave their life to Him and were baptized into Christ during the weekend.
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Make A Difference in the Life of a Young Lady
By now you should be familiar with the house we recently opened to help young women at risk discover what God has planned for them and to make it a reality. At this point, we still do not have the necessary funds to run the home. Additionally, we have girls waiting to be accepted into the house and we are unable to take them right now due to lack of funding. We are looking for individuals, Churches, or Sunday School classes who are willing to sponsor a young lady. If you are interested in more information, contact Donna at waldrondonna@me.com and she can give you more information. Please prayerfully consider how you might help. |
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VCOM Visits Again
During the week before Easter we were blessed to be able act as host and logistics partners for the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine. (VCOM). Among the many good works that they did they attended to over 200 orphans in orphanages here in Santa Rosa. We are very grateful to the school and the administration for these good efforts to help people here in our area.
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Note From Donna
We are excited about our upcoming short term missions schedule. We look forward to witnessing the impact the groups will have on those they serve this summer.
Our safe house, Dulce Refugio, is up and running with all the challenges one can imagine. With 6 young ladies, most of them with emotional issues, under one roof, there are some tough days for sure. We appreciate your prayers as we try to stay focused on helping these girls become all that God designed them to be.
On the home front, Laura is completing her 8th grade school year as well as 3 high school courses. Harrison is completing his Freshman year at Harding and has done remarkably well. He will be working for the University this summer in lieu of coming "home." While this makes us a bit sad, we know he is where he needs to be for now. We just got word that our daughter, Sarah, and her husband, Caleb will be moving to Philadelphia where Caleb will be working on his Ph.D. at Temple University. As a mother, while having little ones on the mission field had its challenges, living far from our adult children seems harder some days. Your continued prayers for our family and our mission means a lot to us!
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Church Planting
 Earlier this year we moved Josué Molina and his family from Santa Rosa de Copán to San Marcos de Ocotepeque about 1.5 hours away by car. The purpose of relocating him is for him to plant new congregations of the church of Christ in the surrounding towns and villages of San Marcos. Already he has had some success in converting people to Christ. Here is pictured with José Antonio Perdomo from a small community called La Laguna. José is being equipped not only by personal studies directed by Josué but he attended one of our boot camps for church leaders this last month. Our boot camps are a response to the great need here among churches to quickly train and equip men to be able to not only lead in their local congregations but also to help establish new congregations. José is a good example of the type of person we are reaching out to with our boot camp. He is a new Christian. Even though he is new in the faith he is quickly being equipped to lead a small church in his home.
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Would you consider becoming a regular donor to Mission UpReach? Or, would you be willing to give a one time donation? We appreciate you stepping out in faith with us and watching what God does with your investment!
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Consider giving today and share in what God is doing to transform lives in western Honduras! You can donate online by clicking the button below or mail your donation to Mission UpReach, 196 Alps Road, Suite 2-395, Athens, GA 30606.
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