9 Baptized at Youth Retreat
Jon and Stacy Stacy continue to lead our MUR staff in a quality youth ministry effort. This month we opened our Spring retreat to two other congregations. There were 57 total participants and nine baptisms during the weekend.
Two of these baptisms were youth from the new church plant in Contamal that we told you about last month. This work is a transformative work that is integrally connected to our public school DESEO program and our local church Sunday school. We believe that MUR can help these children and teenagers change their communities by ministering to them now. Look at what the Barna Group reports is the impact of religious instruction on children and teenagers at: http://www.barna.org/barna-update/article/5-barna-update/196-evangelism-is-most-effective-among-kids
We believe that youth ministry; DESEO, UPWARD and Sunday school are some of the most productive works that we are invested in.
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Boot Camp Goes to Baxter
Every year the Baxter Institute in Tegucigalpa holds a region wide seminar much like Christian Universities in the U.S. have held Lectureships for years.
This month, our church planting team, hand selected 10 of the most promising graduates of our Boot Camp training, and took them to the Baxter Seminar. They received hours of quality instruction from a cast of international speakers.
 Some of these men come from villages where there are no more than 500 habitants. Tegucigalpa has more than 1 million habitants. It was a new experience for some who had not been to Tegucigalpa before and in addition there were 100's of Christians in attendance over the weekend. Over all, it was an uplifting and edifying experience both for the Boot Camp graduates and for our church planting team that acted as their hosts for the weekend. |
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3 Baptized at Joint Worship Session
Aristides S�nchez, our Team Leader for our new church planting efforts, is shown here preaching to a combined worship of three of our church plants. There were 50 adults plus children in attendance.
These Christians come from rural villages and it was an exciting and encouraging time for them to be together and realize that they are a part of the greater family of God.
There were three baptisms while the group was together. Carlos Orellana, a graduate from our Boot Camp program is shown here baptizing a teenage girl from among the three.
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Spiritual Attacks on New Church
Ephesians 6:12 makes it clear that spiritual forces of darkness are at work in trying to defeat the spread of the Kingdom to communities that do not know Jesus and have not obeyed the Gospel. This is exactly what is going on in Torihuaque where we planted a new church this year. All kinds of false accusations are being hurled at the new Christians and those of our team who are working to help grow leaders among this new church. The accusations all come from members of certain religious groups that are in opposition to the new church. One accusation is that we have paid people to be baptized and that is the reason that so many have become Christians and are attending worship at the new church. Another accusation is that our men, who come from Santa Rosa to hold workshops in the community, are drunkards. This may seem silly to you and me but for these new baby Christians the opposition is a huge discouragement. Please be praying for these men and women that God will intervene and stop the mouths of those who are persecuting the new church.
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A Note from Donna
We have just returned from a much-needed family visit to the US. We were blessed to see both sets of parents as well as our two adult children who live in the US. We haven't had all three of our children under the same roof for almost three years. You can imagine how much joy it brought Phil and I to be able to be with them for a few short days. I thought it was challenging doing mission work with small children in tow, but it feels even harder now with grown children because we have to say goodbye so often, not knowing when we might be together again. Knowing that we are where God wants us to be for His purposes mediates the sadness.
We are gearing up for our busy "summer" short-term mission's season. In June we will host five different groups in three week's time. Two of those groups will be medical teams serving the needs of the poor in villages where we have or will plant new churches while the other three are all working with our DESEO ministry, conducting VBS-like activities in public schools. We appreciate you praying for the safety and productivity of these groups. We look forward to sharing with you some of the many photos we will be taking as these folks share their time, energy, and love with those less fortunate for God's glory!
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Dulce Refugio
We are still actively raising funds for our Dulce Refugio ministry. Help us get the word out. Make a list of five people that you could share this ministry with. We need to find a combination of people who would be willing to support these girls at a cost of $500 per month per young lady.
Half sponsorships are $250 per month. Please help us get the word out to people who might be interested in helping transform the lives of these young women.
If you or someone you know would be interested in helping out with supporting one or more of these young ladies please contact Donna Waldron at email: waldrondonna@me.com or you can call at 706-534-7060.
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Job Openings with Mission UpReach
Can you help us get the word out? We have identified the need to add two more missionaries here. One is an accountant position. We need a full time accountant that lives and works with us here in Santa Rosa in addition to our CPA in the US. This is a missionary position, which means that this person will need to raise his or her own support.
The second need we have is for a missionary that will work in public relations, communications, and group coordination. This is an administrative position that will work directly for Phil Waldron and will encompass several areas of these activities. This also is a missionary position that requires that the successful candidate raise his or her own funds.
If you are interested or know of someone who is please contact Phil Waldron directly at his email account: philwaldron@me.com
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