VICTOR AND POLITA VALLADARES

This past Saturday, Jan 24, 2009, word came from the church that our beloved Polita Valladares had gone to be with the Lord. She was 90 years old. She and her husband Victor, who is 94, have been faithful members of our church. Her funeral was a special celebration of her life as many came and shared how Polita had touched their lives.

For the church, Victor and Polita are responsible for the vision and the beginning of a new ministry in the church - Kid's Club Roca Fuerte. A little over 2 years ago while hosting a growth group in their home weekly, they took notice of the many children who were accompanying relatives to the study. They began to invite them into their home to color or do some activity an afternoon a week. This group grew quickly and soon they asked Reniery, one of our associate pastors, to help them as the group was getting to be more than they could entertain. Pastor Reniery began to attend them and that group now averages 60 children each Wednesday afternoon and continues to grow.

This past year, the church began to become more aware of what was happening there in this neighborhood and has embraced this growing ministry. This year there is emphasis in trying to meet these children's needs in every way. The more we get close to these children, the more we realize how deep their needs are.

These children are all living in a neighborhood of high risk socially. Our main objective with the club is to do preventative ministry. We hope to provide options for them and hopefully be able to see many of these kids grow up safely and not be detoured into any of the vices (drugs, gangs, abuse) that are so prevalent in their homes. Most live in multiple family homes - home that are less than adequate for one family let alone more than one. Some are houses are on the riverbank and even use rocks for one of the walls of the home.

I have become more involved in this ministry in the last year. Close to Christmas we took food baskets to some of the needier families. One little boy by the name of Alejandro came over to the jug of milk and put his arm around it and said, "Grandma - look it's milk!" Then he got a big smile and said he was going to keep it all for himself since his brothers had not treated him very nice earlier in the day. That smile made it all worth while.

It is hard to harden your heart when you get to know the children behind these fotos.

My friend Jessy and I want to wish you a new year filled with many blessings from the Lord!!

 

December has brought a flurry of activities.

December 2nd, Iliana said her good-byes and boarded an airplane for the first time in her life to head to Germany for 1 year. She was given a scholarship to study in a university in Berlin. She and 7 others from Honduras are participating in this program that the German Consulate promotes. It was a bittersweet day -- everyone was happy for this great opportunity that she has to be involved in this program but said to see her leave. She is really enjoying her time so far and has already seen snow -- another first for her!

  

                                    Sara and Iliana with their parents.

 

 

It has been a special month for the military men who are part of our church. I had the privilege of attending the promotion of the highest ranking soldier who was given his 3 stars on the shoulder and is now to be addressed as Coronel Hector Galo. He is in charge of one of the infantry bases on the north coast at this time. The ceremony was filled with all the protocol of the military and the presence of the president of Honduras, Mel Zelaya.

 

President Zelaya (with the hat) and the top general inspecting the troops.

                                Coronel Galo with his wife Blanca

 

Many days have passed since I posted anything here. I do apologize to those who come often and don't find any updates.

I want to dedicate some space to the Farrville Church. Those who read this often know that that is the church who sent a work team to the Roca Fuerte church, the church I help at, last July. In addition to being hard workers, this group delivered a love offering from their church of 10 suitcases filled with many supplies and clothing to be used to benefit the congregation and its ministry. These supplies have been put to multiple uses this year and I want to share a few of them in pictures:

Personal and higiene items were used in this way:

Giving a gift of higiene items to AIDS patients and a new testament along with a gospel message.

Personal gifts were given to all our our senior citizens in our church -- made up of shampoo (we divided out the bigger bottles into these small ones), soap, bandaids, toothbrush, toothpaste, combs, etc. We have around 40 seniors and they all were so thrilled to receive this gift.

The clothes benefited many of our grandmothers who are caring for their grandchildren and/or great grandchildren.

This grandmother has 10 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren that she is responsible for in her small home. A nice bag of clothes of all sizes were given to her -- especially for the smaller ones.

This family has 6 young people who the grandmother provides a home for. She has cancer and is not able to work. The boys often times have to help their mother sell tortillas to have money for the home. Here sometimes only one of two comes to church because it was their day to use the shoes and/or long pants because they only have one pair between them. We were able to give each boy a pair of shorts or sports pant and a pair of jeans. What a blessing to help these young men. We also gave them some school supplies.

We supplied our Sunday school with materials to do their arts and crafts as well as decorate their rooms which they all did in grand style! Even after that we had enough supplies to share with a new church plant on the north coast of Honduras in a town called Saba.

Here the pastor's wife receives the blessing of crayons, pencils, pens, erasers, and paper of all colors for her group of children that she is meeting with there in Saba.

Roca Fuerte also went to a mountain town about 3 hours out of Tegucigalpa for an Evangelism day in this new church plant as well. Over 250 children participated and enjoyed a lesson given by puppets, a pinata filled with candy, a nutricious snack, a gift of clothes and a craft time.

Their lesson was the book of colors -- presenting the plan of salvation -- and their craft was making a bracelet with the beads of the colors to represent each step in the salvation plan.

Thank you, Farrville Church, for your love and generosity. Please know that all your time, effort and money spent were not in vain. You have had an ongoing impact not just in our church but those we have shared with as well.

 

FROM MY CORNER OF THE WORLD TO YOURS -- A VERY BLESSED CHRISTMAS AND THE RICHEST OF NEW YEARS TO ALL!!!

                            SARA, ILIANA, DEEANN 

This was my first outing since my surgery. My church friends, Rafael and Yessenia, picked Sara, Iliana and I up to take us to see the Christmas lights here in Tegucigalpa. The city went all out this year and decorated central park and assigned lots of police to be downtown so people would be able to enjoy them. I want to share them some of what they looked like. As you will notice, here in Honduras the nativity scene is still the central focus of the decorations -- nothing illegal about displaying them in public places here -- after all we are celebrating Christ's birth!!

 

 

 

It is a blessing to have special friends to celebrate the holidays with when I  am not able to be with family!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!

Roca Fuerte celebrated 32 years of being a congregation the middle of November. We were able to celebrate with our new ceramic floor and a beautiful paint job this year. Our verse was Psalms 126:3 and it talks about the great things God has done for us and we truly celebrated that this year!

 

Where does the time go?!!! Another month has gone by.

September was a busy month - in the church we celebrated Children's Day, giving the 100 children we work with a special day of games, fun and piñatas.

 

On a national level, we had a pastor's conference at our retreat center, Villa Gracia. It was a good educational time for our pastors and leaders from around the country. The retreat center decided to provide the food and lodging for the pastors who came to the event and as a result we had a high percentage of our pastors in attendance. What a blessing for them to come and be able to enjoy this time of fellowship and learning together.

The end of the month and the first part of October, I was in Avon Park Florida for the annual board meeting of the Latin American Missions Agency (AMSLA). This was a special time of fellowship with brothers and sisters in the faith from Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, Mexico, Honduras and the United States.

 

 

GIVING THE FINANCIAL REPORT

 

THE NEW EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE FOR AMSLA

We had good meetings and some important decisions were made. One of those was to put on an executive director full time in order to begin to cover the needs of our countries better in the area of missions and to help AMSLA to grow.

At the Roca Fuerte church, after painting the church this summer, we decided to go ahead and look for ceramic tile and put down the flooring in the sanctuary. We were able to get a good price and made the purchase. We are in the phase of laying it right now and what a change it makes in the appearance. It is our last major push in the area of construction this year - we are looking forward to having it complete for our anniversary celebration in November.

 

This past week we had the opportunity to have a medical brigade to check eyes at the church. As it turned out, it was an outreach opportunity as well as the people came from the community to have their eyes checked and in the meantime they heard the gospel from one of several of our members there specifically to witness to them.

That pretty much brings you up to date on things here. I trust you have enjoyed the update!

It is amazing that August went by so fast. It was busy at the church with our missions emphasis during 3 Sundays and then on the 4th Sunday we honored our pastoral staff.

MY DISCIPLESHIP GROUP (ONE LADY WAS ABSENT) PROMOTED TO THE 3RD LEVEL!

In the midst of all this -- the discipleship classes were promoted to their next levels and 8 graduated. They received their diplomas completing the 4 levels. This past Sunday was the first meeting for the new levels. There are 16 entering into the first level of classes. We are so grateful that the Lord continues to work in lives and that they are responding in wanting to grow in their spiritual lives.

Yes, this is Blacky. She is a hero at my house. A week ago she scared off a burglar who had come into the house during the night. We are so grateful for her keen senses that allowed her to hear that something wasn't right and caused her to bark, otherwise we would not have realized someone was in the house. Although he got away with my laptop and cell phone, many things were left behind and it was obvious he had not been in the house long when he was scared off. We thank the Lord that the intruder didn't have time to get any further into the house.

This past Sunday was the kick off to our month of missions at the Roca Fuerte church. We have named this annual event “Festival of Missions”.



It starts with the march of the flags. This year Pastor Victor led the parade with the Christian flag followed by the other 4 big flags. Then we had made flags of streamers for the children to wave and had them come in behind the regular flags. It was a moment filled with emotion to see the colors all waving together and singing about lifting up our flag for Christ.





Our theme for this year is “Reaching the Children for Christ” and so it was only appropriate to have the children do this first program of the month. Each class was in charge of bringing out part of the theme and they could have special participations as well.



The children of 4 to 6 years old gave us the definition of missions and what it means to be a missionary.



The 7 to 9 year olds introduced us to some of the celebrated first missionaries that we read about in the Bible.



The 10 to 12 year olds put together a news program and gave it the name “Roca TV” (after our church name). Their broadcast to the congregation communicated the many needs that the children of today have. They did an excellent job and will probably have to make other appearances with the “news” at other special events of the year!



The 13 to 15 year olds shared on a more global scale about children around the world.



One of the special participations came from our newest Sunday school members who have come to our church as a direct result of a new outreach we have into a neighboring community. There is a group of 25 to 35 children meeting regularly each Wednesday afternoon to learn more about the Bible. Some of this group prepared a song and presented it to the congregation on Sunday. Their challenge to us was to shine our light for Christ so many more children can know Jesus!



What a joy to see the church full as we joined together in turning our eyes on missions!

Today was a day of celebration as many people came out to see what had occurred in the church this week. There were lots of comments as they came in to see the dull cement block walls transformed into a beautiful sanctuary. Many remarked "we have a new temple" as that is how they felt as they walked into the beautifully painted sanctuary.



There were many smiles, tears and hugs as the church thanked the group from Farrville Community Church for their willingness to come and for all their hard work this past week. It was a beautiful time as we shared together about the wonderful God we serve! We even sang some songs together -- the congregation in Spanish and the group in English. There were testimonies of what God has shown them during their time here. The Roca Fuerte church presented them with a small token of our appreciation for them!



Then Pastor Dan was given the opportunity to preach and he brought a powerful message.



Many were touched and committed to the challenge of learning to walk -- step by step -- with Jesus and despite the hurdles that might be in the way, they would remain true to that walk.



It has truly been a blessing for us at the Roca Fuerte church to have this group of people here and have them become a part of our lives. The part they have had in the ministry of the church will not soon be forgotten. May the Lord bless each of them as they travel to the U.S. tomorrow!