This week we traveled to El Salvador with Jorge Pinto. We had a good visit with David, Debbie, Taylor & Kaitlin, and Daniel & Dania.  Tuesday night Jorge preached in the Jucuapa church and over 50 people attended---many of them children. It is so exciting to see the church growing spiritually and in numbers. Many of those who are attending have never been to church before.  God is really blessing this new ministry.

Terry giving a greeting from Honduras

Praying in public for the very first time.

Jorge Pinto preaching about the woman at the well.

Debbie is responsible for all of the kids during the preaching--it's a real challenge as they range in age from 2 - 16.  Since the church is so new all of the adults need to attend the service so they can grow spiritually. That leaves a heavy load on Debbie, but she's doing a great job.

On our way out of Jucuapa, we did the tourist thing and went to see a steam vent that is close to the San Miguel volcano.  There was boiling water and steam coming out all over this area, and it felt like a sauna bath.

On November 21, Eily celebrated her first birthday!  It's been so fun to watch her grow.  She has brought so much joy to our family, and we thank the Lord for her sweet little life.

Eily and Jenny

Watching her videos in her new rocking chair (a present from grandpa and grandma Hawk)

It was a very happy, fun, LONG day!

I took all of these pictures off of Eily's blog site.  Michelle, her mother, is very faithful to post recent pictures and videos of all the new things she does.

On November 9 and 10, Peter Rhetts brought a group of musicians down from the USA to put on a Praise and Worship seminar for the National Church.  This was a first but it won't be the last.  Over 100 people were in attendance, most of them musicians who play instruments or sing in their churches.  It was a wonderful time of worship through music.  There was also preaching, lots of questions, and times of testimony and fellowship.  The group from the USA mixed with several musicians from Honduras, and the dynamic was very powerful.

Several different denominations were represented and they came from all over Honduras.   Daniel Ventura and three representatives came from the new church in El Salvador. Pictured below are: Daniel Ventura, 2 ladies from Salvador, Don Oscar Estrada-President of IESH, Jorge and Fatima Pacheco (our pastor) and another man from Salvador.

Yesterday we attended graduation at El Sembrador.  It was a beautiful, special day.   The boys were excited, the staff thankful for the successful completion of another school year, and all the rest of us were proud and happy to be part of the ceremony.  Terry was honored to represent World Gospel Mission in both of the services.  

This is the group of students who graduated in the morning from the 9th grade.  

Pastor Jorge Pinto, Director of the Manuelito Project, was there to see Emerson, one of the young men that he rescued from the streets of Tegucigalpa, graduate.  We thank the Lord for this project and for the changes that have taken place in the lives of these kids.

In the afternoon, 5 new pastors graduated from the Bible Institute. 

November and December are wedding months in Honduras.  These months are also the vacation months for the schools and universities---sort of like our summer months. 

We were the padrinos (honored guests) at Esau and Rocio's wedding the end of October--they beat the November rush.   Rocio is don Saul and dona Mary Gomez's youngest daughter.  They asked us to do pre-marital counseling with them--which stretched us out, but it was great to become part of this young couples lives.  The wedding was at Villa  Gracia and was simply beautiful.  The wedding ceremony took place in the small wedding chapel and the reception was next door in the main auditorium.  It was a very rainy day, so it was nice not to have to walk a long way to the reception.

Saturday, Nov. 10, we attended the wedding of another good Christian couple.  Claudia went with us up to El Pinar to help cook when we built the church for the Lenca indians and the pastor's home.  She is a very dear friend and Angel, her new husband, also helped with the construction projects in El Pinar---he's a welder by trade and he made the trusses for the church.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

October 26 - 28 we celebrated our annual missionary ladies retreat.  I found a very nice, quiet, small hotel hanging over one of the mountains close to Tegucigalpa.  It was the perfect spot for a group of ladies to retreat to.  There were 11 of us.   As the field director's wife this annual retreat became one of my responsibilities, so I looked for help, knowing that this really wasn't one of my gifts.  God gave me Sherri Murphy (missionary in La Esperanza) to work with.

We spent many hours planning and working on the details of the retreat.  At times our husband thought we were going a little overboard.  We came up with all kinds of ideas and then God helped us chose the things He wanted us to do. 

We used the book, "Having a Mary Spirit" by Joanna Weaver.  Five ladies gave lessons from the book on different to topics:  reflecting Christ, change, encouraging others, rooting out bitterness, adversity and wearing Jesus.  It was a time of personal reflection, sharing together, laughing, crying, and just enjoying the moments.  God was with us.

Angie giving a lesson on "Flesh Woman Diet"

Rhonda's lesson on Encouragement

Minda's lesson on "Wearing Jesus"  and changes we need to make

Laurie's lesson on "Rooting out Bitterness"

Sherri's lesson on profiling the Flesh Woman

The meeting room

"Survey Says" game

Craft time--making memories

Many of you prayed for our retreat and I want to say thank you.  Your prayers were answered and so were mine. 

P.S.  Our bags were a gift from Bonnie, one of our work team members.  She  makes and sells all kinds of these bags and the proceeds go to support the AFE (dump ministry) project.  They were perfect!