Each year around the first part of January, we as missionaries have the privilege of participating with our national church brethren in their pastor's conference. This year was even more special to me than previous years when I had attended. In the past it has been difficult because of the language barrier. I have progressed to the point where I am now able to understand concepts better and not just understand the meaning of words.

 

The pastors' meetings lasted from Monday through Friday this year. The first part of the conference consisted of business meetings, and Thursday and Friday was spent in seminars dealing with issues relating to the family.

 

I had the privilege of taking one of our leaders from Choluteca to the conference with me.  Abdis is a young leader in our San Jeronimo congregation. He is a promising leader that God has his hand on.  I was able to be with him each day at the conference.  It was special to me to hear Abdis comment that, "The messages on purity have made a real impression on me and I want to take this information back to the church and share it with them."

 

Marco Vega from Costa Rica was in charge of the teaching seminars. He is a pastor of a medium-size church and does seminars for Focus on the Family.  It was a blessing to see a young pastor that has passion to see servants of God conformed to the likeness of Christ.  One of my favorite moments was when he was talking about, "being pure as a pastor and being accountable for his or her actions."

 

On Wednesday night, a choir from "Abundant Life Church" worshipped with us. As I sat there in the congregation, I closed my eyes and listened to them sing. It brought back memories of when I was in college.  You could sense the Holy Spirit ministering to our hearts.  After the group sang, it was a delight to hear Tim Hawk preach.  He preached on the theme, I want to be like you.  He preached about how his dad sacrificed to come to Honduras as a missionary in the 1940's.  He also talked about the characteristics of a servant and what it means to sacrifice.  God blessed our time as we worshipped together.

 

Village of "7 de mayo"

 

 

 

 

Each year since I have been in Honduras we have celebrated Day of the Child.  The Day of the Child is a national holiday and falls on the 10^th of September here in Honduras. We celebrated the event on the 6^th of September in a village called "7 de Mayo", where we have been ministering every Saturday for the past several months. It was wonderful! We had over 100 kids that participated.  We had a lession on the Fruit of the Spirit. What a blessing to be able to be there to help with this ministry!  It is always exciting to see the kids' eyes when Pati teaches them a new insight of God's Word. Following the lesson time, the kids had a wonderful time breaking the piñata.  It is fun for us to watch the kids beat on the piñata.  After that, we had refreshments.  We brought ice cream, drinks and cookies. That is always what the kids like.  Some of these kids eat very little at home, so for me, it is a joy to watch as the kids gather up the food and share with their brother or sister. This is a wonderful ministry where I am able to be part of the team.   

 

 

Is it worth it? Yes, it IS!!!! This is a question that sometimes passes through my thoughts when it comes to ministry. The call that God has placed on my heart is reinforced when I get the opportunity to work with people who have many needs, both spiritual and physical. We are now working in the village of "7 de mayo" where the people are very poor. We are thankful that they are open to hearing about the Gospel.

 

"Modern Day Persecution"

 

Over the past few weeks it has come to my attention of situation that delt with persecution.  Here in Honduras we have some of our youth that are going to the University in the capital city of Tegucigalpa.  One day this past week a young lady went to class to take a test.  She is studying medicine to be a doctor but in this class she walked in and started to sit down like she has all this semester then the teacher said that this day that the exam is your god and that his god is his family and his work then this young lady said to her professor that there is one God and His name is Jesus then he said to her that in this class your god is this class, she said that Jesus is her savior and that there is only one God.  The professor started to get angry and said that he did not want to hear about Jesus or God in his class.  She sat down with a friend who also defended her beliefs in front of the class.  They started to take the test and the professor came over to them and took the test from them and said that they were cheating and that they would have to make it up. Even though this situation is isolated, I think some would say that they were cheating and they used the persecution card.  We are living in a day when the line of truth is being drawn.  As we get closer to the end times it will become more common in the work place, in schools, even in public squares.  By no means am I an alarmist by definition but with that said, look what Paul wrote to Timothy:

 "10Now you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance,

 11persecutions, and sufferings, such as happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium and at Lystra; what persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord rescued me!

 12Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

 13But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

 14You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them,

 15and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

 16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;

 17so that the man of God may be adequate equipped for every good work" (Timothy 3:10-17).  I think that Paul said it beautifully in his writing to his young protégé especially when he wrote in verse 12 "Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." Enough said.

 

 

I am not scheduled to leave for Homeland Ministry Assignment until summer of 2009.  However, my ministry account has dropped to a dangerous level. The amount of financial giving from my donors has dropped in recent months, and at the same time, my ministry costs have increased due to my added activity in church outreach and in recreation ministries. Also, fuel and other costs are rapidly rising here in Honduras, just as they are in other areas.

Honduras Field policy requires me to return to the States if my ministry account remains below $2,000. I am already cutting back on expenditures, which means cutting back on areas where I am working. This is not only impacting me personally, but affects our entire regional ministry. I feel like my hands are tied behind my back, and only with your help can I freely work. 

As a regional ministry team of pastors and missionaries, we have planned for 2008 to be one of our busiest years ever  in Choluteca.  God is marvelously opening doors to work in other parts of the region.  I have an opportunity to start my       recreation outreach ministry in El Limon, another area of the region.  It is exciting to do the ministry that God called me to, but it is extremely challenging without the necessary tools (funds).

God has put a real burden on my heart to be involved in many areas. In two weeks, we will be starting a new school year.  I am teaching English four nights a week in our regional adult education program.  We have a pre-kinder school in which I will be teaching English to the children two times a week.  I also teach a Sunday School class in San Jeronimo. This has been a fruitful ministry where I have seen God work in this small group. It is amazing to see their eyes light up. I love it. On Friday evenings, starting this week, I will be teaching a discipleship class with my special Honduras friend Nelson. As you can see, I am busy.  I need your help in this endeavor to reach people in Choluteca for Christ.        

Your partner in reaching the lost for Christ,  Tim Spetnagel

 

Past

Our regional ministry team has had a vision for recreation ministry since 2001.   The local church also saw a need to provide sports activities to people of all ages.  Church members noticed the guys hanging out on the street corner.  Some of the young boys in the area were getting into trouble, and they could often be seen just walking around looking for what they could get into.  There was a tendency for that to lead to gang influence.  That influence would lead youth down a road of no return. 

The local church property that was purchased in 2001 has been a place of worship and activities for the central church.  Due to the size and the location of the property, the plan for the property was that it would be used as a regional center for ministry also.  The ministry for recreation has always been the vision but the timing is everything. Attempts have been made to begin the recreation ministry, and even though there is a strong vision, the needed resources have not been available. 

Present

In September, we started the recreation ministry in the community.  We started a soccer league with 8 teams. Each team has ten members. We turned the front part of the regional property into a "futbolito  field", which is a smaller soccer field. There is grass in front of the church so we were able to change it around a little to accommodate this league.  This has been exciting to see so much interest in the league.  Each week I have been able to see different guys coming  to ask  if they can play. At times it has been hard to turn some of the guys away since we have already started the soccer league. This gives us hope for future ministry with even more.  Each week as many as 40  men and boys sit around the soccer field watching the games.  What an opportunity to build relationships and start the ministering process!   

Future?

When I think of the future of this ministry, it is brighter then ever.  We now have the soccer league but we want to start other soccer leagues with the kids and women of the surrounding communities.  More than this, we want to use basketball, volleyball and baseball to reach each group, including adults and the elderly. 

Our plans include remodeling an existing building that is on the church property.  This regional center will serve the whole area in and around the city of Choluteca.  We want to use the building to do exercise training also.  Treadmills and other exercise equipment will be installed in the center. 

We anticipate starting additional recreation ministries  in two of our local churches and in our vocational school. The vision for this ministry is extensive, and we believe that God is opening the doors for us to pass through.  We just have to be willing.     

 

It has been a long time since I last blogged.  A lot has happened since that time.  So I thought that I should update on a few things that have happened in my missionary life.  The missionary life is very interesting; at times it can be very fruitful but other times you just wait on God to show you.  That to me is a lot like the military (I don't know if God is like the military).  They have a mentality of  "hurry up and wait".  That is how it has been with the recreation outreach.  God continues to bless this ministry here in Honduras; this past week was great to see the top four teams compete in the tornament that we gave.  It was very competitive!  I think it was a success.  Here is a picture of our fun!

  This past week I had the privilege to go to a parade.  I went with Aleyda and some youth from the church.  We had a wonderful time, but it was hoooot.  I think I lost about ten pounds that day. It was good to see the vocational school in the parade.  The country of Honduras was celebrating its birthday.

The last couple of days have been interesting.  The country of Honduras is bracing for Hurricane Felix.  Since I am in the south, we might just get rain.  A lot of people that live in the south remember the last hurricane, Hurricane Mitch, as it destroyed the crops and everything in its path. People are very scared of this hurricane.  We, as a mission, might be doing some relief after this hurricane passes.

Over this past week we have been working on this steel structure for a church. It was so hot, but God blessed us with a nice breeze. However, I am suffering from my sun burn, but we had a good time.