1. Bob Mach–Support for the New Hospital, Literacy School, and Pastors School in Ivory Coast, West Africa
2. Barry Ritchie–Orphanage in Honduras, Central America
3. Chapel Ministry Fund (Jose Rosenbaum)–Church Planting in the City of Rochester
4. David Barnes–Church Planting in Rural Maine
5. Mike Wallace–Mexico
6. Carlos Guzman–Honduras, Central America

ALREADY, we have a wonderful encouragement coming back from our newest ministries, Pastor Carlos Guzman, in Honduras.  Our special one time offering of $750 and our newly passed church motion to send $100 a month is already making a difference!  I will let the words of Brother Carlos (in quotes below) and the pictures he sent say it all.  (By the way have I ever said how truly proud I am of our church family?)

“The church has been full of blessing one 15 people have been saved  in a short time and now we are working discipuling them and a few days later another blessing have come to the church is the sound sistem and now we have had this weekend four people had baptized three from san geronimo where Marco antonio is working and one from la Cruz and because a can´t baptized them so we decided with marco antonio that he was going the water part and I was going to preaching part so everything was great and one thing happend durint the preaching because one boy he came to me and ask me to pray for him because he didn´t fell well inside of him so I pray with him and when we finish he say “now I fell that I am right with God to be baptized” that werd meke me so happy to be part of the pleasing to God and thank God to put me in some places that I can see the presenc of God in my life and please to God all my life.”

“Here are some more picture from the celebration of the mother day and let me tell you that this was the first time that me made a drama with the youngh people and they were based on proverb 31:10 and everything was beautifull and they were using all the michrophones from the church and also the were giving away food basket and gift for the mothers in the church and they finished with a acorstic that mean that with the name of madrecita they have so said a love expresion for the mother for each letter so we were very busy all this weekend and also for tuesday I also invited to go to inauration of a paviment street where live some lider from the church and they allow us to preach and they also want to borrow the sound sistem so we are just traing to please the Lord.  Pastor I want to say thank you for the blessing that the church appoved in the last few days about to send me $100 monthly and that make very happy because that show me that everything I do is pleasing to the Lord.”

In some ways being home is bitter-sweet:  I love my family and our church (and I am called to be here in Penfield, and I WILL remain here for as long as the Lord will let me), but my heart aches for the children and the tremendous need that still exists down there.  I wish I could bring all those I came to love up here to New York (too bad my garage can’t fit a country in it–just a bunch of old boxes and a lawnmower).  I thank God so much for my experiences, especially for meeting Mr. and Mrs. Ritchie, for Carlos, for Antonio, and Elmer and all of the other great people we met.

One HUGE blessing from our trip I want share with my friends is how open my eyes have become.

My eyes are open to the REAL NEEDS around the world, that make my “needs” seem selfishly small.  Not only are my eyes open to the need, but my eyes have also opened to the OPPORTUNITY.  I am convinced that the notion that it takes millions or even thousands of dollars to make a difference is misguided.  There are people ALREADY serving their congregations and communities all over the world.  Often, these faithful servants don’t need a lot to keep going. Looking back, I may have felt intimidated in the past by the idea that the small amount I can do would never make much of a difference.  But viewing the profound need in the developing world first hand, I now see that I was wrong.  Sometimes $70 for engine parts or a single word of encouragement is all it takes to change a life, a ministry, and even more.

For example, our church was able to send a small one time gift of just $750 to Brother Carlos that enabled him to buy a sound system for his city church.  This small gift that our church ENTHUSIASTICALLY sent ahead (I’m so proud of pastoring a generous church–maybe the most generous church per capita I know), rallied the leaders and members of Pastor Carlos’s church more than one could imagine. They have more than the equipment they need; they have the encouragement of knowing they’re not alone.  They feel connected, supported, and loved–and frankly, by giving, I feel even better than they do!

Another eye opener was seeing the GREATNESS of other men and women serving in other areas.  Before going on the missions trip I think there was a part of me that felt a little proud of what I was doing and even sacrificing for the Lord.  What a fool I was!  As I’ve mentioned in my previous blogs, on our missions trip to Honduras I met a dear brother, Carlos Guzman, who pastors in the city of Choluteca. Meeting him, humbled me to the very ground. Carlos is a community leader and a friend to all who know him; he pastors a dynamic church in the city; he is a husband and a father; he speaks at least 2 languages (English and Spanish); he works a full time job driving a taxi to make ends meet; he leads and/or supports 5 other local churches, AND he does it all while being confined to a wheelchair–and, by the way, he does this all in a developing country!

If you haven’t found time to check out the pictures of Honduras and Brother Carlos on our Facebook page, please check it out!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Southeast-Bible-Baptist-Churcah-Commonground-Baptist-Ministries/258005261034

With Love,

Your ever shrinking, Pastor Zac

We linger at the restaurant, but have to return to the property.  We have to say goodbye.  It is difficult. The young ladies in our group are especially attached.  Some of the Honduran children don’t stop crying.  Many of the children bring us gifts to take back to our families in America.  I’ve grown attached to Elmer (who reminds me of my own Paul back home) and Antonio.  While on this trip, I taught Elmer, age 6, I think (he says a different age each time I ask him!), to throw a football.  Antonio is 13, as tall as I am, with a desire to preach.  I ask Antonio why he wants to be a pastor.  He says, in fairly good English, “I want to work for God.”  It is hard.  I will not forget my time in Honduras.  I never want to forget the children there.

We want to hand out the Tracts today.  We head out early to the center of town where there are a large number of people.  It takes us only a short while to pass out a thousand or more tracts.  Taxi drivers stop to accept them out of their windows.  People on motorcycles turn around.  Nothing is free in the city, except today.  The Gospel is free to all who accept it! 

It is hot. Always so hot.  I miss my family.  I miss my church.

~PM

The children at the property have so few chances to escape their routine.  Life at the home is very routine.  It is better than what they would have on the streets, and the Ritchie’s do all they can, but sometimes it isn’t much.  Chris and I conspire to bring the children to the beach.  A rare treat for them.  Pastor Carlos agrees to guide us.  I enjoy riding with him and another pastor, Mark Antonio.  They ask me questions about the ministry.  I’m blessed to try to help.  His problems seem familiar. People are people wherever you go.

We make it to the water in time to see the sunset.  It is beautiful, mountains from Nicarauga and El Salvador rise on eiter side of the gulf.  Volcanoes are in plain sight.  Lava plumes float ashore. Andrea, our school’s science teacher, collects the lava rocks and gives me a few for my children as souvenirs.  She tells me to dip them in bleach to sterilize them before my kids handle them, and she explains that these rocks float.  Andrea is a blessing, always. My children will love to play with them.  The water is warm.  I am told the Japanese Tsunami killed 15 at this spot just a short month earlier.  Today, it is calm, pristine, perfect. 

The children laugh and play in the water like I’ve never seen them.

At night we go to a mountain church, when I say mountain, I mean up a million miles in the dark mountain church.  They have no lights their except for what a single solar panel can power and what the truck gives off.  We haul hundreds of tract bags with the gospel and small gifts for the mountain people. We also carry a projector and projector screen on the back of the truck. The people gather for preaching and to watch the movie.  After I preach, they play the movie, The Appointment.  Afterwards I preach again–this time, just a gospel invitation.  As I take my place again in front of the dimly lit church, while the movie was playing many more mountain people have made their way to the simple mud brick building.  Many are looking through windows, many more are crowding the door trying to look in. After services the leaders of the church linger and talk.  It is a blessing to be with brothers and sisters. We drive back down the mountain in the pitch black.  As is the custom, I ride in the back of the truck and am able to see so many stars.

I, personally, am still struggling against the heat.  Only Jesus is helping me to keep up.  Others seem to be coping.  Maybe I worked too hard on the wall the day before. We shop at an authentic, very authentic, public market.  We hand out tracts.  Everyone is receptive.

The sights and sounds blow me away.  Raw meat, close quarters, live crabs, children everywhere.  America seems so good to me.  We do run into Darwin, a Christian who lived in Texas for 17 years.  We are introduced to his family who all work in the market including his uncle, a butcher, who is missing most of the fingers on his right hand, and we give each a John and Romans.

~PM

We divide into two groups.  Pastor Krohn goes up the mountain to preach to a large group, open-air, style.  It is the first stages of a new church. Their sanctuary is the branches of a large tree; their pews the roots of the tree.  I travel to a tent meeting of a church that meets on Saturday because of the hunger the people have for the Word.  I preach there.  Authentic.  Wow.  Outside.  Chickens crowing, walking across the floor of the service.  People are engaged.  The singing, the spirit are humbling.  The girls, Jen and Ashalea, give the kids gospel bracelets. They are so grateful.  They have nothing.

We eat breakfast at 7am, and we are at the orphanage early. The ladies supply water, and pitch in with Mrs. Ritchie and the children.  Little girls take turns braiding the American girls long, light hair.  The men have two retaining walls to build and a drainage ditch to dig.  Hard work is the rule of the day.  Heat tops out at 105 F.  I learn how to make concrete by hand on the ground with shovels and a lot of grunting! 

I feel like Nehemiah building a wall.  Everyone works hard.  The work goes on and on it seems, but, finally, we are able to stop…for lunch. 

After lunch we are back at it.  I’m much slower.  Chris Smith and Barry Ritchie, Jr. still have some pep, and I am glad.  I haul concrete up a mountain a half dozen times.  The ditch is done, and so am I.

A child at the orphanage takes out a large iguana: they are happy, because they will have meat in the spaghetti sauce tonight.  A group goes to the Honduran Army base outside of town.  I have the honor of preaching the gospel to the entire 101st battalion.  I’m exhilarated by it.  We give every soldier, including the colonel, a Bible.  Several soldiers return after the message to ask for an extra Bible for their mothers. 

The men look so young.  There is a teachers’ strike in the nation; and the president has retaliated by closing school for a year.  Protests and even riots are looming.  They will be asked to put down the rioters.  We preach on the day the president announces that there will be no school.  Like the states, the national teachers are a strong force.

Iguana cooking!

Bro. Jim with an orphan

We wake up early, eat breakfast together.  Travel to the orphanage.