2009: What A Year
As we enter the month of December, I can honestly say, I don't know how this year passed so fast. Where did the time go? 2009 has been the most productive year in the history of WME. And it has all happened so fast that we barely knew what was happening.
A year ago (check the blog from December 2008) we were preparing to have David and Paul Watson come down and do a training for the Honduras team. That training happened and it was crucial for the project. The information and mentoring received from David and Paul were literally mission critical. At the end of the month, Randy and I met again to plan the 2009 initiatives and then Randy returned to Honduras.
By March, we realized that by the grace of God, the project was beginning to multiply toward 2nd generation inductive studies. In mid-March there were discovery Bible studies in about 25-30 locations in western Honduras.
In early June, a team from Cave Hill Independent Church of God came down, along with myself, Daniel Slayden, and Ben Holloway for a short term work week. A school was painted, school backpacks with supplies were distributed in several villages and a well was drilled (almost finished, our permanent team finished it after we left). It was a short term, access ministry time and it was wonderful. The studies continued to multiply (we think we are 5 generations deep now) and by end of June there were 73 studies reported.
Then came the government overthrow on June 28, and Honduras entered a 5 month period of crisis. We had our American team to come out (for 10 weeks) because of some danger and most of our Honduran team was "stuck" away from our primary base in western Honduras (1 team member and his wife was at our base, but he had been injured in a motorcycle accident and was laid up with a foot in a cast (or bandage contraption) and on crutches! During that time our studies ran out of materials (because of high illiteracy we are using an audio format).
But look what God did! While "stuck" in eastern Honduras, the team began to start new studies! At present we think there are at least 50 studies in Olancho in the east. The team member on crutches made trips to our western studies in spite of his injury and helped nurture the work there. His brother began to work in the west and our injured team member's brother has started about 30 new studies!
Keith and Juanita Travis have stayed mostly in southern Mexico and has shared the cpm concepts there. They have now started 4 studies in southern Mexico near Guatamala.
Randy and Linda Travis came up to the U.S. The time was well spent in preparing studies and recorded material.
10 weeks to the day from the time the team left Honduras, they all made it back to the base (Richard Crowder, Keith Travis, and Randy and Linda Travis arrived at base by September 10). Over the next few weeks the materials were distributed to the studies. Of the 73 studies that had started, 69 were resurrected with new materials and have continued. But beyond that, the studies have continued to multiply and in the west we now believe that there are at least 250 inductive study locations in progress! Altogether, East and West, we believe that there are well over 300 locations where inductive Bible studies are occurring towards church planting.
And that's not all. In November, Randy conducted a 2nd leadership training in the East. Several of the new leaders from the West traveled with Randy and Keith to Olancho for the training. At this training last month, there were leaders from 2 other denominations. One of them, a seminary leader and area director for their denomination was enthusiastic and has already (as of last week) started 7 discovery Bible studies. Also very exciting is the fact that a leader of an Olancho area Indian tribe was present and is enthusiastic about bringing discovery studies to his people!
So at present, we think we can report at least 300 studies in Honduras from the HCPM project, 7 more in a denomination who's leader we have trained, 4 more and an opening for training in southern Mexico, and an opening into an indigeneous tribe. All of this has happened in the last 12 months. Praise God.
Now we look toward next year, and we are praying for God's help. This thing has (I must confess) moved forward wider and faster than I believed. The big challenge ahead is to see these studies transition from studies to churches of baptized believers. For this we pray and are planning for the new year. Please pray with us that the Holy Spirit will water the seed sown and that a real harvest of souls will result. Pray that people from all these areas will be discipled unto conversion and live as obedient disciples of Jesus Christ, obedient to His Word and multiplying for His glory.
A year ago (check the blog from December 2008) we were preparing to have David and Paul Watson come down and do a training for the Honduras team. That training happened and it was crucial for the project. The information and mentoring received from David and Paul were literally mission critical. At the end of the month, Randy and I met again to plan the 2009 initiatives and then Randy returned to Honduras.
By March, we realized that by the grace of God, the project was beginning to multiply toward 2nd generation inductive studies. In mid-March there were discovery Bible studies in about 25-30 locations in western Honduras.
In early June, a team from Cave Hill Independent Church of God came down, along with myself, Daniel Slayden, and Ben Holloway for a short term work week. A school was painted, school backpacks with supplies were distributed in several villages and a well was drilled (almost finished, our permanent team finished it after we left). It was a short term, access ministry time and it was wonderful. The studies continued to multiply (we think we are 5 generations deep now) and by end of June there were 73 studies reported.
Then came the government overthrow on June 28, and Honduras entered a 5 month period of crisis. We had our American team to come out (for 10 weeks) because of some danger and most of our Honduran team was "stuck" away from our primary base in western Honduras (1 team member and his wife was at our base, but he had been injured in a motorcycle accident and was laid up with a foot in a cast (or bandage contraption) and on crutches! During that time our studies ran out of materials (because of high illiteracy we are using an audio format).
But look what God did! While "stuck" in eastern Honduras, the team began to start new studies! At present we think there are at least 50 studies in Olancho in the east. The team member on crutches made trips to our western studies in spite of his injury and helped nurture the work there. His brother began to work in the west and our injured team member's brother has started about 30 new studies!
Keith and Juanita Travis have stayed mostly in southern Mexico and has shared the cpm concepts there. They have now started 4 studies in southern Mexico near Guatamala.
Randy and Linda Travis came up to the U.S. The time was well spent in preparing studies and recorded material.
10 weeks to the day from the time the team left Honduras, they all made it back to the base (Richard Crowder, Keith Travis, and Randy and Linda Travis arrived at base by September 10). Over the next few weeks the materials were distributed to the studies. Of the 73 studies that had started, 69 were resurrected with new materials and have continued. But beyond that, the studies have continued to multiply and in the west we now believe that there are at least 250 inductive study locations in progress! Altogether, East and West, we believe that there are well over 300 locations where inductive Bible studies are occurring towards church planting.
And that's not all. In November, Randy conducted a 2nd leadership training in the East. Several of the new leaders from the West traveled with Randy and Keith to Olancho for the training. At this training last month, there were leaders from 2 other denominations. One of them, a seminary leader and area director for their denomination was enthusiastic and has already (as of last week) started 7 discovery Bible studies. Also very exciting is the fact that a leader of an Olancho area Indian tribe was present and is enthusiastic about bringing discovery studies to his people!
So at present, we think we can report at least 300 studies in Honduras from the HCPM project, 7 more in a denomination who's leader we have trained, 4 more and an opening for training in southern Mexico, and an opening into an indigeneous tribe. All of this has happened in the last 12 months. Praise God.
Now we look toward next year, and we are praying for God's help. This thing has (I must confess) moved forward wider and faster than I believed. The big challenge ahead is to see these studies transition from studies to churches of baptized believers. For this we pray and are planning for the new year. Please pray with us that the Holy Spirit will water the seed sown and that a real harvest of souls will result. Pray that people from all these areas will be discipled unto conversion and live as obedient disciples of Jesus Christ, obedient to His Word and multiplying for His glory.
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