Deadly Attack
Friends, this evening I write this blog note to ask for special prayer for the WME Honduras CPM project. Recently we have launched our 300 prayer group project, in which we ask people to give 5 minutes a day to pray for the Honduras work. Nearly 150 people are part of this group and we desperately need all of the prayer support that we can get. The spiritual warfare to prevent Honduras from being reached with God's good news has become deadly today as 2 pastors were murdered. One of these men was hosting a cpm training conference that was to begin today and the other was planning on attending the training. This tragic attack has necessitated delaying the training event for a couple of weeks.
Here is a bit of background on what has happened. In the June 16 blog, I mentioned that a partner, that we will call Beto, was planning on entering a new area and conducting a training in cpm in the month of July. This was a first for us because here is an instance where a man that Randy trained in November 2009, and who since then has trained others with the current result of 77 churches/DBS groups was going into a new area to train others. One of our full time workers was going with him to this training, and a special doner had enabled the purchase of some equipment to use at the training. Beto and Mario (our full time worker) were to leave at 3 a.m. this morning to make the journey and begin the training.
Meanwhile the preparations on the ground involved a pastor from Beto's denomination. The training was to be at his church and a pastor from another denomination was also planning on being there. Without going into details, some of which are not clear at this time, these 2 pastors were together and encountered some men who we think are involved in drug traffic. The 2 pastors were shot and killed. Because this was the pastor hosting and arranging the training, the training event has had to be delayed and we are hoping that in a couple of weeks it can take place.
Please pray for those involved in this tragic event.
Pray that:
1. God will comfort and provide for the families and the churches of these 2 precious men of God who are now in our Savior's presence.
2. God will not allow the current work of the Kingdom through these 2 churches to be hindered.
3. The training will happen in due course and that many will be trained and implement cpm principles.....that the result will be people discipled and churches multiplied exponentially in this specific region.
4. Beto will have unusual anointing and wisdom as he ministers to the grieving families. He is there now with them.
5. The men who did this deed would be stopped from further violence and would ultimately come to Christ and be trophies of His grace.
This illustrates more than ever how much prayer is needed in this project. Our teams are working in very dangerous areas. Honduras has the number 1 murder rate per capita in the western hemisphere, mostly because of drug trade and gangs. (The per capita murder rate in Honduras is approximately 10 times Mexico and 3 times Colombia).
I would ask all of my readers to pray and please join the 300 project. To do so only involves sending your email and mailing address to me at dparish9@cs.com.
Each week you will receive up to date prayer requests and also we will mail you a prayer guide with background information about the region and the work.
This evening I was reminded of the time that Jesus was talking about John the Baptist, who would ultimately be killed by Herod. The words that our Lord spoke are no less true now.
"From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force."
In other words, God's kingdom is forcefully advancing into Satan's stronghold of bondage. Captives are being set free. The enemy is reacting violently and sometimes the kingdom suffers violence, but we are moving forward and will be victorious!
"
Here is a bit of background on what has happened. In the June 16 blog, I mentioned that a partner, that we will call Beto, was planning on entering a new area and conducting a training in cpm in the month of July. This was a first for us because here is an instance where a man that Randy trained in November 2009, and who since then has trained others with the current result of 77 churches/DBS groups was going into a new area to train others. One of our full time workers was going with him to this training, and a special doner had enabled the purchase of some equipment to use at the training. Beto and Mario (our full time worker) were to leave at 3 a.m. this morning to make the journey and begin the training.
Meanwhile the preparations on the ground involved a pastor from Beto's denomination. The training was to be at his church and a pastor from another denomination was also planning on being there. Without going into details, some of which are not clear at this time, these 2 pastors were together and encountered some men who we think are involved in drug traffic. The 2 pastors were shot and killed. Because this was the pastor hosting and arranging the training, the training event has had to be delayed and we are hoping that in a couple of weeks it can take place.
Please pray for those involved in this tragic event.
Pray that:
1. God will comfort and provide for the families and the churches of these 2 precious men of God who are now in our Savior's presence.
2. God will not allow the current work of the Kingdom through these 2 churches to be hindered.
3. The training will happen in due course and that many will be trained and implement cpm principles.....that the result will be people discipled and churches multiplied exponentially in this specific region.
4. Beto will have unusual anointing and wisdom as he ministers to the grieving families. He is there now with them.
5. The men who did this deed would be stopped from further violence and would ultimately come to Christ and be trophies of His grace.
This illustrates more than ever how much prayer is needed in this project. Our teams are working in very dangerous areas. Honduras has the number 1 murder rate per capita in the western hemisphere, mostly because of drug trade and gangs. (The per capita murder rate in Honduras is approximately 10 times Mexico and 3 times Colombia).
I would ask all of my readers to pray and please join the 300 project. To do so only involves sending your email and mailing address to me at dparish9@cs.com.
Each week you will receive up to date prayer requests and also we will mail you a prayer guide with background information about the region and the work.
This evening I was reminded of the time that Jesus was talking about John the Baptist, who would ultimately be killed by Herod. The words that our Lord spoke are no less true now.
"From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force."
In other words, God's kingdom is forcefully advancing into Satan's stronghold of bondage. Captives are being set free. The enemy is reacting violently and sometimes the kingdom suffers violence, but we are moving forward and will be victorious!
"
Comments
My email--walelamark@yahoo.com
Pastor Mark Walela-From Kenya,Kitale city
David
Beto just got back from the town. He went to the burial. It was today. He told me 5 people died in the shootout. One policeman. The two narcos. And the two brothers.
Remember to pray for their families. They are planning new conference dates within 22 days. In the meantime they will do a refresher cpm course in Olancho with those who have already taken it.
randy
In Honduras in the rural areas, burial is on the same day as death. We are glad that Beto could be with the families yesterday. Continue to pray for this situation.