We Are Family

“Are the Gramms part of our family?” Jacob asked me (The Gramms are members of our home church, who are graciously hosting us during our time in AZ).

“No,” I responded.  “They are part of our church here in Arizona.”

A couple weeks ago we drove cross-country visiting Michelle’s cousin and later, her brother, as well as a handful of friends.  The boys had little to no memory of these relatives, plus they are young enough that we sometimes have to explain HOW we are related to family members.  Jacob and Asher are still piecing together the “who’s who” as we meet new and old friends and family members here in the States.

“What about the Troxells?” he inquires.

“No, they are our friends and also part of our church.”

“Oh.”

“But, that’s a really good question.  Because the Bible tells us that God is our..?”

“Father!”

“Right.  Who is God’s son?”

“Jesus.”

“Right. Through Jesus, we are also considered God’s children. Anyone who trusts in Jesus and follows him is our brother and sister in Christ. What does Pastor Vicente call me?”

“Hermano Adán”

“Yah.  Are we brothers?”

“No.”

"Not by blood, well…we don’t have the same earthly parents, but through Jesus’ blood, we are brothers. So, in a way, the Gramms, Troxells, and all Christians all over the world are our family.”

“That's cool.”

“It sure is.”

Six-Month Home Mission Assignment

It is hard to believe that the time has come for us return to the United States for a Home Mission Assignment. We left the United States on August 25, 2012 to attend language school in Costa Rica and then to live and minister in La Ceiba, Honduras. Our initial term with Mission To the World has come to a close and we have been challenged, changed, and blessed! 

The elders of our home church, Covenant Community Church, 

commissioning us on August 19, 2012

We have spent two years in La Ceiba, Honduras as church planting missionaries. The first year we were heavily involved in community development and mercy ministry in the community of Las Delicias. Changes to our team and vision, directed our second year to mentoring and theological education of Honduran pastors. Adam has walked alongside of Pastor Vicente who ministers in a community called La Trejo. We have witnessed the Lord grow his church congregation and grow their desire to know Him more.

Last week, Pastor Vicente's church held a going away service and party for us. We worshiped together, they prayed over us, and we said goodbye (for now). We celebrated our covenant family and what the Lord has done here by sharing our favorite Honduran food, the national dish, baleadas.

Our family with Pastor Vicente

Worshiping with our brothers and sisters in Christ! 

Oh for a thousand tongues to sing!

We are also blessed to be part of an amazing team whom is passionate about making disciples in Honduras and all over the world! Our teammates have become our closest friends and serve as family while we are away from the familiarity of the United States. We are grateful to serve alongside of these fine folks through the ups and downs of cross-cultural service and living. This Sunday, our team prayed over us after our English church service. We leave knowing most of this team has walked the road we are about to go down and we can fall back on them as needed.

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Team Honduras loving us well.

We marvel that our family in Christ prays over us in our coming and going. We marvel at how the Lord has allowed us to be part of His work. And we marvel that our God is a good God, holy, loving and sovereign in our lives regardless of the country in which we temporarily reside, this side of heaven.

The Highs and Lows of Church-Planting

This month, Pastor Vicente and the church in La Trejo have experienced some extreme highs and lows.

As the church has established itself in the community, it continues to grow.  Several people have come to faith in Jesus in the past few weeks.  A special baptism service was held one Sunday for these new believers.  The church rented a bus for the day, drove to a beautiful river outside of the city and conducted 8 baptisms in the river and had a relaxing time of fellowship the rest of the day.  The bus driver was so touched by the event that he came to church that evening.  Pastor Vicente and the people of his church are encouraged by how the Lord is working in people’s hearts in La Trejo.

Unfortunately, just four days after this wonderful baptism service, Pastor Vicente’s landlord notified us of his plans to evict the family and church from the property.  Vicente and his family just moved to the community a little over two months ago.  His children had to change schools mid-year.  The new home does not have a yard or running water.  They had to say goodbye to friends.  All of these changes have taken a toll on their family.  And yet, they accepted the changes joyfully because they could see how the Lord was using them to grow His church.

Now, the stress and anxiety has increased as Pastor Vicente’s family of six could soon be homeless and his church could soon be without a meeting place.  We are pursuing all possible options: reconciliation with the landlord, renting another home/meeting place in the community, purchasing the current home from the owner.  To add to the fun, we are just 3 weeks from leaving for furlough and will soon be unable to do much to help Pastor Vicente.

Please pray:

• That the landlord would have a change of heart
• For wisdom as we seek a solution
• For peace and comfort for Vicente’s family
• For my teammates as they take over this difficult situation
• That God would be glorified even in trials!

Seminary for Hondurans

One of the most obvious deficiencies here in La Ceiba, Honduras is a spiritual one.  There is a void of solid Biblical thinking and teaching. We see the evident spiritual shortfall in how people live their lives from day to day. We are excited to provide an opportunity for Honduran pastors and church leaders to become educated through the theological seminary courses that our team just started. 

The first course is Third Millennium's "Kingdom, Covenants, and Canon of the Old Testament." Ten national leaders are enrolled in this eight week course that began the end of March.  Our teammate, Seth is facilitating the course material and class discussions.  Later in the week, Adam and teammate, Mike T. follow up with these ministry leaders to reinforce the content and to help them apply the material to their lives and ministries.

A second offering of this same course is being held in the evenings at a quicker pace for leaders with a university education and a Reformed theological background.  Adam and Mike T. are attending this class as students to deepen their knowledge of Reformed faith and to work towards seminary degrees.

In just these first few classes, we have received a lot of positive feedback from students. Many are gaining a bigger, more complete view of the Word of God than they had before. We pray that these courses would provide the foundation for solid Biblical teaching, in our church plants and other churches throughout La Ceiba.

  

Central American Pastors' Conference

Last week, Adam and teammates Mike and Seth took our 4 Honduran pastors to Nicaragua to participate in a conference of pastors throughout Central America. We hired a driver and made the 18 hour trip from La Ceiba, Honduras to Managua, Nicaragua. National pastors came from Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua & Costa Rica. We spent 3 full days together praying, worshiping, and sharing about our work. However the main focus was learning from experienced pastor and missionary, Richard Ramsay as he led several sessions on "The Kingdom of God."

Pastors and missionaries from 6 different countries getting to know each other.

Not a bad location

Pastor Israel sharing a message

Mike (Honduras), Michell (Nicaragua), Jeff (Costa Rica), Andres (Costa Rica), Seth (Honduras), Adam (Honduras)

The three missionaries from Honduras had a chance to sit down with keynote speaker, Richard Ramsay to glean from his 35+ years of experience.

The whole group (almost).

Looking Expectantly at 2015

We have been in a season of life that has been very, very busy. To bring you up to speed, I have to give you a backstory so it all makes sense.  In October, we traveled to the Dominican Republic for MTW Area Retreat that happens once every four years.  All the missionaries with our agency from Latin America and Africa get a week of worship, sermons, and breakout sessions in our own language for renewing and refreshing of our minds and souls.

Now, our agency is undergoing lots of change in it's leadership and structure and we were all excited to meet the new MTW Coordinator, Dr. Lloyd Kim.  The very first day of the retreat we were made aware of changes in the Central American leadership structure that directly affected Team Honduras in a huge way.  Our team leader, Mike Pettengill, had accepted the position of Country Director of Honduras and Regional Director of Central America. and our teammate, John Clow, had accepted the newly available position of team leader for our team.  We were somewhat (but not totally) surprised by the changes and spent the week (and more) processing. This change is a good thing.  Adam and I find the positions to be fitting of the gift sets of both of these men.

But you know how change goes.  It's change.  It's sometimes uncomfortable, it's stretching, aspects of it unknown.  It's always an opportunity to give our fears, doubts, and uncomfortableness over to the Lord; an opportunity to trust Christ more; an opportunity to seek out His perfect plan.  We've gotten pretty good at change in our nomad lifestyle of the last two and a half years.  Still doesn't make it any easier.  Since the announcement of the change, our team has been meeting to reassess the goals and mission of our ministry in La Ceiba as well as a shift in roles and responsibilities.  We are excited to see how the Lord uses these changes to further His kingdom for His glory here in La Ceiba.

In our family of four, this has affected Adam the most (duh, right, my main role is still wife and mom and Jacob and Asher to be children.  Statements of the obvious).  In the absence of our former team leader, Mike, who is on furlough, Adam had already picked up preaching sermons for our team church services and the spiritual care of our team (our weekly Bible study and checking in on everyone). This change also brought weekly discipleship meetings with a couple of the national pastors as well as attending church services that the said Honduran pastors hold.   When Adam meets with the Honduran pastors, he gives them theological books and materials in Spanish and they have a (LONG) discussion about what they have been reading and learning.  As my husband's helper and supporter, I have had the privilege of watching the Lord develop Adam's heart for church planting through the training up of national pastors.  What started as an extra responsibility has become his joy.

Providentially, the changes in Adam's responsibilities with Mike being on furlough coincided with the permanent changes in roles and responsibility with the restructure of our agency and team.  As our team reassesses our purpose and everyone's roles in 2015, we look forward expectantly to what the Lord has planned not only in La Ceiba but for our family and ministry here as well.

We covet your prayers for:
-For the Lord to advance the Gospel here in La Ceiba
-For Team Honduras: for the unity only the Holy Spirit can bring
-For the 5 Honduran pastors being taught and discipled by Adam and another teammate
-For a true time of rest every week for our family
-For 2015 to be a year of change and growth