The church property, filled in and leveled.

Filling in the property.

Shoveling dirt.

Making a ditch in the mud to drain the water out.

Standing water that we had to drain. In the water and the weeds around it we found: one possum, one turtle, and two iguanas!

Work on the property

We started working Thursday and finished Saturday.

Backhoe in our driveway. It was here for 3 days loading the dump-trucks and leveling out the property.

Mikey helping shovel dirt.

Clearing the rainforest to get it ready to have a service.

Cutting the grass on the property that we bought with a "Honduran lawnmower".

August - October Prayer Letter

http://pastorspage.urbanbaptist.org/media/RV1865.zip

If you use e-sword click on this link and you will be able to download the Spanish 1865 Valera Bible for e-sword. After downloading, cut and paste the file into the e-sword folder in your program files and you should be ready to go!

Property

Here are some pictures of a property that we are praying about for the church.

May - July Prayer Letter

Look out for that next turn!

The road to San Luis Santa Barbara was so muddy the morning we went that this bus slid off of the road and got stuck!

We found out that even though the Jehovah's (false) Witnesses will leave literature anywhere, including on church doors, they don't appreciate it when you return the favor. One of them chased us down in his truck as we were leaving that night and yelled at us for leaving tracts on their gate.

An elderly lady reading a copy of John and Romans. She could not hear well, but can read. Two people made professions of faith in Christ at that home and we are going back to see if we can win some more. They do not live close enough to bring them to church, but I'm sure they appreciate us at least sharing the gospel with them so that they will not spend an eternity in Hell.

View of a street in the village of San Antonio, about 40 minutes from Cofradía. I went there to to survey the area and hand out tracts and we wound up talking for more then an hour about eternal security with a group of young people from a Pentecostal church. They asked us to come back. As far as I know, there is no church there that you could call a faithful witness to the true gospel. Lord, send us laborers!!!!

Sometimes I have seen more Jehovah's (false) Witnesses on one street then there are Bible-believing, gospel preaching churches in the whole area.

Sunday afternoon, 6/6/2010, the last service of our 2nd Anniversary conference. One lady made a profession of faith in Christ on Sunday morning, Praise the Lord!

Uphill

A man complained one time that a missionary drove a nicer vehicle then he did. If that man knew the type of roads that some missionaries have to deal with he might have been a little bit more understanding!

Downpour

Here is a video I took on my cell phone of what it looked like driving through a downpour. At one point the water was up to the headlights of my truck!

February - April Prayer Letter

“He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose” - Jim Elliot, Missionary Martyr Among the Auca Indians

“I have but one candle of life to burn, and I would rather burn it out in a land filled with darkness than in a land flooded with light” - John Falconer, Missionary Among the Arabs

“The saddest thing one meets is a nominal Christian. I had not seen it in Japan where missions is younger. The church here is a ‘field full of wheat and tares.'” - Amy Carmichael, Missionary to India

“If I had not felt certain that every additional trial was ordered by infinite love and mercy, I could not have survived my accumulated suffering” - Adoniram Judson, Missionary to Burma

“Do not think me mad. It is not to make money that I believe a Christian should live.” - David Livingston, Missionary to Africa

“Some wish to live within the sound of a chapel bell; I wish to run a rescue mission within a yard of hell.” - C.T. Studd, Missionary to China, India, and Africa. (1860-1931)

“I cared not where or how I lived, or what hardships I went through, so that I could but gain souls to Christ.” - David Brainerd, Missionary to the Seneca and Delaware Indians (1744-1747) of New York, New Jersey, and eastern Pennsylvania

When I read the quotes above, spoken by people who gave their lives to serve Christ, I can't help but to wonder if that level of commitment is still alive in missions today. Why is it that almost 2000 years after Christ's death and resurrection there are still untold millions who have never heard the good news and have no gospel witness to them? Does God not care enough about them to send them a witness? Absolutely not! "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." (2 Peter 3:9) God does not want anyone to die and go to hell. We on the other hand, seem to be content to let half of the world burn in those eternal fires without ever having had a chance to repent and be saved. Are we so unwilling to give up a little bit of comfort and a few conveniences? Do the souls of these people for whom Christ died mean so little to us? Yet while we stare at our computer screens and drool over the newest gadget or the latest cell phone, some missionary half-way across the world is on his knees praying and weeping for a printing press to be able to print gospel tracts. Another is sweating drops of blood trying to figure out how he can open a radio ministry, or buy a few buses, or preach on a cable t.v. channel. While churches argue over trivial things like what color the fabric is going to be on the new, custom built padded pews, there is a world out there dyeing and going to hell because of a lack of witnesses. "Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment. And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor:" (Isaiah 59:15-16)

My friends, I speak to you the honest truth; materialism and a love of comfort is strangling mission-work. That goes for us who are on the field, as well as those back home. How uncomfortable are you willing to get to reach people for Christ? Is there anything that you would be reluctant to give up? Is there anywhere that you would be unwilling to go? Would you be willing to go to a muslim country with a Bible in your hand instead of a rifle? Would you be willing to labor with tribal people in a hot, steamy jungle, or in the frozen arctic? Would you leave behind friends, family, church, a career to give Christ what He deserves? "For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." (1 Corinthians 6:20)

Victory Baptist Church Missions Trip 2010

From April 6th to the 11th we had the privilege of hosting a group from Victory Baptist Church in Wilmington, DE. It was a blessing to me to see some old friends from church again and to share with them the field that God has called us to and the work that we are doing. During the week that they were here we had many adventures. After only about three hours sleep we all climbed into the back of a Toyota 4x4 for a trek up a steep, windy mountain road. After some time of ducking low branches and holding on for dear life we reached the village of Buenos Aires. A typical Honduran mountain village, the poverty level is high, and of course, there is no Baptist church there. We spent the rest of the morning passing out John and Romans and witnessing to the people there. It was interesting to me that the Jehovah's Witnesses have been there for years, but us Baptists haven't managed to get there yet.

We had special services Wednesday through Friday night also, and they were a tremendous blessing to all. The young people from Victory Baptist sang and bro. Frank Torres played the guitar. During their first special the power went out, but they just kept singing unfazed!

Besides handing out tracts we did some sightseeing too. I wanted them to experience life in Honduras as much as was possible and let them see for themselves the need here. I also wanted them to see that although there are sacrifices involved in serving God on a foreign field, it is not all toil and hardship. You can have a good time serving God. So...next stop was Pulapanzak waterfall! Some of us took a guided tour into a small cave behind this 130 foot waterfall, climbing over rocks and fighting to be able to see through the water that came pouring from 130 feet up in the air. The falling water also creates wind and once you get close you feel like you are in the middle of a hurricane! It's an unforgettable experience. During the week we also went souvenir shopping and saw the ancient Mayan ruins of Copan. Some of them mentioned how deeply they were moved seeing the level of poverty that many people live in, and especially seeing who much the children suffer. Most Americans really have no idea what poverty is; living in a mud-brick house, a dirt floor, no bathroom, no windows or doors, and feeling lucky if you can eat just some beans and corn tortillas during the day.

What I wanted most of all for this group is that they would walk away with a greater vision to reach the world with the gospel. To me it isn't about how many tracts we handed out, or about how many places we visited; but it has everything to do with people getting a greater burden to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. By the grace of God, I believe that goal was achieved.

Spanish Prayer Letter

Doctrinal Statement

I. My Salvation

In January of 1996, at the age of 16, I accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as my personal Savior. After hearing the gospel for the first time, along with testimonies from other Christians, I was convinced of my need for salvation. With tears in my eyes I turned to the Lord in faith and asked Him to save me. On December 27, 1998 I was baptized at Victory Baptist Church in Elsmere, Delaware.

II. My Call To The Ministry

Soon after I began attending church I felt God dealing with my heart about preaching His Word. After much prayer and council with my pastor, God confirmed His calling to me and I decided to attend Northeast Baptist Bible College to prepare. During my first semester of college I was invited to go on a missions trip to Honduras, Central America. I agreed to go, having no idea that God would call me to serve there as a missionary. In January of 2000 the Lord made this calling known to me at a missions conference. Since then my life has been surrendered to reaching the people of Honduras with the gospel.

III. Statement of Faith

A. The Bible: I believe in the verbal, plenary inspiration of the Bible; that every word of the entire content of the Bible was inspired by God and is therefore free from error or any injection of the human author’s personal opinions; that God has also promised to preserve His words and has done so for the English-speaking people in the King James Bible; that the Bible is to be the Christian’s final authority in all issues of faith and practice. (II Pt. 1:21; Jer. 36:4; I Chr. 28:19; II Tim. 3:15-16; Ps. 12:6-7; Matt. 24:35)

B. The Trinity: I believe in One God eternally existing in three distinct, literal persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. (Gen. 1:1, 26; Isa. 9:6; Matt. 28:19; II Cor. 13:14; John 10:30; Acts 5:3-4; II Cor. 3:17; I John 5:7)

C. The Person of Jesus Christ: I believe that Jesus Christ, being fully God, is co-equal with the Father and the Holy Spirit; that He is the Eternal Son of God, and that becoming a man He did not surrender His deity in any way, but rather was both fully God and fully man; that He was born of a virgin by Holy Spirit conception; that He lived a sinless life, and that, in fact, it was impossible for Him to have sinned; that His substitutional death on the cross and His shed blood are the only atonement for the sins of the world; that He was buried, and that three days later He rose from the dead, bodily; that He ascended into Heaven bodily and is now seated at the right hand of the Father acting as the believer’s High Priest, ever living to make intercession for him; that He will fulfill His promise to come again for His saints to bring them to be with Him in glory and then to come with His saints to judge the earth to and establish His kingdom. (Isa. 9:6; John 1:1, 2, 14; John 10:30; I Tim. 3:16; Micah 5:2; Col. 1:16-17; Isa. 7:14; Matt. 1:18-25; Lu. 1:27, 34-35; II Cor. 5:21; I Pt. 1:18-19; Rev. 1:5; I John 2:2; I Cor. 15:3-4; Lu. 24:39-40; John 20:26-28; Acts 1:9-11; Ro. 8:34; Heb. 8:1; Heb. 4:15; John 14:1-3; I Thess. 3:13)

D. The Person of the Holy Spirit: I believe that the Holy Spirit is a divine Person, co-equal with God the Father and God the Son; that He restrains the evil one until the rapture of the church; that He convicts the world of sin and witnesses to the truth of the gospel in preaching and in testimony; that an unbelieving person cannot receive Him; that when one receives Jesus Christ as Savior He comes to indwell the believer, baptizes him into the body of Christ, and will abide with him forever; that He seals, endues with power, guides, teaches, sanctifies, and helps the believer. (Acts 5:3-4; II Cor. 3:17; I John 5:7; Matt. 28:19; II Thess. 2:7; John 16:8; John 14:16-17; I Cor. 6:19, 12:13; Eph. 1:13; Acts 1:8, 16:6-9; I John 2:27; I Cor. 6:11; Ro. 8:26)

E. Creation: I believe that God created the universe in six literal, 24-hour days; that evolution is a false, man-made theory; that man was created directly by God and in God’s own image. (Gen. 1:1, 26-27, 31; Ex. 20:11; John 1:1-3; Col. 1:16-17; Heb. 1:10, 11:3; Rev. 10:6)

F. The Fall of Man: I believe that man was created in a state of innocence by God but through the disobedience of Adam, the human race was plunged into sin; that man is without excuse before God and is responsible for his own sins; that eternal torment awaits the unregenerate man, whose only hope is acceptance of the atonement provided by Jesus Christ. (Gen. 3:1-7; Rom. 5:12, 19; Rom. 1:20, 3:23; Rev. 20:14-15; John 3:36)

G. The Personality of Satan: I believe that Satan was created by God as the “covering cherub” Lucifer; that through his pride in aspiring to be like God he fell and drew after him a great host of angels; that he is now the open enemy of God and His people, the unholy god of this world, and the accuser of the saints; that he is destined to be defeated by the Son of God and to be cast into the Lake of Fire for all eternity. (Isa. 14:12-17; Ezk. 28:12-19; Rev. 12:4; II Cor. 4:4; Job 1:6-12; Rev. 20:1-3, 10)

H. Salvation: I believe that salvation is wholly of God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ and that it is not earned or kept by good works; that salvation is offered freely to all who will accept; that the only atonement for the sins of the world is the precious shed blood of Jesus Christ. (Eph. 2:8-9; Rom. 3:20, 22, 28, 4:1-8, 6:23; John 3:15-18, 36; Acts 16:31; I Pt. 1:5; Rev. 22:17; Lev. 17:11; I Pt. 1:18-19)

Repentance and Faith: Repentance is a drastic change of mind in a person, produced by Holy Spirit conviction, that affects his way of life. A sinner sees himself as being lost, sin as being wicked, and Jesus as being the only hope of salvation. You cannot have true repentance without true faith, nor true faith without genuine repentance. (Ps. 51:1-4; Matt. 3:7-9; Mk. 1:15; Lu. 13:3, 18:13; Acts 20:21; Ro. 10:9-10, 13; I Thess. 1:9)

Regeneration: To be born again or born from above. Regeneration causes us to be born into the family of God and makes us partakers of the divine nature. (John 1:12-13, 3:3-8; Titus 3:5; I Pt. 1:23)

Justification: Justification is a change in man’s standing before God. God pardons the sinner and declares him to be righteous based on his faith in the shed blood of Jesus Christ. (Isa. 53:11; Rom. 3:24, 28, 4:1-16, 5:1; Gal. 2:16, 3:11; II Cor. 5:21; Titus 3:5-7)

Adoption: Means the placing of a son. In regeneration the believer becomes a child of God and in adoption the believer, already a son, receives a place as an adult son. (Gal. 4:1-7; Ro. 8:15,23; Eph. 1:5)

Redemption: To deliver by paying a price. Christ’s blood paid the price to purchase us from the slave-market of sin. (Isa. 59:20; Ro. 7:14; Eph. 1:7; Gal. 3:13, 4:4-5; Titus 2:14; I Pt. 1:18-19)

Sanctification: Sanctification is three-fold. First, God sets a person apart from condemnation at salvation; second, the believer is progressively being sanctified as he grows in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Finally, believers will be totally sanctified when we see Jesus and are made to be like Him. (I Cor. 6:11; II Pt. 3:18; I John 3:2-3; I Thess. 4:3-7, 5:23)

Eternal Security: I believe that once a person is saved that they are forever secure in Christ, and that no deed, no matter how wicked, can cause a person to loose their salvation. (John 5:24, 6:37, 10:27-29; Isa. 43:25, 44:22; Eph. 1:13, 4:30; I Cor. 5:4-5; Gal. 2:16, 3:3)

Election: God foreknew who would accept His Son and choose them to be saved. Election is not based on any personal merit, nor did God randomly choose for some to go to Heaven and for others to be condemned to Hell. Election is according to the foreknowledge of God. (I Pt. 1:2)

Predestination: God has predestinated the believer to be conformed to the image of Christ. (Ro. 8:29)

I. The Church: I believe that the local church is the only institution that God has ordained to fulfill the Great Commission; that it is to be made up of baptized believers with Christ as its Head; I hold that the local church has the right of self- government, free from the interference of any hierarchy of individuals or organizations; that the true mission of the church is found in the Great Commission: to win the lost to Christ, to baptize them, and to teach them the Word of God; the church has the responsibility and calling to glorify God in all that it does, to boldly stand for and proclaim the truth, to observe the two ordinances delivered to it (baptism and the Lord’s supper), and to maintain discipline among its members; that there are two offices in the New Testament church, the pastor and the deacon, and that only qualified men should be considered for them. (Matt. 28:19-20; Mk. 16:15; Acts 2:41, 8:36-37; Eph. 4:15, 5:23; Rev. 1:11; Acts 20:20; Eph. 1:4-6; Jude 3; I Cor. 11:23-29; I Cor. 5:1-13; I Tim 3; Titus 1:5-9)

J. The Sign Gifts: I believe that the gifts mentioned in I Corinthians 12:8-10 and the gift of Apostle mentioned in Ephesians 4:11 were only temporary in nature. In many cases these gifts were used to authenticate the Apostles’ message. After the completion of the Word of God these confirmatory signs were no longer needed and vanished away. We now have a completed Bible to confirm the message being preached and the Holy Spirit to convict sinners. I believe that the Pentecostal/Charismatic Movement is unscriptural and is not of God. (I Cor. 14:22; II Cor. 12:12; I Cor. 13:8-12; Heb. 2:3-4)

K. Divorce and Remarriage: I believe that God ordained marriage and that He intended it to last until one of the spouses dies; that God hates divorce and that it is never His will for two people to get divorced; that a divorced and remarried person can never be considered for the offices of pastor or deacon. (Mal. 2:14-16; Mk. 10:2-12; Lu. 16:18; I Cor. 7:10, 11, 39; I Tim. 3:2-12; Titus 1:6)

L. Separation: I believe that God has called the church to be separate from apostasy and false teaching; that the church is to abstain from worldly practices and methods; that every believer is to separate from other believers who are disobedient in their lifestyle or in doctrine, and from the sinful practices of the world to live a holy life unto God. (II Cor. 6:14-7:1; II Thess. 3:14; I Cor. 5:11, 15:33; Ro. 1:1, 12:1-2, 16:17; I Pt. 1:14-16)

M. Christ’s Coming:

The Rapture: I believe in a pre-tribulational rapture of the entire body of the church. (I Thess. 4:13-18, 5:9; Titus 2:13; Col. 3:4; I John 3:2; I Thess. 1:10)

The Revelation: I believe that the Lord will return to the earth with His saints at the end of the tribulation period to judge the world and to set up His kingdom; that the Lord’s second coming is pre-millennial and bodily. (Rev. 19:11-20:6; Zech. 14:1-16; Acts 1:11; II Thess. 1:7-10; Isa. 64:1-2; Matt. 24:27-31; I Thess. 3:13)

N. Heaven and Hell: I believe that Heaven and Hell are both literal places; that Heaven is the abode of God and the resting place of those who have put their trust in Jesus Christ as Savior; that Hell is a place of fiery torment, a holding place for those who have died in their sins until they are judged by Jesus Christ and cast into the Lake of Fire forever. (John 14:1-3; Ph. 1:23; Lu. 16:22-28; Rev. 20:11-15)

O. Worship: I believe that God desires for us to worship Him in spirit and in truth, therefore all carnal methods of worship which appeal to the flesh, such as contemporary “praise” music, are unacceptable to God and should never be used in His service or be part of a believer’s life. I believe that instruments that were designed to be used in the performance of worldly music, such as drums, have no place in the church. (John 4:23; I John 2:15-17)