Monthly Archives: May 2016

Honduras!

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Honduras, again? I never imagined it or planned it, but I have been a part of 4 different mission teams to Honduras within the last 14 months. 🙂 When I retired from the airlines in 2011, my mantra for the next chapter of life was, “The LORD is my Shepherd, He leads….” And so it goes…

During these four years He’s also led and provisioned me to go on missions to Costa Rica, Cuba, and Nicaragua. So I’m sensing that God’s big heart and strong hand is extended to Central America in this season of history with spiritual power and provision. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for their’s is the kingdom of heaven…” we hear Jesus say in His Sermon on the Mount.

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Our team in the mountains above Siguatepeque

There were five of us on the team, four from Fort Smith, AR and our leader in the field, a missionary to Honduras, who was our driver, translator, and led the children’s ministry events.

We stayed two days and two nights with a Honduran family, in their home, experiencing the local culture and hospitality in ways short term mission teams seldom do. But this is also the family with the vision and desire to start the orphanage so we needed to get to know them, their vision, and their hearts. We held a children’s event on their patio with the whole village invited and evidently there. 🙂

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Munoz Family (3 generations) with Ken

We traveled the next day with three members of that family to visit another mission and family three hours away who are supported by the mission sending agency XMA. They had found a desirable spiritual covering and legal, administrative way to establish a Honduran version of a 501c3, to protect stewards who want to sow into the ministry there. Bringing these two families together was a divine appointment and the information they shared was key to the proposed mission going forward. May their future relationships with each other be fruitful in every way possible. We held a second children’s event in their village school after a delicious lunch.

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Possible site for orphanage

The following day, we said our goodbyes and headed up further into the mountains to see their church which is under construction, oddly enough with some help by an Asian mission-sending church in our city of Fort Smith! We visited with neighbors, and heard the project report from some of the members, praying with some who greeted us and had needs. And we prayed for the church before leaving Concepcion for San Pedro Sula and a night of rest and reflection. Besides the beautiful mountain scenery all about us, we were also treated to a refreshing visit to a 100’ waterfall, and lunch beside a very large, blue, fresh-water lake with a mountain backdrop–very beautiful, relaxing, and rejuvenating.

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Copan

The next day we visited the famous Mayan ruins of Copan, birthplace of the famous Mayan calendar, and got in position for our last kid’s event scheduled for the following day. We also visited a church along the way in a village served by a long swinging bridge, and learned more about what the Spirit of the Lord is doing with the church and people of Honduras. The hotel was charming and nice. Our leader had told us that even though it cost only $15/night, it had WIFI and hot water. It had WIFI. 🙂

The next day after devotions and breakfast, our team took a 30 minute horse-back ride to a high Mayan village where we saw something akin to a North American Indian village and held our third and last kid’s event before visiting with some of the village people, playing with kids, walking down their steep paths, and riding our horses back to the hotel, from whence we began our drive 4 hours back to San Pedro Sula.

IMG_7364Sunday morning we arose early, had breakfast with our missionary leader and his beautiful family, and headed for the airport. All travel coming and going was uneventful, if very early and very late at times. 🙂 Customs was a breeze, because we had “letters” saying our bags contained items for churches, children, and the poor. Indeed we were carried along by the Spirit the whole time and I think we all had a sense of it, albeit there was also spiritual warfare sometimes near and about. Spiritual opposition, and a successful mission, is why we are indeed grateful for our prayer supporters, and the Lord’s favor, blessing, and presence.

It’s our teams prayer that the Lord will bless Honduras, use our work there, lead us as wishes in the future, and call some of you to go or send others on short term mission trips during this exciting period of earth and church history! Shalom in His matchless Name.

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For the full report with more specifics sent to our prayer supporters, click here.

For a photo collection of our experience click here.

For a short video of our mission by our missionary friend and leader click here.

 

Character

7c9c2798-6ec9-45b3-a2ee-cc1f5b5ed66dI was laying on the couch by the fire this morning reading the Gospels when I received a text from a friend in a men’s group I attend weekly. It got my attention because it was about Omar Bradley. I quickly read and enjoyed the  article which reminded me in short summary the accomplishments, service, history, and the depth of the man. I was surprised at how well he spoke to the future, which is our day,  almost prophetically.

DSCN9047I have a best friend from college days named Bill Bradley. We nicknamed him “Omar” and it’s stuck with many of his friends to this day. 🙂 So of course I sent him the link quickly. He too is a man of character, service, and vision – the CEO of a large hospital in NWA. And for the same attributes of character and caring he has the respect of doctors, nurses, medical staff, support staff, patients, and the community at large. I call him “Omar” and “friend.”

IMG_6396I have a best friend from fighter pilot days named Brian Fields. His home going was two years ago today. Reading about Omar Bradley reminded me of Brian’s patriotism, sacrifice, and leadership. Besides being an excellent fighter pilot, he became the Vice Commander of our fighter group because of his attributes of character and caring.

Thinking about Omar Bradley today reminds me of these two friends and a few more I am blessed to have like them, men of character and caring. Knowing people like this brings sweetness to one’s lifetime on earth. Walking with them brings a level of peace, joy, purpose, and vision.

It would seem that Omar Bradley had extraordinary vision. Note his words below. They seem to apply in the natural and the spiritual realm.

IMG_6230And if you know people of character and caring in your realm. Tell them you appreciate their friendships and lives with a note or a call today.

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General Omar Bradley stated in an Armistice Day speech, November 10, 1948 (published in Omar Bradley’s Collected Writings, Volume 1, 1967):

“To ignore the danger of aggression is simply to invite it… We shall doom our children to a struggle that may take their lives…

We know that unless free peoples stand boldly and united against the forces of aggression, they may fall wretchedly, one by one, into the web of oppression.”

General Omar Bradley stated:

“We have men of science, too few men of God. We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount.

The world has achieved brilliance without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants…

If we continue to develop our technology without wisdom or prudence, our servant may prove to be our executioner.”

In contrast to the totalitarian dictators he fought against, General Omar Bradley stated in his Armistice Day Address, November 10, 1948:

“In the United States it is THE PEOPLE who are SOVEREIGN…

7244a377-212a-4363-889c-c6e99df732aeThe Government is THEIRS – to speak THEIR voice and to voice THEIR will.”