Walk Through August with 61 Isaiah
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“God is good all the time. All the time God is good.” As several of you know, we recently had two new additions to our team, Hannah and Spencer. God is answering our prayers for the harvest. For the first time starting this month, we operated with a team of seven. This has given us the ability to serve in more than one place at a time, allowing us to meet more needs and feel less stressed trying to accomplish necessary tasks.
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In August, we did our best to help all the new arrivals get settled, then we kicked off life with the new team by having a staff retreat. The staff retreat was lead by the 61 Isaiah Ministries Board President, Cliff Watson, Janet Watson, and their daughter, We felt that it was important to stop and take time to evaluate, educate, and brainstorm this new season of life for the ministry before attempting to tackle the needs of Honduras. The staff retreat was a blessing. It produced time for us to connect with one another and share our hopes for the ministry’s future. Please pray for each member of the team as they settle into their new roles.
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School started for ALCS on the 21st, and Kristi has been doing a wonderful job checking in on the new teachers. She is continuing her position at the school as the Director of English Curriculum. Hannah, Josh, and Shannon are also involved in the school by teaching Bible classes. Hannah is teaching 8th grade, Josh is teaching 10th grade, and Shannon is teaching 11th and 12th grade Bible. Their involvement in the school plays a critical role in the implementation of one of our core values, education.
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Josh has also restarted youth group on Friday nights at a church called Rio De Dios. He has recently shared his new vision for the future of the youth group. His goal is to cultivate a safe environment to empower Honduran youth to first find their identity in Christ, and then use their gifts and talents to love others. It is his hope to grow the youth group with not only ALCS students, but with other youth around Gracias. Please keep Hannah, Josh, Kristi, and Shannon in your prayers as they love and minister to the students at ALCS and other youth in Honduras.
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We would like to give a shout of praise to the Lord for the amount of progress the church Rio De Dios has had. Every Tuesday night since January, we have been working with them on their church identity. We start each topic by asking them a foundational question. Individuals share their opinions, and then we ask each of them to turn to scripture and re-answer the question. The next week we meet again and discuss what each person has found in scripture.
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Then, we divide them up into groups to come up with a single, one-sentence definition backed by scripture. As the weeks pass we continue to combine groups, creating a new sentence, until they are left with one sentence proven by scripture, that the whole church agrees with. The first topic we addressed was the Bible. “What do you believe about the Bible?” Then they defined: what a Christian is, what the church is, what a leader is, and then moved onto who is God. This last question was broken down into defining each part of the trinity, and how they operate together. Rio De Dios is currently wrapping up their definition of the Holy Spirit. Please pray for Rio De Dios as they continue to create and establish their foundational truths.
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There have been several victories this month. We recently hosted our first mission team since gaining our new team members. It was a joy and a blessing to work with Loft City Church. Another victory is that 10 village couples have committed to get married. This is a big deal. Often couples in the villages are not married but live together. This is due to several reasons; one being that it is too expensive for many of them to get married. We are blessed that the ministry has the ability to allow couples to work at the Hunger Farm for a week to earn money toward their wedding expenses.
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Brainstorming Dorm Layout
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God continues to provide in unseen ways. We have received a couple donations to build dorms at the Hunger Farm. Although we are unaware of the many ways God plans to use the dorms, we know that it will open new doors for the ministry, allowing further growth in different areas. If you would like more information regarding this project, or feel led to donate, please let us know.
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This month has been a true blessing. We are looking forward to all the ways God plans to use His team as we continue this year. However, we are currently experiencing some growing pains as we work to have 7 team members ministering in different villages as well as in the office. As we grow, so do the administration costs. This means we have to spend more on gas, vehicle maintenance, and other administration costs. Please pray about donating to our ministry to help us with our expenses.
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