Honduras Outreach

When Lenita was sick with malaria, the saints showed their love in visiting, bringing food, praying, and singing. They sang out on the porch of the mission house one night. We were very touched by their love and support. We knew the saints in the States were holding us up in prayer too. We thank God for Lenita's healing!

We held a tent meeting in Politilly beginning in September of 2004. The young men from the States helped the locals put the tent up. We were sure glad they had experience putting up the big tent. It was a challenge driving the stakes because of the crab holes. About the time it looked like the stake was strong enough, it would sink a few inches and be wobbly.

Anything different from the normal everyday activities always draws a crowd. Different ones from the village came to watch the tent go up. The young boys especially enjoyed watching and trying to help. Bro. Dennis Hamilton drives in a tent stake as Matthew Gellenbeck holds it. A brave thing indeed, because Bro. Dennis has a strong swing. It was another very hot day. Mathew's shirts showed that he wasn't adjusted to the climate in a matter of a few minutes. We went through many gallons of bottled drinking water everyday. They all put in some very hard manual labor and it was very appreciated!

Saints Singing on Porch During Lenita's Serious Malaria

Getting Ready for Tent Meeting

Politilly Meeting

Servers for Lunch

Washing Meeting Dishes by Hand

Scriptures Shared, Punta Gorda Baptism

Happy for the opportunity to be baptized!

Baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost

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Baptized in the Caribbean Sea

Hauling People to Meeting

Open Air Meeting in Milton

A Special Song of Warning

Lunchline for the Sunday Meal

The tent was finally set up with extra seating made of concrete blocks and 2 by 12's. Shortly after we finished, we had a nice rain shower. Next, the work began on the sound system. Because of an unusually wet summer, the yard was wet under the tent. Bro. Dennis let us use some tile he had stored under his house. The ground is very uneven and many of the tiles were broken. It would have been awful without them because of the continued rain. Even with the tile, it was too muddy to kneel to pray. A few nights, the people sitting on the benches outside of the tent got rained out. The tent even had some leaks. Through it all, some got saved and are still happily saved.

The young people from the states sang a special song with the young people from the local congregation. There were times that the two groups would sing separately too. We were thankful for all the special singing. When led of the Lord, it is a great blessing and has a powerful message. Emily Kramer, Joseph Gellenbeck, Mathew and Michael Gellenbeck, Patrice Doolittle, Renita Clement, Andrew Fuller and Audrey Whittaker were the young people that came from the states.

The little children were anxiously waiting for the meal served the first Sunday of the meeting. They got to be the first in line. We served the normal Sunday meal with a little extra. It is a meal that is considered special here. It was rice cooked with beans, spaghetti, baked chicken with barbeque sauce, corn and cole slaw or 'cabbage salad' as it is called here. We also had cake with carmel frosting. The ladies of the congregation made most of the cakes at their homes. They boil unopened cans of sweetened condensed milk for about an hour. It is then opened and stirred to a spreading consistency and put on the cake. It is very good. They also took some of the rice and beans and chicken home and cooked it for the meal. The rest of it was cooked on the two stoves at the mission house.

Sis. Judy, Sis. Caren and Sis. Lela got ready to serve the meal under a thatched roof shed. We were thankful for the shade from the hot afternoon sun. It is the shed that is for the truck.

Emily Kramer, Andrea Wall, Kaylee Wall and others worked early Sunday morning to prepare the noon meal. The corn that was brought down here was in the little 'Niblet" cans. The girls had a big job opening about 60 cans. They also had sore fingers. Sis. Irma was a great help with all of her experience and cheerfulness. The young girls seemed to have fun working together. It was a BIG job washing dishes by hand. Sometimes the boys helped, but they usually had other thing to do. Doug had recently installed a double sink and added a little more counter space to the upstairs kitchen. It was so nice to have it. We are thankful for every convenience that we have in the mission house.

We held an open air meeting in Milton, the next village to the west of Politilly.

"There'll be no mansion waiting on the hills of heaven for you..." Brother Elon sang as a solemn warning to sinners at the Milton meeting.

The young people special singing was a help to the meeting, especially with the Milton young people looking on and seeing something different from their normal lifestyle. The mission truck and our truck made trips back and forth between Politilly and Milton to ferry people to the meeting.

We held our first ordinance service in the Politilly chapel. Partaking of the Lord's Supper and the ordinance of foot washing were new experiences for the saints here.