Honduras Missions

The Ritchie Family / Children's Lighthouse

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Thanks Giving take 2

Lisa planned to do a nice dinner for the ladies ministry Saturday. Kinda thanksgiving style. A meal of compromise, no turkey just a big chicken, as formal as you can get with plastic plates in a carport. The girls helped, Julie was like Lisa’s third hand all day. Lisa taught how to make edible cookie plates and served sweets on them. A salad, which Lisa found most of the ladies had never eaten, and needed to be taught how to eat it. Beans and rice are what many eat here every day of their lives. The ladies prayed and read thanksgiving scriptures Then shared the things they are thankful for. At meal time, Alba and Jenny prepped and served the food. Julie kept every glass full, Nancy watched the babies, Iris did devotions with our children in the house.(we ate leftovers mmm) The Ladies did not want to go home, though many saved most of their meal to take home to family.


Earlier in the day I had the boys ministry out teaching. They are full of zeal without brains and easily distracted…just like boys in America. “Why cant I chase the iguana under the 8000lbs steel box teetering on a cheap Chinese bumper jack?” I teased them with “Your disposable, your mom can make more boys, go ahead”…They got the message. We finally managed to move the container and raised it up in preparation to moving it to the Lighthouse property for storage. Carlos and the men went to Colonia, preached and brought corn for some hurting families.In all another busy day here in Honduras but one that takes no effort falling asleep at night…he give his beloved sleep amen!
Unworthy servant to a Worthy Saviour,

Barry

Friday, November 28, 2008

Honduras Thanksgiving?

How did you give thanks to our wonderful LORD and Saviour?

I am writing this to welcome many of you who are waking from an amino acid tryptophan induced coma. :) Some in today’s America celebrate with little thought toward our creator, focusing only on the meal and game. Others are more traditional giving God the Glory and having a wonderful meal. As for here, thanksgiving is not a holiday in Honduras. Since being here, we have struggled with what to do on this day so engrained in us. Lisa could not even find a turkey this year. One year we invited many over to share a meal. Another year we went out and distributed food. This year was a different path.



We have been busy, but without funds to spare just added more water to the soup, literally, and took in 3 more children. On the way to pick up sand and cement for the Children’s Lighthouse, I found Ricardo in the street, dirty and half clothed. He was watching/
guarding people’s stuff, and selling what he could to get money to eat. I picked him up and took him to Infha again. They called the judge and arranged a meeting then asked us to please take him in, as well as 2 more. Lisa and I discussed it, and against our prudent judgment, we took them in. Lisa literally added more water to the soup last night to feed extra mouths.


Yesterday was also a celebration in Venid a Mi Baptist church in Lenaca. It was a time to officially hand them the deed to the church property. I made up a photo page and laminated it for the history of the church. It was also a time to introduce the Bible institute and give them the materials needed to begin. Outside they gathered the groups of children together to estimate the need for christamas shoeboxes…. it will be a large group this year. Even though it was late and getting dark they insisted I preach… so we pulled out the dewalt flashlights and preached (I need another 18v bulb) Three adult raised their hands for salvation…Amen! Then many loaded up on the kia to save the mile walk home in the darkness…



Needles to say it was a long day, but one with many thanks given to our LORD, and many effectual prayers needed to sustain us. Our cross that we have taken up here is more than we can handle alone… Never the less not my will but thine be done… Amen!

Happy thanks giving,

An unworthy servant to a Worthy Saviour

Barry

Friday, November 21, 2008

Blessings and Potholes


Our wonderful LORD continues to work in Honduras. We finally signed papers for the church property up in Lenaca. The church now owns their land and building free and clear. No more fear of being evicted. We will start the Bible institute program up there next Thursday. (Thanksgiving day for you in the USA.) The Children’s Lighthouse is still moving along. The stucco process for the walls which give the finished surface for mounting the doors and windows as well. Putting in a entrance into the second floor. It will also have a handy cap ramp so Carlos can get in. Not sure how we will get over the huddle of the next big expenses yet. The doors , windows, floors and fixture require a lot of funds to do. But the LORD knows and will supply as it is needed. We are scheduled to drill a well this week, but he has postponed it a few times in the past.

The new opportunity in San Geronimo is on again, off again, on again. Since the last writing Carlos found out they were selling it to a cult group based out of Columbia for the full price. They were not even going to tell the church. We thought the door was closed. But Carlos went and talked to them and in his persuasive way convinced them it was a bad idea(In other words-guilty for doing so). So they are holding off on selling it to them and will consider selling it to us. They will inform us next Tuesday. So basically Carlos convinced them….

1 Selling to anyone other than us was a bad Idea and the LORD would not be pleased nor would the church folks there be happy…They agreed
2 Then he told them the price was really too much, they agreed and said they would come up with a better price.
(They are now turning down a full price offer from the other people)
3 Then Carlos told them we had no money…they said ok, we will give you some time for the LORD to do something…Hmm.

Carlos did all this without me knowing, afterwards he comes and tells me. Carlos is one of our mighty men as David had. Anyone want to hire Carlos to negotiate on a house or car purchase?

We are planning to take our men and pastors to a preaching conference in Tegu Dec 1-4th. We were invited by the missionary Gutierrez that visited a while back. There should be 40-50 preachers from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua there.

Hit a large pothole returning Sunday night from preaching in San Geronimo, it was dark and pow just did not remeber that one. (If you drive at night you must remember where all the pothole are.) Did not blow the tire, but now the kia pulls hard right and the steering wheel is way off, maybe bent the lower control arm… Always something to eat time and money.
Unworthy servant to a Worthy Saviour
Barry Ritchie

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Blessing a Flowing and Needs a Growing

We have had a run of wonderful blessings and opportunities. The second container is preparing to leave soon. It will be filled with lots of good stuff. The shoeboxes -1500+ this year! A donated front end loader attachment for the tractor/mower- Amen, Also a farm type 4 wheeler ATV and an atv dump wagon to move stuff… If we have been moving a mountain by hand…look out when these get working, donated clothes for the kids, other equipment that is costly here and more, AMEN!!
Pray the relief food is available to ship , it is the only worry at this point. God knows our needs, and to emphases this point he laid on a man’s heart to visit and say thank you Friday. We gave food and helped him out near Marcovia a few months back. That area flooded and a rescue boat turned over getting them out. He lost his wife and 3 children. Only he and his young daughter survived. His only reason to visit was to say thank you for the food and help…humbling. We are just pvc pipe used of the LORD.

The Risogragh printing press is already earning its keep. Lisa began to print new hymnals for all the churches on the Risogragh that was sent in the last container, as well as printing a monthly new family devotional book we made and will share with 6 churches. Amen!



Ministering Saints also offered $1500 toward a church building project, Amen. This has been heavy on my mind as of late. We desperately need 3 church facilities…


On that note. Yet another huge opportunity has surfaced. A church property near the Children’s Lighthouse has come up for sale. Already has a building, electric, water well, right on the same road as the Lighthouse, only 2 miles away… Asking price $7900. We were wanting to start a ministry out there in San Geronimo. The well is worth $3-5000, the building would take $5-7000 or more to build one like it, plus the value of the 1.5 ac road frontage land. If that were all there was to this story, it would be a great deal… but it gets much better. There is a man out there named Rene Sanchez that surrendered to serve the LORD 2 years ago under some outreaches, Carlos and I did in the area. He later asked the owners of the abandoned church property if he could use it…they agreed. So God is Love Baptist church began... We have helped him in just a few ways. (tracts, Bibles, lessons, food and evangelism ect) He now has 19 adults and 20+ kids in service, he desires to be trained. The former group that owns the building came to us. They want to sell it to buy another car. They do not care who buys it, us or a bar, a poolhall, or whatever, just the first ones with cash. The pastor there and congregation have no money and do not want to dissolve this work or see the building fall into wicked use. (Tonight they said they would protest in the street if the owner sells it to someone other than us and its sold for worldly use, hmm) They desire to grow and learn in our Bible institute… This is a turn key church plant for $7900 or less. We would jump in and help much more until such a time they were on their feet and a mature church. Plus, it might become the church for attending with the children as the lighthouse grows. Someone asked, "What is the priority?" If I were in charge that would be a very hard choice. We just put out the plea and trust the Holy Spirit to work in hearts. We dont drive our ministry, the LORD does. Christ constrains us by our ability and supply. Philip 4:13. My only promise to my LORD was was; whatever door you open I will step through. In my strength, we never would have gotten as far as we have, Amen! So what we are now juggling and contemplating is:
* Finishing the Children’s Lighthouse… The house we are currently renting in the city is up for sale and our market is not like the USA…kinda weird and prices are still rising and the demand is high. Factories and big names are coming to town is why. (
Cholutca has its first car dealership (Toyota) going up and a huge clothing factory being built ect. Good for local economy, hard on us by driving prices up.)
We also need to:
* Build a building for La Cruz- They have about $2000 of the needed $10,000 to construct.
The church owns the property.
* Colonia— property was donated for construction—need $5000 to build- no funds available.
* The Blessing in San Geronimo - $7900 for a turn keep church plant. Does not get much better than that, Amen! Only.. gulp.. $20,000 needed to raise up 3 churches.... A mountain for us, a molehill for the LORD.

Been busy on many fronts. The photos are from today of the boys ministry, learning to weld and cut steel. One of our new 14 year old boys whistled at a girl in the hardware store, while he was in my truck. oops! I marched him off and made him apologize to her for the issue. Later he became the object lesson on the difference of good and evil… Went over well. News travels...his mom came and thanked me later...
Carlos and the men returned from Colonia happy. The Datsun is back on the road, (broke a king pin and blew head gasket last week). The new hymnals were great and they were excited to share that the elderly lady who always gives the church a hard time… came to church and trusted Christ. They met and preached under the big tree again... with only a little rain, but not enough to drive them away from services. Amen and Amen


We are preaching in San Geronimo tonight...We are back... The meeting went well and we discussed a few things. Everyone wants us to purchase the property. They all want to grow and learn. Pastor Sanches is going with us to an Independent Baptist fellowship meeting in the Capitol on December 1st... A great door of effectual opportunity has been opened unto us...we only need the LORD to work in some hearts. Amen!!
Unworthy of my LORD's manifold blessings,
Barry

Monday, November 10, 2008

As the Light that goeth forth


The Ladies meet every Saturday for a special service. The Ladies are really growing closer to Gods word through this. After Lisa and Luz taught the 2nd teen girls meeting and it went real well. The girls learned about bad friends and their influence, then began making things out of worn out clothing, also a lesson of course.

Several La Cruz men went to Fountain of Life Baptist church in Colonia to preach, and had over 80 folks in service. They met along side of a home of a member. I had to pull the wood off the sides of the kia and make benches on top of the cases of Books of John we brought. Improvise, just give the books away after instead of before service. Sitting listening to Carlos preach seeing everyone sit on broken plastic chairs, boards, boxes logs and the ground, all I thought was we really need church buildings. La Cruz needs one and Colonia needs one. I was racking my brain trying to figure out how cheap one could really be built for, just to keep everyone dry, without doors windows or floor. After scratching out on a scrap paper, I think we could build a 20x30 church building for $5000($3000 for structure $2000 for roof) when I added up the materials with free labor. That might work for Colonia in the mountain, but La Cruz in the city will 2x as much. (More rules and more security ect) Carlos was so proud of the Colonia offerings that had come in these past few weeks he has been teachng them about tithing. They were up to 160 lempira(Nine dollars) That is wonderful improvement over $0 but at this rate it will only take 21 years to afford a building providing prices don’t go up. None of the folks there have money and most squeak by, time will tell. It has been one year already preaching up there almost three years under the tent in La Cruz.

On the way up I found out one of our men(Marcotulio) is from the mosquito coast in the north and we wanted to do a river outreaches there so we pumped him for info. The Moskita rain forest is second in size only to the Amazon. After discussing all the details, and if we can get the boat safe we are planning a week long outreach Easter week....Pray, because it will be costly and dangerous. We would have to bring everything to survive. 50 gal of fuel for the boat 50 gal water, food equipment ect and it is not called mosquito for nothing.

Sunday service was a message on marriage. Afterwards 2 possibly 3 couples who have been in long term relationships now want to get married. (one for 34 years!). Amen. They want to be right before the LORD and be allowed to serve. Amen…

After church 16 La Cruz Baptist church folks loaded up in the
Kia to do an outreach in San Geronimo. More than 250 folks showed up in a field to watch a movie and hear preaching. Everyone got a book of John. 20 or more young people raised their hands for salvation; adults not a one. It was a hard crowd to work with, unlike the mountains, many local bars and other wrong influences in the poor area. By the finish there were a large number of drunken men circled around us in the distance, just in the shadow of the lights our folks were holding up. Everyone had to be on guard all the time, protecting our folks and equipment. Even so it is a needy location for a possible future church plant, many are in darkness standing at the edge of light…

This morning it’s back to work on the Lighthouse, and the Kia gets loaded with lots of sand…amen!

Unworthy servant to a Worthy Saviour,

Barry Ritchie

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Heavenly treasure

Less than 24 hours after the container arrives, blessing and heavenly treasure pour forth. I always seem to forget that this is why we battle so much getting containers shipped. ..Spiritual wickedness in high places. And the easiest way to kill an army is cut its supplies. The day started out like this:
Omar taught the boys ministry this morning on the back wall of the Children’s Lighthouse. Several boys came forward for salvation and getting right with the LORD. Then the boys moved and organized and cleaned up some of the stuff we unloaded yesterday then loaded up the risograph corn and scriptures to return home with…and of course some time to play on the go-cart. Omar has come along way, Carlos was unable to go to Colonia due to his wife’s graduation. So Omar took his family and several men from the church and headed up for the first time in 3 weeks due to weather.. in the 69 datsun. Two folks trusted the LORD. He also took up some needed food and scriptures. Pastor Santos called and had 5 families without food he was hoping to help. And there were 2 families in Colonia also hurting due to not working with the road impassable. Omar and Blanca were able to help them as well. Santo’s sons met them in Colonia packed the 200lbs of food on their shoulders and on up the mountain they went…It still amazes me.

Barry Jr started to check out the 40 year old mower. It is actually in pretty good shape just some tweeks here and there. And of course Jr will want to modify it “to make it better” and it mowed some today. Amen!Lisa put the risograph to task within an hour of entering in the house. We made and printed a family devotional last month and everyone wanted more. On our computer it cost near $100 in ink to print 40-48 page books. On the riso it printed it all with just leftover ink.



The good Samaritan ministry from San Marcos was passing by the Children's Lighthouse (We're on the panamericain highway) and stopped in to check us out…nice folks. Jokingly I closed the door on the bodega and told them they could only leave if they took some scripture to distribute....They packed up 16,000 scriptures. AMEN! Only 127,000 more to go.


So in less than 24hours after arriving the corn has fed the hungry, The mower mowed, 5 people trusted the LORD, 16,000 of the scriptures were delivered, and the Risograph printed our monthly devotional booklet for 40 families…Not bad for 24 hours.

Keep praying! Thank you,

Unworthy Servant to a Worthy Saviour,

Barry


View Larger Map