Immeasurably more

My prayers have been answered, ministry is growing!

Since transitioning from my former ministry, I’ve been asking God to grow the ministry in Los Pinos and open more and more doors. While I’ve been praying for more opportunities, normally I’ve been focused on the area I’ve already been involved with, Sector F. I pray for increased security there, new families to meet, and new opportunities to minister, on top of the families He’s already introduced me to.

However, in God’s usual fashion, He gave me a bigger answer than what I even asked for. 

(see Ephesians 3:20)

During the past few weeks, I’ve become involved with a church working in a neighboring sector, and a woman with the same heart and passion I have who ministers to families in yet another sector of this neighborhood. Let me explain a little bit about both of them.

The church I’ve begun working with, La Roca (The Rock), actively ministers in their community. They have a primary school for kids in the area where they not only receive an education, but also a Christian environment and a snack and lunch everyday. They also just opened a daycare where working moms can leave their not-yet-school-aged children while they make a living and provide for their households.

I’ve been talking a lot with the Pastor and sharing my heart and passion for the families in the community, especially single moms and kids. He is super excited about the vision, and I’ve started visiting families there as well to get to know the community, preparing to minister in many of the ways I’ve ministered in Sector F – empowering women to be independent and provide for their families, encouraging and equipping for education or technical classes, opportunities for discipleship, encouragement and prayer, providing support in emergency situations, and hosting community events to bring people together and have opportunities to present the Gospel.

In the beginning, I’m doing all the house visits with the Pastor as he introduces me to many women from the church, and then from there, I’m sure God will open doors to many families not involved with the church as well. I’m also very excited that the group that “controls” this sector supports the church and the work it is doing, so working for the church, I don’t have to worry as much about my safety and I’m free to walk and visit families (much unlike the situation in Sector F, especially lately).

The second new ministry opportunity is working with a woman, Mary Lynn, who has also been ministering to families in Los Pinos for a few years now. We met by accident at the Honduran Fellowship of Ministries and Missionaries retreat in February and we found out how closely our passion and ministry focuses align. In the coming weeks, I will be going to visit with her to yet another sector of Los Pinos. While each family has unique struggles, many themes are consistent – lack of education and work opportunities, lack of hope for a different life, lack of self confidence especially with women, struggles to even provide children with one meal a day or adequate medical care, etc.

God has shown me very clearly that my calling is to the families of Los Pinos, and I’m so thankful for such a big answer to my prayers for new opportunities there. I’m approaching both of these new opportunities prayerfully, trying to get a feel for the ministry to make sure it lines up with what I know God has called me to. I will certainly keep you guys updated on how each is progressing and how God is calling me to get involved in these new areas.

I love how God called all of us individually to this community, and now it seems that He’s teaming us up in some ways to accomplish His work there. It’s not about one church or one program, but that we all want to see God glorified and his redemptive, restorative power at work in the community of Los Pinos. I’m really excited about the potential for big things as we each use and share our unique connections, gifts, talents, and ways of ministering. I truly believe that this is how God is going to accomplish ”immeasurably more than we could ask or imagine” in this community!

I share all this with you guys so you can stay updated on what ministry is looking like and also so you know can know more specifically how to pray for me, the ministry, and those being ministered to.

In order to fully dive into these new opportunities, I’m still looking for  more sponsors specifically dedicated to ministry in Los Pinos. Your monthly donations may be used for a variety of things such as sponsoring an upcoming mother’s day celebration, providing powdered milk to malnourished babies, helping with starting materials to allow women to make a living out of their own homes, etc.