Honduras Missions Convention
Centro Evangelistico A/G
November 2007

I encountered a first as I left Tampa for Honduras.  My airline ticket read Continental Airlines, but the small print read Gulf Stream.  That did not mean anything to me until we boarded and I discovered that my airplane was a 12 seater prop job.  It suddenly dawned on me that I had to fly in this thing from Tampa to Miami.  This was a first.  A 12 seater is small!  Check out the link to see the airplane.  There are six seats on one side of the airplane and six seats on the other side.

We took off from Tampa and started flying right over the top of Tampa Bay following the waterway all the way.  This was different.  I guess these small planes must stay out of the way of the big planes.

We then started flying right alongside I-75 and followed it all the way to Fort Myers and then turned left and flew right across Alligator Alley to Key West, turned north, flew up the waterway that separates Miami from Miami Beach and then landed at the Miami Airport.  It was a great flight.  I could see everything.  What a view.

I flew TACA from Miami to Tegucigalpa, Honduras.  It was only a two-hour flight but I had just had a five-hour layover in Miami.  When I arrived in Tegu, Missionary Bill Strickland was waiting for me.  I told him that I needed to open my suitcase because it felt lighter than when I checked it in.  Sure enough, the new laptop Bill had purchased and had sent to my address to bring to him was missing.  We spent the next hour filing reports with Continental and TACA.  I was sick on my stomach.  Bill had special-ordered the laptop and had $1845.00 invested in it.

Bill phoned his wife Barbara and the senior pastor and his wife to meet us at TGIF for dinner.  The TGIF was located in a huge mall.  I was facing the window looking into the Mall and suddenly spotted a train up on the second floor filled with children as it made its way around the Mall.  I wish my grandchildren could have come ridden it.  That was a great idea, putting a choo-choo train in a Mall.

After dinner, Bill dropped me off at the Clarion Hotel.  It was really fancy.  Click on the link and you can see inside my room.  Bill told me that he would pick me up the next morning (Saturday) at nine to tour the Teen Challenge and Orphanage facilities.  He said the Clarion served breakfast beginning at 6:00 a.m.

A group of six Americans teaching English at the church school accompanied Bill and me for the tour of Teen Challenge.  The teachers had been in Tegucigalpa since August and this was their first time to visit Teen Challenge.  It was a great tour.  There are about 150 men in the Teen Challenge program in Honduras.  Bill had been able to purchase 150 acres about 45 minutes out in the country.  They already have about six buildings erected on the property that includes three dorms, a cafeteria, a chapel, and various workshops.  Teen Challenge is a huge program.

Bill has also built a 300-bed orphanage on another part of the 150 acres.  There are five dorms or apartments, plus a cafeteria, and other buildings.  The orphanage is scheduled to open in January.  Bill has done a great work in Honduras.

Barbara, Bill’s wife, did not join us for the Teen Challenge tour.  She was having a woman’s conference from 8:30 to Noon, talking about Sexual Abuse of Children.  Barbara just graduated with her doctoral degree from AGTS the same day my wife graduated.  Barbara’s dissertation was on Sexual Abuse of Children and God has given her a great platform among the ladies of Honduras to address this horrific problem.

After eating lunch, Bill took me back to the Hotel saying that he would pick me up at 4:45 p.m. for the first missionary service.  I have preached a lot of mission conventions and I have preached a lot of Saturday mission conventions, but they have always been mission banquets.  But this was to be a full-fledged Sunday Morning style service.

Bill began to explain the preaching situation at Centro Evangelistico.  They have a lot of cell groups in their church. I mean a lot.  I met several leaders over the weekend that are in charge of 40 –60 cell groups each.  The church has about 10,000 members and every member must be involved in a cell group.  So as I said, they have a lot of cell groups.  Bill said that depending on which cell group a person attends, they are assigned a certain church service to attend.

In other words, a person cannot attend church just any one of the four services he/she desires to attend.  There are people who are assigned to attend the 7:00 a.m. church service, others that must attend the 9:00 a.m. service, and still others that must attend the 11:00 a.m. service.  Every service is exactly the same; the music, the sermon, everything.  Each week, the cell leaders receive a copy of the Sunday sermon and use it as the discussion topic in the cell groups that week.

The church has grown so big now that not everyone will fit in three Sunday services, so they have started a Saturday 5:00 p.m. service as well as a Tuesday and Wednesday service.  Thursday nights are totally reserved for water baptism.  So many people are being saved that they normally baptize over 25-30 every Thursday night.  It was a joy being a part of their missions convention and seeing a small part of what God is doing in Tegucigalpa.

When I arrived at the church Saturday at 5:00, young people were everywhere.  The church is mainly made up of young people between the ages of 18-35.  The church service was alive.  The church was full.  The building holds about a thousand people.  They are in the process of building a new addition next door that will double their seating capacity.  But even then, it will be too small.  The church is growing that fast.

The convention began with a missions parade with ladies dressed up in costumes from all over the globe.  They danced up the aisles and around the front of the church.  It was fantastic.  The youth then sang and danced, and then a group of youth, using black-lighted and white gloves, presented a drama about the death and resurrection of Christ.  After another worship song, they turned the service over to me.

I immediately taught the people O Mwari Wakanaka and they loved it.  We sang and danced as if we were in a church service in Zimbabwe.  The congregation responded to my ministry with great enthusiasm.  I had a ball.  My interpreter was the youth pastor and he was really good.  We flowed together as one.  When I gave the altar invitation, there were about seven or eight who responded giving their lives to the Lord to be missionaries.  It was a good beginning service.

As Bill was taking me back to the hotel, he said, I will pick you up at 6:45 a.m. for the first service in the morning and we will go straight through until about 1:00 p.m.  Get a good nights rest.  So Sunday morning, I got up at 5:30, showered, went to breakfast at 6:00 and was waiting for Bill at 6:45 ready to go.

And straight-through we went.  There was a service at 7:00, 9:00; and 11:00.  It was great but tiring.  The people responded so well.  They also responded to the Faith Promise part because their giving was up over last year by about 20%.

At the 11:00 service, I gave another altar invitation for those willing to serve as missionaries and had over 20-25 people come forward.  They were crying, I was crying, we had a powerful time around the altar.  Can you imagine in just a couple of years having all those workers trained and ready to send out around the world.  I am so glad God has me doing this new ministry.  I feel as if I am truly Investing in Futures!

Bill and Barbara and the pastor and his wife took me to lunch after church to a traditional Honduran restaurant.  It was delicious, but as always, I overate.  I always gain weight on mission trips.

It was about 3:00 Sunday afternoon before I arrived back at the hotel.  Bill told me he would pick me up again at 6:00.  I family in the church had invited all of us plus several other families to a meal.  So I took a two-hour siesta after preaching three times Sunday morning.  Instead of being a siesta, I think it was more like a CRASH.  Bill and the pastor preach three times every week.  Bill says they always CRASH after getting home each Sunday.  That helped my feelings a little.

The meal Sunday night was delicious.  It was another traditional meal and again, I ate too much and then drank too much coffee afterwards.  I wondered if it would keep me awake Sunday night, but it did not even faze me.  I must have really been tired because I slept all night.

Bill picked me up Monday morning, took me to the airport, and here I am back in the USA.  I had such a fantastic time with the Stricklands and their church.  It is truly alive.  The Stricklands have done a great job building a great church in just nine years.  I can hardly wait to go back.  I am finding so many great places in the world.  I though until this year that great places were only in Africa!!

Thanks again for your financial support and your prayers.

Rodney