The local pastors met the Thursday before we left to discuss plans while we are away for three months. Saul told us the pastors were disappointed we would be gone for three months; however, after the meeting they were excited about their plans for the three months.
We are working toward and praying to transition the leadership of the work to the pastors as soon as possible. We intentionally stayed away from the meeting for several reasons: (1) we didn’t want to influence any of their decisions, (2) we want them to begin to take ownership and be confident they can make decisions and handle the leadership responsibilities – which we are confident they can, (3) if we are present they are much more likely to ask us for money as the solution to problems that arise or the only way to fund something they want to do. If we are not present they are more likely to consider other options. (e.g. they arranged for the bus to bring all the people to campaign without ever consulting us)
We were excited when Saul shared with Brad the pastors’ plans for the next three months. Their plans are as follows:
1. Saul and Miguel (president of the pastors in Honduras) will alternate preaching at the church at El Banano (where we had the crusade) every two weeks in an effort to encourage pastor Elias and the church.
2. Starting April 10th they will go to the village close to us, El Porvenir, to begin the process of starting a new church.
3. Saul will travel to visit the churches in the other parts of Honduras in the middle of April and plans to take Marcos and Marcial (two of the local pastors who are attending the Bible Institute) with him. This should encourage the churches while at the same time strengthening the relationships between pastors. Saul will also take with him several bags of clothes for each pastor and their church.
4. Saul will again travel to visit the churches in the other parts of Honduras in June and plans are to have Miguel go with him. We would like to do this every month but with the Bible Institute being in session during May it’s impossible at the present time.
5. Saul will be distributing to the local pastors several bags of close each. When we organized the storage room we found out we had many, many bags of clothes and some of the ladies on the ST team last week were kind enough to go through ALL of them and separate them out for pastors.
6. Two of the local pastors, Elias (El Banano) and Milton (San Manuel), want to come to the Bible Institute. In addition a gentleman named Raul who lives in El Porvenir and is a friend of the local pastors wants to attend. These three will begin attending (most likely starting in May) on Saturdays. They do not feel they can attend during the week because of work. All of our pastors work at other jobs to support their families and this is an issue we need to address as we move
7. Saul will be arranging and coordinating the Medical/Dental team that is coming the middle of May and also coordinating the two VBS teams coming in late June/early July. These are not easy and will require a significant amount of prep work before the teams arrive.
8. Saul will also be getting the house where the Bible Institute students stay remodeled to accommodate our new student (the sister of one of the students).
9. Saul (Director of the Bible Institute) put together a budget to cover the three months we are away and he will be working within the budget. This is a great opportunity for him to become more acquainted with the money flow within the church planting operation.
If you could join us in praying for the three months we are away while the pastors work their plan. Will everything work out just the way they have planned? Probably not. Would everything work out the way we had it planned if we were there doing this? Probably not. Our desire is that: (1) Saul, Miguel, and the other pastors will gain confidence in their ability to do this and make decisions in these areas (2) that when things don’t go as planned they will not lose confidence. We are not looking for perfection but for this to be a learning process on the road to independence for churches in Honduras.
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