Honduras Mission Trip
It was a Sunday – our first full day in Honduras. It was a very beautiful and quite comfortable Spring day for this time, prior to ministering about the power of the blood of Jesus at the morning service, we walked around the very primitive village of Solares Nuevos, a village of primarily mud and wooden huts mixed with a few concrete block dwellings and approximately 250 former squatters who had been taken in, cared for, and ministered to by White Fields Missions (“His Vision – Our Passion”).
As we were walking around the village, inviting everyone we saw to the service, a young lady in her early 20s with two small children asked us to pray for her youngest child, a boy who was less than a year old. With the missionary interpreting, she told us in Spanish that her young boy had been sick for several d
ays – vomiting, diarrhea, sleeplessness, and crying, and had dropped almost ten pounds in weight. She had taken him to the local doctor but with no signs of improvement. So, as the missionary again interpreted and I prayed, we both laid hands on the child and the mother, and we took authority over this sickness, this illness, and commanded it to leave this child and for him to be restored to perfect health (Mark 16:18c). A couple of days later we returned to the village to perform some construction work when the mother approached us, smiling ear to ear. After praying for the child and laying hands on him, the sickness had left his body – the illness had been broken. The small boy was again eating and sleeping normally with no signs of the sickness ever existing. When you step out in faith, God shows up! This is missions: bringing hope to a suffering world-for such a time as this!
A Unique Ministry
During the last week of April of this year, along with a young man Cody Cauller, I was able to return to La Ceiba, Honduras, the third largest city in Honduras, for my third mission trip there in 4 ½ years. We, World Harvest Church in Roswell, GA., partner with 
White Fields Missions, an organization founded by missionaries Allan and Vicky Skelton, who have over 30 years of experience as both pastors and missionaries and who have been in La Ceiba for the last 6 years ministering not only the Gospel but performing humanitarian and medical services throughout Honduras and Central America. What is unique about Allan’s and Vicky’s ministry is how much they have and are accomplishing in such a short period of time. On a daily basis, they are touching, changing and improving the lives of hundreds and thousands of Hondurans while ministering the Word of God (Matt. 25:35-36)-for such a time as this!
“Go!” For Such a Time as This
Personally, I believe that a key factor in going on a mission trip is supporting those individuals who have been called and anointed by God into full-time mission service, whether domestically or internationally. Prayer and financial support are very important to the missionaries in establishing and continuing a productive and Spirit-led ministry. However, the first word of the Great, and only, Commission in both Matthew 28:19-20 and Mark 16:15 is “Go!” To give of one’s time, finances, talents and abilities to personally “show up” on the doorstep of missionaries is extremely encouraging to them: it shows them that someone cares about their humanitarian work, their spiritual commitment and their dedication to the well-being of the people they serve-for such a time as this!
Serving Those who Serve Others
Our time in Honduras was filled with serving those who serve others. In other words, we wanted to be a blessing to the Skeltons and their ministry – we wanted to know what needs they had and we tried to meet those needs as best we could. They had
established a four-acre mission training center that comprises their private residence, a two-story training center under development, and several buildings and cabanas which are fully furnished and can house two to eight individuals per residence. The upkeep of this facility alone is a full-time job. Once their needs were known, we jumped right in: we painted the exterior walls of one of the cabanas; we fixed an electrical short in the roof of the same cabana; we purchased, laid, and grouted floor tile in three shower stalls; we painted several exterior concrete tables, benches, and planters; and we purchased building materials (wall and floor tiles, doors, windows, ceiling fan, air conditioner, sink, toilet, shower head, and ceiling material) for the “when-completed” World Harvest Room – a combination meeting room and living quarters – in the training center. In addition to putting our hands to the grindstone, we performed several ministry activities: we fed the people in the village after ministering the Gospel at the Sunday service, ministered at a local nursing home, took ministry gifts (pencils, toothbrushes and toothpaste) to a local school then distributed them to approximately seventy-five first through sixth graders; and finally, we ministered to several dozen teenagers about God’s plan for their lives and how to live a fulfilled life-for such a time as this!
The Mosaic Focal Point
The climax of our miss
ion trip was to design and create a mosaic cross at the new church complex in Solares Nuevos village. Vicky mentioned to Cody about mid-week about wanting a cross for the new church – a cross behind the stage that would highlight the new facility. After discussing several designs among the four of us, Cody came up with the idea of a mosaic cross. Once a cross-design was decided, Vicky’s vision was transformed into Cody’s creation. So, for the next 2 ½ days, we traveled back and forth from the training center to the village, approximately a 30-minute drive each way along some very rough roads, to transition the backdrop of the stage into an eye-catching sensation. The purple, orange, and white mosaic tiled cross with the yellow background is and will be the focal point for anyone and everyone who enters the church. Just as the Cross of Christ is the focal point for every believer, so shall this cross be to everyone who crosses the church’s threshold-in such a time as this!
When people reach out to help others, lives are changed – good things happen. Neither party will be the same again. Not only are the needs of people being met, but the priority and the attitude of the giver changes from inward (self) to outward (others). Philippians 2:4 states “Let each of you look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” God said it best, of course, when talking to Abraham in Genesis 12:3, “And so you shall be a blessing, and I will bless those who bless you.” In other words, if you want to know what it means to be blessed, bless others. Give of yourself, give of your time, give of your resources. As we are being blessed, and we are a blessed country, we need to reach out, to stretch ourselves to bless others. Go make a difference for such a time as this.
