61 Isaiah Ministries February / March 2014 Quick Links Ministry Update Prayer Requests Connecting with 61 Isaiah Ministries Email isa61ministries@gmail Website 61isaiah (Check out our updated website) Visit our Blog Shannons Facebook Kristis Facebook Contacting our Treasurers Mike and Laura Beth Compton LB phone: 254-592-2299 email: laurabethcompton@gmail Mikes phone: 254-592-3390 email: mikecompton08@gmail Connecting with our Ministry Partners Ellis Baptist Association Radio Rio de Dios Dear Family and Friends, Greetings from Honduras. Wow, this has been a crazy month of growth and opportunity. We have been busy with our house churches and discipleship groups. We have also had lots of visitors this past month. Along with ministry partners and mission teams we had a visit from Kristis parents. The kids have really enjoyed seeing their grandparents. Our family is doing well. Kristis ministry at Abundant Life is going great. Along with teaching preschool she is teaching US government and Family Living to the seniors. She is about to start a child development series with the seniors in which they will be learning about child care with the Reality Baby. Please pray for this project. We feel this is a very important project because 50% of women are pregnant before the age of 18. It is our hope that is project will help educate the senior class on the responsibilities of caring for a child. Tyler, Emma, and Isabella are doing well. Tyler and Emma are both a great helpers with Isabella. They help each morning and night take care of their little sister. Some mornings Tyler and Emma race to see who gets up first to help with Isabella. Isabellas adoption paperwork is still process. In the meantime she has is doing great with our family. She is learning English and loving having older siblings who are so eager to help her. This next month is another month of opportunity and growth. We are moving forward with our discipleship groups which are growing each week. Shannon and Kevin will be going to a village this weekend for a two day conference. This will be the first time for us to spend the night in a village. This is a great opportunity to minister to the people of this village. Because this village is located so far from Gracias, they will have the opportunity to minister in a much greater way compared to a one day visit. Next weekend we will be hosting our annual pastor and leader conference. We will be discussing the various ways to share the Gospel. All our pastors and leaders will be coming to Gracias for this two day conference. Finally, in April we will be hosting a media team from the Texas Baptists. They will be coming to film our work with the Texas Baptist Hunger Offering. Thank you for your continual support in prayer and offerings. God is really moving right now in Honduras. Please continue to pray for us and for the people of Honduras. The Hopkins Ministry Update Radio Rio de Dios This has been a great month for Radio Rio de Dios. God continues to use the radio to share his hope and love with the people of Western Honduras. Over the last month the radio has been able to share the Gospel with numerous people. In the last two months 18 people have accepted Christ. One of the people who accepted Christ this past month called from Florida and our staff at the radio lead Ricardo Espinoza to the Lord over the phone. We also wanted to share that the radio staff has a new staff member, Cristian Espinal. Cristian will be working as a marketing consultant for the radio. It is our hope that Cristian will help us to know how we can better reach and serve the radio listeners. Please continue to pray for the ministry at the radio station. House Churches and Pastor Training This past month most of our pastors and leaders have returned from the coffee harvest. We have been waiting for the last three months for them to return. Our house church in Catulaca continues to see success with their new childrens out reach. The teachers from Abundant Life Christian School have been helping us since the beginning of the year minister to the children of Catulaca. Each week more and more children are attending the services. Last week the members of the house church lead the outreach. It is our hope that by June the members of the house church will be leading and we will be assisting them. We continued meeting this month at our other church in Catulaca, at the home of our friend Philippe. We are currently studying the Gospel of John with Philippe and his family. Finally, this month we met with our family across the bridge. The have agreed to start having a bible study with us. We hope to start next week with them. At the end of February we hosted our month pastor training in Gracias. We had about 20 pastors and leaders present to receive training on the Great Commission. We have been using the training time to prepare our pastors and leaders for the upcoming conference at the end of March. Discipleship Groups Besides hosting mission teams, our main focus this past month has been our discipleship groups. Our first discipleship group is going great. We began with three churches. Each week we meet in one of three villages of the house churches. Two of the pastors who join this discipleship group walk up to two hours one-way through the mountains to meet together. Each week more people are joining the discipleship group. This past week our discipleship group teamed up with First Baptist Church West to visit the homes of the people in the village of Santa Elena. This was a great opportunity for them to put into practice what they have been learning. Mission Teams At the end of February we met with our ministry partner and Executive Director of Ellis Baptist Association, Larry Johnson. Dave Kistner from FBC Waxahachie joined Larry for a week long visit. It was a great week of planning and talking strategy. We spent part of the trip discussing the ministry of Radio Rio de Dios. The radio is 100% funded by listeners and we believe it is time to move to the next level of ministry at the radio. We spent time with Alba Luz Collart, the administrator of the radio talking about what the next step looks like. We also had a meeting with Criistian and Jocelinne Espinal. Cristian is going to be working with us over the next couple of months doing marketing analysis. We also spent part of the week talking with Dave Kistner from FBC Waxahachie to build a guard house at the radio station for our security guard so that he can have a place to rest each evening while watching the radio. While Larry and Dave were here we met with David Brown from the Baptist Global Response, and Travis Hester and Enoc Alvarez from Invictus Community Alliance about community development. Community development is part of our strategy to meet the needs of the Lenca. Travis and Enoch have been working over the last couple of years on developing a ministry that can help determine the needs of local communities. The greatest aspect of this ministry is that it empowers each community through a series of questions to help them determine the greatest needs of their community. We believe that by knowing the greatest needs of each community the local church can better minister to the community. We also believe that this will be an opportunity for us to reach areas of Honduras, which we currently do not know or have access to. After Larry, Dave, and David returned we met with Travis and Enoch, and their colleague Ben the following week. We all met with a local leader of the community named Jose Mario to discuss this strategy. Jose Mario was very excited about the possibility of improving the community where his coffee farm is located. We learned that there are actually six communities nearby; none of which currently have a church. Jose Mario called some of the surrounding farmers and took them to meet with Travis, Enoch, and Ben. The meeting was very successful. Through the meeting we learned the perspective of those inside the community and how we can minister to them. We are currently working with Travis, Enoch, Ben, and Jose Mario on how we can begin ministering to the community and begin planting churches. Last week a mission team came from First Baptist Church of West. The mission team worked in the villages of San Pedrito and Santa Elena.The team spent three days visiting homes. In San Pedrito we have a pastor named Trini. Several years ago Trini had a house church. We have been talking with Trini over the past few months about restarting the house church. Trini is very open to the idea and has been making some visits. The mission team from FBC West was able to help Trini restart the house church. After two days of visiting the homes we had the first church service at Trinis housein several years. While visiting the homes in San Pedrito the mission team was invited to visit a lady in a neighboring village called Santa Cruz. The lady has been paralyzed and was asking the team to come pray for her.After praying for the lady the people of Santa Cruz asked us to return and help them start a church. The mission team also visited a village called Santa Elena. Trini is the pastor of the church in Santa Elena. We have been visiting the church now for several months. Santa Elena is home to Elsi and several leaders who are a part of our discipleship group. The mission team was the first group to ever visit this village. We had a great time visiting homes and ended the day with a service for the community. We wanted to thank FBC West for their work this past week. The trip was extremely successful. Prayer Requests 1. Please pray our family. Pray that we will continue to grow together. Please pray for Shannon and he travels in the mountains to minister. Please pray for Kristi as she teaches at Abundant Life and ministers to her colleagues and students. Please pray that Tyler continues to gain confidence in his Spanish. Isabella has been a great influence in helping Tyler speak Spanish. Please pray for Emma. This past month she seems to have gained more confidence in her Spanish. Please continue to pray for Isabella and her health. Thankfully she has not been sick in the last month. Please continue to pray for her English as she improves each week. 2. Please pray for the pastors and leaders of our house churches. All of our pastors and leaders have returned from the coffee harvest. This years harvest was not as good as years past. Pray that they will be able to survive on the income they earned this year. Pray that as they return they follow the calling to minister to their communities. 3. Please pray for 61 Isaiah Ministries. Pray for the new opportunities that God has provided for us to reach the Lenca people. 4. Please pray for Radio Rio de Dios. Pray that God continues to use the radio station to reach the people of Honduras. Please pray for the radio staff by name this month. Pray that God will use the radio to minister to those who are hurting, sick, and lost. Their names are Alba, Cristian, Darwin, Obdulio, (another) Cristian and Alonzo. 5. Please pray for residency process. We continue to hit road blocks in the process. This month we changed lawyers in hope to speed up the residency process. Please pray for the process and our new lawyer. 6. Please pray for the adoption process. We have not received any news this month about the adoption. Please pray we hear something soon. 7. Please pray for our next team coming in April. A media team from the Texas Baptists will be coming to film our work feeding struggling families in poverty. Supporting 61 Isaiah Ministries Prayer - prayer is the foundation of missions. Included in this letter we have listed ways you can pray for the ministry of 61 Isaiah and for our family. Financial Support - 61 Isaiah Ministries is 100% supported by individual sponsors and churches. If you are interested in becoming a sponsor please contact us via email atisa61ministries@gmail or send your donations to: 61 Isaiah Ministries P.O. Box 161672 Fort Worth, TX 76161-1672 You can also contact Mike and Laura Beth Compton at 254-592-2299 if you have any questions about becoming a donor or in regards to your donations. Forward this email This email was sent to [email protected] by isa61ministries@gmail | Update Profile/Email Address | Instant removal with SafeUnsubscribe™ | Privacy Policy. Isaiah 61 Ministries | P.O. Box 161672 | Fort Worth | TX | 76161-1672
Posted on: Wed, 19 Mar 2014 14:53:50 +0000
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