Hard Decision

In October of 2013, we hired Ovidio to help us begin a church in La Fe. Unfortunately, this past week, we came to the decision to discontinue working with him.

Over the past several months, we have seen some negative things in Ovidio that were impacting both himself and the community of La Fe. We spoke with him, prayed with him, discipled him and pushed him to seek the Lord in those areas, but we have not observed change or desire to change on his part. This decision has be especially hard for Mike as the one who has spent the most time with him: Ovidio is a person and has family in La Fe. I can see in my mind the negative domino effect that comes from Ovidio not having a steady job. 

Mike with Ovidio in La Fe

Ashley and I struggled as to what to do and tried many methods of support, but it finally became clear that we had worked to down to our last choice. I, Mike, shared with him that I hope and pray that he will grow as a person and in his relationship with the Lord in the midst of this difficult time.

Working with people is hard - especially in this type of ministry setting. We are all broken and have all kinds of dirty baggage that we carry with us. It is only through the grace of the Lord Jesus that we have any ability to love and serve others truly.

I have been, and will continue to, pray this for Ovidio and would ask for you to please do the same:

Ephesians 3:14-19
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith - that you being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Long Term!

This morning we were officially accepted by MTW to serve as 'career' missionaries in Honduras!

After a whirlwind of travel in the last few weeks (we put almost 1300 miles on our rental car in just over a week), we have been in Atlanta all of this week. We, along with about 15 other missionaries, are attending a training helps to prepare us to get to the mission field. We have received a ton of information this week in topics such as developing a support team, storytelling, child protection, and more.

We got to see teammates!

One of the fun parts of the week has been reconnecting with some of our teammates! Our team leader, Mike Pettengill, led some of the seminars and has been helping new missionaries in the office all week. On Wednesday, Mandy Marcone came to have lunch with us - she is currently in the US raising support in order to return to Honduras this summer. On Thursday afternoon, Aaron, Rachel, and Ford Halbert stopped by the office as they were passing through the area. They are also raising support to join our team and start a new ministry in the capital of Honduras.

We have learned a lot and are excited to be official long-term missionaries to Honduras! Tomorrow we will fly to Arizona and will be there for about 2 months raising finances in order to return to Honduras!