Jonathan & Kristy's

This page has been created to share with you how we find the Lord active in our midst. Our goal is to give you a taste of what we are experiencing through thoughts, pictures and the like. Please feel encouraged to comment on any post or contact both of us by email. We will also update our Pray-Requests with hopes that you would be willing to offer these requests to our faithful God. May our Heavenly Father’s guidance, Christ’s peace and the Holy Spirit’s ministry be alive and active in you.

Buen día to all!

First off we are pleased to report that we continue to be doing well. In case you are wondering, in mid-February began what they call “Summer.” Yet instead of the typical lack of rain coupled with hot sunny days, we have been enjoying cool days (80ish) with beautiful clouds. For those of you digging tunnels through the white stuff falling from the sky, feel free to come visit for a respite. We’re pretty sure they have never heard of such foreign devices as a “snow shovel” or an “ice scraper” here!

With the open invitation officially on the table (no matter where you are reading this from), please continue on below to hear a bit about the recent happenings since our last chat.

This past week we traveled to the city of La Paz (about an hour away) for Kristy to provide another training workship with Union Biblica volunteers that will give Bible classes in the schools. Jonathan and another UB staff member taught the group a new song they can use in their lessons and we taught them team building activities they can do with their students. The day went well and the volunteers were appreciative of the training time. We are planning to travel to Marcala (about 2 hours away) on Monday to give the training to the volunteers there as well. There have been rumors of the coordinators of the children’s ministry on the coast asking for us to come do a training there… and as we wouldn’t mind going to the beach, this doesn’t sound like a bad deal.

Also, Kristy led her first Sunday school lesson with the 18-21 year old class. She had fun doing it and the there was lots of great participation from the group. It is fun to see the creativity and the depth of thought that the students have about their lives and spirituality. She is currently working to set up coffee dates with a few of the girls from the class this week to start deepening discipleship relationships.

Jonathan has thoroughly enjoyed working with the Thursday evening worship class. The last part of our time is for those who wish to be part of the music leadership team for the church (as you can see in the photo to the left). Yet the first hour each week is worship education. This coming Thursday will be a kind of culmination of the past month as each participant will be bringing a worship service that they have created. We are anxious to see what they develop. Jonathan’s approach has been to have them investigate pertinent Biblical texts, and push them to explore deeply. The result has been such remarks as, “one thing that this text contains is the realization of our unworthiness in God’s presence, and a confession. We do not seem to take this seriously in our worship.” God at work. And looking back Jonathan had to contain himself when this was said. We have been privileged to watch God use Scripture, to be sure through the Holy Spirit, caress the wet clay as the great Potter. As stated above, we are quite anxious to see the art gallery on Thursday evening…

Yet there has been a serious challenge… the Union Biblica sports ministry has been having a harder time taking off this year than we would have liked. We are finding that it is difficult for the churches to find someone to commit the time to coaching and working with the kids during the week. However, Orlando attended a monthly citywide pastors meeting last week to drum up some interest in the ministry. After all, it is a great idea for a ministry: drawing kids in from the neighborhoods to play soccer, and having the opportunity to teach them Biblical values once a week and connect them to a local church.  We had a meeting Monday to try and get things off the ground with the potential coaches, and it was very encouraging! Many churches asked for one week to confirm their involvement, yet it appears we will be hosting 8-10 churches. Or in other words, this ministry would be a consistent presence to around 300 kids.

What a blessing each of us have been given as the Lord called us to partner with him in God’s mission. As Jesus prayed, “Santifícalos en la verdad; tu palabra es la verdad. Como tú me enviaste al mundo, yo los envió también al mundo.”

                             

Thanks for stoppin’ by. Let us first give you the grand tour. Of course, as you come through the door you can almost see the entire tour… To the left you’ll see the table (our dining room). Further on the left you’ll see the stove, refrigerator and sink (our kitchen). On your immediate right are a few comfy chairs and the soccer game (our living room). The first door to the right is the bedroom, the second door on the right we are using as storage/pantry/closet, and the furthest door with the brown tile on the wall is the bathroom.

It’s really a nice size for us. There is just enough room for living. Here are some pics from around our lovely abode (note the lovely curtains Kristy created from panels of cloth).

                                      

             

The last stop on our tour is our laundry room. Which in Honduras, is a laundry patio so the clothes can dry.

                                                      

 Alright, let’s head back inside and we’ll share a little about the past week. There are two points of interest form this past week.

First: moving into our new place. This has been a challenge as we needed to acquire everything one needs in a home—there are no furnished apartments. So we have spent the last weeks going from store to store in order to find the lowest prices. We are rather relieved to be done with the brunt of that project. Haggling is never fun for either of us. And this process has been extra special since there consistently seemed to be a “(wealthy) American factor” in the price quotes.

Second: the first meeting of the now weekly Thursday evening worship education/preparation class. As moving into our apartment was a sign of our official settling in, equally important was the past Thursday evening. This evening marked the beginning of our ministry in the areas that we outlined in the last post. And with that beginning, it is now full-steam ahead. The rest of this week harbors children’s Bible teachers trainings on both Wed and Sat of this week (1.5 hours mostly led by Kristy), the next meeting of the worship education/rehearsal on Thursday (2 hours mostly led by Jonathan), and Jonathan is leading the Sunday school class this week (we are covering the topic of success with the 20-somethings). And as such our weekly schedule will blossom from here on.

And if you’re wondering how this past Thursday went, well, we would be elated if it was a sign of things to come. To give you a taste, there was impressive engagement by the 15+ that attended, language was hardly an issue, and great steps were taken towards the goals of worship education and musical worship training.

So in all there is much to be thankful for as we complete our third week. We are blessed by each of you as you continue to walk alongside us in this beginning to our journey. We would enjoy answering any particular questions you may have as we have set up camp and begun our work… And would also simply enjoy hearing how things have continued on for you since we last crossed paths. Once thing is for certain, for those of you on the East Side everything must seem a bit  more white in comparison to those of you on the West Side… We leave you with this little clip of a marimba band from an evening festival downtown for “Friendship day” (their Valentine’s Day).

 

 

 

 

Before we arrived in Honduras we had estimated that it would take about two weeks to settle into the saddle, as it were.

Well, here we are two weeks in and… I think we would have been spot on. However, Silvia and Orlando asked if we might house-sit until this evening while they have been attending a convention in Tegucigalpa (the capital). Therefore rather than moving into our apartment this past Monday, we will instead move in tomorrow the 6th.

On the one hand we have been able to stay a little longer and enjoy this beautiful house, dog included—no, “Sulu” is not our new dog. On the other hand it has delayed our arrival into a space we can call home. We’ll give a more complete tour in the next few days, but for now find the second door to the right on the second floor. That is our new apartment.  It is a newer building close to our church and Orlando’s house, about 5 min from downtown. After two days of apartment shopping, it sold itself as the most economic choice in a safe enough area.

We mentioned last time that we were in the process of working out the details for our areas of service. We are delighted to now be able to share the shape of our ministry in the coming year. Our time will be split between Union Biblica and a local church called Sala Evangelica—Orlando is the director of U.B. and pastor of the church. We met with those in leadership in both cases and together we came up with ways in which we could best serve them in the coming year, based upon their respective needs in conversation with our strengths.

You will find below what has arisen from these very interesting and Spirit-filled discussions. We will both be more or less involved with all of this, but you will also notice that we have indicated which of us is taking the lead responsibility on specific ministries.

1) Just this past week the staff member overseeing UB’s youth ministry operations has resigned. A major sector of this ministry, sports, has been handed to us. Basically, UB facilitates a 4 month inter-church soccer league for youth twice a year. This includes two camps for the youth (led this year by a specialized team from the Canadian UB), a camp for the coaches, weekly meetings with the coaches and refs to analyze progress, and ”values” education (“values”=Bible). The goal is to both provide an intentional space for the Spirit to work, and to get youth involved with local churches (8-10 churches will be participating). There is a coaches meeting next Wed and the league begins the following week. Lead=Kristy

2) Sala Evangelica has a team in this league, and Jonathan will be one of two helping coach/mentor.

3) We have been asked to provide mini training opportunities (a few hours) for the volunteers working within UB’s children ministry. We will be working with volunteers in different towns across the country (first training in 2 weeks). Lead=joint

4) One morning a week we will lead Bible classes at a local school. Lead=leans in Kristy’s direction

5) We will serve as liaisons for the various out-of-country teams that arrive over the summer. Lead=Kristy

6) The church has an incredible energy and passion in their services of worship. And we have been given the humbling task of providing Biblical/theological eduction on the theme of corporate worship. This will lead to the weekly planning of their worship services (btw, they have 3 distinct services a week (once a month 4)). Also, their current practice of musical worship is a capella. They desire to develop a worship music team that has the ability to add instruments to the church’s musical worship. This will entail music training, and rehearsal (a few have said they already have some basic guitar ability). Lead=Jonathan

7) We will be joining a 4 member leadership team of the young adult class at the church. There will be a teaching rotation among the 4 of us. This also comes with the charge to general discipleship, particularly Kristy as she will be the only female leader.

8 ) UB is well on its way in designing a top of the line Christian conference center, complete with a high-ropes course. They facilitate various camps throughout the year. We will be trained in the event that volunteers are impossible to secure for a particular camp.

9) Kristy is tutoring Orlando in English. Class started today.

10) Come April, we will begin a class that will focus on developing the leadership of the church. We will cover topics such as homiletics, exegesis, pastoral care… etc.

That about sums it up. There will also always be random things day-to-day that come up, but these listed areas will be our consistent ministry responsibilities.

To wrap up our time, I want to make sure you check out where we spent our sabbath rest this past Sunday… in the beauty of God’s Creation. And such as the Spirit of God hovered, brooding over the waters at Creation, so may you also feel the Spirit’s brooding presence hovering over the waters of your daily living.

And so we have arrived, in Honduras.

The journey from California on the 21st to sitting here writing on the 30th has been many things. One appropriate description is certainly tiring… but the good kind! We shut our heavy eyes each night thankfully realizing how the Lord has watched over us by day. And there has been a substantial amount to “watch over” as we move through the necessary to-do lists that come with arriving into a new country with only your spouse, clothes, a laptop and two guitars. Oh, and our best friend: a handy-dandy electronic Spanish-English English-Spanish translator (sorry Langhorne Pres, no pink couch this time (Ojai Pres: Jonathan might have had a pink couch in his office last year (it was free!))).

We are happy to report that the two items atop the to-do list have been crossed off: 1) Find Shelter 2) Buy Car. We direct you to our photo album here on the blog to see pictures of our new place and truck. We officially move into the apartment on the first.

Until then, as well as for this past week, we are enjoying the amazing hospitality of our dear Argentinian friends Orlando & Silvia Japás. Don Orlando is the director of the Honduran sector of Union Biblica. If you want an idea of where we’ll be spending half of our time in ministry this year, check out this site voluntarily designed by a man who visited from the states. The other half of our time in ministry will be spent within Orlando’s church, Sala Evangelica.

In the past few days we have been presented with MANY options for service in these two ministry areas over the next year. We’ll relay how this all solidifies and takes form over the next few days. Until then, it has been a pleasure to share all of this and we’d love to hear from you. The Lord be with you, and a special blessing upon the LPC Guatemala team leaving today!