More important than clothing or other goods is the gift of Bibles to the people and families who do not have one.  These were provided by individuals and churches in Louisiana.

More children and parents receiving clothing from the shipment.

More photos of the people receiving shoes from the latest shipment.  They are very grateful.

The clothing, toys, and shoes donated by the Mt Paran Baptist church were shipped in barrels to us and then on to Ocotepeque.  These barrels are very useful to the people there who have little water available and often have to carry it to their homes.  The storage capacity is quite welcome to these families.

These ladies were among dozens who were given reading glasses.  They appreciated being able to read their Bibles again!

Our team prepares to leave the prison after a morning session.  Our med people treated almost 40, Melvin distributed reading glasses and New Testaments, and there were multiple Bible studies conducted.

113 attended the first worship in Santa Anita last night.  La Antigua and Ocotepeque churches supported the event.

This building will become the Santa Anita church meeting place.  There is another room, not shown, for the children's classes to meet in.  The first worship will be Tuesday night, August 27.  They will be joined by people from Ocotepeque and La Antigua.

This group of 12 helped clean up a building that will become the Santa Anita church building.  They live in Santa Anita and will be meeting with the groups that go there to begin worshipping.

Our team did a great job for this trip.  We are now back home and getting involved in our lives again, but we have many memories of great things that happened in the Kingdom while we were there.

We have had a great and successful week!  Our team nurse and her helpers has been a wonderful nurse to many patients.  Melvin provided reading glasses to over 50 people and gave New Testaments to even more.  Mark preached some great sermons.  Everyone helped in every way possible.

Two ladies in La Antigua were baptized today, Wednesday.  The Kingdom is expanding in this region.

A building has been designated for the new congregation in Santa Anita, and many people there have said they would attend the worship services when they begin next week.

We are now in La Palma to visit the Christian school tomorrow and worship with the La Palma congregation.  We will also rest up a bit and then start the journey home on Friday.

God has blessed us greatly and we pray that we have been a blessing to others.

Our transportation this week has been the back of a Nissan truck.  Don't tell Della because we don't want her  to worry about the safety of her daughter and granddaughters!

These boys proudly display their new Tshirts.

These little girls were happy to receive 'pillow case' dresses from our team!

Santa Anita is about 5-6 miles north of Ocotepeque, Honduras.  There are a few Christians there who want us to plant a congregation there.  We did a small medical campaign there in January and will do another one next week.

About 25 people are interested in having a church there.  A house has been made available and a worship is planned for August 27.

Please pray for this new work to be successful.

An update:  there have been 3 baptized in August.

Evangelism is going well in Santa Anita--many families visited and we will be there next week to encourage and treat any family members who may be ill.

The Ocotepeque church had 14 baptisms in July and has had one already in August.

A group of nine of us will travel to Ocotepeque on August 17 to work with the church and the people there.  We will be doing some medical work and lots of encouraging to the church people as well as meeting with local health officials to help them.

A Bible study resulted in a family of 4 being added to God's family!

Good news from Jorge!

We have four teacher for the new brothers and sisters in Christ, they are:

1.-Esmeralda Sorto

2.-Glenda Galdamez

3.-Doris Villanueva

4-Rosa Garcia.

They started the first Bible class last Sunday with all of Them.

In love,

Jorge. 

More Skype visit with Jorge and Gloria today.
The shipment was moved from La Palma to Ocotepeque, and they are now transferring the medical equipment to the doctor in charge of physical rehabilitation.

They had one more baptism last night.

Recently, the wife of one of the prisoners was baptized. He is Eric, who was one of two prisoners baptized in January. He has been conducting Bible studies in the prison with other prisoners, and wants to enroll in the preacher school in late August when he is released from prison. We need to find some financial support for him and his wife, Judith, so they can devote themselves to study and evangelism.

Santos and Lydia were studying in the preacher school and doing well until he became sick. It was determined that he has cancer and he moved to San Salvador for treatment.

A large shipment of clothing, shoes, toys, and medical supplies and equipment has arrived in Ocotepeque!  Through USAID, the US Air Force transported the shipment to San Salvador, El Salvador.  It was then trucked to La Palma, and then on to Ocotepeque.

Included in the shipment were 24 plastic barrels of clothing, shoes, and toys which came from the Mt Paran Baptist Church in Shongaloo, LA.  We really appreciate the work and sacrifice that went into those barrels.  Melvin Thomas personally lidded each barrel and stored them until we found a trailer coming to Missouri.

Here in Missouri the barrels were palletized and combined with other crates.  A large amount of paperwork was worked on, and the shipping approved.  It was then taken to Whiteman Air Force Base in central Missouri and placed on a plane going to South Carolina.  After a few weeks there it went to Hayti and then on to San Salvador.

The congregations in La Palma, San Ignacio, and Citala in El Salvador, and the congregations in La Antigua, Ocotepeque, and Santa Anita will distribute the goods to people who are in need.

The barrels are valuable for collecting rain water, and tap water when it is available.  Most homes do not have water available inside, so a reservoir to collect and store water is an awesome thing to have.

Two large crates containing wheelchairs, walkers, crutches, and canes were included in the shipment and are donated to the local physical rehabilitation clinic.

Helping the elderly

This dear elderly lady came for some medical help.  We also gave her a cane to walk with instead of having to use her umbrella.

La Antigua congregation

The meeting place for the La Antigua congregation .

donation to local clinic

This is medical equipment donated to the Ocotepeque clinic during our June trip.

The Ocotepeque congregation get together for soccer as a fellowship activity on a routine basis. Lori and Dea joined the cheerleading squad, Ruth and Nathan and Maddie joined the players. It was a fun time!

When we first started working in La Palma in 2004, there was one congregation in Ocotepeque with about 12-15 members, and the beginning of the La Palma congregation.

Now there is a congregation in La Palma with about 30 adults, one in San Ignacio with about 20-25 adults, one in Citala, just started, one in La Antigua with over 20 adults, and the one in Ocotepeque with around 50 adults.  These all have full-time preachers working them and most are growing.

It is time to plant another congregation and expand the borders of the Kingdom.  We looked at some towns and villages, but have selected Santa Anita as the place.  It is about 8 miles up the highway from Ocotepeque toward Guatemala.

Santa Anita was chosen based on geography and demographics.  It will be convenient for the other congregations to help work the town.  We visited the town and the people.  They were very receptive and welcoming, and they said they would be willing to attend it.

As a team, we prayed to God for wisdom, guidance, patience, and boldness as we develop a plan for this work.  We ask each of you to pray also for this venture.

Our team prayed in this location for God's blessing on the city and plans to establish a congregation here. It is Santa Anita, the next town northwest of Ocotepeque on the highway to Guatemala. We visited several people there, gave some little girls some beautiful dresses, and were welcomed. We asked for God to give wisdom and guidance and patience in the planning for the new church there.

I should learn to not be surprised by things like this, but it still happens.  People at home know that we collect medical equipment and supplies to bring down here.  Our barn and garage usually have lots of donated stuff.  We ship some and we carry some with us.  My check bag was near the weight limit but had quite a bit of space, so I put a bag of hundreds of diabetic syringes in the top.  They weigh very little but occupy considerable space.  We had discussed what to do with them when we got here, but that was an unnecessary discussion.  Hiliana, the nurse we all love, came and visited yesterday morning.  I told her about the wheelchairs and walkers and crutches coming in the shipment in a few weeks, then asked her what she needed most right now.  Her reply without hesitation was "diabetic syringes".

We are having a great trip!  We are seeing old friends and making new ones.  Today we will worship in   La Palma, San Ignacio, Citala, and Ocotepeque.  The people here are a real blessing to us.
I will be posting photos this evening if time permits.  There are 10 of us and we are all finding work to do.

The bricks in the foreground are adobe bricks curing in the sun. Like the Israelites did in Moses' day, the people in Concepcion mix mud and straw and then form bricks to build houses with. They are not as permanent as the bricks we use, but they are affordable and provide a relatively long term building. 

In the background are people waiting in line at our temporary medical clinic in Concepcion. These are people who are thrilled to be able to get the treatments and medicines they need. The state clinic in town has a doctor a couple days a week but there are very few meds available if they need a prescription filled.

Ocotepeque Newsletter End of 2012
This has been a great year of church growth for the Ocotepeque region. Both the Ocotepeque congregation and the La Antigua congregation have experienced growth in numbers and spiritual maturity. Jorge and his family along with Mar- cos are working hard for the Kingdom. Our congregations here would do well to adopt the evangelistic fervor of those men.
The children's sponsor program continues to be successful by helping poor chil- dren stay in school and by teaching their families about the church. Much of the numerical growth is because of teaching and conversion of their families. The program has been going for 5 years, and now there are children who started in the program becoming Christians. There are 44 children now and we would like to add 6 more, so if you are interested or willing to become a sponsor, please contact me. Sponsors receive a great blessing by praying for their child and seeing
photos of their child growing.
At the end of 2012 there were some changes in the region. Marcos married his childhood sweetheart, Bessy, and they now live in La Palma where she teaches in the Christian School. The Friendship con- gregation in Southaven, MS wanted to plant a church in Citala (see-tu-la'), a town on the El Salvador side of the border between the two countries. Marcos has exceptional skill at door knocking and teaching, so he was the obvious choice to be the church planter. He began working in Citala on the first of the year and that congregation held its first worship on Jan 20 with 4 families from the community in attendance. With God's blessing and Marcos' work, this congre- gation will grow rapidly. The Friendship congrega- tion is planning some trips to help, including medical and teaching campaigns.
Luis was chosen to replace Marcos in La Antigua. Luis is 19 and a December graduate of the Bible Institute of Central America in El Progresso, Honduras. He is enthusiastic about his new work and will be under the mentorship of Jorge in this work. We believe that he can successfully continue the growth of that congregation.

Alex and Lucia are full-time students at the Ocotepeque Bible Institute, studying to become evangelists and teachers. Alex is a recent convert and is on fire for the Lord. He speaks very good English and helps us as a translator. He has a sponsor for his expenses. He studies Mon-Thursday and works as an evangelist Friday, Saturday and Sunday. He will be doing some practice preaching under Jorge's guidance in a few months. Lucia wants to teach others how to become Christians or better Christians. She, too, studies 4 days a week and works the other 3 days teaching and taking care of the church facility. She has only partial support and needs an individ- ual or congregation to provide $100 monthly for her food expenses. She is a dear sweet lady fully committed to the work of the Lord.
Santos and Lydia plan to move to Ocotepeque in March and begin full-time bible study and evangel- ism work. They are from Tulsa but now live in the San Salvador area. They are sponsored by the Park Plaza congregation in Tulsa. They will be an asset to the church in Ocotepeque congregation while they are studying.. Pray for them and their young son as they make some significant changes in their lives.
We conducted medical clinics in the villages of Santa Anita, Santa Fe, and Concep- cion during our January trip. All of these are in need of congregations to expand the Kingdom into those areas. We believe that God will bless any work in any of them, and we plan to put evangelists there as soon as possible. By the end of 2013 we hope to have support for a full-time evangelist in one or more of those communi- ties. There will be men available by that time and we will be seeking support to rent a building(s) and locate someone there. Please let me know if you have interest in supporting that either partially or in full.

Carlos, Melvin, Ralph , Debbie, Carla, Sharon, Dea, Doctor Harris. What a team it was!
The Rodriguez family - Karen, Gloria, Cesia, Jorge,Abigail. Theyare truly a wonderful family, always working for the Kingdom of God. He is a spiritual leader and mentor for the men in the region.

This is our team for the January 2013 trip. With a doctor, a nurse, an EMT and some helpers, we conducted over 300 consults and helped many with vitamins, parasite treat- ments, medicines, and reading glasses. We also provided 12 water filters to help families be able to drink pure water for their health. Our trip included a visit to the local State Prison to treat the inmates and staff there. The prison work has grown to a significant part of our ministry, and we witnessed the baptism of two prisoners with whom Jorge and his team had been studying

Needs: $100 monthly to support Lucia as a Bible student; $100 a month to pay for the internet and administrative expenses of the Bible Institute; by July 1, 2013 we will need $125-150 monthly to rent a building in La Antigua for worship and Bible study of the people there-they are outgrowing the space they now have. By the end of 2013 we will need about $500/monthly to rent a building in Santa Anita, Santa Fe, or Concepcion and support a full-time evangelist for the region. Other non-cash needs include men's dress shirts M-L, neckties, T-shirts, light sport jackets, reading glasses, ball point pens, LCD projectors, fabric for sewing, IPODs to load the Bible on, good tennis shoes up to size 10, and any cash donations. We plan a shipment in April so these items need to get to MO before then. Please contact me with any questions about these items.
The churches and evangelists in Ocotepeque and La Antigua are supported and over- seen by the Mt Vernon, MO Church of Christ. Contact Ralph McClurg, rmcclurg@mo-net.com, 417-849-0245. 

Note: the photos did not come through

I am sorry for the lack of posts lately.  I had my right shoulder overhauled a couple of weeks ago, and last week Carol was diagnosed with breast cancer.

I couldn't type with both hands until just a few days ago, but am recovering slowly and steadily.

Carol will have a lumpectomy on March 1 and be evaluated for the relatively new 10 dose internal radiation treatment.

For several years I have gone to El Salvador and Honduras in March, June, September and December each year.  Last year we decided to go in January, June, and September.  Now I know why that decision was made!

God willing we will be ready to go by June or late May!

The old church building in La Antigua has a tall belltower, and Dea and Doc were privileged to go up in it.  This is well over a hundred years old architecture.

Carla enjoys a moment with an elderly lady at Santa Fe.

Jorge and the other evangelists taught Bible lessons to those waiting in line at our medical clinics.

Dr Harris and Carlos have worked together on many trips.  They are both great guys, giving of their time and talents to help others.

Two very cute little girls in Citala.