Day 37

(Apologies: I realize that today is not July 28th. I do not have a computer at my house, so I am posting this ahead of time...so that we can all pray together tomorrow.)

The summer after my freshman year in college, I went on a very short mission trip to Honduras to work with WGO, an organization that I had not ever heard of before. We spent the week painting concrete walls that would later turn into houses...we handed out food to children in downtown Tegucigalpa...we spent quite a few hours romping in the mountain river...and I had no idea what God had in store for that place.

Today, World Gospel Outreach is doing incredible things to reach the people in Honduras. The place I visited 7 years ago, Rancho Ebenezer, hardly looks like what I remember! They have multiple homes for children to come and live in a family environment. They have a school building. They grow coffee beans and blackberries. And that is just the ranch! WGO works with people in Tegucigalpa, as well as up on the mountain...bringing them food, medicine, and the Word that can change their lives!

I have just recently learned that the church I now work for is very involved with WGO, sending teams each year to serve there. A good friend here is preparing to go work in Honduras long-term, helping with the children, college students, and the media department. Please join me in praying today for Brett as he prepares to leave, and for the continuing work of WGO. They have had a rough journey at times, but they have been faithful and God is blessing their work.

I have not thought about this place in years...I ashamed to admit that it was so easy to forget the children I saw there...the huge pile of mud where thousands of people were burried by the El Nino hurricane...the little pots of glue that tiny children sniff to fight off the cold and the hunger. But Praise God that His servants have continued to struggle. Praise God that the people there are being shown love and grace. And let us all pray together for the people who are still huddled in the dark. Please pray that God will strengthen his workers in Honduras. Pray that the people there will be open to the Word...that their burdens may be lifted, just slightly lessened, by the joy and the peace that Christ offers. Pray that the food and the medicine will not be the end, but will be the opening of doors. Pray that we all will not forget this journey we have been on...all of these organizations who fight each day for others.

There is evil and darkness everywhere, this is true. There is need...there is hunger...there is pain that we cannot imagine, that we may never experience.
But there is also hope. There is love. Pray that we will not forget those things.

If you'd like to take a closer look at World Gospel Outreach, go here.

so that we do not forget...

"Faith Perfected

Recent martyrdoms sadden us but cannot make us despair.

A Christianity Today editorial | posted 7/12/2007 08:53AM

"Turkey has become more and more hostile to its tiny Christian minority. Though the nation is 99 percent Muslim, the government and media look at any activities of Christians with great suspicion. Last year, according to Compass Direct News, an Italian Catholic priest was shot to death while kneeling in his church in the Black Sea port of Trabzon. And in January, an ethnic Armenian Christian journalist was murdered in Istanbul.

"Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

"On Wednesday morning, April 18, German missionary Tilmann Geske, a 46-year-old father of three, kissed his wife goodbye and headed to work. He was renting office space at the small Zirve Publishing House, where he was editing a new Turkish study Bible. Zirve shares space with a tiny Protestant church in Malatya, a small town in eastern Turkey. Meanwhile, church pastor Necati Aydin, 35, a father of two who was a convert from Islam, went to that same building for a Bible study.

"Also headed to Zirve were two Muslims who had befriended these Christians and expressed an interest in Christ. Upon arrival, the men began discussing the faith. In a little while, however, three more young Muslims arrived, armed with pistols and knives.

"For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake.

"The two Christians were bound hand and foot to chairs, and the Muslims began stabbing them, slowly and deliberately. Soon, another former Muslim, Ugur Yuksel, 32, showed up, and they tied him up, too. Nearby residents heard moans and shouting but did nothing, believing it was a domestic disturbance. Finally, three hours after the torture began, police were called. The captors then slit the Christians' throats, killing all three.

"If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.

"Quickly apprehended, the suspects were carrying a letter that read in part: "We did it for our country. They are trying to take our country away, take our religion away."

"If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.

"Yuksel was buried the night of his martyrdom by his Muslim family; Geske two days later in the Armenian cemetery in Malatya; and Aydin on April 21 in his hometown of Izmir. About 500 people attended Aydin's emotional funeral, which received national coverage.

"In a television interview, Susanne Geske, wife of the German missionary, said she did not want revenge. "O God, forgive them," she said, "for they know not what they do."

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God."